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.

The grass is greener at Burger Patch

Do you find yourself asking 'where can I find a good burger in Chatswood?' Thankfully, there is a little hidden gem of a burger joint that is ready to serve your burger cravings. 

Even with the help of google maps, we got lost finding this place, and almost settled on some ramen instead. But eventually we found this little new burger joint tucked away from the busyness of city life.

The menu has a few great burgers on offer, but the special caught our attention. The Kokraken burger, celebrates the Korean roots of its creator.

It was comforting to see a grill with actual flames that we knew would lick our patties, coating them with smoky flavoured deliciousness. We ordered the Kokraken and the Good American.

When the burgers came, we were not disappointed. The first thing we noticed about these burgers was the size of the meat patties. That's 160g beef patty right there. And yes, that flame grill makes a huge difference. A quick sample of the meat patty revealed a smoky flavour.

It would be very hard to improve this burger. The patties were cooked to perfection, with great quality meat. As we've said before, a hamburger should be all about the meat, and it was certainly the case at Burger Patch. The flavour of this meat had just the right balance of smokiness and char grilled flavours, but not so much that it took control of the meat.

 

There was just the right amount of pickle and onion to crunch through on each bite, and to cute through the juices of the meat patty. The cheese was literally dripping off these burgers as we devoured them.

And the milk buns were perfect- soft and warm, fresh and fluffy.

The sauces on the Good American were a little too mustard dominated. But that's OK- tomato sauce is readily available to squirt more onto your burger if you want.

The Kokraken burger comes with bacon and squid jam, which was surprisingly sweet, and blended in with the burger well, along with the sweet mayo and sweet McClures pickles. The combination of sweetness and meaty sauciness was on point. This burger creation only lasts for 2 weeks, and we're sure we'll be back to sample another.

The bonus touches at Burger Patch are also worth noticing. Towards the end of your meal, you'll be delivered a tiny circular roll of material. Just add water and voilà!  It will expand before your eyes into a wet hand towel so you can wash off all those lingering burger juices from your fingers. You're going to need that too, because there's plenty of sauce leftover afterwards from the juiciness of this burger.

You can even chose to eat your meal outside on the fresh green grass withering one of the mats that are provided. The staff here are very friendly, and wanting to serve your burger needs. A hidden gem in the heart of Chatswood.

Bar Luca lowers the bar

It took us some time to erase the Pepper Pig experience from our burger-muscle-memories (for a full account of that horrible nightmare, click here if you dare...). So we thought it was high time to go back to a good old faithful friend of ours, the Blame Canada.

As usual, the burgers were wonderfully presented

We had mixed feelings upon our first bite. The gravy is very special. Smoky and meaty, quite delicious. 

But the burger buns had changed. They were firmer than we remember, and somewhat cold, like they had come fresh out of refrigeration.

Further bites indicated that Bar Luca has severely lowered the Bar for the Blame Canada.

The meat was dryer and less juicy than we remember. And the cooking was below average. The patty had a terrible combination of being awfully pink and overly chargrilled. The overpowering taste of chargrill dominated this burger.

There was hardly any of the maple aioli, quite different to the wonderful, sweet lavished amounts we had enjoyed on previous visits. The same can be said of the poutine. We wanted to say 'where's the cheese'?

And the maple glazed bacon? We licked the bacon several times, but there was nothing sweet about this bacon. 

This burger used to be a wonderful combination of sweet maple matched with savoury, meaty, sauciness. But not this time- the whole burger just tasted overly salted.

Today's Blame Canada was a sad rendition of this once-great burger. If you have been here before, the memories have been totally blog worthy. But now that we have experienced this poor duplicate, we want to ask Bar Luca, 'what on earth happened?'

Has the ownership changed? Has the kitchen chefs changed? With all the focus and hype about the BL outlets, has the ball been dropped in the place where it all so gloriously started?

As we left, we noted that the crowds weren't what they used to be, and the smoke that normally pours out from this place was missing. Only the black smoky stains remained as something of a remnant, a tribute to a place that once created their burgers so well. 

