Mos (definately not a tasty) burger

with a dubiously similar logo, Mos Burger is the McD's of Japan, but it was also the only place i've found that serves a burger. i finally get to sample one in Shibuya, the young and trendy part of Tokyo but i had to practically force myself as all the cheap japanese food is a lot more appealing, truth be told. I couldn't tell you what I had as i had to point at a picture to get any food but it was a beef burger of some description with some salad, but no cheese? and damn tiny! note for the management, not everyone who eats at mos burger is a size 2 japanese girl! or maybe i was meant to order two? either way, not a tasty burger but really who cares in a country where you can go round any corner and get some awesome local grub for $10?

Rockie

Look what i found in Japan!

So I'm just looking around this hobby store and hear all this hooting and hollering from the back of the room so I go check out what's so exciting... it's all these japanese guys playing Settrers of Catan! They are so buzzed about it but very confused when i tried to gesture that I wanted a pic :)

Plus just next door i find some double decker burger CD cases, none of that mamby pamby single patty stuff they have in Serbia hehe, they don't muck about in Japan

So all in all it feels a bit like home...BUT!... no surf.... hope someone is getting my board fixed???

Lockie

We love ninjas!

Bye Bye

Faithful to the judgement of the burger-masters, several (14?) of us went to enjoy the Tolarnos burger one last time. I for one was concerned that the kitchen staff may no longer have the ticker to maintain the high standard that we heard about. Yet with two weeks to go I was relieved to find that team Tolarno do still have gas in the tank.

As we stood in the semi-darkness of the Barrel Bar, my first impression of the passing burgers was "a bit small". This of course was merely a trick of the light and the proportions outlined by the massive plates. Tolarno produces a truly and old-school burger that left both veterans and virgins fatigued from the sheer pleasure and magnitude of the experience. Jol-ee for one went out too hard and appeared to fade into the blackboard menu behind him. And speaking of pleasure, did the Tolarno burger inspire Lockie and his betrothed to depart the premises in such a hurry?



As a sad footnote to our culinary saturnalia, we were shocked to find that Fitzroy St is become a burger backwater, losing not only Tolarno's but also gbc to the tyranny of rising rents. Is the Melbourne burger party over?

Zombie

Hello winter my old friend, you've come to freeze our nuts again

Big nights out on Fri and Sat night couldn't dissuade us from squeezing a surf in the middle. Big swell was predicted for the weekend so Joeleee, Mendes, Zombie and yours truly made the trip to Ocean Grove to enjoy a beach break after some reef stress of previous weeks. The biting wind meant that it had officially become 'booty' weather with Sergio almost catching hypothermia and Stubbs losing all feeling in his feet for most of the day. Only Joeleee, who apparently has the penguin-feet-gene found the water warm. Either way we all catch a bunch, even if half are just frothing white-water. Beachnik Café at Barwon heads sorts us out for lunch, all of us taking the namesake burger. Unorthodox toasted bread in place of bun and no tom-sauce, but the great pattie, chutney and fresh beets compensate to make it a definite tasty burger. Having said that, all I can think about as I write this is more Tolarno action this Thursday!

this is the final countdown (dahdah duhduhduh)

The BEST burger I've ever eaten (yes you read it right)

Epiphanies (and burgers), I've had a few… but none quite like that at the Tolarno Bar last night. Modestly, Joeleee and birthday boy Dub had kept pretty quite about this fine institution on Fitzroy St in St Kilda. Most might associate this stretch of tarmac with a high likelihood of being bottled, but with the previously blogged GBC joing Tolarno on the same side of the road it is worth the risk, at least for now (more on this later).

With a long history dating back to 1886, Tolarno is a mixed institution, offering a bistro and hotel but it is the bar where the burger magic happens. Newbies, Sergio and I, make up the 4 who find themselves seated around a barrel table in the back room listening to Steve Earle. Pistol does the generous shouting and the ordering, but from what I gather, the latter is a simple affair, 'with' or 'without chips' being the only options. When they arrive they seem deceptively small on the large plates and it is easy to over estimate your ability to knock one over, an illusion only reinforced when you take the first delicious bite, but the inch thick patty soon puts a dent in your optimism. The buns are quite sweet, white, dense and real soft, the big strips of bacon have swiss cheese melted over them, even the beetroot that I normally hate feels at home in the mix of tastes which is set off perfectly by the Hewitson branded barbecue sauce that is smothered over the patty. This is one god damn muthaf*ckin tasty burger! It seriously is that good, one cannot help but be struck by it. You could very happily munch on these very regularly and, in fact, the barman that night recollects that he has eaten one a week for the last nine years!

I wish that I could say that he was going to eat them every week for the *next* nine years, but alas this tasty Tolarno tale takes a tragic twist. The bar and thus its burgers are shutting shop at the end of this month! Tolarnio and Lockiet, the star-crossed lovers…. how cruel to have discovered it so close to it's demise! For whatever reason the doors are closing on this St Kilda landmark and you have 25 days to get a burger in you. Personally, I don't want to dwell on the negative so I'll make the most of what I have and head back to Tolarno as much as my calendar and constitution will allow, I'd urge you all to do the same!

Lockie