Travel & Food: Valencia, Spain Part II - Bueno Burgers

 

Okay so I know that burger restaurants are hardly synonymous with Valencia or indeed Spain but during our week in the city we sometimes craved something different from the more traditional Spanish fare, which I will cover at a later date. But in reality it's a testament to the ever evolving food scene in most countries that as well as a craft beer explosion we are also seeing great burger bars - other than the usual globalised suspects - cropping up in most cities. And as I was going to try some of the local beers it seemed only fair that we also sampled some local burgers, and so on three occasions when the mood for a meat sandwich hit us we tried three different spots in the city...

Mediterranea de Hamburguesa

First up was Mediterranea de Hamburguesas on Calle San Fernando (It has a sister restaurant in the trendy Ruzafa area...) quite close to the the huge food market that dominates this part of the city. Valencians don't really start to strap on their nose bags until well after nine so unsurprisingly we arrived to an almost empty restaurant. We were seated near the door beside an American group who were obviously used to eating early like ourselves. It had rained pretty hard that day and as there was a bit of a pong wafting in from the street we decided to move further inside the restaurant. It was only when we were sitting down again that we thought that the Americans may have thought we were moving to get away from them ... the fact that they were black exacerbated that feeling and our discomfort. (It is quite possible that somewhere out there someone has written a blog post discussing the racist Irish family that they came across in Valencia...)

Anyhow, hiding our embarrassment we studied the menu, which boasts 14 different types of burger - with a choice between veal or beef - and includes a vegetarian and vegan option, as well as a selection of starters and sandwiches. I chose the Ibérica - an Iberian pork burger with ham, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and crispy onions - served in a rustic Mediterráneo bun, while the rest of the family went for a Mediterranea - a veal burger with goat's cheese, baby spinach with apple and mango chutney in an Americano bun; a Panceta - a veal burger with emmental cheese, bacon, lettuce and onion in a Mediterráneo bun; and a kid sized burger for the smallest in our party. Incidentally there were three types of bun servings available including a topless version!

The beer list didn't seem to run past macrobrewery stuff and anyway I wasn't really in the mood for beer so I plumped for a sparkling water - teaching our confused waiter a new English term in the process. Service was quick, unsurprising I guess given how empty the restaurant was at this time, and my pork burger was decent sized with an undersheet of lettuce leaves and a snug duvet of ham on top, with the crispy onions cleverly scattered on the mayonnaised bun. The fries were pretty standard but inoffensive and nicely cooked. The burger tasted good with the succulent pork combining with its piggy cousin perfectly and complimented by the crunch of the lettuce and crispy onions - but I still looked jealously at the burgers being devoured by the rest of the family as we sat quietly eating our meals and taking in our surroundings, which were a nice mix of urban (If that's really a descriptor?) with a rustic modern feel, and a few bicycles and advert-throwing projectors thrown in for good measure.

We had room for a chocolate and a cheese cake afterwards, with ice cream for the kids (Well I say we had room ... in truth it was a tight squeeze.) before paying the bill and waddling out onto the square where most normal people were only just considering that they may go for a meal in a couple of hours time ... it was 8pm.

Our Opinion: Very pleasant and efficient service plus quite tasty food. The lack of beers that I like might have been an issue on another day but is hardly a deal breaker. The atmosphere was a bit quiet but that was down to our early visit we presumed - but were all happy all with the choice of restaurant and the food itself.

---

Berny's Burger

A few days later, we arrived at Berny's Burger on Carrer dels Valencians a little after its supposed opening time of 8pm to find it shut, but as we were walking back down the street we heard the rattle of shutters and turned to see it opening up for the night. We decided to give them a chance to properly open up before heading in so we grabbed a quick drink close by and wandered back half an hour later.

