World Burger Tasting Tour Event June 2015
As someone who travels quite a lot, sometimes you just crave something familiar. For me, this is a Hard Rock cocktail or a Bubba Gump Shrimp meal. When invited for a Yelp event to try out new Hard Rock cocktails, a range of burger recipes from around the World and a music quiz, my answer was of course "yes" and than I find out this event is also complimentary!! Winning!
The kind people of Hard Rock Amsterdam treated us to free cocktails, wine or soft drinks throughout the event. The event showcased a new summer cocktail that was sweet, pink and yellow in colour and reminded me of good 'Sex on the Beach'. They called it the Yelper for the event but would not reveal the name. Other cocktails on offer were Bahama Mama, Southern Rock, LIT (Long Island Iced Tea) and another rum based one I can't remember the name of. There were also wines and soft drinks on offer.
The canapes included crispy chicken strippers, cheesy tuna mini wraps, bruschetta with salmon or beef and parmesan. The chet then came in to talk us through the four burgers that were offered for tasting, there were large versions at the front of the room and sliders were served to us afterwards - just as well as there was so much food provided! The burgers for us to try were:
The Miami (Cuban) Burger, the Vietnamese (Banh Mi) Burger and the Dubai (Date) Burger, Guatemala (Marimba) Burger.
Unfortunately for a closed event with guest list, there were not enough burgers for everyone to try all four burgers. There seemed to have been a number of assumed vegetarians at this event who were catered for without people being asked and specifically catered for via the event administration. There were a few tongue-in-cheek jokes about vegetarians at a burger tasting event but clearly Hard Rock proved they cater for everybody. When the first (Dubai) burger came around and there were not enough meat ones, we were told that more would come out but they did not so this meant I missed out on even trying the meat free version. Quite a few people in the room were visibly disappointed but this was short lived as the generous event with cocktails and plenty of desserts following meant no one would go hungry! :)
the Dubai (Date) Burger - didn't try so can't comment. My first thought was this would be nice with a lamb burger.
The Miami (Cuban) Burger - this wasn't as flavoursome as I'd hoped as the burger I was more looking forward to trying. I expected this one to be a taste explosion with pulled pork, plantain, pickle, mustard and interestingly Swiss cheese. I could not really taste the pulled pork or plantain and at one point thought I had the vegetarian burger! I do wonder if the bigger burgers would do it better justice.
Guatemala (Marimba) Burger - just what you'd expect from a tortilla, salsa, bean paste burger. This was nice and I wouldn't normally go for tortillas in a burger. I would have it again.
The Vietnamese (Banh Mi) Burger - this one surprised me. Crispy stir fry veggies in a burger is a clever way to get people to eat their greens but was very tasty and, I thought, worked well with the glaze.
The quiz was fun, 4 groups formed and each group asked a question which they got right or wrong totalling 4 questions per team. I'm pleased to say my team got 4/4 and won an Exclusive Hard Rock Amsterdam badge which was not on sale in the shop. We were also given gift bags with a grey canva Hard Rock bag, a Hard Rock Amsterdam clear zip bag (like the airport travel ones) and a 'Sexy and I Know it' Bike seat cover.
Have a look at some of the burgers on here - I'm keen to try the Haggis, Reuben and Schnitzel Burger before they leave town!
http://www.hardrock.com/promos/worldburger read more