The Fluff Screamer: A Regional Burger Review

As I stepped into Tony's Lunch, a small eatery with an unassuming façade, I was met with a sense of excitement and trepidation. The sign above the door read "Tony's Lunch" but the hours listed were anything but conventional - open until about six o'clock, catering to the late-night crowd that descends upon this Eastern Pennsylvania institution. I was determined to try their signature burger, affectionately known as the Fluff Screamer.

Our windows are open and that our smoke detectors are turned off so what we're looking for is a really good crusty sear on this so resist the urge to move this or mess around with it let it do its thing and once we start seeing some kind of lead juicy stuff come up then we can consider giving it a flip. So okay, so through the cloud of burger smoke you can begin to see some of these juices being exuded. Use your spatula and scrape really hard down, you want to get all of that crispiness flake yes that is what I'm talking about we want all that beautiful crispy yummy yummy yummy yumminess.

As I watched, a chef began to expertly cook our burger, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to flip it. Once they started seeing juices come out, they knew it was time to take action. "So we're gonna let this go a few more minutes and get that other side nice and lovely," the chef said with a nod of satisfaction. A quick sprinkle of seasoning and a pinch of steam were all it needed to complete the cooking process. I couldn't help but salivate at the thought of sinking my teeth into this perfectly cooked burger.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived as our burger was placed before us. It looked stunning - a beautiful patty of beef nestled in a soft, sesame seed bun, adorned with melted white American cheese and a generous helping of chili sauce. "We're going to add some butter from what I could tell it looks like margarine very very spreadable," the chef said with a smile. And so they did, doling out a generous pat of golden brown goodness that perfectly complemented our burger.

The real pièce de résistance was yet to come - a huge dollop of marshmallow fluff, slathered on top of our burger in a style known as "quick cheese" (no melting required). The chef spread it on with gusto, the sweet and sticky treat adding an entirely new dimension to our meal. I couldn't believe my eyes - who knew that marshmallow fluff would pair so perfectly with onions and chili sauce? It was love at first sight.

As we dug in, the flavors exploded on our taste buds like a symphony of delight. The crispy crust gave way to a juicy patty, while the soft bun provided a gentle cushion for each bite. And then there was the cheese - melted to perfection, it added a creamy richness that bound everything together. It was truly a match made in heaven.

But perhaps the most surprising aspect of our Fluff Screamer was its balance of flavors and textures. The sweetness of the fluff paired perfectly with the savory onions, while the spicy kick from the chili sauce left us wanting more. And let's not forget the classic combination of meat and onion - a timeless favorite that never goes out of style.

As we finished our meal and prepared to leave, I couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder at the sheer audacity of Tony's Lunch. Who would have thought that taking two seemingly disparate ingredients like marshmallow fluff and onions and combining them with chili sauce and cheese would result in something so sublime? It was clear that these guys knew what they were doing - and I couldn't wait to try their other creations.

So if you ever find yourself in Eastern Pennsylvania, make a point to stop by Tony's Lunch. Be sure to order the Fluff Screamer, but don't be afraid to get adventurous with your toppings. And who knows? You might just discover your new favorite burger joint.

As I sat down to write this article, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia wash over me. There's something special about trying new foods and discovering hidden gems in our local communities. It's a reminder that even as we grow older, we can still be kids at heart - willing to take risks and try new things.

So let's give it up for kids - those fearless foodies who aren't afraid to experiment and push the boundaries of what's possible with a burger. They're the ones who will come up with innovative combinations like the Fluff Screamer, and it's our job as adults to appreciate their creativity and enthusiasm.