As with Mediterranea de Hamburguesas it was pretty quiet when we got there with just one lone guy munching on his burger. This place has an arty/music vibe and theme with movie star photos and some cool looking t-shirts, which were for sale, hanging on the walls. Indeed the menu is music themed too, as each burger is named after a musician or movie star it seemed. The very freindly Berny himself - we presumed - was in attendance and quickly translated the menu for us with no fuss, explaining the menu carefully and concisely. We decided on the Berny's Nachos for a sharing starter and then the kids went for plain beef burgers, one with an egg on top, while I went for the Jackson - a veal burger, crispy bacon, mushrooms, loads of cheese and a bourbon sauce - while herself went for the Boris (Karloff?) - a veal burger with goat's cheese, rocket, alfalfa and salsa del bosque.

From my research I knew that they had some craft beers here but sadly he was out of stock when I asked, so instead I was recommended an Alhambra Reserva Roja. This was a doppelbockesque red lager - far from exciting but pleasant and clean enough, and suspiciously easy to drink given its 7.2% abv.

The nachos arrived quickly, laden with guacamole, chili and what appeared to be a mascarpone-style cheese. Personally I would have liked some jalapenos too but it was still all very tasty and nicely balanced when scooped up together. Our burgers arrived soon after, served with a handful of potato wedges and in a nice floury bun. My own burger was a wonderful combination of juicy meat with the cheese, bacon and mushroom raising the flavour profile up a notch ... as only bacon can do! The wedges were fine if a little boring, but then they are only the supporting cast and not the stars so that wasn't a huge deal for us. The rest of the family were well impressed too and as we sat there discussing our day the place started to slowly fill up, with Berny greeting everyone - many by name - with a great smile and a genuine interest in their choice of meal and drink. This came across as a real local hangout as well as well as attracting the odd (literally) pale looking Irish family with their monolinguistic issues.

We had no room for desserts after the nachos and our burgers - I'm not sure if any were available - so we paid our bill and made our way out into the darkening streets of the city to walk off our meal and perhaps find somewhere along the way for a digestif...

Our Opinion: We really enjoyed the personal service, the laidback vibe here and the quiet street it stands on, you could easily wander past it and not give it a second look - I was lucky I had researched a little before heading to Valencia. The lack of microbrew beer was a little disappointing but again it was wasn't a big issue, and seemed to be just a temporary blip. We were all very impressed with the food though!

---

Burger Beer

When I spotted that there was a spot called Burger Beer in my research of Valencia I knew that my life would be somehow incomplete if I didn't give it a try. This is another burger joint that has an outlet in the Ruzafa area of the city but we visited the one on Calle de Luis Bolinches, as it was less that ten minutes from Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) where we had spent an enjoyable and educating morning wandering through exhibits and gazing in awe at the ultramodern buildings, pretending to be time travellers - or at least I did! Having spent a good while there we were a little tight for time as we wandered in through the easily-missed door of the restaurant a little after 3pm, as they close at 4pm but open again in the evening until late night.

We were seated quickly and shown menus in English which helped ... even if it also helped to highlight once again how useless we were with foreign languages. An impressive range of mostly Spanish and Belgian beers were cleverly listed on our place mats and I decided on a Tyris CCCP IPA (Pronounced Ee-Pah seemingly!) while my other half decided to forgo her normal Ribera del Duero and tried the Zeta Hell. Foodwise I chose the B&B - a beef burger with pork belly slices, lettuce, tomato, gherkin with a mustard and tarragon sauce. Herself went for the Pastor - a lightly spiced lamb burger with tomato, lettuce, yogurt sauce and caramelized onion - while the boy went for a plain burger with bacon and cheese, and the girl a kid's sized hot dog.

The place had a clean clinical but not overly harsh look that I liked and I could imagine that this was a busy spot at night, processing orders and turning seats quickly. My beer was pleasantly citrusy and relatively clean, and I enjoyed it more than some others from Tyris that I had tried. (More about that in another post.) The Zeta Hell was criticised for being, 'Too flavoursome'. Go figure... (More about this in another post too, as I had enjoyed it at a well-timed-for-me tap takeover a few days earlier.) Again service was quick and efficient and our food arrived at our table in no time.

