When Lamb and Chicken were burgers of the day

Some meats are meant for some dishes. Or, rather some dishes are meant to be made with certain meats. Either they are meant for each other or we've been conditioned to see that they are meant for each other. Mutton biriyani for example. No other meat can really replace lamb in a biriyani. And for a burger, it has always been beef.

Not at the burger fest at Hyatt Regency Chennai. The quarter pounder, the signature burger at the fest was a let down. However, and that is a big however, others more than made up for it. Starting with the fries. Fries are so easy to make and equally easy to mess up. The fries that came with the burgers deserve a food festival for themselves. Possibly, double cooked, the crispy outside and soft inside fries with the perfect amount of salt in all the portions that were served, deserves a standing ovation.

With the quarter pounder beef failing to deliver, the lamb took over the role of the show stopper. And what a performance it was. Juicy juicy juicy lamb with full bodied lamb flavour was easy to polish off. Chicken burgers are like vegetable biriyani for most people, an oxymoron, but the Hyatt  managed to pull it off. Like the fries, this was a perfectly fried chicken between the buns. Even though the thousand island like sauce sort of spoilt it from attaining glorious heights, the fried chicken did manage to hold itself and earn a mention.

While the festival is called burgers and beer, there are loads of drinks that actually help the liver rather than take it down. Green juice with celery and green apple helped wash down my lamb and chicken burgers.

The festival is on till the end of January and is worth a shot if you're looking for some great fries and a beautiful lamb burger. If beef is your only choice of meat for the burger, you could skip it or let me know if I had a bad day!