Here’s what makes a winning burger at 2019 Burger Brawl in Philadelphia

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by Michael Klein, Updated: September 16, 2019

Here’s what makes a winning burger at 2019 Burger Brawl in Philadelphia

COURTESY BURGER BRAWL

Chris Barnes and his crew at Lucky’s Last Chance must be feeling like big dills after capturing first place among the judges and third place among attendees at the 2019 edition of Burger Brawl, a grilling competition that drew a record 3,900 people and 50-plus restaurants and chefs to the Marine Parade Grounds at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia last Sunday.

It’s a fund-raiser, headed by Center City restaurateur Rob Wasserman, for the School District of Philadelphia.

Lucky’s Pickle Monster burger is a tribute to pickles. It has two quarter-pound beef patties, American cheese, pickles, fried pickles, dill-flavor potato chips, pickle relish, and pickle aioli on a butter-toasted Liscio’s pub roll.

The bar-restaurant, with locations in Queen Village and Manayunk, has won the contest previously with its PB & Bacon burger, which tops a patty with creamy peanut butter, American cheese, and bacon; there’s grape jelly on the side.

The Pickle Monster will be available only at the Queen Village location, starting Sept. 19.

Pickles also figured into the second-favorite among judges: the Wagyu Burger Bao from The Bercy in Ardmore, which had pickled vegetables on top.

Also capturing two categories Sept. 15 was Bainbridge Street Barrel House in Queen Village, which took first place in the People’s Choice voting and was awarded “best stack” by a panel of Instagrammers. Chef Eric Paraskevas said the burger will be added to the menu.

Moonshine Philly in Pennsport, whose Italian-style Pennsport burger took second place among judges, was awarded most photogenic.

Chef Eric Paraskevas and Eleni Fetfatzes of Bainbridge Street Barrel House get that winning feeling at the 2019 Burger Brawl at the Navy Yard.
COURTESY BURGER BRAWL

Chef Eric Paraskevas and Eleni Fetfatzes of Bainbridge Street Barrel House get that winning feeling at the 2019 Burger Brawl at the Navy Yard.

Other winners included Hard Rock Cafe in Center City and Steam Pub in Southampton.

Now in its ninth year (the first at the Navy Yard), Burger Brawl acknowledged the rise of social media by inviting Instragrammers to judge.

The list of winners and descriptions follows.

Judge’s Choice

1st Place: Lucky’s Last Chance’s pickle monster: two quarter-pound beef patties, American cheese, pickles, fried pickles, dill-flavor potato chips, pickle relish, and pickle aioli on a butter-toasted Liscio’s pub roll.

2nd Place: The Bercy’s wagyu burger bao: pickled cucumber, spicy aioli, pickled vegetables, beef wagyu patty, sesame seeds & bao bun.

The Pennsport from Moonshine was topped with crispy prosciutto, mozzarella, caramelized onions, basil aioli, arugula, and tomato jam on a garlic-toasted bun.
MICHAEL KLEIN / STAFF

The Pennsport from Moonshine was topped with crispy prosciutto, mozzarella, caramelized onions, basil aioli, arugula, and tomato jam on a garlic-toasted bun.

3rd Place: Moonshine Philly’s Pennsport: Crispy prosciutto, mozzarella, caramelized onions, basil aioli, arugula, tomato jam on a garlic-toasted bun.

People’s Choice

The Home Grown burger from Bainbridge Street Barrel House is an 8-ounce brisket burger blend, Green Meadow Farm horseradish cheddar, fig aioli, shredded lettuce, plum shishito bacon jam, and fried shallots.
COURTESY BURGER BRAWL

The Home Grown burger from Bainbridge Street Barrel House is an 8-ounce brisket burger blend, Green Meadow Farm horseradish cheddar, fig aioli, shredded lettuce, plum shishito bacon jam, and fried shallots.

1st Place: Bainbridge Street Barrel House’s Home Grown: an 8-ounce brisket burger blend, Green Meadow Farm horseradish cheddar, fig aioli, shredded lettuce, plum shishito bacon jam, and fried shallots.

