[PREVIEW] The 1/3lb Bacon Cheeseburger from Kua’Aina, Soho

Yes, that is quite a char isn’t it…

[RECIPE] The Default Burger Anarchy Bun

Burger buns. So many different types. So many ways they can go very, very wrong.

Anyone remember that whole ‘Artisan-style Ciabatta’ debacle a while back? You catch my drift.

Most depressing of all is the bloody awful selection we get from the majority of our supermarkets and bakeries. Typically we have to suffer the following:

1. The humble white bap. A moisture-sucking floury roll that capitulates like an over-dunked Malted Milk in the face of burger juice
2. The crusty cob. A roof-of-mouth torturer.

And don’t even get me started on what they call burger buns, you may as well enclose your burger in two bits of fucking balsa wood.

Faced with this, I’ve tested various recipes over the last few months; from simple buns, to classic hamburger buns, to more fiddly potato rolls. More recently, with the increasing popularity of them at burger joints in London, I’ve had a go at differing brioche recipes too.

After finding some way too buttery or too sweet, I finally found this recipe.

And it’s a doozy, yielding light, beautifully textured buns, with that impressive shiny orange dome. Ever since, I’ve been using this for all of our burger experimentations, (including our Super Bowl Bacon Double Cheese, and the mini-concoctions for our rockumental burger fondue).

Give them a go, the prep is fiddly as fuck, but it delivers a very impressive cache of buns at the end, and they will give you results better than in most restaurants.

Brioche Burger Buns

Makes 10-12 4(ish) inch buns

• 3 tablespoons warm milk
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups strong bread flour
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• Sesame seeds (optional)

1. In a glass measuring cup, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let it stand until nice n’ foamy, about ten minutes.

2. Beat one egg.

3. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Gradually add butter and rub into the flour between your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and your beaten egg until a dough forms. Scrape the dough onto a clean, well-floured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic. I do it for 12-14 minutes. The dough will be on the sticky side, so it can be hella messy and will stick to your hands, the kitchen cupboards, the cat, hell, everywhere. But keep in mind that the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will be.

4. Shape the dough into a ball and return it back to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, between one to two hours.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 10-12 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball, place on the baking sheet and then swish down a bit with the palm of your hand, ideally they should be two to three inches apart on the sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated in nonstick spray/sunflower oil and let buns rise in a warm place for one to two hours.

6. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 205 degrees celsius with the rack in the middle. Beat the remaining egg with one tablespoon of water and brush some on top of buns. If you want sesame seeds on them, lob them on top now. I don’t, typically. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Boom.

• Rob.

(Recipe adapted from the awesome Smitten Kitchen)

[VIDEO] Season 2 Episode 1 - Burger Fondue

Retracing our steps down the rock ‘n roll hall of fame.

With fondue.

Credits

• Starring Mike, Rob, Dan and Simon
• Magimix operated by Mrs D
• Featuring Ben Patashnik, editor of Rock Sound as Special Guest Star
• Soundtrack: ‘Worms’ by The Quarry. Download it now.

The Cheeseburger from The Ship, Wandsworth.

Wendy's go Japanese. With foie gras.

Maybe they’ll come back to the West End one day…

[VIDEO] Burger Anarchy Season 1 Episode 6 - Christmas Burger

• Forgotten a present for a special someone?
• Suffering from a monstrous festive hangover?
• Tired of ‘gift lists’ full of Amazon affiliate links?

Then allow Burger Anarchy to save the season with a very special Christmas Creation.

Credits

Starring Mike, Simon and Rob

Special Guest Star - Gail

And introducing Santa as our special guest announcer

Shownotes:

• [SERIOUS EATS] The Burger Lab: How To Make Any Cheese Melt Like American (Almost)

[VIDEO] Burger Anarchy Season 1 Episode 5 - Pizza Burger

Crime fighting in the park. It’s radical.

Credits

Starring Mike, Dan, Tom and, of course, Rob.

And Introducing Alex Mills as Alex.

“Our new burger patty is 100% British beef, nothing else. We use viennoise buns baked daily by The Bread Factory especially for us. Our bright orange melty cheese is a secret, as is the sauce, pickles and salad mix which makes it taste brilliant. Come down, try it, it’s juicy, naughty and tastes amazing.”

—

Our buddies from one of B/A’s favourite pubs in London town, The Ship.

It sounds like they’ve got another reason to love them.

A short visual precursor to the full Admiral Codrington review…

The Steve Buscemi from @Lucky_Chip. I wish it was an In ‘n Out tribute, turns out it was a cheeseburger with thousand island on it. Sad times.