The food was nothing short of superb. The burgers seemed to me to be cooked over charcoal as they had that wonderful smoky flavour and tasty charred bits. The succulent pork belly, trimmings and the toasted bun were all top quality, as was the sauce that covered the burger itself. The fries were incredible too, and strangely shaped as you can see from the top photo, with the right amount of crunch and lightly covered in seasalt. The rest of the family agreed with me with our youngest declaring her meaty, grilled hotdog the best ever!

At 3:58 pm we paid our bill and wandered back into the heat of the Valencian afternoon - full, happy and reeking of meat and contentedness - we heard the door click closed behind us...

Timing is everything, remember that.

Our Opinion: Excellent food and great service, and a pretty good looking beer list. We certainly couldn't fault them on anything and we were tempted to try their place in Ruzafa another day but time got away from us sadly. To be fair their burgers are slightly more expensive than the previous two places but in our opinion they were well worth it. Top marks Burger Beer, we were very impressed!

---

As mentioned earlier it might seem strange for a tourist to search out burger bars with all the great tapas and paella around but they do seem to be a big part of the food offering in the city so it would have been remiss of us not to try some. Overall our favourite was Burger Beer but we did like the food and personal service in Berny's Burger ... and in truth had no real complaints in Mediterranea de Hamburguesas, so choose your pick and try one!

(Just a quick note on the meat...

As you can see veal is popular, and you will be asked how you would like your burger cooked ... there is a good deal of conjecture about the cooking temperature/colour/preparing, etc. of minced beef. We chose medium each time and had no adverse effects but as with everything, make your own decision - I am not a meat-cooking-sciency-person!)

Liam

Part III is here.

Travel: Valencia, Spain Part I - Wonder Walls

The city of Valencia is probably not at the top of most peoples wishlists when it comes to holiday destinations, but my long suffering family are quite used to my 'Great Ideas' when it comes to trips away, as they know I'm not a lazing-on-the-beach kind of person, and neither are they in truth. So when the combination of a cheap hotel deal and an affordable - for July - flight synced up on the various screens that are now required to coordinate a non-package holiday, they had a quick look at what we could do and see and decided that maybe my innate frugalness might work out ... this time.

One of my other adorable traits is the need to traipse and poke around every city I visit, as I have a fear of missing out on something wonderful that could be around the next litter strewn corner or down an alley that stinks of cat pee, or worse. And this yet-to-be-be-defined phobia led us at various times through the hot and sticky streets of Valencia, but what it uncovered was an unexpected bonus of fantastic wall art/murals/graffiti or whatever term suits your sensibilities.

Here amongst the now normal tagging and inane scribbles that seem to infect every city in Europe were some masterpieces of art that brightened up some of the plainer and perhaps less visited areas of the city. Indeed we saw very few other visitors admiring these wonderous walls of the city as our sandal-shod feet traced a path through the city, leaving a trail of perspiration and the occasional melted jelly baby in our wake.

So for this post I'll keep the words to a minimum and let the collages of these art works do the talking. It is certainly a side of Valencia that I suggest you explore if you have the time and the inclination. Most of these were in the north western quadrant of the city centre inside Carrer de la Blanqueria and Carrer de Guillem de Castro but there are probably works likes these throughout the city if you keep your eyes peeled. Many cluster around Espaivisor which was closed on our ramble but whose colourful shuttering can be seen in one of the collages.

Even the shop shutters of the city don't escape an aesthetic makeover ... and many a retailer could take note here!

... And where paint can't be applied then art can be hung to brighten up an otherwise bleak wall.

Finally, lets not forget the character, christened 'The Tic Tac Ninja' by my son, who seems to have taken up residence on every street in the city! See how many can you count...

I have no doubt that these works of art encourage the above mentioned tagging, some of which can be seen in some of the images but if we can't have one without the other then I'll take both. Of course some of these images are obviously created to elicit social commentary but many are just art for art's sake ... and that I like.

Part II is here.

