Not how I'd do it...

I received an advertising email for the eatery at a winery. They used this photo of the chef's burger:

impaled burger.jpg

Maybe someone thought this was jaunty or edgy but, um, er, no. I am not enticed by the Van Helsing burger with a steak knife driven through its heart.

What about you?

Well, I guess it's better looking than the average pub burger stabbed with a bamboo skewer, but no not a fan. They may have killed it but you still have to fight it to eat it.!
If you have to deconstruct it and eat it with a knife and fork it isn't a burger. (IMHO)

[Jenise]

Personally, I think the knife's clever. However, as a diner, I'm not enticed by the apparent message that if it swallows an entire knife blade then I'm never going to be able to get it in my mouth. It would indeed be a knife-and-fork style burger and I am one of those left coast rubes who feels stupid eating a hamburger that way.

Well......

Is that how customers actually get the burger? How many of those fancy knives would they need? It looks displayed for photography*, I reckon that what is actually served looks quite different.

Personally, if the burger meat is good then I want to enjoy the hamburger without the competing flavour of bacon. Bacon roll yes, BLT yes, hamburger yes, hamburger and bacon no, not for me.

Also the bacon looks uncooked with all that white fat, yuck.

(as for cheese, yuck!)

* there was a website someone on this forum linked to a long while ago that contrasted the food photo with what was served, e.g. a Big Mac photo from the McD website with the actuality and various frozen food packet photo's with what was inside after it had been cooked as per instructions.

later edit: seems there's a lot of similar sites now, e.g.
https://digitalsynopsis.com/advertising ... ls-models/
http://www.thethings.com/15-shocking-ph ... s-reality/
http://uk.businessinsider.com/fast-food ... mos-2017-3

[Jenise]

Peter, it probably is exactly how the customer receives it--perhaps without the lettuce at such an attractively rakish angle, food styling being what it is these days, but the restaurant would likely get howls of disapproval from the carnivores who showed up just for that burger. It's a 'signature' thing, and we're (unfortunately) a country that loves BIG. Our Food Network channel has show after show that caters to males and overeaters in general--there's even a show called Ginormous Food, or something like that. (No, I've never seen it.) No one would tune in to a show called "Just enough" or "Sated".

Bacon is very popular here on burgers--any restaurant that offers variations offers THAT variation. And cheese is standard. But you've spent enough time here, you'd know that.

Peter, sadly that is probably how it is served. I have had the misfortune to have been served such a thing ( not as pretty) although I think it was probably a steak sandwich and said something about the steak!! I guess the wait staff didn't have to remember to give you a steak knife.

Not a fan of bacon and cheese on burgers, Peter? The best burgers always have bacon, and an egg, and cheese, and a ring of pineapple, and a few slices of beetroot on them.

Seriously, though, always deconstruct burgers to eat them. Mainly because I'm not hugely fond of bread and I'm more interested in pulling out the fillings and eating them.

Bacon? You bet.

I do deconstruct as well, a bit. I usually ditch raw onions, eat tomato separately so they don't gunk up the burger and try to avoid pineapple altogether by not ordering it (too many years in Hawaii where Spam and pineapple found its way into everything. Not fan of fried egg on a burger - don't know why as I am a big egg fan, but just don't see it on a burger.

I agree with you, Bill, that the tomato has to come off and be eaten separately. Ditto the lettuce. These are "salad" and should be cold.

As to the rest, well, I can stack up onions and sauteed mushrooms and bacon and maybe one or two other things for an all-together burger.

I recall trying a slice of beet on a burger when I was in Sydney. It was good but didn't make an Honorary Aussie of me.

One thing I am not fond of, though, is melted cheese on the burger. Seems to mostly add mush without adding flavor.

I don't mind cheese but actually prefer it to not be melted all over the place - just slumped down over the patty is OK.

Another ingredient I haven't decided on is avocado. Love avocado but really don't see it in a burger - just makes it smooshie if soft or has other bits sliding off it if hard. Mine goes in the salad

[Jenise]

Love melted cheese. Hate cheddar or a drier cheese that just sits there like a slab of rubber.

Avocado, though: unneccessary. It's fruit but it's a fatty fruit and adding it to a burger is not IMO an enhancement. Meat OR avocado. Not meat AND.

For melted cheese taken to the extreme, check this out.

For melted cheese taken to the extreme, check this out.

Nice, in the dripping-off-the-edge-of-a-slice-of-pizza way!

I've read the cheese doesn't really melt, it just sort of loses integrity and runs.

For melted cheese taken to the extreme, check this out.

Nice, in the dripping-off-the-edge-of-a-slice-of-pizza way!

I've read the cheese doesn't really melt, it just sort of loses integrity and runs.

The Squeeze Inn technique results in what's basically a giant ring of cheddar frico around the burger. It's all right in a wretched excess sort of way, but one of those was enough for my lifetime.