Umami Burgers!

While doing some searching on the web to find some supporting information for our presentation at the National Homebrewers Conference, I ran across a blog entry by the White on Rice Couple, describing their recipe for hamburgers. Check it out. They use fish sauce kneaded into the ground beef, which adds lots of umami, for a decadent, rich meat patty. Fish sauce is made from fermented anchovies, and smells like stinky fish mixed with Parmesan cheese. Awesome, right? As an ingredient, it adds tons of umami-y goodness to foods. Now, Mrs. Cicerone is not a fan of burgers, or really any beef, but I thought she might make an exception for this one. And she did. Just to make sure this was the ultimate umami burger, I put some slivers of Manchego cheese on. Mmm, we drank Vienna beer with them, but might ultimately have liked something bigger, like maybe some bock bier. I file this recipe under "cheap thrills," ie dead easy things you can do to make your friends think you know more about cooking than you actually do....