Everything was perfect about this dish
Burger & Beyond picks its spot carefully to ensure it can show off its fine food range in the places where there is a good vibe and will be appreciated the most, hence sites in Soho, Shoreditch and in Borough Yards, the railway arches next to the market, writes Michael Holland.
I’d heard about their current collab with Hak Baker, the London Grime rapper with a nice reggae tinge to his music; a young man who has lived it and loved it and as well as doing a bit of bird he has also played Glastonbury. And his politics are spot on. Right now, though, in the month of August, he has been invited to invent his own special dish for Burger & Beyond and I went to Borough Market to try it.
I was welcomed by Dean who offered a choice of prime tables. I picked one out of the sun and where there could be a cool breeze coming through on one of the heatwave days. I promptly ordered a glass of cold, sparkling water and checked out the info on Hak’s Braised Beef & Chilli Sandwich.
There is a lot going on in that mighty dish and there was a starter to get through first – one without any hot spice as I needed a calm run up to Hak’s Sandwich. Dean suggested the Fried Chicken Bites.
It came. I saw. It conquered. The bite into the batter gave a pleasing crunch that continued into the most moist chicken I recall enjoying. I asked Dean what the secret was: ‘We marinate all our chicken in buttermilk before cooking it,’ he said. And there was a good portion to enjoy. Brilliant.
And the pickled cucumber was tantalisingly good. It turned that mediocre salad staple into a blockbuster garnish. And the superb dip held a lot of information that I couldn’t quite read, so once again I asked Dean: ‘That’s our secret sauce,’ he replied with a wry smile. And that’s as far as the conversation went. I fully understood. If that was my secret sauce I’d be bottling it up.
I took some time out to let that chicken dish do its work in making me feel good, making me think about soaking my chicken in buttermilk and trying to work out what might be in that secret sauce so I could recreate it at home.
After a decent interval I called on the recommended drink for the Hak Sandwich, a Reef House 4.6%ABV lager that Hak has also collaborated on with Signature Brew. It comes with this blurb: ‘A proper lager, brewed by proper lager lovers – a perfect blend of grassy bitterness, herbal notes, and a sweet malty finish.’ That was a blurb I couldn’t refuse. And it comes in a cold can with a frosted glass to make it even colder. Nice.
The sandwich quickly followed and looked monumental without making you stress about trying to get your mouth open wide enough to take a mouthful of a stacked up tower. This was a proper sandwich and part of the genius is that it was brioche, a bread that was not going to sink and collapse with all those juices and sauces and oils within its solid walls. This was a bread that beats sourdough any day of the week and was perfect for Hak Baker’s creation.
Dean asked if I wanted any condiments but I knew it needed nothing else. In fact, anyone who dared besmirch the Hak Sandwich with ketchup or mustard should be immediately directed to some lesser burger joint with low morals.
The first bite was sublime. The Scotch Bonnet Jam did just enough without going over the top with its spice level. Plus, there was a Scotch Bonnet garnish for those that require more tingle in the mouth and lip area.
The best parts for me, as well as the brioche, was they have not used the usual parts of the noble cow for this, but the tail and rib. And it has not been minced but pulled apart, so you see chunks of oxtail and really taste the rib.
The cheese did kind of disappear when overwhelmed with such strong flavours around it, but that is a very minor gripe, otherwise everything was perfect about this dish. And the Reef House lager was the ideal accompaniment.
As the promo says: ‘Rich, spice, and just like Hak, unapologetically London’
This collab is on until the end of the month. Have it.
Booking and full details: https://burgerandbeyond.co.uk/
