skip to main |
skip to sidebar
What does it mean by Hong Kong style burger?
It means...
- Generic burger sweet buns you can buy from supermarket, probably from Garden bread
- You can hardly tell if the patty is beef or pork or anything else?
- Salad sauce = Miracle Whip + Sugar + Water
It also means bloody DELICIOUS!
I order the above tower-of-sin (double cheeseburger + fried egg), it's yummy to the max! I didn't care that I could not tell if it was beef or pork.
This was the double pork cheese burger...equally delicious, tasted pretty much the same as mine minus the fried egg...
Some of us ordered fish burgers...and since it's so small, I didn't have the heart to ask for a bite to try ^_^
If you thought that the tower-of-sin I've ordered could fill me up...
Think again!
I've also requested to order a serving of Hong Kong style deep fried chicken leg and a pile of Hong Kong style fries, and since we had to share the fried chicken...
The ever so elegant Jason Bonvivant meticulously dissected the chicken using fork and knife ^_^
I was waiting for him to do a bad job at cleaning the chicken meat off the bones, as I planned to gnaw what remained on the bones ^_^'
...and because we were food bloggers...
...we were obnoxious and did not care if others were waiting impatiently to eat the food, sowry! ;)
Wanna see what did we wear? Check it out here.
In case you're in town, give it a try.
Go early as the place gets so damn packed at lunch time.
Si Sun Fast Food
(時新快餐店)
G/F, 1A Whampoa Street, Hung Hom
Hong Kong
紅磡黃埔街1A地下
Tel: +852 2362 1279
I generally love burgers, including the ones from McDonald's and Burger King (sorry).
I hardly meet any burgers that I don't like (you know this is NOT the truth, I've bitched about quite a number of burger joints before via twitter).
Why am I contradicting myself in my blog?
Who knows? It's the weather. It's Wednesday. I'm hungry. I'm confused!
OK. Back to burgers. Love them, love them much.
However, I don't love doing burgers at home, no matter how delicious, how much I can customize the burgers to fit my wildest imagination...I just try not to do burgers at home.
Why?
You know how I love one-pot, minimum-effort-maximum-flavors dishes?
Burgers are just so not it.
In Cantonese...they're MA Q FAN!
The patties, the buns, the fillings, the sauces...OMG.
The troubles!
However, when we put our heart into it, we can make it happen, right? (What is this? A motivational talk? I'll pass :D)
Anyway, I was in a rare madness of wanting to do burgers at home, so I did.
The burger patties
I used a simple recipe adapted from here
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
- a couple dashes of worchestershire sauce
- 4 strips of turkey bacon, chopped
Crack the egg in a mixing bowl, add salt and pepper, add beef and turkey bacon, mix well, add a couple dashes of worchestershire sauce, the bread crumbs and mix well. Form the mix into thick patties (1.5 -2 cm thick), flatten the middle part a little.
Preheat oven to 200C and preheat a grill/frying pan and lightly grease it. I preheated mine on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes, place patties on the pan until you get nice brownage, just a couple of minutes on each side. Dump patties into the oven (preferably with the pan) until you reach the desired level of doneness. I ovened mine for about 10 minutes and it ended up with a really nice crisp outside and juicy inside.
The buns
I used store bought English muffins for the buns, buttered both sides and toast them lightly right before assembly.
The fillings 
- 2 cups of sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- dry mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage)
- a touch of white wine
- olive oil, butter, salt, black pepper
Saute garlic in a bit of olive oil and butter, add mushrooms, add white wine and cook for a couple of minutes, add herbs, season with salt and black pepper, set aside.
The assembly
Butter toasted English muffin, sauteed mushrooms, grated mozzarella and parmesan, burger patty, and the other half of the butter toasted English muffin.
Now, do the right thing...
Grab this with both hands and enjoy.
It surely gets messy, so eating this without a plate on a white fabric sofa?
Be prepared to buy a new sofa.
Serve them with chips if you wish, but I don't make chips at home.
Serve them with salad if you wish, but I don't make salads at home...I hardly even order them in restaurants.