2nd Place: Hard Rock Cafe’s Guinness burger sliders: Signature steak-burger blend, whiskey bacon jam with Guinness cheese sauce, leaf lettuce, and tomato.

3rd Place: Lucky’s Last Chance’s Pickle Monster.

Instagram-Worthy

Burger Brawl judges photograph the Ultimate Breakfast Burger from Steam Pub in Southampton, which won the Sauce Boss category.
MICHAEL KLEIN / STAFF

Burger Brawl judges photograph the Ultimate Breakfast Burger from Steam Pub in Southampton, which won the Sauce Boss category.

The Sauce Boss: Southampton’s Steam Pub Ultimate Breakfast Burger: 8-ounce chuck burger, slow-cooked candied chili bacon and American cheese in between French toast topped with a fried egg and maple syrup. (This burger is on Steam Pub’s menu.)

Best Stack: Bainbridge Street Barrel House’s Home Grown

The Most Photogenic: Moonshine Philly’s Pennsport.

3rd Place: Brick & Brew (Media, Havertown, and Malvern)

Honorable Mention: Harper’s Garden (Rittenhouse)

45,000 and growing. Pickle Parade in Mansfield sweet success with legion of fans

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By:By Nicholas Sakelaris

Fort Worth Star- Telegram

 

(photo By: Nicholas Sakelaris Special to the Star-Telegram )

It’s a pickle that looks like a rocket. Or a rocket that looks like a pickle. Either way, this dill garnered a lot of attention in the Pickle Parade.

 

The Pickle Queens were barely finished throwing their beads to finish the 8th annual World’s Only St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade & Palooza and people were already clamoring to be part of next year’s parade.
John Pressley, president of the Pickled Mansfield Society, said they averaged 45,000 people over the two-day event March 15-16 and the exposure has more people wanting to get involved.
Construction on South Main Street did change this year’s the parade route and limited this year’s event to 75 floats. But next year, the construction will be a distant memory and they’ll be able to accommodate 100 floats again, Pressley said.

“There are vendors and parade entries already applying,” Pressley said. “It will be beautiful next year when they get it finished.”

When complete, the new South Main Street in front of The LOT Downtown and Twisted Root will have  room for food vendors on both sides while leaving room for the parade to go down the middle, Pressley said.

There was a late entry to this year’s parade, as the Timberview boys basketball team won the school’s second Class 5A state championship in three years on March 9.
“If you win a championship, they usually throw a parade for them,” Pressley said. “We were actually able to get Timberview’s basketball team into the parade just like the pros.”
The team rode in the back of a white pickup truck and soaked in all the cheering from the crowd.

The second annual beer keg races on Friday night had more entries this year and they got to show off their driving skills in the parade on Saturday.
“It turned out to be a huge success, everyone had a magnificent time watching the homemade golf carts with kegs on them racing up and down main street,” Pressley said.

 

The baby parade was four times bigger than last year.

Russell LaBouve and his 7-month-old daughter, Cade, won the grand prize for the baby parade with their moon rover float. Building the converted wagon meant many sleepless nights for the LaBouves, who traveled from Louisiana for the parade.

Being from Mardi Gras country, they’re serious about their floats. LaBouve is a welder by trade so he originally envisioned a moon lander with legs but the project evolved.
“Let’s turn it into a rover if we can, put some wheels on it, put some fake solar panels, i call them our ‘fauxler panels,” LaBouve said.
He bolted her high chair to the wagon and attached wood and then painted it to look like a rover.
The new cornhole tournament on Friday was also “received tremendously,” Pressley said.

 

 

Dill Pickle Potato Chips

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By: Lena Abraham

Delish 

 

Photo by: Brandon Bales

These pickle chips are the best snack.

 

The secret to good potato chips is to keep a close eye on them in the oven. As long as they’re sliced to roughly the same thinness, they should all cook at the same rate. Check at around 15 minutes to make sure they’re not burning, and flip them when the underside is golden.

