For those of you unfamiliar with events from youngandfoodish, these tend to be one-off offerings that typically involve taking a chef out of their usual environment and setting them loose cooking food they wouldn't normally prepare. Tonight was one of those nights, at the fairly regularly-used venue of Andrew's on Gray's Inn Road.
Dan Doherty, of Duck and Waffle, took a look at the "classic" cheeseburger and came up with some creative alternatives for his meal. In addition to being busy in the kitchen he came out to each table while the food was served to talk about the dishes and generally be an amazing chap.
If you don't like a bit of sriracha (a hot sauce commonly associated with Vietnamese cuisine, though also common in the US etc) then you're probably onto a bit of a loser with this menu, luckily I have grown quite fond of it since first encountering it and found it a fine addition to today's dishes.
To start us off we had a Morgon as the wine for the night, it's a Beaujolais wine and is a fairly fruity offering that works particularly well with burgers and the like - especially ones such as these. For those of you who've seen Sideways, it does have a vaguely Pinot-related taste rather than Merlot-related, but I imagine most people have moved on from using the filn to drive their wine-buying habits by now.
I've also included a shot of the Young & Foodish branded placemats, just for good measure.
BBQ Spiced Pig's Ears
These were served in a bag, were still warm and were fresh and crispy. Imagine, if you will, an extremely tasty thin pork scratching and you'll be on the right track for texture etc. It would be perfect for wandering around munching on if so inclined.
Some of the crispy, tasty, pig product on the side of my plate.
Korean Pig’s Head & Devilled Duck Eggs
The pig's head had been brined for 72 hours, gving it a wonderfully soft texture. This is a dish that you should eat slowly - the strong flavours demand to be savoured and you'd be hard pressed to wolf it down regardless of how hungry you were.
The Burger
Doherty's burger was several steps away from the traditional American style cheese burger. The meat was aged Turner & George Blue Label Dexter beef, shaped into fairly stable patties and served with buta no kakuni (Japanese braised pork belly) with confit hen’s yolk, pickled Tokyo turnips, and Fontina cheese inside a sesame glazed brioche bun.
On the side were tater tots with sriracha mayo, and a little more egg - egg and equivalent of chips being a homage to the cafe which was serving as tonight's venue. Tater Tots are a very American dish, a relative of the hash brown or the rosti - then again, I suppose all shredded, fried potato products are going to bear some passing resemblance to each other. These were good potatoes, but were eclipsed by the main dish.
The burger itself was cooked wonderfully, remaining incredibly juicy and with a nice pink hint to the inside of the patty - you should be able to see this in the pics below. The pork belly was pulled, and, to be honest, was so tasty that I would have happily had a meal comprised of just that if given the option. The turnip was an interesting addition to the burger. A fairly thick slide of Fontina cheese served as the top layer inside the burger. The cheese is a semi-soft cow's milk cheese and makes for a fine burger topping - yet another layer of tastiness in a spectacular dish.
The bun was a good solid container for a very juicy meal and maintained structural integrity throughout, despite getting soaked in various juices as we ate. It remained stable throughout and withstood everything we threw at it.
I think the whole experience was best summed up by one of the girls on our table when she took her first bite and uttered the words "oh my god, that's fucking awesome" - and she was right.
Double Ducker Sundae
Named to give reference to Doherty's Duck and Waffle origins, this dish was inspired by the Double Decker chocolate bar. The dish itself was a fairly sweet dessert (no bad thing from my viewpoint), but, as a counterpoint there was a salty, savoury element in the form of crispy duck skin on the top. Salt caramel is an increasing trend across the dessert world, providing that balance to various sweet components in dishes, but I think replacing that with tasty meat product is an excellent choice and something which I would like to see dabbled with in more dishes.
The rest of the sundae featured chunks of chocolate rice crispy squares, chewy pieces and ice cream, so pretty much everything you'd ask for in a sundae.
Excuse the fingers in some of the pictures, there was a last-minute cancellation from someone within one of the groups on the table, so there was naturally some sympathetic snap-taking of the "here's what you could have won" variety with raised fingers in the background.
And that pretty much covers everything you need to know about Dan Doherty getting dragged out of his usual haunt within Duck and Waffle and cooking for a cafe full of burger fans. I'll certainly be attending the next Young and Foodish event he's cooking at if I get the opportunity.
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