“Would I lie to ya?”, she said in her cheeky East London accent.
“No.” And she certainly did not.
Chef Sam has been telling me to go to Dirty Burger for weeks now if I want one of the best burgers in town, but obviously I was just waiting for the opportunity to go with her, and what better day to do so than a Saturday afternoon post-drinks?
Spending the last of the “summer” afternoons al fresco boozing aboard the Tamesis Dock (old boat docked on the Thames which has been converted into a bar) is a marvellous way to pass the time. I use inverted commas for summer as this is by no Australia standards anything remotely summery. I was wearing a blazer and a scarf and was shivering when the sun would coquettishly disappear behind the clouds. But for London, I am told to enjoy the daylight while it lasts.
The Dirty Burger of choice is behind Vauxhall station (the others are mostly in the East) and even before walking in, I can tell it’s awesome. The front is not glossy, I can see corrugated iron, and it’s small. All the best things are small. I order the cheeseburger with bacon. I am going to murder it when it’s ready; researching marmalade for one’s masters in hungry-making business, especially when dealing with the British Library and its somewhat exhausting protocol.
I unwrap her. Hello, lover. She’s a beaut and is every bit as dirty as I was imagining. Look at that cheese, stretchy and clingy and amazing.
She is full of grease, and char and smoke (I see the man at the grill using the same cooking technique as Stitch Bar, which is one of my favourite burgers in the world, whereby a metal bowl is placed over the patty whilst grilling to encase it in delicious smoke). There is an almost embarrassingly thick piece of fatty bacon on there. I blush and enjoy. She has pickle zing and melty cheese and added texture of lettuce and tomato, but she is just so dirty, I don’t really care what else is there.
Although not any shade of pink, the well done nature of this burger does not detract from it one little bit. She is worthy of much praise. Again, look at the thickness of that bacon. Mmmmm.
The chips are thick and crinkly and pleasant. They do the job. Next time I think I will opt for the spicy fries to see what they are about. My vanilla shake is a winner. It’s made from scratch and is rich in vanilla bean which makes for a nice change to bleached white vanilla devoid of that genuine vanilla flavour.
Dirty Burger, you hot little bitch. You know you’ve left me begging for more. Well played.
