Colonel Mustard In the Kitchen

…with a can of sauerkraut. This is the unlikely name of Café Polo’s Burger Wellington offering. Yes, Wellington On A Plate has moved onto phase two, the Burger competition, replacing the festival dishes of the last two weeks.

I’d been working a morning shift up at Zealandia, so I was mightily hungry. Nicola had met me there and we decided to try a burger at Café Polo for lunch. As it was literally Day One of the Burger Wellington fortnight I deemed it prudent to call ahead and book a table. Just as well I did, as there were almost, but not completely, full. We managed to park nearby, and ran across the road in the rain to take our table.

The Colonel Mustard In The Kitchen With A Can Of Sauerkraut burger is described like this on the WOAP website: “Wagyu beef patty with smoked cheese, American mustard, sauerkraut and spicy pickles in a sesame seed milk bun, with spiced shoestring fries.” It’s matched with Garage Project Golden Path - Juicy Session Hazy IPA. It looks like this:

That is a tasty-looking burger. We dived straight in. The American mustard had been beefed up from the usual mildly-flavoured yellow gunk, and had a bit of a bite to it. I worried that the sauerkraut would make it too slippery, but the bun was well-constructed and burger integrity held out to the final bite. The spiced fries were crisp, and, in my opinion, somewhat over-spiced…I think they were a bit overpowering and could have benefitted from dialling back a little on the chilli. Nevertheless, it was a good burger, and I scored it an 8. The Garage Project beer was also good, a cloudy IPA with bags of flavour.

But wait…what’s with the name? Sounds a bit Cluedo-ish, doesn’t it? And you’d be right, because with the burger comes a game sheet, and each player gets a chance to try and guess who the murderer is. There’s a list of names, which seem to be based around Café Polo staff, and locations, including the environs and rooms at Café Polo. Finally, among the traditional murder weapons are a number of food-related implements. I chose Lady Lancaster in the staff room, with the frozen pineapple. What’s the point of this? Well, if you guess the correct combination, the burger’s on the house! Needless to say, we failed to guess correctly.

That's one burger down, 231 to go. Yep, there are 232 burgers to choose from this year. Unlike in previous years, I'm not going to be able to go out and get one every lunchtime, so it'll be a bit more leisurely this time around. Nevertheless, I'm hoping to fit a few more in over the coming fortnight.