Liam

Beer History: Strength of Liquors - 1837

STRENGTH OF LIQUORS - The liquor which contains most of the pure spirit of alcohol is Scotch whiskey [sic], being upwards of fifty-four per cent. Contrary to what is generally supposed, the proportion of alcohol in rum is greater than that contained in brandy; the former being 53.68 and the latter 53.39. the next liquor in order of strength is gin, which contains about fifty-one and a half percent of alcohol. Port and Madeira contain much about the same quantity, namely, twenty-two per cent. Cider contains nearly twice as much as London porter, being 7.54 to 4.20; brown stout and Scotch ale contain  each about six and a half; while Burton ale can boast of nearly nine per cent.

{The Carlow Sentinel - 1837 via the local studies room, Carlow library}

Here's an interesting list of the alcohol levels of various beverages from 1837, although unfortunately it gives no reference as to where the original information came from...

It also hasn't referenced exactly whose beverages were measured but it seems to have been lifted from an English report give the mentions of London and Burton.

Nevertheless I thought I should put it up on the Blog as a point of discussion if nothing else!

Liam

History-ish: Imperial India Pale Ale - What's in a name anyway?

I tweeted this previously but I felt it needed a more permanent position on the web, as it's the first mention I've come across in old local newspapers of Imperial India Pale Ales, which are supposedly a new invention but I'll let wiser minds than mine argue that point and tell you more about McNellan & Co ... feel free to Google both.

(The Carlow Sentinel - March 1868)

But perhaps there is a point to be made about expecting too much from beer descriptors and some of the more official style guidelines. A time traveller from our current beer obsessed world might be sorely disappointed by the above mentioned beer if he walked into a public house and order one in 1868. Style guides can give an idea of roughly what to expect from a product we are about to drink but do they have any place outside of homebrew competition? And even in those are good beers being overlooked as they are 'not to style'?

The word imperial here is just a marketing ploy meaning the best of its kind, and I've come across it before in relation to perry, so perhaps we read too much into certain words and let them taint our appreciation of a good drink.

Can beer not just be beer, judged on whether you like it or not? Are there not enough taste influencers around without adding style parameters to our poor deluded tastebuds?

I'm not suggesting we label all beer as 'BEER' by the way, I'm just wondering do we get a bee in our bonnet about what a brewer calls their beer at times?

And don't get me started on IBUs...

Liam

{With thanks as usual to the local history room in Carlow library}

Recipe: Anchovy, Bacon & Potato Pie

I really like old cookery books...

It's a mix of the almost-musty smell combined with the softness of the well-worn pages, plus the curiosity of who owned them before me. Often there's a name but in one I found recently there was only a handwritten recipe for a Porter Cake, which I have still to make ... but this was still a connection to a previous owner and their cooking, which is something special.

The book is called 'The Good Cook's Encyclopedia' and was published in 1962 so it's hardly ancient, and while I was thumbing through the pages for a recipe for a meaty pie I came across this one instead:

Something appealed about it - probably the thoughts of the salty anchovies combined with the mini-chips and a silky smooth creamy sauce. So I decided to cook it with a small amount of variation. I felt a little bacon would help - as it often does generally in life -  and added a little extra zing with a bit of mustard, black pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan

So here it is...

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Shallots chopped in rings
• 4 Medium Potatoes cut in to mini-chips, rinsed and dried
• 50g of Anchovies in oil
• 300ml Cream
• 1 Streaky Bacon cut into thin strips
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Mustard
• Black Pepper
• Parmesan

Recipe:

• Fry the bacon in olive oil until crisp and remove
• Soften the shallots in the same oil
• In a small ovenproof dish add half the chips, then a layer of anchovies combined with the bacon, top this with the shallots and then finish with the rest of the chips
• Dot the top of the pie with a small amount of butter and drizzle some of the anchovy oil over too for good measure
• Cook in a hot (200C) oven for 10 minutes
• Mix a teaspoon of mustard with the cream and pour into the dish, top with a dusting of parmasan and black pepper
• Cook for a further 30-40 minutes until the chips are cooked and there is some colour on the top of the pie
• Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Liam

Beer History: Kilkenny Porter - An Alternative Reality Perhaps?