In conclusion, my first episode of Regional Burgers was a resounding success. The Fluff Screamer may have been an unexpected combination of ingredients, but its execution was flawless. I'm already looking forward to my next adventure - where will regional burgers take me next? Only time will tell.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engreetings my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back summer is fast approaching and that to me means burgers so i'm planning on doing a series of regional burgers i didn't know that regional burgers that were so specific and unusual existed until i watched a couple episodes of the burger show by first we feast amazing series the couple episodes i watch alvin the host cooks and eats burgers with george moats the author of this book the great american burger book which i got out of my local library now george has become my expert when it comes to burgerness because he goes into such scientific kind of specificity in history when it comes to these burgers absolutely amazing to learn about the local history through the lens of a burger love that burgers are humble burgers are accessible burgers are democratic another reason to love this meat patty on a bun so let me show you some examples so this sounds amazing the fried onion burger from oklahoma george actually demonstrates how to cook this with alvin in one of the episodes again i'll put the link to that video down below that sounds incredible as a huge fan of the smash burger in fact that's probably my favorite style of burger this sounds absolutely amazing this is the nut burger as a gal who lived in montana for a little while i have a special love for montana and i never had this this is it from butte it involves taking peanuts that you crush and you just mix it with a little bit of miracle whip then you slather your burger with a big pile of this stuff yes now i regularly put peanut butter on my burger so i don't see what there's not to love in this burger this comes from nebraska in kansas there's lots of permutations called the runza also called the colash and the b rock this one sounds amazing look at that that looks like a bow but inside you've got a burger yes yes another one from the minnesota area i want to make is the juicy lucy it is called such because it contains cheese when you bite into it the juicy lucy happens the stuff burger this is something that you might see in this instagram kind of gimmick world but no this has some history the juicy lucy has been around since 1953 i believe historic so i'll be making that one as well now today's burger is not actually included in this cookbook i actually couldn't find that much information about it and it is called the fluff screamer or the fluff burger so this recipe comes from eastern pennsylvania from schuylkill county from gerardsville pennsylvania in a tiny little place called tony's lunch and they are known for a particular style of cheeseburger called a screamer now this screamer is called a screamer because it has a meat sauce which they call hot sauce which is quite hot so the legend goes that a young lady went to tony's lunch and requested marshmallow fluff on her burger for the longest time it never happened and finally someone rescinded actually put a scoop of this on there she always had it other people started ordering it and that was the birth of the fluff burger or the fluff screamer now marshmallow fluff i love this container is iconic it actually hails from this area of new england in massachusetts and it is basically what it sounds like it is a spreadable fluffy marshmallow spread the fluffernutter sandwich is very popular around here which is a sandwich made of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff you can imagine children would love that combination but today i'm going to be smacking this on a burger now i love the combination of sweet and salty so i think this will be an interesting combination i'm not sure textually how it's going to be so that's why i'm going to make it let's make ourselves a fluff screamer another reason why i'm referencing george's book is that i'm going to be using his recipe for beanless beef chili sauce now i didn't realize this but this was a way for burger dives to use up leftover meat as you imagine you're making burgers and then you've got a lot of ground beef left over so bean sauce was invented right you just used your leftover ground beef mixed it with a few ingredients add some water and now you have something that you can refrigerate and extend and just place on your burger so nothing goes to waste now i didn't find any specific references or recipes for tony's lunches style of hot sauce i just watched a few videos and i saw that it had a noticeably amount of red chili flakes in it and based on what i've read in forms people said it was quite hot so let me show you what i did to make the hot sauce so heat a saucepan up with some vegetable oil and add half a minced up yellow onion stir that around for a few minutes until it's nice and translucent then add one large clove of garlic minced saute that around don't let anything burn and then add a half a pound of ground beef now we're going to stir this and mush it all around till the beef is nice and crumbly so reduce the heat a little bit i'm going to add a pinch of salt and i'm going to add about a teaspoon of brown sugar about a teaspoon of chili powder a little pinch of cumin seed and a couple shakes of worcestershire sauce stir this around and then we're going to add one teaspoon of tomato paste and about a half a cup of crushed canned tomato and then add a half a cup of water bring this up to a boil and then reduce the heat down to a simmer and let it cook up for about 15 minutes so what i noticed in a couple videos of