I am not a purist and I don't get offended if you'd like to enjoy this with ketchup, chilli sauce, soy sauce, mayo, jam, ice cream, toothpaste (OK, it went too far, toothpaste would just be too minty)...whatever curls your toes, goes.
Yay! Friday night!
It's the night where...I get to dine out.
No busting my brain thinking of what to cook, no cooking, no washing (not that I often wash ^_^, that's sous chef's responsibility).
I was in the mood for some good burger.
Thought about McDonald's or Burger King, but sous chef didn't wanna waste his calorie quota on them. Outback's cheese burger would have been a safe choice for a simple, hearty and juicy burger with delicious fries, but I felt like trying something new.
So, Duke's burger it is.
The place is pretty, somewhere at the obvious corner of Staunton Street, Soho. We got the most conspicuous table of all, right by the street. This is why we should reserve eh? I wasn't exactly planning to see nor to be seen that night....as you can see from the following photograph...
Ew. Sorry for ruining your appetite.
However, the spot was perfect for photography. Food, or any sexiness that passes by (which unfortunately was one T_T).
For those who doesn't do alcohol, try this mocktail, named Temple Street (HK$56). It has grenadine, sprite, watermelon juice and cherry. I can't relate the drink to Temple Street...but whatever. It's quite a refreshing drink, would be perfect for summer.
Sous chef had the Braised Wagyu Oxtail and Iberian Chorizo with Manchego Cheese and Saffron Onion (the first picture of this post), HK$168. Juice squirted out of the burger patty when it was sliced. When I asked sous chef what he thought of his order, he said "not bad". Duh! I tasted a bit of the patty, couldn't taste any chorizo there, the meat was pretty juicy, but, sadly, it could've been a regular ground beef.
I always love my burgers with crispy-outside-fluffy-inside thick cut fries, but I thought I'd give their sweet potato fries a try. It's pretty good, fluffy, sweet and savoury at the same time, but tasted pretty weird with ketchup (served with). Won't order this again with my burger next time.
I ordered their specialty, the Braised US Short Ribs & Truffles with Foie Gras, Haricot Vert and Shimeji Mushrooms (HK$198). When I sliced the patty, again, there was some juice oozing out, so visually, I was convinced. However, the patty wasn't all that. I would probably love to have the braised short ribs not in the form of burger, it dried out a little and not as flavorful as I expected it to be. I hardly met any foie gras I didn't like, and I liked this one too. Both fancy burgers were served with half a bun, which wasn't too buttery nor toasty nor fluffy. Maybe it was the cold weather or where we were seated, but everything went cold almost instantly.
Call me unsophisticated or old fashioned, but I still prefer my good ol' burgers to have two buttery buns, juicy and tasty beef burger patty, with a good amount of melted cheese.
Either pricey fancy burgers are just not my thing, or just Duke's fancy burgers in particular.
Did the experience put me off trying more fancy burgers?
Nope, the quest shall still continue.
Just in case you wanna try...
Update: this place has closed down
Duke's Burger & Grill
5 Staunton St, Central, Hong Kong
Tel. +852 2526 7062
Confession: I don't generally watch sports.
Except for huge events such as the Wimbledon for tennis, or the World Cup for soccer, or Thomas/Uber cup for badminton (Haha! How Indonesian!)...and of course I watch the Olympics! Especially now that it is so close to home (yes, I call Hong Kong "home" too), which means...
- For once, I don't have to be up in the middle of the night watching the games, suffering from the time difference HAHAHA!
- However, some games are on when I am still at work. Damnnn!!!
- We get to feel paranoid, worrying about all kinds of possible terrorist attacks (explosives were found in the super busy Causeway Bay MTR station. Read the news here)
- We get to see how some Hong Kongers, who usually despise being called "Chinese", now turned more Chinese than the mainlanders. It's just hilarious!
Who do I root for? Being in Hong Kong, I root for both Hong Kong and China, and as an Indonesian, I root for Indonesia, and if those aren't in the game, I'll root for the underdog. :p
What do I like to eat while watching the games? Something comforting to relieve the stress from watching the games...(Yes, I get even more nervous than the players. In 1996, I broke a chair watching men's double badminton final for the gold medal (Indonesia vs Malaysia). Luckily Indonesia won before I wrecked my whole house LOL!) preferably something I could eat with my hands, plate on my lap, right in front of my TV. Here's one that I absolutely love, and it reminds me of cheeseburgers they sell in mobile carts in Indonesia...