The word 'Luca' from 'Bar Luca' sign, was also missing, further signifying the lowering of the bar at Bar Luca.

As we walked away from this experience, the powerful aftertaste of chargrill lingered upon our taste buds for hours afterwards, forcing us to wonder what went so horribly wrong.

Back to the drawing board Cafe Boardroom

Instead of making the trek into the city for our weekly burger ritual, we decided upon a place which was not too inconvenient for is. The Cafe Boardroom in Macquarie Park was our pick of the week.

The menu boasts a series of burgers, but the Mach 3 series of burgers caught our attention. These burgers come with a signature wagu beef patty, American mustard, housemade ketchup, diced onion, pickles and American cheese. Being in the mood for a double, we decided upon the Mach 2.

We were impressed that the burgers were extremely photogenic. Upon first look they masquerade as a great Macdonalds double quarter pounder.

But we were soon to discover that behind this mask it was all just a cover-up. Despite being photogenic there was little substance behind the facade.

We dived right in and took our first bite. The first thing we noticed was that the burger patties were piping hot. A good sign. 

But as we contained to eat, there were some obvious short comings.

For one thing, the burger patties were too dry- it required too much of our saliva to swallow these mouthfuls.  And not a drop of oil was to be seen to ooze off these patties. No fat content to speak of. The patties seemed like they had been made of reconstituted meat, then frozen, defrosted and finally heated on the grill. This meat quality seemed more like a scrappy meat off-cut that Macdonalds would ruse, rather than the juicy fat-marbling that you would except from a quality wagyu beef cut.

Moreover, the patties lacked flavour. Again, this is uncharacteristic of wagyu beef. Usually when a burger patty lacks such flavour, the chef covers up with this short-coming with copious amounts of sauce. But not so here. Even though the mustard dominated this burger, there was so little sauce to cover up the dryness of the patty.

And there was nothing housemade about the ketchup. It was reminiscent of a supermarket home brand. Upon requesting a ketchup side, we noticed that it was dispensed from a factory made pump rather than appearing to be a housemade sauce.

Maybe our patty standards are simply too high. But if this is the signature patty, we wouldn't want to see the basic one.

We won't even talk about the fries. Basic, boring, nothing special. 

This too can be yours for a precious $19.95. For that price, there are other places that deserve our well earned burger cash.

Some establishments are all about the burger. Others have a full menu and stick a burger in there just be to cool. The Boardroom cafe is in the latter category. Our new criteria is : Beware if it's not all about the burger!

Unless you work in Macquarie Park and can walk here, don't bother, you can hardly park here. Back to the drawing board Cafe Boardroom!

Big Belly from Big Daddy

George Street has been ripped up and opened up for Christmas shoppers. Decorations are in the stores. Christmas celebrations are in full swing. We at Visions of a Burger never like to miss a party. So we thought we'd get into the festive season the best way we know how: by eating burgers.

This celebration called for a new burger joint. So we headed down Oxford Street in search of Big Daddy's. In a great location with street views, you can sit and watch the world pass by as you down your burgers. On the way in, the superhero symbolism and retro art plates caught our eye.

 

But our gaze was quickly averted to this:

We knew we were in for a treat when we saw the Triple Whammy. The prices are quite reasonable as well.

We knew we were onto one of Sydney's best burgers when this was delivered to our bench.

The triple stacker is a sight to behold. Dripping with cheese, topped with a glossy milk bun, we couldn't wait to try this burger. The burger came hot off the grill. A truly hot burger made these burgerologists very happy. The meat patty was packed full of flavour and the curly fries were hot and crispy. If you want pickles, it will set you back 80 cents extra, but it is highly recommended. There is absolutely no vegetables on this burger- not a complaint at all.

This is one of the rare occasions where we just had to come back a second time to sample another burger. This time, the beef brisket burger (note the Christmas tree in the background!)

The brisket burger has oozes succulent tender beef with a creamy, crunchy coleslaw.

Oh, and the shakes are what they say- thick! Try the New York Chocco, or the Salted Caramel. Like us, you'll be back.

Just be careful what you order.

