Down in the Brown /Hammees /SocialSmoker

T (May '23)

SCORE: Tell yo' friends - still.

ORDER: Social Smoker - brisket, pastrami sandwich, dino ribs, smashed burger, cornbread, smoked banana tart | Hammee's - double cheeseburger with the works, extra spicy chicken burger

VALUE: Social Smoker $75/head for all the recommended order and a drink + BYO Bourbon | Hammee's $20ish for a burger and sides

T: At our first pilgrimage to /SocialSmoker, S challenged our fanfooding of the burger, contending that her neighbourhood favourite, /Hammees was superior. Them are fighting words, and, yesterday, Y and I rose to the challenge, and brought the Dane and a gutsy (see what I did there) friend with us as champions.

First stop, Hammee's via Eng Kee Chicken Wings

Hammee's was a little late opening, which gave us a chance to wolf those down. The wings were surprisingly good - I'm more of a haebi style fried wing girl, and nothing beats Ice Cold Beer for those, but this was a good alternative. Prices have gone up to $1.60/wing, but that seems fair given food inflation.

Total photo dump here, but it seems appropriate given the experience. We were taken aback by the size of the burgers - I couldn't fit the double in my mouth, and this is not generally a problem for me. They were delicious, juicy and moist, sweetened by the onions. The bacon added a nice smoke and salt. The chicken burger was even more popular, with the spicy sauce especially. In retrospect, I wish I had tried the spicy sauce on the beefburger, but I was so overwhelmed at the time that I could not achieve brain function. Definitely worth going to again and again. They are on oddle too.

The Dane and I decided to spend the afternoon walking to Social Smoker. We did this with a couple of stops, including Bakery Brera, where we grabbed a very yummy coffee, the obligatory hot cross buns and tried out the canele, scone and berry basque cheesecake. The canele made for a lovely coffee companion, but the cheesecake was a little too sweet for my liking.

... now really stuffed, we plodded along right up to Bukit Brown Cemetary - my first ever time inside it and the first time, ever, Google Maps failed me. The searing hot day went suddenly overcast as we tried to work out where the missing paths on the map were, and as the temperature dropped, I made a joke about how this was the part where people started dying in movies .. right as we realised we would have to cut through the "wilderness" to get out of the cemetary.
Turns out that burgers are a good motivation for a hike.

Despite the detour, muddy shoes and wet socks, we made it to Social Smoker in time for our reservation. We had established from the last trip that the pork products were not highlights and so went with a focused order, only trying two and a half new dishes - the dino ribs, which were good though at a higher price point than the other meats. We also tried the smoked banana tart, which had been recommended to me before, but which we hadn't been able to fit in. I normally really dislike banana in food, but really liked this dish. The char in the crumble, thyme in the mild banana custard and firm biscuit base came together beautifully for me. I would do it again for sute. The half discovery was their picklejuice, which made for an absolutely perfect pickleback. I could have done that all night. It was so inspiring that we set up a bookout immediately - can't wait to do it.

/socialsmoker /hammees /engkee /bakerybrera

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