Ingredients

2 russet potatoes, thinly sliced
2 c. pickle brine
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly chopped dill, plus more for garnish
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Ranch dressing, for dipping

Directions

place sliced potatoes in a large bowl and add enough pickle brine to completely submerge them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400º. When potatoes are done marinating, drain and pat completely dry, then place in a large bowl. Add oil, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, and crushed red pepper flakes to bowl and toss to coat potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
Lay potatoes in an even layer on a large baking sheet, making sure none are overlapping. Bake, flipping halfway through, until tender on the inside, and crisp and golden on the outside, about 40 minutes. Garnish with more dill and serve with ranch dressing.

Grillo’s Pickles New Shoe, “The Pickle,” Is A Limited Edition Collab With Ewing Athletics

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By

Bustle

Photo by:  Grillo’s Pickles

Grillo’s limited edition pickle shoes.

Ah, the struggle as old as time: knowing in your heart that pickles are the superior snack to end all other snacks, but not having a way to properly communicate that belief in a nonverbal way to strangers on the street. Well, friends, that’s all about to change. Grillo’s Pickles is releasing a sneaker called “The Pickle” with Ewing Athletics, making it that much easier to go about your day while reminding everyone within a 360 degree radius of you that pickles exist, and that human existence only has two true states: enjoying pickles, and the rest of your boring regular life.

The limited edition shoes, which drop on the Ewing Athletics website on March 4 and will retail for $140 a pair, are every bit as much a labor of love as Grillo’s actual pickles; in fact, there’s not a single square inch of the shoe that hasn’t been specifically branded to the pickle lover’s lifestyle. Per a press release from Grillo’s Pickles, “The clear soles and plastic lining of the laces represent the brand’s farmer’s market-styled jar filled with seven natural ingredients — cucumbers, salt, dill, garlic, water, grape leaves & vinegar. The green suede represents the organic dill, while the green leather is a nod to the crisp, crunchy cucumbers used to make each handpicked jar. The white laces represent the fresh California-grown garlic.”

The back of the shoe also displays an image of Grillo’s iconic mascot, Sam, Sam the Pickle Man — plus, if you look inside the sole, you’ll see an image of the OG Grillo’s Pickles cart. That image, as it turns out, has a bit of an ~origin story~ more linked to the new sneakers than you might expect. The cart, which originally opened in Boston in 2008 selling two pickles for a buck, was founder and CEO Travis Grillo’s new pursuit after Nike turned him down for a job as a sneaker designer. So basically, this full circle pickle moment is a pretty big dill.

Since that launch in 2008, Grillo’s has not only taken up so much space in the pickle market that they’ve not only solidified their place on the sides of all our sandwiches and in our actual legit human hearts — they’ve also launched a whole slew of pickle merch, designed by founder Travis Grillo. You officially live in a world where you can rep pickles on your shirts, your hats, your water bottles, and even your beach pong paddles, all of which are available on the Grillo’s online shop.

That said, I doubt anything beats the pure unadulterated and ridiculous joy of skipping in a pair of pickle sneakers down the sidewalk, a specific kind of joy Grillo’s and Ewing Athletics are bestowing on us with this collab. “Ewing Athletics is always looking to collaborate with companies that would typically be outside of the box for a sneaker brand and Grillo’s is a perfect partner,” Ewing Athletics President, David Goldberg, said in a press release. “Premium Pete made the connection and we were able to come up with a great design with a fresh look to match the pickles. We have done other food related projects in the past and we try to make each one better than the last.”

Just know that if you want to snag a pair of these, you’ll have to act fast — they go on sale on March 4 exclusively on the Ewing Athletics site.

‘Pickle Subs’ Are The Most Delicious Low-carb Alternative To Your Favorite Sandwich

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By: Augusta Statz

Madison.com

pickle subs is the new way to make a sandwich

If you’re looking for a way to satisfy your craving for a big, juicy sub but still want to keep things low-carb, this no-bread hack is for you. “Pickle subs” call for swapping bread for large pickle slices so you can still enjoy a sandwich (minus the bread) in a way that’s way more inventive than a lettuce wrap.

