A shiok Shake Shack

NEW YORK — When we asked if popular American burger joint Shake Shack had any plans of coming to Singapore (for good measure, we pointed out that its Los Angeles rival In-N-Out Burger had already done a couple of pop-ups), its culinary director Mark Rosati simply laughed good-naturedly.

“We’re gonna be opening in Tokyo at the start of next year, actually. As for Singapore, we have no plans yet, but I’ve learnt a lot about its flavours and I would love to personally go over there and explore the city,” he said.

When it comes to Singapore food though, Rosati definitely has had a head start: He whipped up a special one-off Singapore-inspired burger and an ondeh ondeh shake for Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) Singapore: Inside Out event last week.

While Shake Shack has done one-off burgers for special events (such as the 10th anniversary of its flagship Madison Square Park outlet last year), the Singapore burger-and-shake deal was the first time it had done so for a specific country.

Rosati said he took the classic Shake Shack cheeseburger and added a sambal-based mayonnaise that had a little lime juice “for extra zip”. He then marinated onions in more sambal, dusted these in flour and fried these, as extra topping. He got the idea to use sambal when the STB took him to a few restaurants and gave him cookbooks for inspiration.

“The one ingredient that I started to see a lot was sambal. I’ve heard about its importance and how it’s featured in a lot of iconic dishes in Singapore,” he said.

As for the shake, the STB had sent over some samples of ondeh ondeh made in New York. “To be honest, it was the first time I’d ever tasted pandan leaf and I absolutely fell in love with the flavour,” said Rosati. “I can’t quite put my finger on the taste: It’s kind of vanilla, kind of other stuff, but it’s a delicious, wonderful thing. Combined with coconut and the sugar, it actually worked wonderfully in a milk shake.”

This let’s-see-where-this-takes-us ethos is ingrained in Shake Shack’s DNA. After all, while it is now famous for its fast casual dining burgers and shakes, its roots were in fine dining — and hotdogs.

Its founder, restaurateur Danny Meyer, had two restaurants, Tabla and Eleven Madison Park, overlooking what was then a dodgy-looking Madison Square Park. “Everyone said you would always want to walk around it and never through it because it was so unsafe,” said Rosati.

His boss eventually decided to chip in to revitalising the park. “Part of it was having more art installations. If you give people a reason to come to the park, it gives the bad people an excuse to leave. We were asked to have a hotdog cart as one of the installations,” said Rosati.

They would serve Chicago-style hotdogs (with fresh toppings prepped at Eleven Madison Park) and freshly-squeezed lemonade. The burgers, frozen custard and shakes — not to mention the famous kiosk — came a bit later.

“We did not think the burgers would be the focal (point),” admitted Rosati. “We thought it would be the hotdogs as they had always been. But when people tasted the burger and saw how much effort we put into making the beef delicious, we captured New York’s imagination. This very famous line started to form and wrap around the park, where people would queue up to two hours — we could not figure out what was happening.”

What Rosati certainly knows is what makes a good burger. It all boils down to the quality of the beef and the bun.

“If you’re not starting off with fresh, fantastic meat, it’s never gonna be great. The next important thing is the bun: We use a bun that doesn’t overwhelm the burger. The bun is there to absorb the juices. Ours is a squishy, soft bun, it doesn’t take away from the quality of the meat. Of course, it’s so much fun to put cheese and sauces and pickles and onions, but so long as the beef and the bun are great, everything else is gonna be secondary.”

As for the perfect burger experience? “The most important part about hamburgers is making sure you invite over friends to enjoy them with. Because it’s a very social food and you want to have friends there. It’s just such a fun, communal eating experience.”

Now that’s Shake shiok.