tony's lunch is that the sauce is quite soupy so don't hesitate to add a little bit of water to make this more like a saucy consistency okay so now that we have our hot sauce ready let's go ahead and prepare our burger i love my skillet but i'm going to use my griddle pan so you can see a little bit better it's also easier to flip your burger when you don't have the side walls of the skillet but it does make a mess but you know burgers just make a mess anyways i also and george also recommends in his book a nice sturdy spatula i actually found this at a thrift store years ago i love this thing this is the probably one of the most used tools in my kitchen love this spatula very sturdy strong short handle really really great for scraping all that yummy fond off and then flipping so we're going to get this screaming hot i'm using 80 20 ground beef here based on what i've saw in a few videos the patties at tony's lunch seem to be a bit thicker they do look hand formed but they're definitely not a smash burger this apparently makes the most amazing instant fudge too which i've never tried so if you guys want to see that video let me know down in the comments this is starting to smoke so i'm going to put my patty down there we go just a light little push and we're just going to let that go we're going to make sure all our windows are open and that our smoke detectors are turned off so what we're looking for is a really good crusty sear on this so resist the urge to move this or mess around with it let it do its thing and once we start seeing some kind of lead juicy stuff come up then we can consider giving it a flip so okay so through the cloud of burger smoke you can begin to see some of these juices being exuded use your spatula and scrape really hard down you want to get all of that crispiness flake yes that is what i'm talking about we want all that beautiful crispy yummy yummy yummy yumminess okay so we're gonna let this go a few more minutes and get that other side nice and lovely i'm gonna smell really nice after though so now that's been a couple minutes on this side i'm gonna just cover that a little bit and give it an extra little steam just to cook it up a little bit more because what i saw in again the videos that i saw this burger looks pretty well done in the middle hamburger bun nothing fancy here i love how it gives you a little warning here it says occasional lid doming is normal refrigeration is not necessary okay so here is that oh yeah look at that let's grab our burger place it right on the oh yes we're gonna take our slice of white american cheese we're gonna do this quick cheese style meaning we're not going to melt this fold it in half put it right on top to the top of the bun we're going to add some butter from what i could tell it looked like margarine very very spreadable and just kind of in this kind of tub format so i'm going to do that now we're going to add our hot sauce onions because i love a burger with onions now for the fun part a huge dollop of marshmallow fluff huge like how do you get it off the spoon is what i want to know wow just like marshmallows right on there holy smoke ropes now we just put a lid on it here we go that's amazing oh my gosh alrighty and here it is the fluff screamer or the fluff burger and already it looks like a hot mess so over at tony's lunch they serve this on a little paper plate so i will do that itadakimasu i think i like that i might have to try it again can i just say that that's a very nicely cooked burger although i like my steak wear i don't like my burgers to be too rare there's just a little bit of pink in there just how i like them you've got the soft hamburger bun you've got the equally soft fluffy oozy marshmallow fluff that's sweet and sticky and then you've got the salty cheese and the hot spicy meat sauce in there all together it works really well and then you've got that burger that has a little bit of crispy crustiness on the outside and it's a great combination but i definitely would recommend putting some onions on there not only for that nice textural contrast but also for that flavor that combination of meat and onion classic absolutely classic can we just give it up to kids and they're willing to experiment love that something happens as we get older we lose that zest for experimentation i feel like kids will do anything they're going to put their tuna fish sandwich in their kool-aid they're going to take marshmallow fluff and put it on their burger kids are awesome awesome love you kids love you kids we are all kids at heart we should remember that already back to eating burgers oh my god so there you have it the fluff screamer i definitely recommend at least trying it the next time i find myself in eastern pennsylvania i'm going to definitely try it in the context that is tony's lunch although i've heard it has strange hours even though it's called tony's lunch it's not open for lunch it doesn't even open until about six o'clock because i think they go after the bar late night crowd so yeah i'll have to make a special point to get there around dinner time so there you have it my first episode of regional burgers let me know down in the comments below if there's a specific burger you'd like to see or if there's one from your area or if there's a burger chain or a burger joint that you recommend i'm all ears because like i said i love me a good burger thank you guys so much for watching i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something please share this video with your friends follow me on social media like this video subscribe and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye that's probably been bugging you too right marshmallow fluff who knew it goes really well with onions and chili sauce what the hell\n"