In and out of D#wn 'N Out

It was burger o'clock on a Friday afternoon, the time of week when we needed to cater for our burger addiction. We were desperate to beat the traffic and find somewhere nearby to chow down on a great burger. A quick Google search revealed D#wn 'N Out burgers had opened up recently in Ryde, minutes away from us.

In case you missed the news, D#wn 'N Out is being sued by the American burger chain In 'N Out for cashing in on their brand. Personally love a good parody- Australian culture is built upon it. Having experienced these burgers in the city on many occasions, we were keen to sample their Ryde burgers.

We raced down to Ryde, realising that D#wn 'N Out shuts down at 3pm. A big minus for us- good burgers are to be enjoyed at all hours of the day and night. Finding a parking spot near the corner of Blaxland Rd and Church St was a our first challenge. We overshot that red Google maps pin. The overdeveloped suburb of Ryde meant that the roads were like a clogged artery, making finding a car park challenging. But we rose to the challenge and made it to D#wn 'N Out within minutes of closing time.

Phew.

We made it inside, and the boys were more than willing to take our order, provided we ordered take-away.

The Cheese Patty on the add ons menu caught our attention. This is deep fried cheese, covered in bread crumbs. We settled on a double with cheese patty, along with a single.

When a chef complains he might need a new kidney sometime soon, it's a sure sign that he knows how to cook a darn good patty and sample his own craft regularly.

In keeping to our take-away orders, we went to the local shopping centre at Top Ryde, settled in the food court, where we opened our boxes. 

These burgers were a sight to behold. The cheese on the double just dripped with molten delights while the meat glistened and the buns shone.

We could not wait to bite in. The buns were extra soft and held the whole burger together. These burgers were juicy and dripping with fat and sauce.

The smokiness of these patties made our taste buds sing. Char-grilled, not over done, slightly pink but not too pink. The D#wn 'N Out boys know how to cook a meat patty.

These burgers have the right amount of saltiness. The burger sauce had just the right blend of tomato sauce, mayo and mustard that left our mouths watering.

There was enough pickle and onion to cut through the meat patty. The sweetness of the tomato also complimented the greasiness of these burgers. Each bite was crunchy, thanks to the simple layer of lettuce.

The deep fried cheese patty was gooey and crunchy. But unfortunately it didn't add any flavour to these burgers. Sure it added another texture dimension. But given that there was little flavour, we were left to think about the extra layer that the cheese patty was about to add to our coronary arteries.

These burgers left us wanting more. The lingering taste of that sauce after eating these burgers makes for a pleasant after taste. This is just a bog-standard good burger for $12 for a single. I'm sure we'll be back.

Not-so-Grand Big Mac

Everything old is new again. At least that's what we wanted to believe when we decided to out the new Grand Big Mac. This is a celebration of MacDonalds 50 years of the Big Mac.

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun was the mantra every kid in the 80's grew up with. We had childhood memories of Big Macs being huge, juicy, presented in squeaky styrofoam containers. We sure did make our contribution to land-fill back in the day from Big Mac overconsumption. Our childhood burgers were juicy, fatty and dripping with Big Mac sauce. A highlight was biting into these burgers, tasting the pickles and feeling the crunch of the raw onion, which just worked so well with the smotherings of special sauce. Often we would pull apart these burgers and reassemble them, creating 2 burgers, using the middle bun for one of the buns. Sometimes we even dream of these childhood experiences.

But today, our childhood dreams were shattered. The burger we purchased today was nothing at all like our childhood. Today's poor excuse for a Big Mac was not assembled as it used to be. The cheese was all stuck on the bottom, instead of being on both patties. The patties were dry. The buns were cold. The cheese wasn't melted, and the special sauce was a dreary smear compared to the lavish drippings of yesteryear. And there was no onion to speak of. Sadly, it seems as though our childhood will never be re-lived. Not lovin' it.

Let's hope the next 50 years will see a return to the good old days.

Maybe someone on the MacDonalds team needs to go back to the operations manual:

Then we'd be loving' it for 50 more years.

BBQ Pork Burger at Braza BBQ of the Americas

Burger-lover Tim eats his way into Visions of a Burger with this guest blog. Read on!

Braza started as a purely Brazilian meat place (lots of amazing meats on sword-sized skewers), but at some point they decided that they needed to branch out, so they became “BBQ of the Americas”, which essentially meant embracing and including the smoked meats of North America and adding them to the wonderful roasted stuff from down south.

My little brother was up from Melbourne. Knowing that he appreciates the ‘meat sweats’ as much as I do, I knew where I had to take him to lunch! As soon as we got there, we knew it was going to be burger time.

