It’s Not All About London – #StreetFood
The Troll’s Pantry – Brighton
Want to know what’s in Stinky Breath? You might think you know but it’s not related to the morning after ten pints, 20 cigarettes and a dubious doner…The Troll will tell you.
Tucked away in the corner of a woodstore car park in Brighton is a Troll.
This isn’t any old Troll though. He’s not hiding waiting to pounce on you as you ‘trip trap’ across the car park. This Troll makes you drool and salivate. This Troll wants to make you eat a burger as you should with juices running off your fingers, down your arm and off your chin. This Troll uses ethically sourced produce and makes his own buns…yes, really.
Two years ago after working in dead end jobs in pubs and kitchens, the recession bit and the Troll found himself unemployed. Struggling to find a job, instead of crawling into a cave he set his mind to creating a business and year later after plenty of market research and the writing of his business plan, a kindly bank gave him some money and The Troll’s Pantry was born.
The Troll says that he just really loves working with quality food especially produce that is locally sourced and says that he has a little bit of a hidden agenda where he wants to try and encourage people to think more about where their food comes from which he tries to do through his Facebook page and Blog.
The original plan was make sausages but The Troll came to the conclusion that making burgers made more sense.
Beef being the most important part of a beefburger…who’d have thought it…The Troll’s Pantry longhorn beef steak is sourced from a conservation project at Knepp Castle in Steyning, West Sussex, where they are reared as a re-wilding project, roaming the 3,000 acre estate with as little human interference as possible. The quality of this beef shines through in the burger…makes a change to be able to actually ‘taste’ the beef.
The cheeses The Troll uses are St. Giles in the Imperial Burger and Ashdown Foresters Oak Smoked in the Smoky Mountain Burger, both from award-winning High Weald Dairy in Sussex and from Alsop & Walker, Sussex blue in the infamous ‘Stinky Breath’ sauce for ‘The Troll’s Stinky Breath Burger‘. By this stage, I am sure you’re thinking, why ‘Troll’ and ‘Stinky Breath’? Think World of Warcraft, I won’t say any more and give away ALL The Troll’s little secrets, you’ll have to go and ask him yourself, he may blush!
The highest quality of beef in your burger is essential to producing the best burger on the block but so is having a bun than can handle the meat…the sauce…the juices and these buns made by The Trolls own gnarled fingers certainly do the job with aplomb. He doesn’t really have gnarled fingers, honest!
The Troll’s Pantry really is worth a visit if you’re ever in his neighbourhood. I plumped for the Smoky Mountain Burger (Bourbon bacon jam, home made BBQ sauce, smoked foresters cheese, caramelised onions, smoked garlic mayo, salad) on my visit, as it was a little too early to brave The Troll’s Stinky Breath Burger and the Stinky Sauce ((Brighton Blue cheese, Sussex beer, anchovies, garlic) but I will be back for that I guarantee you.
True to form of a good burger, yes, as I ate, the juices oozed and dribbled and I submerged myself in beefy, smoky burger heaven.
The Troll’s Pantry isn’t the only food hero gracing the streets of Brighton, there is soon to be a weekly Street Food Market called Street Diner, launching on 26th April 2013 in Queen’s Road. Really looking forward to popping along, seeing The Troll and all the other fine Street Food traders of Sussex.
Are you dribbling yet? No? OK, here’s another burger porn pic to help you…
You can catch up on the whereabouts of The Troll’s Pantry via his Facebook page and on Twitter @thetrollspantry
