Diner’s Diary | Shake Shack x The Chairman burger taste test: not enough zing from Sichuan spice, and ox tongue is bland
- Limited edition burger to mark American chain’s first year in Hong Kong features a beef patty with caramelised onion, five spice, ox tongue and Sichuan pepper
- The idea is to give a touch of the numbness you get from Sichuan pepper, but in our view it’s too subtle. Judge for yourselves – if you can get one on Saturday
Shake Shack fans in Hong Kong, the wait is over.
The American fast food chain’s burger created in a collaboration with fine-dining Chinese restaurant The Chairman was revealed on Wednesday. Called The Chairman Shack (HK$80), the burger features an Angus beef patty topped with 12-hour slow-cooked caramelised onion, griddled ox tongue, pickled radish, Sichuan pepper, fermented bean sauce and butter lettuce.
The ox tongue has been braised with five spice powder, and the beef patty is brushed with Sichuan oil to give it a hint of mala, or numbness on the tongue – beef being best friends with the spicy oil, in the words of The Chairman’s chef-owner, Danny Yip.
However, the Post’s taste test revealed the mala effect is too subtle – it took several bites of the burger to finally get that tingling feeling. While the caramelised onions gave the burger more taste and complexity, the braised ox tongue was too bland and didn’t add much to the burger except a bit more meat.
Bumping up the spice level and adding more pickled radish would have given just the right amount of sizzle and excitement a memorable limited edition burger needs.