The Set up:

Now I should say that the price of the burgers is a little on the higher side. If you’re hoping to drop $5-$10, you’ll be sadly disappointed. On the flipside (and at the risk of giving away the ending to this story), if you want to eat a burger that deserves to be a little more expensive, then this is the place for you!

We both eschewed that basic desire that calls men to the biggest possible burger available and went for the “BBQ Pork Burger”.

Now I have a slight obsessive tendency that means I have to eat all of my fries before I can dip into the burger. On this occasion, the shoestring fries were hot, crispy and salty. Sometimes the fries can feel like the stomach filler you eat to keep yourself from buying a second burger. On this occasion they were a delightful accompaniment.

The Burger:

And now, to the burger itself. It’s always an encouraging sign when there is a skewer through the middle, helping to maintain structural continuity. The bun was pretty standard. I don’t remember if it was brioche or not. You could argue it was pretty much an ideal bun because it did absolutely nothing to get in the way of the burger itself, which was stacked with a base layer of coleslaw, meat patty, a solid amount of what tasted like house-made pickles, and then a generous portion of smoked pulled pork (It should be noted 1: The amount of pulled pork was generous. Nothing worse than paying more for a burger, only to see the faintest suggestion of pork on it, and 2: it was well smoked! Punchy, but not overwhelming. It’s really hard to pull of good pulled pork. It often ends up dry & fairly tasteless. I’d go back to have the pork alone!). As my only photo shows, this was a beautiful looking burger!

The First Bite:

I squished it down and the bun started soaking up the juices. Once it started moving from the horizontal though, it dripped a little with a mixture of meat juice and coleslaw dressing.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that until my lips hit that burger and I tasted how tasty and juicy it was; suffering none of the dried-out effect you can often get with smoked meats. The Coleslaw and pickles added a crispness and tartness, helping to cut across the smoky-sweet pork and rich beef patty.

The bun started to disintegrate about half-way through, but I was sold by that time, warning my brother that things were about to get a lot messier before they started to get any cleaner!

The Clean up:

I’d go out on a limb and say that this was the nicest burger I’ve had since I’ve moved back to Sydney. It delivered bags of flavour, good balance, and by the end of it (I mopped up every last skeric) I couldn’t rouse up enough appetite to have a single scoop of gelato afterward.

During our lunch, we saw the staff carrying around some pretty impressive meats that I’d love to have some other time, but I left with no regrets. I most definitely ate a burger worth the $21 price tag (fries included).

Psyched out on Korean Psy'd Chicken Burger

We normally don’t go for chicken burgers- chicken is like a vegetable to us beef loving guys. But when we saw pictures of the special at Burgerpatch (Thanks to the Facebook burger group we are in – thanks #FBAS!) one of us had to try.

Here’s the ingredients of the Korean Psy’d Chicken Burger:

Soy glazed buttermilk fried chicken, pajeori - (shallot coleslaw with gochujang vinaigrette), Chilsung Cider pickled radish & carrot, Sesame mayonnaise, and sandwiched between a toasted milk bun

The chicken is buttermilk fried, but soy glazed. It looked big and juicy. Biting into this was a surprise- the crunch was unexpected, and a further surprise was that the meat was so succulent. The soy provided the chicken with a savoury, Asian flavour.

After that, you’ll wonder about the spices that are dripping down this burger. On top of the chicken is pajeori – (meaning seasoned green onion)- a shallot slaw with gochujang vinaigrette, adding crispiness to the burger. It spiced up the burger nicely, adding a flavour dimension of oniony taste and cutting through the deep fried chicken. Certainly the gochujang (red chili paste) gave this burger some sweet heat.

The next thing you’ll notice is that the deep fried chicken is perfectly paired with Chilsung Cider pickled radish & carrot. This added a sweet, zingy tang to also cut through the deep fried chicken.

The sesame mayonnaise rounds out the intense sauce to provide a balanced, spicy/sweet flavour combination. This sauce just dripped through the whole burger, bathing the flavours so well.

There are many flavour dimensions to this burger- an incredible combination of savory, sweet, and spice which blends together so well. The texture mixture of juicy, sturdy and crunch also makes this burger deserve to be noticed.

The other burger we tried was The Angry American. Hot, hot, hot. Our noses we running after this burger. Again, the boys at Burgerpatch know how to cook their patties so perfectly. The rich meat patty combined with cheese and an abundance of jalepinos will clear your sinuses out. You’ll also enjoy the crunch of the onion ring on top.

Tip- make use of the patch of lawn at Burger Patch with the available rugs. The friendly staff have got your back. They brought us our wet towels to wash our burger-juicy hands afterwards and took away our empty boxes.You'll feel like you're having a burger picnic in the middle of Chatty. Great time of year for it.

You're welcome.