After Burger - A Spicy Sega Sandwich

Today on Mealtime Strategy we are celebrating the recent announcement of After Burner Climax for XBLA and PSN, releasing this Spring, with a recipe to evoke the exuberance of SEGA's golden era that would be perfect served at a barbecue beneath SEGA-blue skies.

Nowadays, SEGA is sadly often remembered more for failure than success, but back in the 1980s the company was a real force to be reckoned with, especially in the arcades.

Their SuperScaler technology was the first chipset to really harness the power of the third dimension, albeit using pseudo-3D with sprites not polygons, and every machine seemed like showboating from a company brimming with confidence. Hydraulic machines such as Space Harrier, Outrun and our inspiration for this recipe, After Burner drew crowds at the arcades and we are hoping that this fiery recipe will be a real crowd pleaser once they smell your burgers sizzling.

The recipe draws on South American flavours, to mark the Brazilian love for all things SEGA, though it's more of a Mexican theme, as Brazilian burgers are just plain weird... (no offence, Brazil!)

Note: We are based in the UK, probably the largest SEGA stronghold outside of Brazil, but we thought a burger flavoured with tea and served in crumpets would not be quite so appealing!

Recipe: After Burger

Makes 4 quarter-pounder burgers

Ingredients:

• 1lb (500g) lean ground beef / lean beef mince
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled jalapenos (more is hardcore, less is for wimps!
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• Handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican oregano, if you can find it)
• Good dash Tabasco or preferred hot sauce
• 4 slices of strong cheddar cheese
• 4 lettuce leaves, shredded.
• 4 slices onion
• 4 burger buns, toasted (We recommend sourdough buns if you're in the USA or can find them elsewhere)
• 4 tablespoons of good quality salsa (shop-bought is fine)
• 4 tablespoons sour cream
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: Hot sauce, jalapenos, fresh coriander (cilantro) and lime juice to serve

Method:

• Combine the ground beef, chopped jalapenos, cumin, lime zest, oregano, coriander (cilantro) leaves and hot sauce.
• Season with salt and pepper, mix well and form into four equal-sized patties, approx 1/2 inch thick. If possible, leave these in the fridge for an hour or so for the flavours to develop and for the mixture to meld.
• Heat a small amount of oil in grill pan or frying pan to a medium-high heat (you can barbecue these burgers if preferred)
• Cook the patties for 4 minutes on each side for medium, or 6 minutes for well done. Place the cheese slices on top of the patties to melt for the last two mimutes.
• Take patties out of the pan to rest for a couple of minutes. While they are resting, we can assemble the buns!
• Smear the bottom half of each toasted bun with one tablespoon of sour cream. If you are using extra jalapenos, cilantro and hot sauce, place the required amount on the sour cream. Top with an onion slice each and share the shredded lettuce equally over the four buns.
• Spread one tablespoon of salsa on the top half of each bun.
• Place the rested patties on the dressed bottom halves of the buns, add a squeeze of lime juice, if using, and place the other half of the bun on top.
• Eat, and enjoy the burn!

The After Burger would be great served with sweet potato fries, a Mexican rice salad or even just a handful of tortilla chips.

Inspired By...

After Burner

SEGA's AM2 development team followed up the hit arcade driving game, Out Run, with this accessible flight-sim / shooter in 1987. In fact it is After Burner II that is more well known, but it's not a true sequel. more an update released very soon after the original.

The excitement of seeing a new hydraulic SEGA cabinet in arcades is difficult to explain nowadays, as home consoles and computers are just as powerful, if not more so, than current arcade machines, but suffice to say, folks would gather round these machines just to watch and be sucked into SEGA's glorious technicolour world.

Production of the game was headed by Yu Suzuki, perhaps the best known of all SEGA legends, and in a homage to his own output, the full AfterBurner II arcade game can be played, alongside other SEGA smashes, in his flawed masterpiece, Shenmue 2.

Many fans fondly remember After Burner's hard-rock tinged music, which rocked so hard that UK magazine, Computer and Video Games, gave away a cassette featuring tunes ripped direct from the arcade cabinet!

For those of you that have not seen or played the game, here's a video highlighting some of the gameplay:

In 2006, SEGA surprised their fans by releasing a new arcade game in the series, Afterburner Climax. The game is set to be released in Spring 2010 on XBLA and PSN, so you might want to get your Xbox 360 Live Points or a PlayStation Network Card in anticipation of the release!

We have collected together some of the best SEGA games available on all systems in our Classic Sega Store, to save you sorting the wheat from the chaff! For readers who don't yet own a Sega Dreamcast, we can highly recommend picking one up from the USA store while there are still some available; if the Dreamcast's "geek-cool" status doesn't grab you, the sheer weight of triple-A games will!

Classic Sega Store USA

Classic Sega Store UK

If you are thinking of picking up a Dreamcast or some SEGA games for current or retro systems and have enjoyed our recipes, please consider using our stores, as this helps us keep the site up and running. Thanks!!