TO BREWERS

An experienced porter brewer and accomptant who for some years has brewed for, and conducted the business of two eminent breweries in the City of Dublin, well knowing the great advantage that must certainly arise to the person brewing of porter in Kilkenny or its vicinity, from the great consumption of the article there, and the decided preference he must get, on account of the material difference between the present price, and that which he would be able sell it for, will engage to brew porter equal, if not superior to any manufactures in Dublin, at a very trifling addition to the capital that may be at present employed in business by the proprietor.

Ample security will be given for the perfecting any engagement he will make. Application to be made to John Gorman Kennedy, esq. Porter Brewer, No. 28 King-street, Stephen's Green, before the 3d of April next. 

March 18, 1791

(Finn's Leinster Journal -  March 1791)

A bold claim by a Dublin brewer to be able to produce quality porter in Kilkenny, which was seemingly consumed in large amounts in and around the city. My reading of the advert is that, he is implying that no porter is being produced there and he feels that there is enough consumption to justify taking out said advert - in the top left of the front page!   Why else would he be offering his services if he - as an accountant/brewer (what a combination!) - didn't think it a lucrative plan? If his offer had been taken up (Assuming it wasn't of course!?) perhaps Kilkenny would now be synonymous with porter, and those micro and macro brewers that tout their Irish Red Ales might be pouring pints of the black stuff?

Or perhaps Mr. Kennedy was engaging in some clever marketing himself ... it's only ink on paper after all?

An interesting side note is that according to internet sources John Gorman Kennedy, a brewer from Dublin was to be transported from Ireland for his part in the 1798 rebellion at the same time as John Sweetman, the more famous Dublin brewer. (I have already discovered that allegedly a Carlow brewer was forced to sell up and leave the country before he suffered a similar fate.)

I can't find out where J.G.K. ended up but wonder did he continued to brew porter somewhere...

Liam

{With thanks as usual to the local history room in Carlow library}

Food: Recipe - Pickled Hop Shoots

My hop plant husbandry took an unexpected turn recently, but one that tied in neatly with another of my interests...

Faced with a bunch of prunings from cutting back the first growth on my hops, and not wanting to waste the wonderfully coloured and fresh shoots, I decided to try my hand at pickling them. I've pickled before, especially eggs, and I knew that asparagus could be treated in this way so it seemed like an interesting experiment. Looking online the processes and ingredients seemed to vary somewhat so I ended up just doing my own thing - as usual.

So here we go...

Ingredients:

• A Big Handful of Fresh Hop Shoots (See Photo)
• 1 tsp Dried Juniper Berries
• 1 tsp Black Peppercorns
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Caraway Seeds
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 cup (250ml) Cider Vinegar
• 1 cup (250ml) Water

Recipe:

• Wash and rinse the hop shoots removing any bugs or large leaves.
• Sterilise a thick, sealable pickling jar.
• Add all the ingredients except the hop shoots to a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Meanwhile blanch the hop shoots for a few seconds in boiling water and wind them carefully inside the jar, taking care not to break any.
• Carefully pour the boiled liquid and spices into the jar with the hops, adding boiled water to top up if needed.
• Leave to cool, then store in a fridge for at least a week so that the flavours blend and permeate into the shoots.

The shoots take on a good deal of the flavours of the vinegar and spices so feel free to add your favourites. They also retain a vegetal bitterness, which can probably be increased by reducing the blanching time. This was probably overkill but I was concerned about sterilising the shoots, in theory the acid in the vinegar should keep everything  safe anyway... (Please do your own research on this - I'm not a food bacteria specialist!)

I served them with some cheddar, pork pies and celery salt, paired with a nice almost savoury, thyme and orange peel saison called Curious Orange from Dungarvan Brewing Company but the shoots also work well on cheesy omelettes, bacon quiche or even on a hot dog with a dollop of mustard!

It's certainly whetted my appetite for trying to pickle more plants.

I must try some nettles next ... but they will need blanching...

Liam