Hamburg
By Dyske August 18th, 2007
This is a very popular dish known in Japan as “hamburg”. This has puzzled me for quite some time. What is the relationship between what is known in Japan as “hamburg” and what is known in the US as “hamburger”? It would make sense that hamburg (without the buns) would come before hamburger in history, but according to this article on Wikipedia, it does not appear that such a thing as “hamburg” existed in Hamburg, Germany, nor in the US. Oddly, the article mentions Hamburg, New York, as the origin of the name. This does not make sense. If the origin is Hamburg, New York, why would the Japanese have this dish called “hamburg” which is essentially hamburger but without the buns? What would make more sense is that hamburg did exist in Germany before hamburger was invented in the US. All that the Americans did was to put hamburg on the buns, but the Japanese “hamburg” must have originated from the same source as the American hamburger. It could not have been invented by flattening meatballs as one of the theories imply, nor from substituting beef for pork in a sausage patty as another theory implies. Hamburg without the buns had to exist before hamburger was invented; otherwise the Japanese would not have this thing called “hamburg”.
On the Japanese Wikipedia, the origin of hamburg is described as the grilled steak tartare that was popular among the working class people in Hamburg, Germany. Well, if you grill a steak tartare, technically it’s not “tartare”, but I assume that the working class people were eating the leftover steak tartares; and since they were too old to eat raw, they grilled them to be safe. “Hamburg” was then exported to various other cultures, and in the US, someone thought of putting it between the buns. Now, this theory makes a lot more sense.
E says:
August 21st, 2007 at 4:11 pmI live in an area where there are lots of folks of Dutch descent. Many of them say “hamburg” for those foods that McDonalds sells… “We had hamburgs and hotdogs at our cookout.” I don’t know if it’s the Dutchiness or just a local affectation.
E says:
August 21st, 2007 at 4:11 pmI should say an area of the U.S.
Nathan says:
September 10th, 2007 at 12:56 amYou are talking about a ハンバーグ which says hanbagu. It is the katakanized version of hamburger. They are normally called ハンバガ ステキ。 My furigana dictionary says that hanbagu means hamburger steak while hanbaga means hamburger.
Dyske says:
September 10th, 2007 at 7:04 amHi Nathan,
The one without buns is “hanbaagu” in Japanese. The one with the buns is “hanbaagaa”, or simply “baagaa”. So, your furigana dictionary is correct. Your second sentence is confusing; you seem to be saying that “hanbagu” is the katakanized version of hamburger, which is incorrect. The katakanized version of hamburger is “hanbaagaa” (i.e. ハンバーガー） The difference is whether it ends with “gu” or “ga”; “gu” is without buns, and “ga” is with the buns.
Pytisma says:
September 11th, 2007 at 10:00 amHi!
I’m living in Hamburg and here in Germany most people say, that the origin of the word “hamburger” is a steak of ground beef, which had the name “Hamburger Steak”. US immigrants ate it between two pieces of toast and called it “Hamburger Sandwich” and after some time the “sandwich” just vanished and became just hamburger.
sietho says:
September 14th, 2007 at 3:48 amOMG!
that’s just answered one of the mystery I need to solve before I died!
Thanks a lot!
gordsellar says:
September 27th, 2007 at 12:12 amAnd indeed in some places it is still called a “Hamburger sandwich” when served on toasted slices of bread, while called a hamburger when on buns. (I’ve seen it in rural Saskatchewan, where there are few Dutch but plenty of Central and Eastern Europeans.
In Korea, unless you’re in an Outback Steakhouse, there’s no guarantee that the “steak” you order isn’t just one of these. Which can be quite disappointing! (But there’s lots of better local dishes to make up for it, I s’pose.)