Date and Time: 16 August, 2019, 8:00 PM

Special edition post! August has ended here in Scotland, and so the hordes of tourists visiting for Fringe, golf, and sunny days has either stopped or slowed to a trickle. As a result, a quick look back at a Fringe burger was needed!

In Scotland, one of the first things recommended was to hit Edinburgh Fringe. For those of you too lazy to click the link, the internet must be hard for you Edinburgh Fringe is a massive arts festival that descends on Edinburgh every August, featuring a zillion acts of everything from human acrobatics to improve to stand up comedy, for which it is internationally renowned.

Seemed like a must-do experience, and it wouldn’t be a proper trip without a burger, beer, and pub review. Please note, a small detour from the pub theme was required due to the unique nature of this experience. The burger option would have been criminal to pass up.

The beer selected was a Holyrood Pale Ale, although as this was a half-day of Fringe, it could also have been a few other selections, but let’s not get bogged down here. Brewed by Stewart brewing, a local Edinburgh brewery, it’s a decent crisp clear summery beer, with not a lot of bitterness. This is a bit of a downfall, as it doesn’t really make much of an impact on the taste scale, and ends up being a bit bland. On the other hand, it is marketed as being great with fried foods and Mexican food, which is right up my alley.

Also should be noted that as it was at a festival, it was served in a plastic pint cup, which doesn’t make the experience or taste any better. Another tangent here is that apparently every time that you are served a beer at a festival (or bar), they are not legally allowed to re-use your cup. This is for some health and safety rules that I don’t totally understand, or agree with, but seems pretty unnecessary from an environmental perspective.

But on to The Burger.

Yes. You did read that correctly.

The Rost Eats food truck (well, stand in this case), located in the Bristo Square beer garden area of Fringe, offered up a Peanut Butter Crunch Pheasant Burger.

Immediately a list of intriguing questions pops up:

1. What does a Pheasant taste like? On a burger?
2. Does the peanut butter really crunch?
3. How the hell do all these things fit on a bun together?
4. Is this actually good? Does that even matter?

There were a few indications to give a consumer confidence, though. The line was medium-sized, the staff were cranking out burgers (and other things) right quick, and the price of 8 GBP, (due to the Fringe markup), is actually pretty reasonable.

As the dudes behind the counter enthusiastically threw pheasants into fryers, peanut buttered both sides of the bun (clearly a veteran move), squirted on the maple mayo, and picked large strips of no-doubt-about-it crispy-ness out of a container, the confidence grew.

Delivery of the burger took approximately 10 minutes, which seems like a long time when you’re as excited as a kid getting a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. (Ed. Note: The author has never had this experience. His childhood was devoid of any excitement.)

The burger arrived nicely stacked and neatly speared. Good presentation, so we’re off to a hot start.

After one bite, it was clear that this offering was checking off the burger boxes nicely. The crunch came from crispy bacon, the kettle chips (for North American readers, they are your definition of chips; for UK readers, they are crisps), and the freshly fried pheasant. While soft, the bun held the ingredients together nicely, and absorbed the wet ingredients of the onion jam (which tasted like firm carmelized onions – amazing) and the maple mayo.

The patty was pheasant breast, obviously a departure from the beef patties thus far reviewed. Tender, but a bit more solid than a chicken burger, pheasant works relatively well as a burger patty. However, as with chicken burgers using a full chicken breast (rather than ground chicken, and then forming a patty), the issue is way in which the meat separates.

As you eat a chicken (or pheasant, in this case) breast, you’ll notice that as you cut into it, the meat wants to break along lines, and come away in strips. This presents a bit of a problem in the burger world, as ideally you want the patty to break exactly where you’re biting into it. This A) prevents you from tearing the burger to shreds while looking like a total animal in front of friends, family, dates, and the public, and B) reduces the choking hazard of having to try and down a piece of burger the length and consistency of your index finger.

Is it possible that I have thought about this too much? Yes. Is it possible that I somehow eat burgers differently than everyone else? Also yes.

Ahem. Returning to the pheasant patty. It was well-seasoned, and taste was top notch. A slightly gamey feel, with meat a little tougher than chicken, but not greasy at all. It also meshed well with the other burger ingredients, the peanut butter adds a subtle taste but isn’t overwhelming, and the whole package sticks together to make sure that you are consuming the burger as a whole, rather than a variety of pieces trying to escape the bun.

The atmosphere. Well, as stated off the top, this is not really a pub. The atmosphere at the food truck itself? Pretty upbeat, fun crew behind the counter, who still had a sense of humour even though it was late in the day on a Friday, they had worked hard, and likely still had a long night ahead of them.

In the beer garden? It’s a festival beer garden, so packed with people there to have a few drinks and enjoy some nice weather. Standard long shared tables, with a gable covered with fake Christmas lights overtop, and a astroturf covering the pavement underneath, making it look a bit like a mini-golf place.

It was also busy as hell, due to it being a nice Friday night, and we ended up standing at a barrel-table. Which was fine, although it seemed to be right in the middle of a main walking route that we weren’t aware of, resulting in one of my dining companions wearing most of a half-consumed cider down the front of his pants. Not ideal. Not Rost’s fault, to be sure, just standard dangers of busy beer gardens situation.

Overall, a very good eating experience, and would do the burger again in a heartbeat. It meshes interesting ingredients, a delicious flavour profile, and a quality mouth-feel to pull together a must-try burger. If you like your burger to crunch, this is a must-do. The downsides are potentially the Fringe beer garden experience, and the price, but if you only live once, right? Life is too short to not eat a pheasant burger.

With Fringe over, looking for Rost around the city? Sources say that they are often located in the Pitt Market, so check them out.

Good For: A different type of burger. Alternative to beef patties. Crunch on your burger. A fun festival environment.

Bad For: People who are allergic to peanut butter. Crowds. Making your pound go a long way. Pheasant lovers.

Cost: 14.50 GBP