Burger Theory, Ghetto Burger and Shizzle Burger

Burger Theory's 'art burger' is smart marketing. Each fornight Adelaide's burger cognoscenti are parting with their hard-earned pocket-cheese to be the first to sample Burger Theory's latest experiment. This is burger oneupmanship at its very finest. And I'm certainly not immune. Right now, my guiding purpose in life is to sample each and every art burger. And with good reason. These are burgers with imagination and flair.

Last fortnight, the art burger offering was the Ghetto Burger - chicken crackling, quick pickles, american cheese and truck sauce.



I like the way that Burger Theory think - but they didn't quite pull this one off. It seemed somehow confused. Don't get me wrong - it was better than just about any other burger going in Adelaide. Fried chicken skin? Hell yeah! Quick pickles? Delish! American cheese? Bring the fatty flavour! Truck sauce? Errrmm... I just don't think it was the right choice on this occasion. I envisaged the Ghetto Burger as super rich (beef + melty cheese + chicken skin) and seriously crunchy (chicken skin + pickle) with acid (from the pickle) to cut through all the flabbyness. These individual elements all worked but the truck sauce just didn't pull the whole thing together. I wonder if kewpie mayo or blue cheese might have worked better. What I'm trying to say is that it seems to my that Burger Theory usually highlight the funky beefyness of their patties and that didn't seem to happen this time. Part of the problem may have been the fact that my patty was squashed so flat that about half of it hung out of the arse of my bun and threw off of the bun-to-patty-to-filling ratio.

The offering this fortnight is the Shizzle Burger - guacamole, pickled red onions and iceberg lettuce. Distinct from rich and funky burgers I usually like, this burger is fresh'n'zingy and perfect for eating on warm Spring days.



I'm pleased to see the little pots of truck sauce on the side have returned!


The Shizzle is a well balanced and excecuted burger. Salty, zingy guac and sour pickled onion cut through the rich beef while the iceburg lettuce brings the crunch. And the patty was the right size this time too!
I love that Burger Theory are willing to experiment and have fun with their burgers and I'm really pumped for the remaining art burgers.

McDonald's, Serious Lamb Burger

Sam Kekovich is a lamb loving legend. When he tells me to eat lamb - I do. Mr Kekovich is currently spruiking the McDonald's serious lamb burger, which meant I had to give it a go.



I can see what McDonald's are trying for here. They're trying to replicate the kind of backyard burger you might find at an Aussie BBQ. Egg, beetroot, tomato sauce. Typically Australian burger fillings. Fine. Good. No problems there. But there are serious problems was with the patty. It didn't taste of lamb. In fact, it doesn't taste of anything much. The rosemary, parsley and oregano was completely lost. The garlic was utterly absent. There were chunks of 'real onion' through the patty but other than attempt to replicate a homestyle burger I struggle to find a sensible rationale for their existence.



I was halfway through when I realised something else about the patty. It was GREY! Seriously grey. As though the burger had been constructed out of some sort of sanitised lamb offcut slurry (which it probably has been and probably explains the lack of lamb flavour).



By way of comparison, below is a snap of the lamb sausages I had for dinner that night. Ignoring the fried onion and sauce on top (yes, that is tomato sauce, mustard AND mayonnaise. Try it. So delicious. You're welcome.) look at the colour of the sausage. Sausage meat probably isn't the best quality meat but it isn't grey. There are shades of red and brown. I shudder to think what McDonald's have done to the meat to turn that unappetising grey colour.



I seriously think that this lamb burger is damaging to the good name of Australian lamb and also to Mr Kekovich's brand. In future, Sam should be more careful about which cart he hitches his waggon to.

Would I order a serious lamb burger again? No. Was it better than most of the crap they dished up for the Olympics? Yes. Would I like to see Burger Theory have a crack a lamb burger? You betcha!

KFC, City Cross Arcade

The Dirty Bird has regularly changing menu of limited time only specials - none of which have been particularly good (I'm thinking particularly of that nacho-cheese-corn-chip abomination where the sauce completely overpowered the taste of the rest of the burger and caused the corn chip layer to lose its crunch - not very well thought out. Or anything with that too-sweet fake-smoky sauce. Blurg!). But I keep ordering from the specials menu because I am ever hopeful that one day I'll find the perfect crunchy chicken. What can I say? I'm a chicken optimist.

