Ninja tackles 31 burgers As I write this on National Cheese Burger Day, it’s only fitting that professional eater Riley Murphy has picked up 10 cheeseburgers to celebrate the holy day and shared the glorious stack on his Instagram. It’s just a normal day for his food-blogging alter ego Chompamatic, or The Chomp as his fans chant at competitive eating competitions. You’d think he’d be over burgers for the time being after smashing 31 burgers in August as part of the Frankston City Council’s Burger Off event. He scored the sweet gig of being the ambassador for the event.
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“I think initially nobody actually considered one person could eat all 31 burger specials in 31 days,” said Riley. “But I guess after some brief research into my Instagram and Facebook pages, the event staff realised I was the real deal and if anyone could do it, it’s me.” The Chomp was assigned the mission of trying all of the burgers during August. The winning burger was voted by the public, with a chance to vote given with every purchase. The winner of Burger Off 2019 was Nature Café Bar (above) for its vegan Stayin’ Alive burger — in fact, the cafe sold 239 of the promotional burgers. “Their vegan burger was absolutely incredible and I’ll never forget the amazing experience I had enjoying this ridiculously flavoursome burger, which was purely 100 per cent plant-based,” said Riley. We asked Riley to pick his top five burgers from the event and — no surprise — it was an incredibly difficult task. We’d have thought a burger a day would have been the harder part. So many of the special burgers were downright amazing in their own unique ways, but we
squeezed his favourites out of him, so grab you appetite as we jump in. Frankston Waterfront Restaurant served up The Reef and Beef. The contrast of juicy beef with the melt-in-yourmouth calamari and secret sauce made this burger an absolute delight to enjoy. The OPT Beef Burger by One Pear Tree was a classic basic cheeseburger that was made to absolute perfection — every element was flawless. Simple, yet so satisfying. At the Sands Hotel, Riley tried the Miss Piggy. It included four kinds of pork — pulled pork, pork belly, bacon and pork crumble — with a refreshing Asian slaw and secret Hoisin sauce so damn enjoyable that he went back for a second. “The Cheeky Squire’s The Squire was gourmet as far as burgers go,” said Riley. “The very best top-shelf ingredients and intensive culinary design went into creating this burger. A deluxe and premium experience from start to finish. German engineering at its finest was the Das Brat from Trims Restaurant. They somehow managed to combine every classic German flavour
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