Another month, another burger competition. This time held at Camden Town Brewery, there would be 24 competitors in total flipping burgers for votes over 4 rounds, each held over 2 days, unlike the 12 burgers in one night extravaganza at Borough Market last month. The winner from each round will go into a final to compete for best burger. This was serious business then. And this time I had a ticket.
In the previous 3 rounds, Fred Smith, Patty & Bun and Bleecker St Burger had conquered, knocking out the likes of Byron, Elliot's, Hawksmoor and Mother Flipper. Competition was stiff.
Armed with our full tickets (5 half burgers and 1 full burger all washed down with some top beer from Camden Town Brewery), myself and a fellow burger muncher set off to chow down some meat and cast our vote.
So in reverse order, here's my ranking of the 6 burgers from the evening:
6th Place
Ibérica - Iberica Burger Grande - secreto Iberico pork loin, rosemary manchego cheese, salsa Iberica, demi-brioche bun
Thoughts:
There's no doubting the quality of the meat and other ingredients in this offering, but for me pork burgers just can't stand against beef pattys. The meat is much drier and so doesn't pack as much flavour.
5th Place
Trific - Hamburg Hamburger - aged beef patty, smoked shallot mayo, beetroot pickles, fried quail egg, herring salsa, brioche bun
Thoughts:
So what have ze Germans from Hamburg got for us? I fairly liked the sound of this one (with the exception of the herring salsa); I think beetroot works really well in a burger and who doesn't like a fried egg? It's certainly a packed half burger with the salsa and mayo going on once cut, but there were too many flavours in this offering. Everything competes rather than working together and the quail egg was completely lost inside.
4th Place
Zoilo - Chimichurri Burger - chimichurri-infused patty, caramelised onions, grilled tomatoes, provolone cheese, roasted garlic aioli, house spicy pickle, brioche bun
Thoughts:
A nicely cooked patty here and a lot of flavoursome ingredients in this burger. It's not a bad burger by any stretch, but I found the herby flavour of the chimichurri very strong. All of the ingredients are cooked resulting in quite a mushy burger. It needs a bit of lettuce or something crunchy to add some texture.
3rd Place
Shake Shack - Smokeshack - cheeseburger, British free range Wiltshire cure smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper, shacksauce, potato roll
Thoughts:
The only full burger of the evening (due to the modest size of the patty) and extra points for all the guys on the stand being really friendly (and giving us t-shirts) and for bringing their beer nut ice-cream to the party (yep, we managed to fit it in!). I haven't got round to visiting Shake Shack in Covent Garden yet, but from what I hear the burgers are McDonalds esq but better. This was the feeling with this burger. The patty (in part due to its thinness) can't compete with the other burgers here, but it's still a good few leagues above McDs. The bacon was good quality, the potato roll clothes the fillings well and the chopped cherry pepper is a little bit special. Both of us munched down this burger very happily.
2nd Place
Burger Bear - Black Forest Bear - aged beef patty, black cherry bacon jam, double oak smoked bacon, american cheese, black toasted bamboo charcoal bun
Thoughts:
The most unique looking burger of the night due to the black bamboo charcoal bun. And the most impressive patty of the night as well - initially the size and shape of a tennis ball before being smashed down into a patty on the grill by Tom Reaney (Burger Bear). It doesn't disappoint. A great burger with everything done right and with special touches from the black cherry bacon jam and that black bun. These guys seemed to be having the best time of all the flippers, dancing around their mirrorball to disco beats. If I was being very critical the burger is very sweet and would soon get sickly, but this is a minor complaint.
1st Place
Tongue + Cheek - Piccante Heartbreaker - ox heart & dry aged beef patty, spicy nduja, smoked provola cheese, kewpie mayo, pickled onions, gem lettuce
Thoughts:
My top burger of the night. Great patty with extra meatiness from the ox heart and cooked superbly. Nice touch with the kewpie (egg yolk only) mayo, but the killer ingredient was the nduja sausage giving just the right amount of heat to the burger to make it something really special. Top burger this where the meat is still the lead role but all the supporting ingredients give a stellar performance as well.
And the winner is: No democracy can be based on just one burger blogger's vote - over the 2 days Burger Bear collected the most votes and was a deserving winner of the Golden Patty. He joins the 3 previous champion flippers in the grand final - I hope to be there!
A few shots from the evening:
No comments:
Post a Comment