Sweet sesame crunch chicken is the new menu item at KFC. Understandably, I got my hopes up - IT ACTUALLY HAS 'CRUNCH' IN THE NAME!! SQUEEEEE!!

In fact, sweet sesame crunch chicken delivered on 2 out 3 promises - and one of those was subtle as a bum full of smarties. (Can you guess which promise wasn't delivered....?)



Sesame seeds? Check! Sweet sauce? Check (but more on this later). Crunch? No bingo. You'd think something with crunch in its name would be crunchy. It wasn't. This may well be because it was sitting under lights for too long but HOW HARD IS IT TO DO CRUNCHY CHICKEN, PEOPLE?

Now, let's talk about the sweet sauce. It's billed as being 'Asian style'. I'm not sure what KFC think is 'Asian style' but I expected a hint of chilli or citrus or ginger or something. Couldn't detect any of those flavours - or any flavours at all for that matter. It was just sweet, sweet and sweet. Did I mention it was sweet? To be fair, the sweet sauce did do a good job of cutting through the salty chicken, which is presumably its purpose.

Conveniently, the sweet sesame crunchy chicken combo comes with a piece of original recipe chicken for comparison. Could I detect any particular difference. The sweet sesame crunch batter was certainly more textured - but not necessarily more crunchy. And the sweet sauce did provide a bit of richness that the original recipe didn't have. But that's about it.

Unless KFC can figure out to pump up and retain the crunch in the allegedly crunchy batter it's not something I'd order again because this is not the perfect crunchy chicken.

Burger Theory, Victoria Square

If you've read my previous review of Burger Theory (available here: http://www.theofficeeater.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/burger-theory-adelaide.html) then you'll know I think their burgers are the best thing since ground beef - but that I had a problem with their method of sauce delivery.

I don't want to debate the merits of sauce-on-chips vs sauce-in-pot-on-side delivery methods except to say that I found that the sauce-on-chips method makes the chips a little soggy, makes them messier to eat and creates a non-optimized chip-to-dip ratio (some fries with lots of sauce; some fries with none) while the sauce-in-pot-on-side method allows the eater to control their chip-to-dip ratio.

I tweeted my thoughts Burger Theory and was incredibly pleased and impressed that they took my feedback on board and introduced sauce in little pots on the side.

SEE THE WONDER AND GLORY OF THE LITTLE POT ON THE SIDE!!!



THAT is you call customer service.

Today's fries had the perfect chip-to-dip ratio, the sauce didn't soggy up or overpower the fries and my fingers stayed nice clean. Brilliant!

However, I still haven't had a fry experience the equal of my first Burger Theory meal. The fries just don't seem as crispy as they used to be - and mine were a little cold today.

Hungry Jacks, City Cross Arcade

Like a moth to the flame, occasionally I get suckered in by fast food gimmicks. I've read for years about sliders in the US and was therefore fascinated by the new range of Hungry Jacks mini burgers. These burgers are NOT sliders - they are simply small burgers.

I try not to eat much in the way of junk food and ordered both the rodeo mini and the cheese burger mini (or that's how I'm trying to rationalise to myself) so I didn't have to return.

The meal arrived in under 5 minutes in kind of kitsch retro packaging.



I ate the rodeo burger first. I'm not sure what Hungry Jacks marketing thinks about the average consumers intelligence but for some reason lots of sweet BBQ sauce is supposed to evoke images of cattle rustling cowboys - hence rodeo. Used sparingly, I can handle commercial BBQ sauce - but a deft touch was not used here - the sauce overwhelmed everything. The burger patty was the usual dry hockey puck and the bun was the cloying the spun sugar/duck feather doona standard but the cheese helped give the burger some fatty flavour. Surprisingly, the onion rings actually stayed crunchy (does anyone remember the disastrous KFC nacho burger?) which saved the burger. 



Up next - cheese burger mini. Sadly, the cheese wasn't melted and there was no pickle. The burger really needed something sharp to cut through the sugary tomato sauce and provide some extra texture and flavour. 



Fortunately I like to stuff my cheese burger with fries - this is a bit of a hangover from my high school days. 



The chips provided the extra salt and crunch the burger needed.

Anyway - the service was fairly prompt and the price of $4.95 for burger mini, chips and a drink is cheap for lunch by anyone's standards. The burger wasn't great but that's not what you expect from Hungry Jacks - you get a fatty, salty, sugar bomb that satisfies rather than nourishes.