★[REVIEW] The Ari Gold & Jose Jose / Patty & Bun / Doodle Bar, Battersea, London
“The ever-improving standard of the brioche burger bun is a heartening thing, and this is one of the better examples”
It’s the era of the pop up, and burger pop ups in particular. Every week it seems we hear about another one. This is a great thing, but their limited life span means that pesky real life commitments can get in the way of checking them all out. But where possible, we will hit these places up with a vengeance. So to just South of the river, and the bowels of Doodle Bar, to see what the latest brainchild of Street Kitchen is all about.
Doodle Bar is a South London attempt at East London warehouse drinking - it has all the trademarks of warehouse chic (the wide open, semi-open space) with all the nuances of a fancy pants bar (pre-distressed furniture, brushed steel lighting, and actual toilets). It has a table tennis table. It even has a huge wall with blackboard paint you can draw on with chalk! A great spot to wireframe your next killer iOS app then.
All this seems to please the impeccably dressed clientele inside. But enough of the scene setting. From the menu, you know you are getting the ‘pride in our produce’ style of burger, with each ingredient ingredient described in painstaking detail. We went for the Ari Gold with bacon and the Jose Jose.
The service is slick as can be, everyone knowing their role, each section manned with military precision - They even have a dude with his own grill just for toasting buns. Ridiculous. But shit, they are efficient and we had our burgers in well under 10 minutes. This is a massive surprise compared to other, more shitshowy, burger popups.
Opening the branded container, the Ari Gold looked impressive; the shiny bun radiating a come-hither glisten. But, hold up, wait a second: the trepidation begins to mount as we see the translucent-yet-electric-pink onions poking out. Not letting first impression get the better of us, we chow down.
It’s pretty good. The ever-improving standard of the brioche burger bun is a heartening thing, and this is one of the better examples - bouncy and airy, yet solid, it’s a great host for the Gold’s contents. The patty was proper quality meat and was cooked impeccable accuracy across all four burgers we ordered. Impressive.
But, and here come the buts: the cheese was dying to play a more prominent role, but there just wasn’t enough of it. The slices we saw them putting on the patty being just too thin to distinguish themselves. The onions sadly justified the worry; they weren’t just vinegary, they were the physical embodiment of vinegar. Eye-scrunchingly tart when trying them on their own. They were joined by the signature barbecue mayo sauce (more mayo than barbecue) that was abundant. Both of these strong flavours, whilst kind of working with each other, floored the beef somewhat. The addition of the bacon didn’t add anything to the mix, but banging a standard rasher into a burger with such flavours, what do you expect? And forking out more cash for it, not worth it.
Although the ingredients listed in the Jose Jose promised a very contrasting experience, what we got offered no real discernible difference. All that we could figure had changed was that the rocket has been replaced by loose leaf lettuce and the barbecue mayo with a more traditional barbecue sauce which only flecked glimpses of the chorizo that the menu promised.
These are solid, saucy burgers, with great buns. They ain’t cheap, but ain’t a rip off. Worth a pop down for the next couple of Fridays.
- Rob.
[RECIPE] Bacon Pickle Animal Cheese Sauce
Last weekend, we defeated rain and spread happiness throughout Brick Lane with Hot Dog hero Big Apple Hot Dogs as part of his quasi-competitive food blogger meetup #BlogEATBlog.
We didn’t think it would be worthwhile doing anything too subtle or off-brand, so here’s our down and dirty entry. It’s a four element topping: cheese sauce with bacon, an In-n-Out style ‘Animal’ sauce, chopped pickle and bacon crumbs. Here’s the recipe for the cheese bit.
The end result looked like this on the day, so here’s the recipe so you too can make it at home. It goes great with nachos.
Ingredients
This makes about 1.5 litres. Which is way more than you probably want.
- Six tablespoons of flour
- At least a pint of full fat milk
- Frank’s Hot Sauce
- Chipotle Tabasco
- Kraft cheese
- About a dozen slices of American cheese
- A pack of streaky bacon (we like Oscar Mayer for this recipe)
- Two dill pickles
Method
Lob six tablespoons of flour and a cup of milk into a bowl and mix until smooth. Lumpy sauce is bogus.
