Swims into Your Mouth

Jiayang Fan in a recent restaurant review of the Fat Monk prepped our taste buds for Chef McCue’s version of a Duck Burger:

“The same flagrantly decadent sensibility applies to the Fat Monk’s pièce de résistance, the duck burger, which took McCue more than a year to perfect and turned into an alchemy project of sorts. Among the questions plaguing the chef during the burger’s gestation:

“Where do you find a bun sturdy enough so the grease doesn’t bleed through?” and “How do you deliver the pungent immediacy of duck breast?”

The answers: pain de mie from Balthazar; stuff the duck meat with Emmentaler cheese and pile on whole shallots roasted in fat and foie-gras aioli until “everything oozes.”

Of course, these questions had already been answered... across the river ... as residents in Bayonne have been flagellating themselves for years with Rikkard Riason’s Duck Burger, a delight only to be found at his very ultra hip restaurant, The Rancid Rabbi.

The good Chef was reluctant to share his recipe, but he loosened up (and who wouldn’t?) over a bottle of 50 year old Glen Mhor and he let loose with his contribution to the culinary world of Bayonne, NJ:

“You got to start with a Duck that hasn’t flown more than 120 miles from the kitchen. Forget Canadian - we look for birds from small ponds only in the Greater New York area. Only the choice Duck Breasts are used and these are soaked in a rum-based cabbage juice for 3 days before fine grinding. Added to the duck are diced anchovies, creamed pistachio nuts, sour creme, mustard, salt and pepper, ripe camembert, and solidified watermelon pulp. The patties are thinly hand pressed and sustain a 4 hour cooling stage. Before broiling for 2 minutes, they are adorned with a ginger-turnip jelly. The Duck Burger is only served within a split bagel - not forgetting to blanket with layers of watercress, Black Chanterelle mushrooms and Chilaca peppers. The top of the bagel is dredged with Black Cow Vodka and is brought to the table to be flambééd.”

Unfortunately, fries aren’t on the menu. Best to bring your own from the MacDonald’s found next door.