[PREVIEW] MeatLIQUOR / London / The Hangover Is Still Not Over

Hang on, let’s rewind a little bit…

“The other question mark with the Meateasy will be what happens when it shuts down in March. Between now and then, a back-of-fag-packet calculation suggests the MeatEmpire will have served way, way more covers than it ever has done before. With that comes the next difficult sequel.

How do you go from having created such a special place, with a full menu, table service, a bigger kitchen, electronic ordering systems and all the other elements that add up to their slickest project yet, to then shutting it down and going back to a little van again?

And what of the pubs? Surely, Yianni is in the completely unique position of being able to say to any pub in London, from zone 1 to 6, that he can show up with his team and guarantee a horde of big eating, big drinking punters. Most of whom will post about it online. And then bring in even more punters. That surely has to factor in to his long term strategy.”

• from our #MEATEASY review, nine months ago.

The sequel

Technically, this is the third act. #MEATEASY was very much the sequel to the little burger van that could.

Others would probably disagree with us, but we were underwhelmed by the Meatwagon’s residency at the Rye in Peckham. A great deal of the urgency and energy generated by the #MEATEASY waned over the summer, and able competition sprang up around town, both on the street and pubs getting their act together.

But sure enough, there was a plan. Bricks and mortar. And here we are, a skip and a jump away from Oxford Street.

The things you need to know:

• opening hours will be 12pm until midnight (and there was a mention of 2am) Tuesday to Saturday.
• it exhibits the dark, red-stained, neon feel of a Proper Good Dive Bar. An American one, obviously.
• you will once again be regularly cursing Soulshakers for giving you that whopping hangover. The jam jars and ice blocks are in full effect.
• there are some new menu items we’ve never seen from the Meatwagon before. The desserts are a big one, but we’re into the Buffalo Chicken burger.
• the kitchen is ‘massive’.
• there’s a restaurant bit out the back, but we didn’t get to look at it
• we lost the ability to focus within 45 minutes of arrival

We didn’t eat much, so a review would be fruitless. We shared a mini burger (pretty sure it wasn’t a slider). It was excellent. It had special sauce in it and that amazing salty crust you only get with a Meatwagon burger. The buffalo wings have improved from their #MEATEASY outings - properly quartered and Frank’s’ed.

Be excited.

It’s gonna be big. Super, crazy big.

Finally had it.

(Yes, that’s the Hawksmoor burger. It’s going to be a Hawksmoor-heavy week.)

“Obviously, given this über-foodie approach, Elliot’s has been clasped to the weekend market goers’ collective bosom and is predictably mobbed.”

— Another positive Elliot’s review from the Metro

The Raymond at Avignon TGV station in France.

It was excellent.

We miss ThatBurger

[REVIEW] Kangaroo Burger & Buffalo Wings / The Blues Kitchen / Camden, London / What’s that, Skip?

The most important thing you need to know about the Blues Kitchen is that they serve London’s most authentic Buffalo wings.

• They get the Frank’s-to-butter ratio right.
• They’re freshly deep-fried.
• The bleu cheese sauce seems to be devoid of chemicals.
• It’s served on a table that’s far, far too big.
• They only bother to fling two or three sticks of celery on the side.

They are literally perfect in every way. A medium portion is £6, a large plate £9. This might not quite be proper sports bar pricing, but worth a visit just for this one single dish.

They’re also doing a season of weird burgers. Made with odd meats and stuff. We went for the Kangaroo. The bun is wrong, there was no cheese and the onion overpowered the whole thing. Sadly I came away still not knowing what Skippy tastes like.

They’re also doing that Lexington-style thing of having loads and loads of whisky behind the bar. Everyone seemed to be drinking Beck’s. A waste.

Ignore the accoutrements. Ignore the terrible service and overcharging waitresses. Ignore the fact you can’t order a Seven & Seven. Certainly try to ignore the bluesy musak. And definitely ignore those silly burgers.

Just buy some of those wings. They’re a real find.

• Simon

[ON TOUR] California Roll Burger / 26 Beach / Santa Monica / Oh you crazy Californians…

Holy shit! Look at that!

The California Roll burger from 26 Beach is fusion insanity. The photo is misleading too since the thing is roughly the size of a baby.

Yes, that’s pickled ginger. No, I can’t remember what the hell that pot of sauce was.

All of that said, I really can’t fault this as one of my favourite Crazy Burgers ever. The sharpness mixed with the beef better than you could ever expect. Worthy of its accolades and worth a brunch trip.

• Simon.