This video from Delish shows how you can take large pickles, slice and core them and then layer them with mayo, mustard, ham, cheese and tomato to create a sub-style sandwich that’s so good, you won’t miss the bread.

These will surely upgrade your desk lunch, make a great snack for the kids or be a crowd-pleasing appetizer. Of course, you can substitute the sandwich ingredients to include your favorites.
For example, a recipe from Canadian Cooking Adventures shows how you can layer pickled beef brisket, Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing in between pickle slices to create a low-carb version of a classic Reuben sandwich.

Phot0 by: Canadian Cooking Adventures

A version from Wicked Stuffed also details how you can give tuna salad an upgrade by layering it between pickle slices. This recipe suggests adding fresh dill to go along with the salt and pepper. Yummy.

Phot0 By:Wicked Stuffed

You can also skip the bread when creating a classic “wrap.” This recipe from Unsophisticook shows how you can place cream cheese wedges around a pickle and then wrap everything in a slice of dried beef. Slice them into rounds and you’ve got yourself one delicious snack or appetizer.

Phot0 by: Unsophisticook

 

The Momdot website also points out that these roll-ups are so easy to make, you can get your kids in on the action. So, meal prep just got a bit easier! Plus, look at how adorable this version looks in a kid’s lunchbox, and it simply calls for turkey, American cheese and a little mayo.

Photo by: The Momdot

With sub, sandwich and wrap recipes this delicious, your bread-eating days are numbered!

Pickle bouquets are the best thing to happen to Valentine’s Day since chocolate

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By: Erica Chayes Wida

Today 

Grillo’s Pickles created a bouquet made of its finest pickles. And it’s easy to make.

( Photo by:Grillo’s Pickles)

Guys, Valentine’s Day is coming up and it’s a really big dill.

It’s a great time to remind all loved ones (spouses, moms, dads, dates, baes and kids included) how much they really mean to you. While a card or some roses often fit the bill, why not go the extra step on Feb. 14 with an edible bouquet made out of … pickles!

Sure, fresh flowers may smell like fairies bathing in a glistening glen, but pickles are also pretty magical. Plus, pizza bouquets are so last season.

A pickle can be sweet, it can be sour (anyone else drawing a parallel to love?) and best of all, it won’t wilt over time — as long as it’s eaten quickly.
Grillo’s Pickles, the Boston-based pickle company behind the novel idea, isn’t actually selling pre-made pickle bouquets, but their founder told  TODAY  Food why the brand wants its loyal followers to make their own this year.

“Not only is a pickle bouquet more beautiful than a dozen red roses, and healthier than a standard box of chocolate, it’s also far more creative,” Grillo’s founder and CEO Travis Grillo told TODAY. “Grillo’s Hot Italian Dill pickles make it easy for consumers to spice things up with their hottie, while the brand’s Bread & Butter pickles offer a low-cal treat for sweeties nationwide.”

Grillo said that his team drew inspiration for the bouquet from the traditional, 100-year-old Italian family recipe the company still uses today: Cucumbers, salt, dill, garlic, water, grape leaves and vinegar. That’s why they added whole bulbs of garlic and fresh dill to the pickled arrangement.

“We know there are a lot of pickle lovers out there that would love nothing more than to get a Valentine’s Day gift loaded with their favorite snack,” Grillo added.
If reactions on Twitter are any indication about the popularity of pickles, Grillo is spot on.
For years, pickle fiends have been fantasizing about a tangy edible arrangement.

Since Valentine’s Day is a holiday that celebrates love, it’s probably best if pickles are prepared to look pretty decent.
Straight from Grillo’s expert florists — pickle-ists? — here’s how to craft the ultimate pickle bouquet.

Pick up a selection of your favorite pickles. Grillo’s recommends using a few different kinds like dill, hot chips, bread and butter and a variety of spheres and whole pickles.
Arrange the pickle spears and chips into a bouquet shape using bamboo kebab skewers and toothpicks.

Garnish with your choice of festive (or delicious) extras, from fresh herbs to colorful peppers.
And if you really want to try your hand at craftiness, try rolling little slices of pizza into the arrangement. After all, pickle-topped pizza has won over pickle fans in the past.