Take your bacon, lay it on baking tray and bung that in a preheated oven at about 180-200 degrees. Lowish and slowish, since we’re after crispness here folks.
While the bacon is crisping, put the flour and milk mixture into a saucepan and bring it up to a gentle simmer. While it’s coming up to temperature, chop your Kraft block into nice manageable chunks.
When the flour and milk have combined into a nice runny sauce, drop the cheese in. It’s best to introduce it in batches. Remember, Kraft is not real cheese, so it will melt slowly. Don’t turn the heat up, keep it low and slow.
Once the Kraft has disintegrated, throw your American cheese slices in. They’ll melt much quicker and change the mixture colour in a most pleasing way.
Keep it hot and check for a nice gloopy consistency. It should look like this:
Now, grab your two best friends.
Generously apply Frank’s first. Mix well and check flavour. Frank’s adds salt, flavour and colour. So this is up to you.
Do exactly the same with your Tabasco.
Dice your pickles, then dice your bacon (which you should take out the oven about now).
Introduce half of your bacon into the cheese sauce.
Mix it all up and you’re done!
To make the dog, line the bun with animal sauce, insert your frank, dollop a healthy amount of cheese sauce on top and finish with the diced pickle and bacon.
[REVIEW] Eggy Bread with Honey Roast Ham, Cheese & Béchamel & Honey Mustard Dressing (AKA The Monte Cristo) / Foxcroft and Ginger / London
Sandwiches rule.
Bang all kinds of shit between two slabs of cooked dough and then eat it. Simple.
Everyone’s got a favourite but, in this guy’s humble opinion, the greatest sandwich of all time is the Monte Cristo - usually a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich dipped in egg and grilled like French Toast, sprinkled with sugar, drizzled with maple syrup and served with a side of blueberry jam.
Yeah, sounds ridic doesn’t it? Done right, I fucking love this sandwich.
Regretfully, I’ve only found one place that sells a Monte Cristo in London town, the Diner, and it was piss poor.
Foxcroft & Ginger’s effort, to all intents and purposes, is a low-key, anglicised bastard child of the Monte Cristo, but it’s close enough. It’s all rather petite, polite and user friendly, much like the establishment producing it.
A Monte Cristo lite, if you will. And it’s rather pleasant.
While it had soaked in the sweet, slightly nutmeggy egg mixture, the bread was still light and fluffy, the way good French Toast should be. The melty cheese mixture over the ham was mild and a touch nutty, and the honey and mustard drizzled over the top, whilst tear-jerkingly sparse, added a spicy sweetness to it all. And it was cheap as! No blueberry dip, but then again, it’s not a Monte Cristo, is it?
If you’re up for a coffee and fancy a bit of a snack as well, you won’t go far wrong with a visit to F&G. Just don’t confuse them with the deceptively similar Fernandez & Wells. No Monte Cristo there.
- Rob.
Cheeseburger Macaroni Cheese from the MacBar, New York.
[FOODTRUCK REVIEW] Cheesy Mac and Rib / Grilled Cheese Truck / Los Angeles, CA
Sometimes an idea comes along that is so simple, and yet so totally ingenious that you just have to stand up and slow clap the dudes that thought it up, ‘Lucas’ style. So we applaud the comfort food genius that is Los Angeles’ Grilled Cheese Truck.
What’s all the more awesome is that these guys take such a staple, classic, comfort food and reinvent it with panache too. It’s testament to how well they do it that I’ve seen queues for this mobile eatery easily stretch 20-plus long. Our first visit attempt was at the fairly legendary Abbot Kinney First Fridays festival in Venice. The trouble was we’d already tried five trucks by the time we spotted them. Dammit.
And those queues are there for good reason; their Cheesy Mac And Rib is hugely satisfying. The barbecue pork was saucy-sweet, soft and worthy of a place all of its own on a menu. The mac ‘n cheese was heavy on the gooey cheese, sticky yet still trying to escape from every opening, and hinted a savouriness that balanced with the pork brilliantly. One hell of a sandwich.
I’m pretty sure I put this away in under ten mouthfuls it was so good, and if we weren’t going on to somewhere else for more food, I would have had another. A bang up job, and a must for anyone In L.A. who has only got time to visit a handful of food trucks.
- Rob.
