Dining Out: Smash-burger odyssey finds its winner in a Little Italy parking lot

Edinburger
1 Springfield Rd., edinburger.ca

Pearson Street Smash Burgers N’ Melts
8 Blais St., Embrun, pearsonstreetsmashburgers.ca

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Smash Daddy
298 Preston St., smashdaddy.ca
Keep in mind: just accepts money and e-transfers

Smash Burgers Ottawa
11-2285c St. Laurent Blvd.

A couple of weeks earlier in this area, I pointed out that when it concerns hamburgers, smash hamburgers are my jam.

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Not that I’ve attempted the 30-plus sort of hamburgers discovered on Wikipedia’s lists of hamburgersfrom the “50/50” hamburger to the “Jucy Lucy” to the “Slopper.” Still, I understand my tastes all right to state that the smash-burger design of hamburger, which requires patties to be flattened and deeply browned, provides textural and flavour-related satisfaction that I discover merely unsurpassable.

Naturally, the concern follows: Which Ottawa hamburger purveyor makes my preferred smash hamburger?

In the last bit, I’ve paid as lots of burger-joint sees as my colon would allow search of a response.

I will spare you the thriller and call my winner– the Smash Daddy food truck on Preston Street– before quibbling with regard to its peers, which all made satisfying, if not-quite-as-good, hamburgers.

Smash Daddy, which opened 2 months earlier, regularly made hamburgers that knocked me out. The majority of clearly, the patties were smashed to a nearly overstated degree, so that flaps of delightfully browned beef, which are the very first things I gladly munch on, hang out beyond the boundaries of the bun. There’s no higher example of the cooking magic called the Maillard response, in which a tough sear imparts complex, robust flavours to a piece of meat. The Smash Daddy smash hamburger’s crisp, satisfying texture was a huge, huge reward.

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That’s not all. At Smash Daddy, they’ve broken to code to make a hamburger that’s much better than the amount of its parts.

The beef — halal, AAA antibiotic- and hormone-free Canadian grass-fed beef, with a Wagyu choice offered for profligate spenders– is well-seasoned with garlic salt and pepper, I’m informed, before skillful trowel-work turns balls of meat into flattened specials. Very finely sliced onions include their goodness as they are prepared with the beef, in what’s referred to as the Oklahoma design of smash burger-ing.

Smash Daddy makes its own pickles and sauces, and its cheese and buns are beyond reproach, so that the last, put together outcome is a breathtaking hamburger of not simply well balanced percentages and flavours however likewise excellent structural stability (significance that its parts appear virtually merged together and it does not threaten to break down and land in your lap as you consume it).

Wielding the trowels in the truck is Hoa Le, who formerly had the Vietnamese dining establishment Pho Hoa Nam in Barrhaven. For him, Smash Daddy is a fantastic food-business 2nd act.

I will state that I’ve compared the $24 Wagyu Daddy to the $13 Smash Daddy, undoubtedly in the house after a 15-minute drive, and I could not determine a significant distinction in between 2 extremely crave-worthy hamburgers. Le’s kid, Richard Nguyen, states the Wagyu hamburger is a little gamier.

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Let me include that the optimum Smash Daddy experience is to take pleasure in the truck’s food– its french fries are likewise great– at one of the picnic tables next to the truck, or a minimum of in the parking area. If you require to discover me this summer season, chances are I’ll exist.

After several Smash Daddy hamburgers, I questioned other smash hamburgers in Ottawa. Could they match Smash Daddy’s achievement?

While I delighted in smash hamburgers somewhere else, I constantly had quibbles.

I drove to Embrun, about a half-hour southeast of Ottawa, to attempt hamburgers at Pearson Street Smash Burgers N’ Melts, a well-regarded food truck that opened 3 years back.

While Smash Daddy is laser-focused on the Oklahoma variation of smash hamburger, Pearson Street deals, in addition to a standard model, 4 distinctly garnished variations, from a pesto-and-goat-cheese hamburger to a mushroom-Swiss cheeseburger to a spicier, jalapeno-spiked hamburger to a horseradish-and-truffle aioli hamburger.

We attempted the initial smash hamburger ($13.50 for a double) and the horseradish truffle hamburger ($16.50), which both starred Canadian Black Angus ground chuck and potato buns. The hamburgers were great, however they were likewise less smashed and less experienced than Smash Daddy’s superlative hamburgers, and they were a little sloppier to deal with, leaking sauce as we consumed them.

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At Edinburger, which opened last September in New Edinburgh, a smash hamburger ($11) is on the menu along with more standard grilled hamburgers. Here the smash hamburgers made from grass-fed Enright Cattle Co. beef were rather great and perfectly garnished, although once again the patties were not as smashed as Smash Daddy’s patties. As at Pearson Street, the meat-to-bun ratio appeared to tilt simply a bit more towards the bread, too.

Edinburger, it needs to be kept in mind, is a real, appealing, diner-style hamburger joint with seating and even milkshakes, beer and mixed drinks readily available. Its french fries were exceptional, huge however plainly double-fried to accomplish crisp outsides and pillowy interiors.

I likewise checked out Smash Burgers Ottawa, which is a takeout-only kitchen area stashed in a St-Laurent Boulevard commercial park and which is likewise referred to as the Sandwich Stop.

The smash hamburger there ($9.29 for a single, $13.27 for a double) was made from a home mix of ground brisket and chuck, which I believe produced additional juiciness below an exceptional difficult sear. This hamburger was potentially the saltiest of those that I attempted, and the bun was absolutely nothing to compose home about. The hamburger was likewise more delicately garnished, and it did not have the cohesion of a Smash Daddy hamburger.

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This study is far from extensive, as by today I ‘d tired my digestion system with my smash hamburger odyssey.

There is rather most likely an outstanding, if expensive, smash hamburger on the lunch menu at Fraser in New Edinburgh, and I’m informed that Burger n’ Fries Forever on Bank Street, which I rather liked years back, now smashes hamburgers whereas before it just grilled them.

Undoubtedly there are other examples out there too. Maybe my smash hamburger crawl requires to resume later on this year.

phum@postmedia.com

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