 

 

Creamy Dill Pickle Dressing Is The Absolute Best Way To Use Leftover Pickle Juice

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By: Marie Rossiter

Magic Valley 

( photo by: Sinful Nutrition)

Creamy dill pickle salad dressing is a great way to reuse pickle juice

 

Once reserved primarily as a burger topping, pickles have stepped into the spotlight for recipes including ice cream, cupcakes, quick bread, and even cocktails. But not all pickle recipes are on the strange side — for example, creamy dill pickle salad dressing is something we had never considered before, but it makes perfect sense. After all, pickles are just flavored-up cucumbers, right?Sinful Nutrition shared a creamy dill pickle salad dressing recipe she thought up because she couldn’t face dumping the leftover pickle juice down the drain. “You put vinegar in salad dressing, so why not pickle juice?!” Writes blogger Emily Cooper. “No more brines left behind.”

Cooper added one avocado, along with some olive oil, to come up with a tangy dressing that is paleo-friendly, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free. The blogger behind Yang’s Nourishing Kitchen prefers to use the juice from fermented pickles as the base of her salad dressing recipe. Fermented pickles, also known as Jewish kosher pickles, have lactic bacteria — “good bacteria” — from its brining process. This bacteria is actually good for our digestive systems because of their probiotic qualities, Yang writes.

 

You can find fermented pickles in the refrigerated section of your favorite grocery stores. Why? They do not contain vinegar, which acts as a preservative. As a result, they cannot be placed on the shelves due to spoilage risk, she writes.

 

For this pickle juice salad dressing with summer herbs, Yang adds fresh ingredients such as garlic, dill, and parsley to brighten up the taste. Also, she adds a dash of Dijon mustard to kick up the salad just a little bit.If creaminess isn’t your thing, there are a few other dill pickle dressing recipes out there, including a vinaigrette from Tasting Table and another from Food 52.
Have fun dressing your salads!

Dill Pickle Pasta Salad Is Both Creamy And Crunchy

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By:Kate Streit

Sioux City Journal 

 

( Photo by:Spend With Pennies)

If you love the flavor of dill pickles, you need to give this creamy, crunchy dill pickle pasta salad.

 

A word of warning. The dill pickle flavor is strong with this one, so if you’re not yet a convert, it may be a bit much for you. However, Holly, the blogger behind the site, notes that you could also add sweet pickles to the recipe, which I’m guessing would balance out the flavor a bit.

One more tip — be sure to use white onions, not yellow, to avoid an overpowering onion taste.

This simple recipe takes just 20 minutes to put together and is sure to be a crowd pleaser. And it’s even better when made ahead of time, making it ideal if you have to prep for a potluck or barbecue.

Of course, pasta salad is not the only dish in which dill pickle is popping up. Devotees to the humble pickle have been incorporating it in all kinds of unexpected ways. Take, for example, this dill pickle bacon grilled cheese sandwich. It’s salty, tangy, crunchy, cheesy and just downright delicious

People If you feel like the world has gone pickle-crazy, it turns out our obsession with pickles and everything pickle-flavored actually comes with some health benefits. They’re packed with vitamin K, which helps maintain strong bones and also helps your body stop bleeding if you’re injured . People have even found a way to get dill into desserts, like with these salty-and-sweet dill pickle cupcakes.

The green color would make these the perfect treat for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

They’re also a fermented food, which means they contain beneficial probiotics, which are essential for gut health.

 

The high amount of sodium in pickles, however, is a double-edged sword. While they can help restore balance if you’re dehydrated and can even help relieve muscle cramps, too much salt can make you bloated and harm your heart health.

Everything in moderation!

This Stuffed Dill Pickle Appetizer Is All You Need At Your Next Party

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By: Augusta Statz

Magic Valley 

 

If you’re looking for the perfect savory appetizer to serve guests at your next party, look no further. Not only is this appetizer option memorable, but it’s sure to be delicious — especially for a pickle-loving crowd.

