The ‘soggy burger’ at this Queen Vic Market stall is sparking Melbourne’s next snack craze

Turkish$$$$

Are you ready for a new burger? When Tugay Ayvaz moved to Melbourne from Turkey three years ago, he had no trouble finding Turkish restaurants serving dips, kebabs and kofte. Gozleme were all good, pides were peaking. Still, there were gaps that made him pine for home. No one was cooking the late-night snacks he missed from the streets of Istanbul or Adana, where Ayvaz grew up cooking alongside his parents in their family’s eateries.

Where were the mussels, an after-dark nibble prepared by mobile vendors who set up on street corners and boulevards where people take evening strolls? What about fish sandwiches, the most important snack along the broad Golden Horn waterway that bisects central Istanbul? And most critical of all, why was there a troubling lack of “wet burgers”, a sauce-dipped slider that’s incredibly popular at food stands around Taksim Square, one of Istanbul’s busiest gathering places?

He pondered these mysteries while toiling at Brunetti in Lygon Street, working his way up from dishwasher to pizza and pasta chef, then leaving to set up Sosmos, a food truck that satisfies his own fierce food cravings while sparking Melbourne’s next burger craze.

Sosmos soothes the nostalgic hankerings of local Turks and introduces the rest of us to the delights of “soggy burgers”, Ayvaz’s cute name for the squishy sliders from home. Brioche buns are dunked in a smooth, sweet tomatoey sauce perked up with garlic, a little cumin and pepper. They’re sandwiched with beef patties and American cheese then put in a steamer cabinet, which is where the magic happens.

After 20 minutes of warm fug, the bun absorbs the sauce and the beef and cheese fall into an intense embrace. The burger becomes a soggy, steamy love-in, comforting ballast for the soul. Eat it as is or dip it in mustard: you’ll be given disposable gloves on the off chance you want to stay neat and tidy.

In Turkey, wet burger shops often have hero walls, celebrating sturdy diners who have put away the most sliders in one sitting. Stand by for a Sosmos competition along similar lines.

The mussels are great too, served either fried in a bready batter, or stuffed with rice. Long-grain white rice is par-cooked with allspice and spooned into mussel shells which are then steamed for about half an hour. The shellfish juices infuse the rice as it finishes cooking, creating another culinary group hug. Open the mussels, squeeze over some lemon (and drizzle chilli sauce, if you like) and you’re eating a snack that is so delicious it doesn’t seem right that it’s also so healthy.

Ayvaz aims to be as traditional as possible, but he’s made an exception for barramundi, grilled and piled into crusty rolls instead of the mackerel commonly used back home. The lean white flesh is a drier eating experience than oily mackerel but the Sosmos sweet-sour dressing of pomegranate molasses, lemon, garlic and olive oil brings welcome lubrication. Sumac-sprinkled red onion and generous heapings of rocket make this a super satisfying sanger.

Fish in a roll is an acceptable daytime food in Turkey, but soggy burgers and stuffed mussels are generally midnight snacks which makes this daytime operation somewhat off the mark. It’s like serving ice-cream at dawn: delicious, sure, but not quite right.

If you find yourself eating at the communal pine tables out the front of Sosmos, any Turkish people in the vicinity will probably be blinking in the light, experiencing a kind of snack jet lag. Given all this, it’s good to hear that Ayvaz is also planning a permanent city site that stays open deep into the night.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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