Food and lifestyle with a dusting of magic
Battle of the burger at Wylam Brewery has ten burger vendors competing to be the best. Who will win the crown of best burger 2017?
Over the Easter holidays the battle of the burger was held at Wylam Brewery. The concept is simple, ten burger vendors battle it out to win the title of best burger 2017. Each vendor produces a 100g burger representing the best on their menu. The public votes for their favourite and the one with most votes takes the title. We previously went to the battle of the burger at the Tyne Bar so knew it would be a fun day out.
Wylam Brewery is a 30 barrel micro brewery that serves up craft ales and beers. They have been here for two years. Inside the brewery is a tap room and events also take place on a regular basis. My husband enjoyed Wylam Breweries beer when we ate at the Coop Chicken House. We plan to try Sunday lunch at the brewery one day. Today my son and I were here to eat burgers. Walking round the lake we could see the hustle and bustle at the side of the brewery.
Before we could sample the burgers we had to get the tokens inside the brewery. Each token cost £3 and entitles you to one burger. This is great value as the burgers are a good size. To vote for the best burger you can download a free app. The event is free and you can enjoy music whilst trying the burgers. After purchasing our tokens we went outside to find out what was on offer. There was a great mix of our favourite local vendors as well as some we haven’t tried before. We took our time choosing which burgers to try.
These are some of the vendors who were there:
The first stand we came across was Zapatista Burrito Bar. A popular burrito bar in the centre of Newcastle they have been on my must try list for some time. The food does look tasty. Their creation was the Nacho Normal Burger, a Mexican style topped burger on a bed of nachos.
Longhorns Barbecue Smokehouse is one of our favourite vendors. We have visited Longhorns on Mosley StreetLonghorns on Mosley Street where we tried their tasty BBQ pulled meat boards. They are often at foodie events like this and we know that their food is always going to be good. The Pepper Don’t Preach burger did look good. The pretzel bun contains a hog and beef patty, monterey jack cheese, bacon jam, red cabbage pickle and burger sauce. Temping but we decided to try a vendor we hadn’t tried before.
Lola Jeans are another favourite of mine, their burgers are always really tasty. I have yet to visit their restaurant but have heard good things about the food and the cocktails. Their offering was the James P Sullivan burger. This consists of two patties, mature cheddar cheese, prime rump steak, shoestring onions, creamy steak sauce, bbq dip, red onion jam and topped with a pickled onion monster munch. This was the burger that won the crown.
I am not familiar with Flippin’ Burgers but they were offering a Ground Chunk Burger as well as a Crispy Fried Monkfish Burger which was the only seafood option. The van is rather retro as well.
Found in Jesmond Jam Jar offers a range of different burgers. Their Jam burger contains a beef patty, crispy bacon, Red Leicester cheese and tangy tomato jam. My son tried this burger and whilst it did look nice he was not that impressed. The patty did look a little rare which put him off a bit. It may just have been because they were really busy at the time.
Fat Hippo is in the centre of Newcastle and is another of those places that is on my must try list. The list keeps getting longer and longer. The queue was long and an efficient line of Hail to the String burgers were being made. The beef patty is topped with Monterey jack cheese, chilli and bacon string fries, pickle back slaw, chorizo butter and finally covered with signature Fat Hippo sauce. The burger is held in a soft brioche bun. This was my choice and it was really tasty. The signature sauce adds a little twist.
Having eaten our burgers we went for a wander around Exhibition Park. The last time I was there was when I did the 5K MoRun and I was so busy running I didn’t see much of the park. There are plenty of facilities there now including a skate park, tennis courts and a playground for the kids. We went for a walk round the lake. Near the lake we found this clock. This clock tower was a gift from the Freemen of Newcastle when the park was part of the Festival of Britain in 1951.
In 1951, the park was the centre for Tyneside’s contribution to the Festival of Britain, and the clock tower gifted by the Freemen of Newcastle remains as reminder. Strolling round the lake the path went into a patch of reeds. If you look from the other side it looks like people on the path are walking on water. There were plenty of birds out on the lake and I took the chance to practice my wildlife photography on a passing swan. A passing moorhen then struck a pose.
We had a fun day at the Battle for the Burger at Wylam Brewery and hope to go back to try some beer next time. Did you go to the Battle of the Burger? What was your favourite burger? Let me know below.
Love the sound of the burgers and I was looking at the last few photos thinking I bet there are geocaches in there !!
There probably are, I really am going to have to try geocaching!
I’m with you on the Fat Hippo flavours, their burger sounds the most enticing to me. I remember you going last year. Sounds like a fun event to attend.
The burger was lovely, will definitely have to pop into their place in town. Love the event – glad the sun was out though