Chef vs. Public BBQ: Gang Gang
Co-owners of festival food truck favourite Gang Gang, Nina and Morgen Wynn-Hadinata, give us a taste of the perfect burger and share insights of the food truck game.
The first hurdle that Gang Gang co-owner Nina faces with our Public BBQ challenge is the temperature of the not-so-hot plate. We’re at a communal electric grill at Karinya Reserve in Eden Hills as Nina assesses the situation.
“It’s not burning as well as I thought,” Nina says, observing the smashed beef patties. “The heat of the grill, especially on a beef burger, that’s the whole thing for smash burgers, but we don’t know what heat this is.”
We settle on the fact that, for safety reasons, a public BBQ can probably only get so hot. So, as the beef sizzles away – albeit more slowly than expected inching ever crispier at the edges – Nina explains the other elements that go into her perfect slider.
“You have to have a good sauce and that’s one of the things that we are quite good at, and we do all of our sauces in house,” Nina says.
Fellow co-owner Morgen explains further as she takes a toasted bun off the BBQ: “We love our buns”.
“We filtered through a fair few, Nina was very adamant about getting the perfect bun. I actually didn’t think it was a thing at first, but it is a thing, it changes the taste of the burger.”
Nina says the bun is one of the most important things to maintain the structural integrity of a burger.
“I think if you use a 100 per cent brioche bun it tends to just disappear,” Nina says.
“So, we use a semi brioche, that’s what makes our buns hold a little bit better, because there’s nothing worse than having a burger and halfway through you don’t have a bun left.”
Nina and Morgen started Gang Gang about nine years ago as a pop-up in the Adelaide Central Market. Then came their food truck, which is now a staple of the Adelaide event calendar year-round.
Nina says she grew into her role as Gang Gang chef thanks to helpful mentors, a love of food and knowing her flavours.
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“We learnt as we went, made a few mistakes along the way, we definitely couldn’t do the numbers that we do off the truck now (when we started) but yeah, I kind of grew into it,” Nina says.
Nina carefully places cheese in triangles over the patties as they sizzle, her preferred method so they fit nicely on the burger.
“I feel like with the sliders one of the biggest things for me is it’s bite size so you can do a few flavours, you can play with the cheese, I like a pickled cheddar or a blue cheese,” she says.
To the left of Nina, Morgen slices mango on the small BBQ benchtop.
“We cook a lot together,” Nina says of their relationship, then gives us a cheeky smile, “sometimes it’s not that fun”.
Morgen adds with a laugh: “We started Gang Gang before we got married, so that was initiation”.
The duo figured out their strengths and weaknesses running the business together and say the biggest thing they’ve learnt is how to adapt and problem solve.
“We went into it and were like ‘yeah, this will be fun’ and yes, most days it is fun and especially on the food truck, it’s a lot of work and you have to learn to be quick on your feet,” Nina says.
Morgen lists examples: “Facing the weather, gas running out in the middle of service…”.
Nina agrees: “It’s not like what a restaurant would have to deal with, it’s very different. All of a sudden there can be rain coming in sideways and it’s coming in on an angle where it’s going into your fryers!”
Back to the BBQ and in less than 10 minutes the beef patties are successfully seared, and Nina adds thinly sliced jalapenos and their mac sauce, completing the slider with a toasted bun lid.
“It’s super simple, not a lot of elements, but perfect for a BBQ,” Nina says.
“Today, I could have gone a different direction, but I felt like everything should be something that you can get in your local supermarket and easily prep.
“I feel like a BBQ is always something that should be less prep time, more about spending time together.”
Morgen offers us thinly sliced potato crisps to taste after she’s piled them atop the potato salad they prepped at home before the BBQ.
“You can put those in the burger as well and it gives it extra crunch and texture,” Nina explains, before revealing a salty secret to their seasoning: ramen dust.
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“You can dust them over anything and if it’s too spicy then, you know, just do simple salt and pepper, whatever your little heart desires, chicken salt,” she says.
Nina has been in Adelaide for about nine years since she moved here to be with Morgen.
She’s lived among the thriving food truck scene in Los Angeles, and before Gang Gang, she spent 12 years creating events and booking talent in Indonesia.
“A lot of the flavours have evolved into more American-style burgers, but we are known for our Asian-inspired burgers, so I did try to bring both Indonesia and LA together and that’s how Gang Gang started,” Nina says.
Now, the Gang Gang brand includes a takeaway joint at Eden Hills only a short walk from our BBQ spot, as well as Hindley Street’s 99 Gang Social and sister cocktail bar Thirsty Tiger, plus two food trucks, with a third on the way.
“Our third truck is this huge Mercedes LO-812 from like 1995, vintage, it used to be a motorhome,” Nina says.
“So, we’re gonna pimp the ride and I think this one is probably my dream truck because it looks like a food truck from LA.”
We walk over to the picnic table where an eager magpie watches on, waiting for the opportunity to swoop a snack.
Nina tells us she’s never experienced being swooped and we’re thankful a BBQ with CityMag doesn’t break her lucky streak.
We chat over sliders, potato salad topped with ramen potato crisps and mango sprinkled generously with tajin.
“This is how we would eat it at home,” Morgen says as she digs into the deliciously ripe mango.
They’ve kept it delightfully simple for us, creating a BBQ experience that’s authentic and easy to emulate – a one-esky wonder.
“You’re lucky I didn’t just get some snags and white bread,” Nina teases, telling us that’s what they enjoyed with friends in Port Elliott over the holiday break.
“I like to do BBQs when everyone brings a plate,” Nina says. “We do two proteins usually, but definitely salads, snacks and a good cheese.”
Gang Gang Eden Hills is located at Shop 2, 276 Shepherds Hill Road, Eden Hills.
Connect with them on Instagram @ganggang.au.
Download a collectable recipe card here.
This article first appeared in issue 46, The Festival Edition of CityMag.
