It’s been a big week for burgers. We’ve seen the stuff of nightmares for pickle haters, a humongous burger fit for an Emperor, a vegan-friendly addition at a renowned fast-food chain, and a burger from space. Read on for the full scoop on each story:
Image by @mcdonaldsau via Instagram
‘Pickle lovers, it’s the news you’ve all been waiting for’
So read the caption on McDonald’s Australia’s Instagram account earlier this week, as they announced the ‘launch’ of the new McPickleBurger – essentially a Big Mac…but with most of the main ingredients replaced with a whole lot of pickles. Surprisingly, the cucumber concoction drew negativity not only from pickle haters, but from lovers too, who were all devastated to learn the McPickle was nothing more than a cruel April Fool’s prank, and would not, in fact, be available to order. One wise user did, however, comment, ‘if you really, really want one just buy a cheeseburger and ask for a billion extra pickles’ – so the joke may well soon be on McDonald’s instead.
Image by Kyodo News/AP
Tokyo hotel serves up a 6,000 RMB Burger
From McDonald’s joke burger to a burger that ain’t no joke. The Oak Door steakhouse at Tokyo’s Grand Hyatt hotel has created the Golden Giant Burger: a 25cm wide by 15cm tall behemoth of a burger, featuring prime wagyu maize-fed beef, shaved black truffle, foie gras, dusted with gold, and weighing in at a whopping 3kg. This remarkable burger has been released to mark the ascension of Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito, and the unveiling of the name of the 248th Imperial era, both of which will follow current Emperor Akihito’s impending abdication on 30thApril.
Image by Burger King
A vegan Whopper? Impossible.
Burger King has teamed up with Impossible Foods – a California-based company who create plant-based substitutes – to bring the ‘Impossible Whopper’ to BK chains across the US. The Impossible Whopper is a completely vegan version of one of the fast-food giant’s most famous burgers and uses genetically-modified yeast to mimic the flavour of real meat. Whilst Burger King does already offer a veggie burger, the Impossible Whopper is likely to cater to carnivores who are trying to cut down on their meat intake, as it is said to taste every bit as good as the real thing.
Image by Colchester United via Twitter
Houston, we have a…burger?
This story comes from the UK, where players from football team Colchester United discovered a mysterious object at their training ground. The confusing contraption consisted of a polystyrene box with a GoPro camera inside, and a frozen McDonald’s Big Mac strapped to the outside. The players, of course, took to Twitter to document their odd afternoon, when they received a phone call from someone named Tom Stanniland – a YouTube channel owner who had (attempted to) send a burger into space to entertain his 2.7m followers. Tom had launched the makeshift UFO using a weather balloon, which got an impressive 39km up into the sky, before popping, sending the burger and equipped tracker crashing down back down to earth 160km from its launch location. Later that afternoon, Tom turned up in Colchester to retrieve his camera and lost lunch, which of course he had a bite of. Tom’s verdict on the space burger: “it’s not nice”.
For burgers a little closer to home, that won’t cost a small fortune, and won’t be stuffed full of pickles (unless you ask nicely), check out our great partner restaurants on the Sherpa’s app or website.