Brisbane's Biggest Burger?

BIG BURGER SIDE PROJECTS
(WORLD'S HOTTEST BURGER & CHEESEBURGER PLATTER)

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World's Hottest Burger.
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When I first found out about the World's Hottest Burger on the website that featured my Giant Burger, I had to give it a go. I love a challange, and it was in my own backyard of Brisbane too!!!
First I had to get someone else to go with me, because it's no fun trying something unusual without company. I managed to talk two of my fellow toy collectors into going, and a date was set - Saturday 27th September.
Meeting up at my place first mid-morning, we headed off to the 'Off the Wall Diner' at Wellington Point, for 'lunch'.

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We ordered the burgers, but had to sign a form to acknowledge possible side effects of the burger, and that they weren't to be held liable. We each ordered a burger and recovery pack (milk and yogurt) - the place apparently had new owners within the last six months, and raised the prices on both the burger and recovery pack. The burger was now $14.90 (menu board hadn't been updated, but wasn't going to fight them on it, in case they refused service) and the recovery pack was now double its price at the beginning of the year (which is really just 50 cents worth of milk and yogurt - a bit of a rort).

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About 5 minutes later we got the burgers delivered to the table, and they looked just like the photos on the net - a big multi-grain bun with heaps of lettuce, small thin piece of meat, and heaps of hot sauce on both halves of the bun (no where to escape from the pain...). Keeping in mind that this is not really 'food', so whatever is with the hot sauce is quite irrelevant, as you ain't gonna taste it, nor would most people finish it anyway. So as boring as the burger looked, it would have been more of a waste if it looked delicous.

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Inside, all the lettuce.

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Cutting it in half to begin the assault - on my mouth, not on the burger...

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One of my friends took a few photos, and I started eating mine. The other two watched as my eyes started watering up, and after about 4 bites (a quarter of the burger) the pain in my mouth and throat had me reaching for the milk. Yep, I wasn't able to complete the challange of eating the burger without drinking anything. I just couldn't see the point of submitting myself to prolonged pain for little reward (a name on a board and bragging rights). I at least tried it, so there was no bigger deal for me to finish it, if it meant 10, 20, 30 or more minutes of excruciating pain. Food is meant to be enjoyed, and I wasn't enjoying this burger. I mean, it wasn't intented to be enjoyed in any way, it was always just a challange of pain. And I felt that this wasn't something worth enduring, as it had no real reward for what was required to finish it. And really, the pain was pretty intense, it just wasn't something most people could rationally tolerate for more than few minutes. It literally felt like a skin burn in the mouth and throat, and each time I breathed, it intensified the burning.
Me fighting the pain...

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So I gave up after about a quarter. The friend who was taking the photos gave up after one bite. But my other friend persisted, and managed to get almost half way through his before he said enough.

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CHEESEBURGER PLATTER
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Topic of discussion at times at work has led to creative ways of serving or eating one of my favourite foods - Cheeseburgers. Some of the imaginitive ideas were inspired by things I saw on the net, like a Cheeseburger pizza and deepfried battered Cheeseburgers, while a third tasty idea was to see what a Cheeseburger would be like wrapped in pastry (another one of my favourite foods). I was thinking first of something like beef-wellington (meat wrapped in pastry), but then thought about just doing it like a (personal) meat-pie. Personal meat pies aren't as common in America as they are in Australia, so just referrring to it as a 'pie' would be misleading to Americans who may think it is a family-sized pie. Although, that would also be an interesting idea to try one day...
So a (personal) Cheeseburger pie may be something already thought up and tried by someone else, but for me it was a new idea I had to plan out and construct.
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Okay, so I had three Cheeseburger ideas, and thought it could be something I could try out and take to work to share with friends, but with the major sticking point being buying a deep-fryer (that may not have much use beyond this), I never got around to it.
With the 4th Giant Burger party being organised for the beginning of October, it was time to get this done, either before, or at the party, so that this Burger Project would end with the Giant Burger.
A day before party, I had to find a deep fryer. The one that sounded best for doing whole, battered burgers was a bit expensive, but was kinda left with no choice. I also had to do a test run on each of the three Cheeseburger ideas, to make sure they would work on the day of the party, so bought up the required food items:
- Pastry (for the pies)
- Frozen Pizza, grated cheese, onion rings (for the pizza)
- Batter mix, flour (for the deepfried burgers)
- Tomato ketchup
- 8 Cheeseburgers from Hungry Jacks.
I was wanting to put their fries and chicken nuggets on the pizza as well, but with this being a trial run, it would just have to do with just the onion rings.
No photos were taken of the 'prototype' Cheeseburger Platter, but they worked out better than I had expected. And taking a sample of each to work was well received by those who tried them. Especially my favourite - the Cheeseburger pie.
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The next day, the day of the party, I had to rush out early to buy up 14 more Cheeseburgers (so that they were fresh), as well as Chicken Nuggets, large fries, large onion rings, another frozen pizza, pastry, cheese, and batter mix.
The photo below has the Cheeseburger platter items on the left, the rest of the stuff was for the Giant Burger.