And make sure you bring a spare shirt. Or wear a napkin. Good burgers should be messy!

Lashings at Drummoyne

We were after something a bit more local with some meat patties that had melted American cheese on it.

Lashings at Drummoyne came to mind. We had tried this place once before, but upon entry, we noticed on the menu that there was no American cheese. We asked the friendly staff if they had any American cheese, and they said 'no'. So we promptly left and went across the road for fish and chips (desperate times!)

But this time, we decided we'd try again. Thankfully, Lashings had listened to our desperate pleas, and American cheese now features in a burger which was placed upon their menu.

We took it upon ourselves to order a Double Decker. We especially requested (in separate orders) not for 'tasty cheese' but for the 'American Cheese'. The friendly staff girl assured us that their tasty cheese was the same thing as American cheese, despite there being 2 different cheeses on the menu. This confused us a little but we went with it. The friendly staff girl was pretty convinced that the 2 cheeses were in fact the same thing, so we took it upon ourselves to trust her.

What a mistake that was!

Looking at this burger, it is very pleasing to behold. It presents well, and like a good Lashing Burger, is quite sizeable. This made us feel assured that it would fill our bellies.

However, this cheese was not American cheese but Tasty cheese. We could taste the difference. We know the difference! We wanted the American cheese experience!

The bonus of Lashings is the size of the burgers, and the juiciness of the patties. However their patties do lack the meaty flavour goodness that you can only get at another burger place that we rave about on this blog. (Hint- think Vicks!)

The condiments complimented this burger well, with flavours of mustard, mayo and tomato sauce combing in well. Pickles were plentiful, and the onion was a little sparse but tasty enough. Just enough lettuce to crunch into, but not too much to feel like we are eating a salad instead of a burger.

This is a good burger for us for its prolixity, but like Peter Russell Clark has famously said 'Where's the [American] cheese????'

False advertising about American cheese? You, the reader, may decide.

Betty's Burgers Better get Better

It was burger o'clock on a Friday afternoon- our optimal time for burgers. We needed to fix the grumbles in our bellies. Usually we are in the Darling Harbour area at this time, which has a serious lack of culinary burger delights.

Thankfully, we had heard about a new burger joint that had opened up smack bang in the middle of Darling Harbour. Betty's Burgers is in the newly built Darling Harbour International Convention Centre. We were minutes away from burger happiness.

Betty's Burgers is a newcomer to the Sydney burger scene. Starting in Noosa, Betty's has grown to 8 outlets. The Darling Harbour outlet is the first one to open in NSW. 

We were a little apprehensive to order, wanting to see what the results were before we dived in. The orders indicated that burgers looked reasonably sized, and loaded with character. We decided to place our order with the happy serving staff. They assured us that the burgers were sizeable.

The menu is simple, with beef, chicken and mushroom options. Keeping it simple is good. Burgers don't need to be complicated, especially when so much about modern life is complicated.

Much to our shock, the pickles don't come as a standard on these burgers! We were a bit taken aback and quite disappointed to learn that to add pickles to this order- an ingredient that should be a staple on any burger- would cost us $2 extra to add! How can you do this to us Betty?? We thought you liked us!

You can double your patty for an extra $5 as well.

Ok, maybe this one looks a little bit too much like a vegetable garden. We looked curiously for any snails that may have been lurking within. The initial bites felt like we were devouring a garden salad rather than a burger. Our Mums would have been proud of us.

Mouthfuls later, when we did actually hit the actual burger, we discovered that the buns were brioche-soft and fresh, and held the whole burger together nicely. 

The actual patties were tender, juicy and dripping with fat- so much so that our tables ended up being quite messy. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that we believe that burgers should be all about the meat. The actual meat patty in these burgers lacked character. Not much taste, and they needed more seasoning besides salt. Also, the patties needed a bit more thickness to them to really hit the spot. The whole experience which was overtaken by the rabbit food that dominated these burgers. 

If you are looking to increase your salad intake, then this is definitely the burger for you. This Shake-Shack like experience left us not feeling as full as we would have hoped.

We're off now to get some dumplings to make up for the empty space still left in our bellies.