Burger Theory

The Van

If you haven’t already heard, its about time that you did. Burger Theory are here and it is my hope, that they are here to stay.

Typically, food served from vans is nothing really to get excited about. And indeed telling people that I had found ‘this amazing burger van’ had my friends initially less than impressed. However, if you are ‘in the loop’ you will know that the food van thing is in fact pretty damn exciting and it is in Adelaide that the Burger Theory guys have made their mark as the first such venture to hit SA. As a bit of background info, the food van thing kicked off in the US a few years back with culinary legends like Roy Choi opening the Kogi BBQ to go van which has wooed many a hungry diner with his distinct blend of Mexican and Korean food. Anyway, these innovations have kicked off a bit of a movement with a number of food vans in LA and other US cities.

The idea is that you follow your favourite food van either through twitter (in this case @BurgerTheory ) or on face book (in this case http://www.facebook.com/burgertheory ), then you find out where they are going to be and you turn up to the appropriate place. Find out more about them here: http://www.burgertheory.com/. I guess it’s kind of like what ‘raves’ were like when I was a teenager and this is what makes it exciting. You have to be ‘in the know’ to find out where they are. This makes actually attending the van interesting too. Few people are there by chance, so everybody turns up hungry and wanting to eat that particular product. This is ‘hit and run’ guerrilla marketing at its finest!

The Burger

If you were to pick out the individual items in the burger, I reckon you might not actually pick them out as ‘the best’ individual items. As someone who has spent a lot of time making burger patties and I really truly mean A LOT of time and designing them for supermarkets and the food wholesale market, they are quite soft and crumbly with very little seasoning although they are very juicy. They are however made from the impressive Coorong Angus Beef, one Australia’s best branded Beef products and local to South Australia. Similarly, the buns are quite soft and sweet and the cheese sauce is ‘drippy’. What is clear however is that they have spent a LOT of time sourcing high quality, sustainable and local ingredients. For that they are to be commended. However what one has to consider with the food here is the whole package, the totality of the burger in its entirety and the verdict is this:

It is unequivocally the greatest burger I have tasted on the planet EVER!

Admittedly, I have not tried them all but of all I have tried and I have tried a good many, this is for me, the burger to rule all burgers.

The Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork is not something you see very often here in Adelaide, let alone Australia.

Originating from the USA, it is part of the institution of American BBQ which has many regional variants throughout the country. Unlike Australian BBQ which generally consists of grilling meat over direct heat, American BBQ also incorporates cooking with indirect heat and in particular with smoke. Here, smoke from wood chips gently cooks the meat over many hours which gives the meat an entirely different flavour and texture to that when grilled. It is also a wonderful way of cooking tough and cheaper cuts of meat and getting them to taste so amazing, you won’t believe what your tastebuds are telling you and so tender that you can cut it with a spoon. This is because these cheaper cuts generally contain large amounts of collagen and elastin, the connective tissue that makes them tough to begin with. However, the slow cooking process associated with smoking (we’re talking around 8-12 hours for an entire Pork Butt (btw A Pork Butt is a cut of Pork from the shoulder…not its arse!)) slowly dissolves the collagen and elastin and converts it into gelatin, both tenderising it and making it juicier too. Then to top it off a tangy and smoky BBQ sauce is mixed in with the meat after it has been pulled apart into fine strands, hence the term ‘pulled’ pork.

Presumably the buns are of the same origin as the burger buns and again the totality of the product is without question. It is an experience to behold…indeed a revelation!

I originally bought two of these. However, I only got a share of one of them. My six year old daughter, who eats like a bird ate a whole bun before beginning to demolish numerous cookies which I’ll talk about next.

The Cookie

The cookies again in my opinion perfect. They are sweet, yet with a little salt sprinkled on top have a slight hint of salted caramel and quite chewy. For my taste, they are perfect and hence the picture above doesn’t show the 20 other cookies I had stashed away in another bag for consumption back at ‘The Foodologist HQ’ for ‘further testing’.

All of the food from Burger Theory is of exceptionally high quality and tastes wonderful. They have the perfect blend of salty/savoury and sweet and combine high quality ingredients with somewhat lower brow concepts. It is the perfect illustration of ‘stoner’ cuisine which is gaining in popularity globally.

I feel that rating this would be unfair. I always give a rating based on the total experience and the van experience whilst cool, fun and totally acceptable can’t stack up against a ‘fine diner’. Rest assured however that the food here gets 12 out of 10!

Just trust me, you want to go here. You really really want to go here!

Follow them on twitter or Facebook or ask a ‘youngster’ and you’ll find out where and when!
http://www.burgertheory.com/