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Bag-o-burgers

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Cheeseburger Pizza.
This was the first item I started on. I bought a frozen pizza (Double beef and bacon) instead of a plain pizza base, to give it a little extra flavour. Placing four Cheeseburgers on each quarter, I filled in all the spaces with the chicken nuggets, fries and onion rings. The problem with spacing out the burgers was that it was more difficult covering it all with cheese. I didn't have that problem the day before because there was a lot less stuff on the pizza to cover.

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As such, this one ended up having too much cheese on it, and wasn't as nice as the 'prototype' pizza the day before. This one ended up having a big lump of cheese on top, which didn't end up melting enough over the burgers anyway.

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Cut open, with a slice placed on top.

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And showing a cross-section of a Cheeseburger inside. It was still very tasty though, but could have used less cheese and more ketchup (I think I had added it to the pizza the day before, which would have made it less dried out and cheesy).

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Cheeseburger Pies.
The second side-dish to the Giant Burger. This was also fairly easy to do, but the main hassle was finding a way of making them 'pie-shaped'. None of the stores I went to had pie-sized mould trays, only muffin trays, which are too small. Well, I did end up finding a small rice bowl, which was about the right size, and would just have to use it to shape the pies, and just cook them in foil.
So I lined the rice bowl with foil, and then lined the foil with a large circle of pastry. Inside the pastry 'bowl' I placed a Cheeseburger. But before I put on a lid to they pie, I gave a generious squirt of ketchup inside the Cheeseburger to give it a bit extra moisture.

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The small circle of pastry for the lid of the pie was then added, and the edges curled up to seal it. A small letter 'C' (for cheeseburger) was placed on top to decorate it, and the pie and foil was taken out of the rice bowl so that I could do the next one.

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Cooking in the oven at about 200degrees for about 25 minutes, resulted in golden crusty Cheeseburger Pies.

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The plate of pies, each cut open for the guests to see the contents.

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And a close-up, topped with sauce, ready to eat.

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Deep-fried, battered Cheeseburger.
This one was so simple and quick, there aren't any actual photos of the cooking process, just the completed item in the photo below.
Basically, you take a Cheeseburger, coat it in flour, then dip it in the batter mix and deep fry it for a minute or two.
The result is a crispy coated Cheeseburger, with more texture and taste to it than a normal Cheeseburger.
It was the last thing I made on the day of the party, because it was expected to be a quick item to prepare.
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Below is a photo of the Cheeseburger Platter. The Cheeseburger Pizza at the back, and the plate of Cheeseburger Pies and Deep-fried Cheeseburgers, with a single normal Cheeseburger on top.

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My favourite of the three is definitely the Cheeseburger Pies. Two of my favourite foods wrapped in one tasty single portion, that can be eaten with one hand.
They are definitely something I will cook again, and were a hit with everyone else who tried them.
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griffin @ otca.com.au
http://www.otca.com.au/