两片对开的面包，内中夹一扁肉饼，再配一片儿生菜叶浇一点儿奶油。没什么复杂的。可就是这种简单的汉堡包走遍了全世界，成了快餐界的王牌，而且在新的世纪里仍大有“花开不败”之态势。

　　Ah, still remember summertime? Long afternoons that stretchsintoslazy evenings. The taste of lemonade, the sound of the ice cream truck as it rolls slowly down the block, and the smell of hamburgers grilling from back porches and freshly cut lawns.(注1)

　　Of course, we don't just eat hamburgers during the summer months. Over the course of each year, Americans consume about 14 billion burgers. And we don't always have time to grill them ourselves. But it is a miracle that hamburger has few competitors in the race for America's favorite food.(注2) Its simplicity and convenience coupled with the fact that it can be dressed up almost any way imaginable--or not at all--have turned the hamburgersintosa culinary force to be reckoned with.(注3)

　　It's become so ingrained(注4) in our society, in fact, that it's impossible to think of American cuisine(注5)--not to mention day-to-day life--without it. Besides providing nourishment to millions, the popularity of the hamburger also helps fuel the beef and grain industries,(注6) and--would you like fries with that?--has given many a teenager their first job.

　　By virtue of its ever-increasing reputation, a lot of people set about digging up the history of the hamburger, and finally finds that while just about everyone may be able to agree that burgers taste great, there's a dispute over exactly who we owe our thanks to.(注7)

　　Back in the dark ages(注8) of American kitchens, otherwise known as the mid-to-late 19th century, the hamburger was nowhere to be found. Sure, we had ground beef, introduced by German immigrants in the early 1800s, but a Hamburg steak is one giant white-bread step away from a hamburger.(注9)

　　Who was the one to take the bun?(注10) As it turns out, we've got a few competitors. First up, Louis Lassen, original owner of Louis' Lunch in New Haven(注11). Local legend submits that in 1900 one of Louis' customers wanted lunch in a hurry, so the cook put a beef patty(注12) between two slices of white bread. Simple enough. And, as if to provide evidence for the story, the restaurant adheres to that rule of simplicity today.(注13) Want ketchup or lettuce?(注14) You're out of luck. Louis' patrons have a choice of tomatoes, onions, or cheese on their burgers, and nothing else. It's just the way a hamburger should be served, the proprietors(注15) insist.

　　And they should know, right? Perhaps, but the town of Seymour(注16) might beg to differ. Local residents insist that one Charles Nagreen is the man to whom the long history of the hamburger can be traced. They claim "Hamburger Charlie" was a vendor at a local fair in 1885 when he realized that fairgoers on the move would have an easier time eating his meatballs if he made them more portable.(注17) Two slices of white bread later, the hamburger was born.

　　Or was it? Another fairground, another hamburger inventor. Make that two hamburger inventors. The 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis(注18) was the location. The two men? Fletcher Davis of Texas and Frank Menches of Ohio. The respective families of each say it was their relative who came up with the hamburger.

　　Lassen, Nagreen, Davis, Menches. Take your pick. One thing that's not in dispute, however, is the reason hamburgers became so popular around the last turn of the century. Maybe it's very possible that more than one person came up with the idea at the same time. In a changing landscape, it was an idea just waiting to happen.

　　As an analyst points out, "As the country grew, America (was) on the run, the cities growing, people in automobiles. So it was the perfect culinary concoction(注19). And the bottom line is it tasted pretty great."

　　The wide-open spaces of America and its growing automobile culture helped make the hamburger an even bigger success with the advent of the burger chain restaurant. By 1930, there were more than 100 restaurants, all serving the exact same burger.But it was the brothers McDonald, Richard and Maurice, who opened the fast-food floodgates. The first McDonald's opened in 1948, but business really took off in 1954, when the brothers met Ray Kroc.(注20) They agreed to let Kroc franchise(注21) the restaurants, which had an assembly-line production policy that meant short lines and inexpensive burgers. McDonald's had opened 657 restaurants one decade later.

　　Today McDonald's is the most popular hamburger in America, but it's far from the only option. From gourmet burgers to meatless soy patties at backyard barbecues,(注22) hamburger lovers have plenty to choose from. And while we may never discover exactly who it was that first came up with the idea, one thing is clear. Burgers have been filling American stomachs for a century now, and show no signs of going away.