Last night I celebrated a friend's birthday with a serious BBQ.  We grilled a lot of different things but the highlight was certainly the hamburgers.

[caption id="attachment_2902" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Hamburger Assembly "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dsc01747.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2902" title="Hamburger I" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dsc01747.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

The weather was great, the company was in high spirits and the grilling/bbqing rivaled that of any American BBQ that's taking place this weekend in the States for Memorial Day.

Yes, that's how good the hamburgers were.  These were serious. As they should be.  They were not just ground beef rather they were ground beef with bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper, worcestershire sauce and diced onion.

The expert grilling added to the assembly of the hamburger. They were cooked well but not well-cooked (you know not rare but not hard and dry). It's not easy--standing by a pit of hot charcoal briquettes all afternoon tending raw meat.<!--more-->

And the buns, well one of my Bulgarian friends described buying every roll at the mega-grocery store Hit before the BBQ.  Apparently, she headed straight for the rolls and then bought every single one. She reported that the rolls were a huge responsibility because you can't have a hamburger without them. Here's a girl who gets hamburgers!!

The hamburgers and buns were pulled together with a generous squirt of Heinz Ketchup.  It really doesn't get more American than that. I guess the only thing that would have made this BBQ more American would  have been drinking ice cold cans of Bud Light, Miller Light or Coors Light beer.

[caption id="attachment_2903" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The First Hamburger of Spring! "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dsc01749.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2903" title="Hamburger II" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dsc01749.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

These hamburgers were simple and satisfying--thick, juicy and topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion.  Basically they were so good that everything else paled in comparison.

Here's to the first hamburger of spring!!