Cheese Burger with Fried Egg and Caramelized Onions
(Serves 2)
The Buns
- 2 ready to use burger buns
- butter (softened) or spreadable margarine
Butter the buns and pan fry on a saute pan
The Patty
- 0.5 lb minced beef
- salt, pepper, sugar
- cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes
mix all ingredients, roll into patty forms, refrigerate for a couple or hours, pan fry on a saute pan or grill
The Caramelized Onion
- half onion, thinly sliced
- butter
- worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, sugar
Saute onion in butter until softened, add worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, sugar
The Layers
Bun, cheesy beef patty, cheddar cheese slice, caramelized onion, fried egg
Sauces
Mayo and ketchup (cream cheese and Indonesian ABC chilli sauce would be great too)
The sides
Fried chicken, fries and Indonesian pickled cucumber
These coming nights, my azz will be planted on my sofa, in front of my big flat screen plasma TV, and this plate of juicy, sinful treats will be on my lap, waiting to be stuffed into my face between my cheers and boos.
Just hope I won't whack sous chef with the ketchup bottle every time China/Hong Kong/Indonesia/the underdogs misses a point. LOL
Have you experienced these circumstances?
The Public Transport Experience
When you're trying to get a cab:
- there's no cab in sight, not even after you walked 5 blocks to find one
- oh there were cabs, but all occupied
- in Hong Kong: oh yeah, there were cabs, but all will ONLY go to places other than your destination
- whichever bus you normally waited for more than 30 minutes, kept passing every few minutes
...and vice versa
The Culinary Experience
When I saw this fabulous blogging event, Burger Bonanza, I knew I just have to join! I have just the perfect idea for it, and when I went out to get the materials I needed yesterday morning, feeling all charged and excited...and...
- there's NO MINCED BEEF in the nearest supermarket (normally they are ALWAYS package after package of minced beef, especially when I didn't need them)
- I went to another supermarket which is further from my place, under scorching hot summer sun, and still found none
- I went to the wet market, and the beef stalls were CLOSED
The same thing happened when I needed mushrooms. I found none. When I don't need them, there were mushrooms EVERYWHERE in the market LOL
Anyway, finally I could get HK$30 worth of beef, got it minced and I was ready to South East Asianize my burger (why do I always make everything South East Asian??!!! Well, that's just my thing, get over it LOL)
Tasty Satay Beef Burger
The Satay Sauce
You could use ready made satay sauce, such as Lee Kum Keee's Satay Sauce, dissolve a couple of tablespoons with a bit of hot water, mix in chopped corriander. Add finely chopped chilli if you like your satay sauce hotter
The Caramelized Onions
Half roughly chopped onions, a small clove of garlic (finely chopped), saute with a bit of olive oil, add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce (or replace with brown sugar or palm sugar), a bit of hot water, cook until the onions are caramelised
The Buttery Buns
Butter your buns and heat them on a fry pan. Yes, I did mine in a wok. Thus the pressing LOL
I don't like my buns too crispy, just a bit of browned edges and I'm a happy girl
The Juicy Burger Patties
Minced beef, salt, pepper and chopped corriander. I browned and grill 'em until well done to get rid of any microscopic creepy crawlies. Add some satay sauce about one minute before you get them off the heat.
Pour more satay sauce on top. That's one juicy 'n tasty patty. Start to build your layers.
Add the caramelized onion and a bit of the sauce
Add sliced cucumber. Fresh or pickled (acar timun : Indonesian pickled cucumber, marinated in vinegar, sugar, shallot and chilli, refrigerated overnight). Add fresh corriander. Serve with oven grilled chips with some satay sauce and a glass of iced dry ginger ale
I polished off this plate while watching a horror movie on a hot and lazy Sunday afternoon. The meal distracted me from the movie. Thus, the movie didn't feel scary at all, it was bloody tasty. Hehe
...see you in my next culinary quest, trying desperately to find a material I needed, which of course will NOT be so easily available :p
Posts
