Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Burger Brewster Beefed-up the Brew Indeed!


I'm not really a burger junkie, though I know my burgers pretty well, so do my kids who are probably the burger and pizza monsters at home.  In this post, I'm going to segue first from being a busy homey mom and try to be in the shoes of my kids and be a burger meister for a day.  


Not minding the travel to Marikina, I head of at Burger Brewster, located at the neighborhood of Hacienda Heights.  Instead of wallowing from restlessness and anxiety over the tons and ever growing chores I have to finish at home, I pictured myself scarfing down a juicy, savory burger.  

For many, burgers are the ultimate comfort food and I guess it holds true to these three friends who started to storm the kitchen and whipped up their own take on the Jucy Lucy Burger that is famous in Minneapolis.  Actually, the story of how the idea of putting up a burger joint was conceived after they have watched an episode of Man vs. Food and Juicy Lucy, also Jucy Lucy was the highlight.



Come to think of it, like Tejal Makil, Ivan Aguilar and Solomon Suyo, I also love experimenting in the kitchen after being lured, okay, inspired by a certain show about food, though I never really ventured on a burger at home.  I could recall I made some beef patties and added malunggay leaves in it, which turned out to be a slight fail.  There is a science to making a good beef patty you know!

First, a good burger patty has to be made fresh from good beef and spiked with some spices.  What makes Burger Brewster's burger patties stand above the rest is the beef they use.  After some careful kitchen testings of finding that character patty for their "Project: Jucy Lucy" sourcing out the best meat was one of their major preference.  They did find a good supplier of  ground meats from New Zealand and the rest was burger history!


These unstrung cooks have never had any culinary backgrounds of sorts, btw, but it doesn't have to be the leverage of being good cooks.  I swear my dad serves way better dishes than other restos though. When you are fueled with passion and the love for great tasting food, in this case best tasting burgers, then you can surely pass for a faux chef.  



Burger Brewster opened on October 10, 2014 without a huge media fanfare.  Here you can always look forward to dining in an intentionally unassuming, casual setting that's just perfect for a neighborhood joint.  They, however, tested how Jucy Lucy would fare to the mass as they had it first brought out to Banchetto Manila, along with other burger creations.


They had finally brought their burgers home, finding itself along Lilac Street of Marikina City, soon to be the "next Maginhawa St." 

The vibe was somewhat artsy, but definitely homey.  However, sitting inside the air-conditioned space is a wee cramped but thumbs up for the al fresco sitting outside.


Now, let me share you the burger mayhem that was, a couple of days ago with some blogger friends when we trooped to this burger joint.  Is this not the craziest burger party ever?


Meet Jucy Lucy...

To begin with, they prided themselves with the claim that their patties are hand-pattied daily, with trade secret seasonings, another secret that needed to be out in the public is their twist to the prevalent burger-eating, with the addition of their own-recipe aioli and caramelized onions.

For those of you who have been living under the rock, let me share how food writers describe Juicy Lucy or Jucy Lucy (depending on where in US you are eating this) is a normal cheeseburger, but with the cheese embedded inside two patties before cooking. The burger is fried on the flat-top, making the cheese melt right smack in the middle of beefy goodness.

Burger Brewster's Jucy Lucy is a half-pound premium beef placed atop a slow-cooked caramelized onions and garlic mayo and sandwich in between sliced burger bun that's customized for them.  How can I forget to mention that the buns used in all their burgers are buttered and toasted getting that added crunch in every bite.  The patty is then crowned with the customary two slices of pickles.  

So in every bite, what you get is the subtle sweetness from the onions, pungency from the garlic, vinegary taste from the pickles, and the savory, full flavored, perfectly charred from the outside but juicy and tender inside big, fat beef patty.


Right before I over-stuffed myself from eating half of the first burger The Shroom Zoom was placed before me and I was delightfully overwhelmed.  It was another hugely-sized burger, well for me it is! The next thing I asked was the price and then again I was taken aback as it is fairly priced only at P 140 while the Jucy Lucy is only P 195. 

Though something else comes to mind when I hear 'shroom,' I just brushed it off and imagine this burger to come in between that of Mushroom Burger's and my college fave burger Carl's Jr.   The Shroom Zoom, is a quarter pounder layered on top of the caramelized onions, aioli, suateed button mushrooms and ice berg lettuce.  The thin layer of mild cheddar cheese, ties everything to a T.


The unexpected kid-friendly burger, Chick'Nberg ( P 125) is also a crowd-pleaser.  Like how the other burgers are prepared- butter toasted buns, caramelized onions, aioli, lettuce, patty and cheese, this chicken burger has that enough juiciness and peppered taste to beat franchised burger joints serving the same kind.


If having burgers ain't enough for the bunch over rounds of beers Pinoy Pride can truly be the fixer-upper.  Sisig and burger lovers unite as Pinoy Pride is a plate, or a skillet filled with their own version of Sisig with a half-pound burger patty glazed with adobo confit and three Cheese Pops.  

If I got overwhelmed with the burgers, this one I was blown away.

How on earth have they thought about this, call them crazy, call them genius, call them whatever you like, but this skillet is the kind of heaven to true-blue meat suckers!  But however awesome some dish are, this one has some flaws or call it room for improvements.  I didn't get crazy for the cheese pops though, since it's just a ball of crusted bread with teeny tiny cheese on top and the middle.  The sisig didn't also win me over, it was cholesterolific for me...


Of course, let's not forget our French fries, no burger meal is complete without a serving of the most favored finger-food.  I love how they amped  up their fries, it's called Beefy Fries, btw, and how can you get wrong with P 65!  


With all the savories, you might want to end every meal with something dulcet.  They have Sylvanas, home-made cupcakes on display, and ahh, Ice Cream Bun.  Don't you just love it when a food served to you elicits cool childhood memories?  This Ice Cream Bun have found it's way into the depth of my heart...

First bite of the crunchy buttered toasts softened with the melted mix of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce was like cupid hitting me with an arrow and upon a blink of an eye was the sight of my first ever crush (that was in grade school). "I wonder where could he be right now," my thoughts on my next bites and goes on...

Sorry about that!  


Continuing... they won't be called brewters for nothing, Tejal, being a learned  barista whips up hot and cool coffee-quenchers to partner with your burgers, again something new and exciting.  We had Cold Mocha Latte for on P 190, something coffee shops can be threatened about.   Home-brewed Arabica mixed with milk and made decadent with chocolate syrup.

So I happened to be in my kids' shoes for a night (at a dinner) and I thought it was glorious yet such a challenge for a petite eater such as me!  I must say I can get used to this habit again of burger-eating and I don't care if I get addicted, like me kids, sadly they still don't prefer delivering their burgers, it's best eaten right of their griddle!

Having that penchant for discovering foodies who loves sharing their kitchen experiments is to me an adorable experience.  And Burger Brewsters have so much to be proud of!  Do visit them and follow their ventures as they are yet to pimp up more of the regular burgers we were accustomed to!




Address: 48 Lilac corner Kanlaon Streets, Hacienda Heights,
               Marikina City
Instagram: @burgerbrewster




4 comments:

  1. I love the burger wall art. I think I can see the burger patty and the tomatoes in the art.

    ReplyDelete

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