MikeMikeMikeMikeMike ... you know what burger it is?
Slider bar’s ‘mystery meat’ offering continues with camel
The restaurant industry and much of society has been turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic, but at Green Dot Stables on the edge of Corktown, the 8-year-old tradition of rotating mystery meat sliders continues uninterrupted.
This week’s special: a Big Mac-styled slider with a meat patty made from camel.
Les Molnar, executive chef of the InLaws Hospitality group that runs Green Dot in Detroit and Lansing, said this is the third time camel has been on the menu since the group reopened the 1970s-era bar as a kitschy slider joint in 2012.
“Whenever we do the mystery meat, if it is something exotic like camel, I like to usually pair it with something that is recognizable to everyone,” Molnar said of the Big Mac riff on a camel burger. “This isn’t the time for me to do some esoteric sauce or something wild.”
In this week’s case, one all-camel patty — sourced from Sierra Meat & Seafood, an exotic meat purveyor in Reno, Nevada — is topped with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a plain bun.
And though there’s no sesame seeds, the bun is special in its own way. Green Dot’s former longtime bread supplier shuttered recently and the downtime during the first COVID-19induced shutdown last spring allowed the operators to diligently search for a replacement.
Molnar said the hospitality group recently made the switch to buns baked by Rising Stars Academy, a post-secondary charter school that teaches food-service skills to students with special needs.
But back to the meat of the matter: How does camel taste?
In short: not bad. I was skeptical at first but found the meat to be less gamey than expected. The major difference between beef was textural, with camel’s leanness adding a degree of chew you won’t get from beef. Buried in delicious toppings, you’d hardly notice a difference in flavor.
“These are meat camels,” Molnar said of the source. “These aren’t old racing camels put out to pasture.”
According to Sierra Meat’s website, the camel is sourced from Australia and is low in fat and high in moisture, with a taste sweeter than beef.
A 2017 story from National Public Radio lays out the benefits of eating camel, which is considered a destructive pest in Australia. In addition to the environmental benefit, camel meat is high in protein and doesn’t contain any antibiotics or growth hormones.
Beyond the benefits of alternative proteins, mystery meat sliders at Green Dot are an inextricable part of the overall experience, Molnar said.
“It’s always been the top one and two seller next to the cheeseburger,” he said. “People come here and always get a cheeseburger and the weird one. With the menu being a la carte, you’re able to try new flavors without committing too much.”
Other than the fact that food is now served for only carryout and delivery, Molnar said not much has changed in terms of Green Dot’s offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the mystery meat is one way to keep a level of freshness and experimentation on the menu.
“We’ve done testicles, both lamb and boar,” he said of Green Dot’s most exotic mystery meat offerings. “We’ve done alligator, ostrich, nilgai (an Asian antelope), camel. Kangaroo was a real interesting one. I didn’t think I’d like it so much. But it was a really good red meat. Getting into some weird fish is always kinda a fun one, like thrasher shark, and some other things you wouldn’t normally see. And not at the price point. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
A mystery meat slider at Green Dot runs just $3.85.
And now through the end of the year, you can warm up with a hot, holiday-themed beverage (think: hot toddies, Irish cream, buttered rum) from Green Dot’s heated and partially covered outdoor patio while you wait for your food.
The camel mystery meat special will run through Sunday before it gets replaced with the next secret protein.
“Not sure what the next one is,” Molnar said. “You’ll have to come and find out.”
Send your dining tips to Free Press Restaurant Critic Mark Kurlyandchik at 313-222-5026 or mkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKurlyandchik and Instagram @curlyhandshake. Read more restaurant news and reviews and sign up for our Food and Dining newsletter.