BUNANZA at Bun & Pho 3

Now that is a tall burger!

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Ok, so we had a challenge submitted to us recently that was an easy commute for me. It was a long day at work and I was hungry. So, off I went to try this out. To be honest, I was quite nervous since there was little info to go by, and the challenge was spontaneous, so I did no preparation for it. Nonetheless, I was determined to give it a go.

 

Description:

“Pho & Bun’s infamous steamed milky bun burgers are stacked high with prawn, pork, beef, mango, cheese and not to forget the incredible hybrid bao bun!”

Broken down it was:

  • A heap of port belly slices (similar to thick bacon) in a sweet glaze
  • 3 prawn patties
  • 3 beef patties
  • Layers of vegetables in-between
  • The equivalent of 4 portions of sweet potato fries (a full steam tray)

You have 15 minutes to finish it. If you win, the meal is free and you get a £50 voucher to spend on your next visit. If you lose, you pay the full £25 price.

 

Now, I know there are a lot of burger challenges around, but this one is pretty unique from the regular fair. The shrimp patties and pork belly on top are not something you see every day. The bao buns are a nice change to regular burger buns. So how did this unique burger taste? Really nice actually. The  pork belly was sweet, but not overpowering. A bit hard to eat fast, but not impossible. The prawn patties had good chunks of prawn and reminded me somewhat of Portuguese prawn rissoles (amazing if you find good ones). The beef patties were probably the least interesting bit of the challenge, but not bad by any means, just once heave eaten many, it is hard to find a stand out beef patty. The layered vegetables were amazing though. The freshness they brought really helped bring this burger alive. The Vietnamese challenges I have done always seem to have great ‘freshness’ to them. The sweet potato fries tasted amazing. I much prefer them over regular fries you get with most challenges. The only downside were they were a bit oily for my liking, but with a speed challenge it made them go down quicker.

 

Now, to tackle this challenge I went with the regular approach that should be becoming familiar by now. Take the burger apart, eat the components going down, then assemble a ‘normal’ burger for the final bit. The fries I clumped together just to speed things up since I didn’t want to be eating one at a time. In the end, it took 9 minutes, well within the time limit. I could have probably taken my time a bit more, but as I mentioned, I was slightly nervous since it was spontaneous. Also, when you see something that tall come out, you start to question what you have gotten yourself in to. Don’t panic though, this one is not as wide as regular burgers, so whilst a daunting sight, it is pretty manageable if you can do a 5 patty burger with sides.

 

Overall, another fun challenge. Manageable for most people capacity wise. The hardest part in this one was actually the burger since the pork belly made it a bit slow going. The portion of fries is nothing crazy. As always, have water on hand to help you get it down faster, but other than that, this is definitely a challenge I would recommend people go try. You can find it at:

Pho & Bun,
76 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London W1D 6ND,
UK

 

 

3 thoughts on “BUNANZA at Bun & Pho

  1. Reply Ben May 16,2016 4:24 pm

    Congrats. Looked a monster.

  2. Reply Andrey May 19,2016 11:21 am

    Haha, yeah, it looked scarier than it was, definitely an initial shock factor from the height of it. Thanks for letting me know about this one.

  3. Pingback: Kua ‘Aina Burger Challenge | Eating Challenges

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