Puerto Vallarta-Style Shrimp Burgers with Sprouts
Puerto Vallarta-Style Shrimp Burgers with Sprouts
This beach-friendly burger is my hometown’s best kept secret
Welcome to Fresca’s Emparedado Season! Four weeks of recipes for your new favorite Mexican sandos: Puerto Vallarta-style, juicy shrimp burgers, satisfying tortas, and all the things emparedado (that’s sandwich in Spanish, it literally means “between walls”) that show you why Mexican-style sandwiches are the best in the world.
This week’s recipe is my favorite burger ever. These whole-shrimp burgers bring so many of Vallarta’s flavors and textures in one bite. I didn’t invent this, I just grew up eating hamburguesas de camarón at Mr. Burguer in the Palmar de Aramara neighborhood in Vallarta. Mr. Burguer is a restaurant in a converted living room and driveway of a house with a grill set up outside. There is a fish tank in the living room, “live, laugh, love” signs, a pond!, and old movie posters with TVs everywhere.
This place is so dear to me that I didn’t even include it in my guide for Eater for The 25 Essential Restaurants in Puerto Vallarta. So this is technically a secret between us now, shhh.
There is no patty with ground shrimp and breadcrumbs to hold it all together at Mr. Burguer. This hamburguesa, instead, has whole, juicy, and plump shrimp that might make you regret every shrimp patty you’ve ever had. It’s layered with melted cheese, grilled bell peppers and onions, handfuls of alfalfa sprouts, and served with a squeeze bottle of spicy serrano mayo and papas en gajo (potato wedges).
In this recipe, the shrimp are cooked on a skillet for weeknight ease, and they are tightly packed together for maximum melted cheese coverage. The serrano crema-mayo rounds it up and bolsters the burger with sweet, creamy, and spicy richness. This is what I think a dream burger is.
SHE IS PERFECT.
Loungey sounds on this week’s mixtape to complete the experience of being in Vallarta because for some reason, we pata saladas love lounge music.
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