Whatever......

BEER

BURGER

So it happened! The first Beer&Burger festival in town is finished! While some would say "Hallooo, it is 2014!?!? I on the other hand would like to say something completely different. I would like to say: "About time.....and....welcome to the real burger!". So far so good but than in a few comebacks I am reminded that this is not a perfect world and there are and will remain people who will never be able to fully understand the complexity of a simple hamburger. 

Our party of three set out to explore the happening at the Beer&Burger fest last saturday afternoon. We were ready for everything. No fuss, no nervous breakdowns when there was a queue and very aware of the situation. We made a plan before entering the market place where it took place. First we would make a round tour of all the stands serving original burgers and make a selection of three wich was as much as we could handle for one evening. The task was not so hard. Two thirds of the stands were serving something else. They thought they were making burgers but they werent. There is a big problem with understanding the meaning of the word Hamburger as it remains a fact. Hamburger consists of  lets say basicaly two main ingredients if we count out the condiments and sauce. These are a pure beef patty and a soft bun.When you fail at this two basics - bummer!

1. Pure beef patty = ground beef patty no salt added. Can be made from differet parts of beef but has to be in proper fat to protein proportion ranging from 30:70 to 20:80. Salted and peppered before grilling. 

2. Soft bun = classic soft hamburger bun. Slightly sweet, light and of melting texture. It plays a role of a vehicle in the flavour delivery process. Essential for good looks. If toasted use butter. So there was a large number of failed attempts. Sorry....

Our selection of stands was as follows.

Pivohram Golar
Smrekarjev Hram
As Aperitivo

For the beers we kinda got along. Some stands had Beer&Burger offer some only one of the pair. For start we tryed the suprisingly delicious San Nicolo light lager from Ankaran and set in the adventure of slowly ordering and paying and waiting in the queue to get around the corner of the stand where we would be served. I said we arrived prepared and aware of the situation so for us the event was a good time. We had no problems waiting a little longer than expected. A lot of other people were not so happy some even loudly expresing their anger with waiting. But hey.....it is a festival! There is a lot of people. What would "you" like? A reservation?!?
At Pivohram Golar visual observation was a very promising one. Coarse ground beef burgers were sizzling on the griddle. Custom made buns accompanied them for toasting. There were some inovative sauces and condiments. They did skip the cheese wich was a pitty. Going around the corner after placing the order we were finished with the San Nicolo lager. The obvious next choice was Bevog OND smoked porter for men and  KRAMAH india pale ale for the lady since Pivohram is a sister company of Bevog brewery. That was some extra special good beer. Smokey porter wich mixed great with the smell of meat and smoke around us while IPA was also a good choice with clear taste and fruity bitternes wich just opens the flow of appetite. Than came the burgers. Nice little slider size burger, looking great and stylish. Served with home made chips. As I said no cheese but they added a deep fried slice of eggplant under the meat wich is allways a good thing though somehow strange for a burger. The bun was on the brioche side. Sweet and yellowish, more like a cake. Not bad but too sweet for our taste in general and unfortunately not butterd before tasting. First bite and....the meat was salted ahead, oh bummer! They must have used salt as a safety peacution but still it is not the way how you treat a burger patty. This is a no no! No beef patty wich is made of salted ground beef will become a good tasting burger. Other problem was uneven cooking. Our three burgers were ranging from well done, medium to medium rare but all without a sufficient dark brown crust. Sorry guys....but the beer was great!!!

The first expirience grounded us a bit but we haven't lost our hunger for more. We got some more beer, this time from HUMAN FISH - a stronger ale variety. Mmmmm....that was great and strong so we were ready for next burger before some more beer. 

At Smrekarjev Hram stand they were the smoke masters. The pillar of smoke from their grill was the biggest on the whole place. Burgers were looking right, buns even better. Size was bigger but still correct for a burger. We were on the same path again. Queue, around the corner and got served. Here we tryed both of their burgers. One was their classic, cheese, BBQ sauce, caramelizied onions, fresh onions, salat, tomato. The other was not a burger exactly. It was a pulled pork sandwich. The first bite revealed another salted beef pattty. Oh come on now.....is it realy that hard to ensure a refrigerator for the meat to keep it cool and safe and tasty? Bun was better but too dry and not buttered. In the end we all agreed that they had a great and juicy pulled pork sandwich but not a good burger. Where is this taking us?!? 

Just an observation. What is a problem here? No connection to the internet and the zillion burger links on YT and everywhere else? I actualy don't understand and can't accept this....whoever has tryed a proper burger only once will understand. Some of the stands were out of ingredients by the evening. So we were saved  of probably another disaster. I even read one recipe wich stated their burger patty is seasoned with cumin, coriander, chilli and curry. Seriously? Is this a joke?!? I will not name any of the places we were not testing but there was a lot of unacceptable stuff sold as burgers. On the other hand we wanted to try the Dobra Vila real beef burgers but they were all out. 

It was getting dark when we were standing in line at As Aperitivo stand. With a good Pellicon Summer Ale in our hands we started to observe something different. Almost strnage.....what are these guys doing? First there was a team of 4 people working at "stations" as in real kitchen.At the first station there was a guy buttering buns. Oh sweet heaven on earth they use butter for toasting the buns!!!! Buns were alinged next on the condiment station waiting for the pattyes. For their two burgers California classic and The Boss condiments consisted of real cheddar and stilton cheeses, red onion marmalade, Bacon The Great, secret sauce, lettuce, tomato and even a slice of an apple. So somebody realy gave some thought to this at last! With some extra participation of the lady power in our trio we somehow mixed all the ingredients into one burger. 

"The MEAT" station. (happy, happy....)

Guys at As Aperitivo know the bussines for sure. Beef used for pattyes was aged for 30 days. That was clearly stated on the blackboard for everybody else to see and maybe learn a bit about beef. But I still did not let my mind go crazy before the first bite. Burgers were cooked in a hell like furnace/oven/grill. It was even more scary when the night set in and the oven was opened for the pattyes to go in. The hottest heat source on the festival for sure! I caught a glance at uncooked pattyes. Prepared properly with fat to protein ratio by the book and even pressed in the middle for latter proper shape. Hopes got even higher. This was station three. Station four was the arranging station. Nothing more than a napkin and a little flag. Guys have style and we got served! First bite...explosion of taste. A bit on the peppery side but really a complete burger with all the basic tastes and much much more. This is what counts. You have to taste the soft buttered toasted bun, only slightly sweet and salty with taste of browned butter. You have to taste the great grilled beef taste. No salt added into the ground beef!!! Only salted and peppered before placed on fire. And the rest of the package was nicely rounded and adding to the big picture perfectly. No complaint and a BIG cheer to guys at AS APERITIVO! Happy as a little child......

At the end I want to say I have never before eaten a burger at any of the reastaurants that participated in this festival. Oh sorry....only at the one with a great name I did. As I said in the previous blog I knew exactly wich burger I will not even sniff at! Well....I did in the end but a short look at it revealed that the situation there didn't quite change.

I am not happy at all that I need to find the burger from one of the most expencive restaurants in town the best of them all! I do not go to such restaurants. I would like to grab a perfect burger at a stand just around the corner but that remains a humble wish. Understanding "The burger" still has a long way to go for the general public in this little part of the world. What a pitty since a good hamburger is in fact a comfort food making people happy. Some people have chocholate, some people have ice cream......whatever does it for you as long as you are happy after that first bite. Fortunately we can make a perfect burger at home just fine!

PePe