(photo by: Little Dairy On The Prairie)

 

This recipe for Stuffed Dill Pickles from Mid-Life Croissant takes the average dip situation and raises it up a notch. You’re not going to make a dip that’s placed in a bowl and served with pickles and pretzels. Oh no. Instead, you’re going to put the dip inside of a pickle that’s been sliced in half and cored in the middle — an appetizer you’ve likely never seen before.
Perhaps the best part of all is that the recipe only calls for four ingredients: pickles, goat cheese, parsley and oregano.

 

This appetizer is salty, cheesy, has pickles and is packed full of flavor. What more could you ask for?

And lucky for you, this isn’t the only pickle-filled starter dish that exists. If you’d still prefer a classic dip with plenty of bread slices and more for dunking, this recipe for a pickle cheeseball will change how you serve appetizers once and for all. Because seriously, if your appetizer selection doesn’t involve pickles, you’ve been doing it all wrong.

The recipe comes from Little Dairy On The Prairie and combines cream cheese, dill spice and dill pickles to create the ultimate topping for crackers and more:

And for yet another cheese and pickle appetizer combination your guests are sure to love, you can also easily make non-traditional cheese sticks by adding a dill pickle to the mix.

The recipe from Delish shows how you can transform pickles by stuffing them with mozzarella cheese, rolling them in an egg wash and bread crumbs and baking them right up.

Can Pickle Juice Really Cure a Hangover?

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Health

By:Kasandra Brabaw

Here’s what you need to know before swigging brine from the jar in your fridge.

 

When you wake up with a pounding head and cotton-dry mouth the night after one (or a few) too many drinks, you’ll likely find yourself Googling ways to get rid of your hangover, fast. And when you do, you may stumble upon a suggestion to throw back some pickle juice.

Some claim that pickle brine is the reason Polish people don’t get hangovers. Even Dr. Oz has endorsed pickle juice as a hangover cure. According to him, the salts in pickle juice replenish electrolytes that you lose while drinking, which can make your headache disappear. But is getting over a hangover really as easy as taking a swig from the pickle jar in your fridge?

Well, probably not. “The main thing to understand with hangovers is that they usually happen because people are dehydrated, and then also you probably didn’t get much sleep,” Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, a practicing family physician in Long Island, New York, tells Health. So yes, salty pickle brine might help with the electrolytes you’ve lost if you peed a lot, or maybe even threw up, the night before. But taking a shot of pickle juice in the morning won’t make your hangover disappear if you’re not also drinking lots of water and nursing your hangover with a nap.

Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which means that it’ll make you pee more than usual. That’s why you may find you have to go so often during a boozy night out and one of the reasons you feel so dehydrated the morning after. Yes, you lose electrolytes in pee—but it’s the water that really matters. “When you’re losing water, you need to continue to replace that,” Dr. Iroku-Malize says. She suggests that people drink a whole glass of water with every alcoholic drink to make the hangover sting less.

The only way to really prevent a hangover is to not drink too much, Dr. Iroku-Malize says. Her definition of “not too much” is one drink a day for women and two for men. Of course, it’s not exactly realistic that you’ll stick to only one drink every day, especially when special occasions like birthdays, holidays, and New Year’s Eve roll around. The next best thing to do is drink lots and lots of water—not gulp down some pickle juice.

If you had a particularly sweaty drunken night, a sports drink might help the resulting hangover, Dr. Iroku-Malize adds. Sports drinks are specially formulated to balance athletes’ electrolytes. Once upon a time, scientists thought pickle juice might do the same thing. In 2014, a small study of nine runners tested whether or not drinking pickle juice before exercising would keep them from cramping. “This is maybe why people think pickle juice will help with dehydration,” Dr. Iroku-Malize says. There was one problem though: The study didn’t show any difference in performance or cramping between drinking pickle juice or drinking plain old water.

Then again, it didn’t do any harm, either. So if you’re invested in the idea of pickle juice as a cure—and you don’t mind the taste—go ahead and drink around a quarter cup next time you’re in need of hangover relief. But follow your pickle juice swig with a few cups of water, some aspirin or ibuprofen, and maybe a nap.