Many consider beef as the undisputed king in burger land. And why shouldn’t it be like that? After all, nothing beats a 100% beef burger. Except for the odd pork burger, when done right.
Truth is, we’ve searched far and wide for an incomparable burger made of pork. Throughout the years, we’ve come across enticing offerings from Shoreditch topped with pulled pork, tempting and delicious pork bellies from Fat Louie and even a Maltese ftira from The Pulled Meat Company, yet we still languished for that elusive porky burger of a regal level. Just when we were going to throw the towel and drive to Marsaskala for a fish burger, a beacon of hope glowed at the aptly-named Ras Hanzir, in Paola, in the whereabouts of the Pavilion Gastro Pub. Here we found a Pork Trio burger as part of their current lineup of specials, with not one, not two, but three layers of holy pork! We’re almost dumbfounded!
But why pork? Burger makers have been doctoring up beef patties from the outside for ages, pimping them up with thick bacon, unthinkable and exotic toppings and even injecting the insides with pockets of cheese. So why not turn the whole game upside down, and do something entirely different than beef? That’s just what Chef Daniel Callus thought of doing. Daniel is one of the veteran burger makers in Malta. He’s been working for 13 years in the local catering scene and helped set up many popular burger establishments. His ideas and touch can be spotted in many of the burgers you like eating.
The Pavilion Gastro Pub was renovated last August. It’s located on the historic grounds of the naval and military prison at Corradino Hill. The site also houses an indoor gymnasium and an underground flour mill, which was approved as a Grade 1 National Monument some years back. With such a historic setting, we’re more than aflamed to bite our way through the Pork Trio. The main patty is made from 120gr of breaded pork cheeks. Cheek meat is uniquely lean and tender. While most meat cuts can often be lean but dry or tender but fatty, these cheeks are both! Chefs at fine dining restaurants all across Europe have been steadily introducing this ingredient on their menus, and within the course of five years, pig cheeks have gone from an exotic food crave, to one that is sought after by most common folks! That could also be because the cheeks take the better qualities of the tastier cuts like shoulder, but have much flavourful marbling between the pink strands of meat. But not all is bright and rosy, as cooking cheeks requires a lot of love and thoughtfulness. Something as lean as cheek can grow tough if prepared incorrectly. That’s why Daniel cooks it slow and low, in a stew with spring onions and carrots. Once done, the cheeks are pulled and formed into a patty, breaded and deep fried lightly.
The second level of porky punch comes in the form of a 120gr chunk of pulled pork, slow cooked in jager sauce, to allow the protein to break down properly. Pork shoulder is the ideal cut for pulling purposes, as it has a favourable well-marbled content that prevents the pork from drying out while cooking and tends to create tender, melty meat. As the pork cooks, the fat melts and self-bastes during the process. The long hours invested will reward the chef and our stomach with tender, juicy shreds of piggy goodness. The zesty jager sauce is a well-kept secret of Daniel’s, but its consistency is similar to a thick bbq-like sauce, with elements of Jagermeister, cola, Worcestershire and ketchup… or something on those lines. This sauce is a bomb and provides the burger with a unique flavour, but at the same time, it does not overrule the meat. Having 1 sauce that dominates the whole taste would be a grave mistake, but luckily this is not the case here.
The third meat level surfaces as one of the most traditional and comfort use of pork… the bacon! Daniel promises crispy streaky bacon, 3 long slabs to be more precise, so we await impatiently. Every burger with bacon worth its name is judged by the level of crispiness of its bacon. Any wannabe can do soft, squishy bacon, the kind we despise more than dry meat. We know that even top chefs had to learn the basics of cooking when they first started out, but when it comes to bacon and the local burger scene, many tend to get stuck at novice level, and never step up their game to become a confident cook. Where is that dehydrated, crunchy, crusted thin slice of bacon we love? That bacon from the traditional English breakfasts of years gone by, where preparation was key, as excess fat had to be drained from the pan, and rested on a paper bag to avoid the extra-grease effect. We tend to ponder on that many times when we are regaled with a bacon burger. But not today! This bacon is firm and crispy, and you can feel the crunch effect between your teeth. The bacon is nailed dead on and has an enjoyable, porky smokiness, whilst the salty flavour intensifies the pork experience threefold. And thanks God, there’s a whole lot of it!
Just in case you thought that this burger is pork, pork, pork, there’s also a double dose of Leicester cheese! This English cheese is very similar to cheddar, although it is mild in flavour. The cheese stays melty right until the end of the burger but has the double function of enveloping and binding the pulled pork layer, both from the top and bottom. There’s nothing worse than biting on a burger and finding out that half of the pulled pork has painted a new design on your shirt. The bun is made in-house at the Eat Me I’m Famous bakery which is part of the same group of restaurants. It’s fluffy and tasty and looks very distinctive with its black seeds on top. Not all buns are up to the task, especially when it comes to hefty burgers with a lot of meat inside. This one holds really well and does not crumble all over when the time to bite comes. It shows that it has been specifically built to do the job the right way round. There’s also rucola for texture, a big slice of tomato, and more jager sauce at the base.
The Pork Trio burger excels on all counts, and despite all the pork inside, it’s very easy to bite into. Each layer of pork would make a good burger element on its own, but the 3 different textures put in one burger show an engrossing level of culinary thinking and execution, with a fruitful design and form, which unfortunately is something we don’t see every day. It’s akin the Lamborghini of Pork burgers as far as the local scene goes, and indeed we had no problem eating it all! We devoured it just like the big bad wolf always wanted to do with the 3 little piglets! We’re glad that Chef Daniel did not follow the current trend of just putting a chunk of pulled pork on a beef burger and stop there. We hope that Daniel places this one on the menu more often. If that’s the case, be sure we will be sneaking around Ras Hanzir again.
