We typically go out to find awesome burgers, but we decided that we knew enough to craft our own awesome burgers! We’ve had a home edition in the past where we put together a ramen burger and a cronut burger at the height of the craze (yeah, it was a long time ago), but we haven’t done it since.
We decided to make this one a bit of a competition. Each member brought stuff to create 4 burgers so each of us would get to taste half of each. We rated them from 1 to 5 based on toppings and composition of the burgers. We had secret ballots and randomly assigned the order in which the burgers would be made.
First up, was Angela (uh, me). My burger was called the “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and was inspired by my love of peanut butter burgers with the gripe that there never is enough peanut butter. My burger started with a Hawaiian style bun, had a half pound patty (beautifully cooked by Trev), a good helping of Skippy honey peanut butter, Knott’s boysenberry preserves, a dash of Sriracha, and some Ruffles potato chips.
Next up was Innie’s burger. She named her burger “Eat your Kimchi!” It was like a Korean party in our mouths! There was a lot of stuff on it and you’ll need to ask Innie what exactly was on it. It was quite involved. There was some sauce, some pickles, some kimchi, and some basting of bacon going on. It was spicy, but not “oh my God, I’m going to die” spicy.
[Ninja edit by Innie: The burger had a house sauce (mayo, gochujang, sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha, and minced kimchi), bacon basted with a sriracha/sesame/honey mix, american cheese, sauteed kimchi, a nicely medium-rare beef patty (Thanks, Trev!) and marinated cucumber kimchi on Wonderbread buns.
Eat all the kimchi!! ]
Next was DK’s burger! He named his “I’m scared to bring my burger to the party”. Second time he flaked on us for home edition! Hope you had a good sleep, man. Sucks about work!
Next up was Trev. His burger was called “The HAMburger” (pretty much just to mess with me because I don’t like that word). His was on a Hawaiian style bun, had a beautifully cooked patty (yes, he cooked EVERYONE’S patties), peppered bacon (on the side, instead of a pickle spear), American cheese, crispy cheddar cheese crumbles, and Korean seasoned cucumbers, ketchup and mustard. It was a bit of a salt bomb compared to the other burgers thus far.
The next burger was from Wayne. He called his the Gorilla Mall and he was basically plagiarizing Grill ’em all’s Dee Snider (which is an excellent burger to plagiarize). He was on a brioche bun with an amazingly cooked burger patty (thanks again, Trev). He had crunchy peanut butter, strawberry jam, chewy bacon, and a healthy helping of Sriracha. Though Wayne and I had similar concepts, they certainly ended up different from one another. He had less peanut butter (which Sumana liked since she doesn’t like peanut butter). He also had the bacon to my potato chips.
Last, but certainly not least was our super special member from out of town, Sumana!!! Her burger was called “The Killer” and was very involved! She used the Hawaiian style buns, a Trev cooked patty, boxed mac and cheese mixed with bacon, Sriracha ketchup, and pan fried breaded pickles (which she breaded herself!). She clearly put a lot of effort into this one! It was tough because she was chosen to go last, and she had a plane to catch! So we were in a bit of a rush to prep and eat hers.
Overall, it was a super fun, super stuffed day. This year’s Burger Crew Home Edition Champion is Innie! Congratulations to her! Looking forward to next year’s set of burgers. We definitely need to make this an all day thing with sweat pants as our uniforms =)