Are pirates taking over the local burger scene? The answer would decidedly be an affirmative one if we put all our gold loot on the Pirata restaurant in St. Julian’s. 6 Months ago they opened a chic bistro on the busiest road in St. Julian’s and this summer they have almost taken over Mellieha bay. We need to investigate what burgers these pirates are brewing.
The man behind the steakhouse in St. Julian’s is Chef Roderick Vella, who’s a renown name in the local catering industry, as over the past 20 years or so, he’s had a hand or two in most of the top 5★ hotel kitchens in Malta. That’s quite a feat, so we’re expecting nothing less than an imperative outcome. At Pirata, he came up with a cannonball of a burger, jam-packed with the fattiest fruit of them all… the Avocado!
Indeed, this is one of the most loaded burgers we’ve seen so far this year. The potato roll is spread with spicy tomato ketchup and laden with 250gr of USDA chuck roll beef. A portion of herbed cream cheese goes on top, together with avocado slices and grilled zucchini. All this goodness is crowned with a helping of Pirata’s inhouse-aged cured pork neck.
From the very first glance, this burger proposes itself with a strong visual element that few of its brothers can boast of. It’s colourful and striking at first sight, and that’s always a very good start in our books. But how do all these elements work together with the beef? We need to taste!
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) meticulously grades beef at the request of meat producers, so this quality of beef is generally found in exclusive and upscale steakhouses. Anyone who has savoured USDA beef knows that it is delightfully tender and has a magnificent buttery flavour which makes it very distinctive from other meats. It’s usually derived from younger cows, so it has a good percentage of fat content as well as not too many nerves or gristle like other meats. Chef Roderick is using chuck roll to create his burger patty, which yields tender results. The thick patty is slow-cooked for 20 minutes, and a few pokes and squishes confirm its level of juiciness. Indeed it’s succulent at any temperature, full of flavour and has a rewarding fine texture. Any burger aficionado will have a happy day biting into this elegant piece of minced meat.
Sauces and condiments can make or break a burger. Here, the overall gusto is taken up a notch by the addition of spicy ketchup under the patty, which is entirely concocted in the Pirata kitchen. It kicks up the classic and is put in with a precise measure, to just add some zing without overpowering the main beefiness of the burger. Just like a well-balanced scale, there is herbed cream cheese on the other side of the patty! We love this style of cream cheese on a Wellington, as it’s refreshing and very aromatic, and brings a slight savoury French tinge, so it has an excellent home here, sandwiching the beef and contrasting the spiciness of the ketchup.
You usually find tomato and lettuce in many burgers, but if you are in California, avocados are a commonplace burger topping. These ripe slices of avocado add a layer of rich creamy taste and a definitive green kick of colour. The mild, delicate flavour of this ripe fruit – which in this case is cooked and not used raw – also keeps up with the freshness theme of this burger. An additional veggie boost comes from the grilled zucchini. If you hated zucchini as a kid, then you must taste these grilled ones, as they might well urge you to start growing them in your back garden! Zucchinis by themselves are rather bland, but here they picked up the flavours of the grill and have a slight sweet smokiness to them. They are a definitive step up from the usual lettuce and work well in the grand scope of this burger creation.
Every gourmet burger worth its name has a piece de resistance, and here it comes in the form of cured pork neck. Capocollo is made from the top part of the pig’s loin. Pirata get whole pigs, and they age and dry the meat in-house for months. They do their own mortadella, sausage and capocollo. The meat is deboned, salted and even massaged with peppercorns, and left to age for months. This produces a cut full of flavour, which is quite different from bacon. It’s sliced very thin and is a sort of cross between prosciutto and sausage, as it’s lightly spiced. It’s not overwhelmingly fatty as bacon and slightly smoky, only teasing your taste buds to good measure.
The burger comes inside a potato bun sprinkled with onions and pumpkin seeds, which Pirata bake themselves. We love the attention to detail, so top marks for that. Made with high-protein wheat flour, potato starch and vegetable oils, this bun has a supple doughiness, a light crust and is ridiculously buttery. It’s moist, yet substantial in texture. Its yellowish crispy crumb sets it apart from the fluffy sesame seed buns we see most of the time, yet it provides a sturdier bed for the patty and the many condiments of this burger. We’re seeing a rising trend in the use of potato buns in burgers, which we like a lot.
You also get sliced potato crisps and french onions as sides, which were a delicious accompaniment. This burger might induce the perception of being a classic bacon cheeseburger at first sight, but it has been bettered with the veggie power of avocados and zucchini, which do indeed add to the overall texture and creaminess. The toppings are piled high and stacked up all the way up to the bun, which makes for one visual experience, and can be continuously savoured layer upon layer. Chef Roderick has done a sterling job and created a burger unique enough to tantalise those looking for something alternative from the norm. We look forward to seeing further iterations of this burger from Pirata in the future.
