Our favourite sandwich has gone from a processed fast food meal to a gourmet feast with top notch ingredients and beer pairings. But what’s next for the burger?
It’s been a busy decade for the burger world.
There’s been farm-to-table meat and cheese, rice buns, ramen buns, brioche buns, bleeding vegan burgers, and every combo of tasty toppings and fillings you can imagine.
But what’s next? At Chops R&D, we think the following trends will grow bigger in 2020 and beyond.
We’re always testing new ideas (check the Schm-ooooze, below) so don’t forget to swing by and check our specials boards.
It can’t be?
What do vegans really want? Bleeding, fake-meat burgers, apparently.
The ‘Impossible Burger’ was a sensation in 2019, even making it onto the menu at Burger King. There’s now a burger for everyone:
But what about the undecided? The vege-curious?
The James Beard Foundation, a food research company, has been running a competition for ‘blended burgers’ – somewhere between a vegan burger and a good ol’ fashioned beef one. The best they could come up with is reported to be 25% mushroom and 75% meat.
You’re the man now, soy
Not every vegetarian wants to eat something that looks like it’s bleeding, of course.
The classic, low-tech veggie burger has a history and we’ve come a long way from the sad, frozen carrots and sweetcorn patties of old.
The soy burger surely remains as the veggie burger of choice. Try our moreish ‘Mr. Bean’ bean burger with tofu and sweet potato.
We expect to see even more unlikely things packed into a bun this year. Chefs across the world are experimenting with mung beans, hemp seed, avocado, and (whisper it) beetroot.
We’re taking an official stance against beetroot in burgers.
Pretty boy baps
Did we mean for our burgers to look so dep? Not really!
But that’s what happened when we put the best and freshest ingredients into our homemade buns.
Expect to see even more instagramable burgers from restaurants worldwide this year. So far we’ve seen the likes of black squid ink buns, candy floss dessert burgers and burgers topped with caviar and gold leaf.
No fun burgers
The Keto Diet: a low-carb diet where you can still eat all the fat you like.
What does that mean for burgers? Fries and buns out, meat and cheese in.
Keto fans claim that this diet will put your body into a state of ‘Ketosis’, where fat provides all the energy your body needs.
We’ve been watching the customers at Chops closely to see the results after our tasty burgers, and have also noticed some physical changes: buttons undone, slouched, with heavy eyelids – we call it ‘the post-Chops glow’.
If you were wondering how to eat a burger with no bun, American burger chain Shake Shack has the answer. They’re officially launching a ‘Keto burger’ this year, which is a patty wrapped in lettuce.
We’re still not sure about that one.
Robots at McD’s
Just when you thought the world in 2019 couldn’t get any worse, robot cooks were deployed to flip burgers and cook fries.
And this year we predict we’ll see the next stage of the post-apocalyptic burger world. Humans won’t be taking your orders for much longer: McDonald’s is due to launch its patented ‘Apprente’ voice command ordering system at the drive-through.
Doesn’t feel very craft, that?
Cheese Mania
Why wait for your burger cheese to melt? Giant wheels of gooey raclette cheese and burgers dunked into cheese sauce tempted the world last year.
Here in Vietnam, you could only watch and drool, fantasising of cheese-soaked burgers.
Until now:
Come get your cheese fix with the ooziest, gooiest burger Hanoi has ever seen. The mighty Schm-ooooze. With this not-so-humble burger, Chops is upping its cheese game in 2020.
Cheese-starved citizens of Hanoi: Rejoice!
? READ MORE:
VEGETARIANS IN VIETNAM: SHORT-TERM TREND OR LONG-TERM LIFESTYLE?
PROUD MOMENT ALERT: OUR VERY OWN CRAFT BEER, CHOPS HOPS PALE ALE
INTRODUCING: THE SPANKING NEW BRUNCH MENU AT CHOPS