Loving the Porky

Vietnamese pork rolls rock.  Their reputation took a bit of battering a number of years ago due to a spate of food poisoning episodes (including deaths) during which the media called them 'poison pork rolls' (PPR).  Not so poisonous nowadays but the label has stuck.  My advice?  Choose your Viet bakery wisely and make sure they have refrigerated deli displays. 

*rings Spu's mobile*

Spu - 'Yeah what?'

Me - 'Can you get me a poison pork roll?'

Spu - 'Yeah ok'

Yep, you are one of my favourite foods.  I normally avoid white breads but for you PPR, I will always make an exception.

I have to say, PPRs are probably one of the best things to result from the French colonisation of Vietnam.  (Obviously other not so great things happened too but this is not a political discussion).  PPRs are a fine example of fusion food.  A baguette lined with pate and egg mayonnaise, filled various cold cut slices of pork, topped off with pickled carrots and sometimes daikon, a stalk of spring onion (or an onion variant), coriander, cucumber, optional chilli and finished with pepper and a dash of soy sauce.  

Just analyse that.  A baguette.  Not quite a French baguette but a baguette clearly influenced by French cuisine, right down to a scored surface.  The main difference is the use of rice flour instead of wheat flour and shaped more like an AFL football rather than a stick.  

Pate.  It is highly unlikely that Viets ate pate before the French rolled around.  Same with mayonnaise.  

Pork.  This includes cha lua and a pink rind pork slice (forgot it's name) amongst others.  I suspect these were 'ham/jambon substitutes' as the French style ham probably wasn't readily available in Viet-land. 

All the vegies and condiments.  That's so Viet.  I reckon the Viets thought, 'Hey, we eat a lot of fresh vegies with our other foods.  Let's see how tasty we can make this roll.'  Hey presto, the 'French ham and pate baguette' was elevated to a whole new, super level.  

I was a bit surprised to see in Paris that the PPRs used French style rather than Viet style baguettes.  I guess there's not need to imitate the baguette when you're in the Land of Baguettes.  However, the baguettes found in Australia are actually more 'authentic' and similar to that in Vietnam..... assuming you could label 'authentic' onto something that is essentially fusion cuisine.  I say yes!  It has gained authenticity in it's own right!  

I *heart*pork rolls and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.  *muah!!*

San Churro

Oh and because I needed to add more fat to my fried chicken dinner, Spu and I dropped by San Churro on the way back to the car.  This once-single-store-on-Brunswick-St has now exploded as a franchise around Australia.

Depending on the skill of the person manning the deep fryer, you'll either end up with nice or not nice churros.

Ours were nice but way overpriced ($7.50 I think.  Wtf).  I love fried dough but this is a bit much.  

Gami - Chicken and Beer

It's no secret I love fried chicken.  I hold it in utmost regard as one of the ultimate comfort foods to have ever existed.  So when I first noticed Gami - Chicken and Beer and realised they served Korean fried chicken, I said 'Yee-haw!  I gotta get me some crispy chicken!'  Of course, food is best with company and joining me tonight was ready-to-eat Spu, Gami-neighbours Tina, Shazza and Glenda and Dr. R who just happened to be in town.

The sign doesn't lie and yes, I can confirm that Gami sell chicken and beer but they also serve other Korean dishes if you've (weirdly) decided to come here not wanting to sample the namesake food.  We ordered a few on the side to supplement our plates of chicken.

Beer is available in a mini four litre keg which is their own 'famous house beer' ($42).  I had a small glass.  It was nice but I'm not sure how it compares to any other beer given that I'm not a beer drinker.

 Oktoberfest has distorted my view of steins.  Any stein not holding a litre's worth of beer looks abnormal to me now. 

Shazza and I shared some Korean raspberry sweet wine ($25).  Tastes like ribena!

We were given some complimentary nibbles with our drinks - prawn chips and pickled daikon cubes.  Acid helps wash out the chicken fat.

Our entree/side dishes:

Mandoo (fried dumplings, $12) with cabbage...doused in thousand island dressing and tomato sauce!?!  Cheese and corn ($9). 

I'd read many favourable reviews about this unconventional marriage of vegetable and dairy.  The sweet corn is mixed with mayonnaise, given a layer of supermarket grated cheddar and then grilled until a slight cheese crusts forms.  It weirdly kinda works but not really.  Then you wonder how drunk a person must have to be when they decide to mix the three together.

Onto the chicken.  You have the choice of original, sweet chilli (I think it's covered in gochujang) or sweet soy garlic flavours.  We of course, had to eat all three.

Half sweet soy garlic, half sweet chilli ($30).  It's a whole chicken. 

Full plate of original flavour ($27).  Again, a whole chicken.  We demolished both plates.  Not a single piece survived.  

What can I say.  It's fried chicken.  The meat was super moist with a crispy external batter.  That takes super-frying skillz.  You'd think maybe some of the pieces may be unevenly cooked but the chef in the back has portioned the chicken in such a way that allow all pieces to be cooked perfectly.  Not a cold bit of chickie in sight.

Is it better than KFC?  Probably not.  Is it worse than KFC?  Definitely not.  Can I eat this as alternative to KFC?  Damn straight I can.  Having different flavours is a bonus.  If I want plain fried chicken, well it's a tough choice between KFC and Gami.  Maybe the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices just have the edge.  If I wanted any other flavour of chicken, Gami is where it's at.  The chicken I enjoyed most?  Sweet chilli.  Much like other Asians, I do enjoy KFC hot and spicy.  Gami's is a nice, sticky, sweet alternative.

For those not wanting a full chicken, Gami also offer half chickens, boneless pieces and wings starting from a six pack.  Gami is the place to go when you want to eat your fried chicken in a more civil manner.  I realise that 'civil' and 'fried chicken' do not really belong in the same sentence but hey, if a place serves fried chicken on a plate and not a box, then it's civil to me.

I'll be back for sure!  *licks fingers*  Oh and Gami has two CBD locations just in case you're at the other end of town.  

Cafe Cibi

Continuing on our Eating Mission, Spu and I checked out the traditional Japanese breakfast offerings at Cibi.  I'm not sure if we were lucky but breakfast was still available to us at 2pm.  Cibi is housed in a cool bit of converted warehouse space and there was something a bit hipster about it that made me uncomfortable.  Maybe it was all the hipsters sitting inside, wearing their non-prescription hipster spectacles and hipster clothes.  

After scanning the menu, I settled on the Traditional Japanese Breakfast with all the bells and whistles ($14.50 I think).

Brown/white rice, potato salad, poached salmon, tamago and green beans.  

It also came with miso soup, nori, a sour plum, fermented beans (Tasted like smelly feet.  I didn't finish it.) and pickled cucumber.  

Spu had the soba salad ($12 I think).  Nice but I've made soba salad myself and it's not $12 worth.  

There's no doubt that Cibi is a different and healthier take on the usual breakfast offerings around town but I didn't feel there was anything that special about it.  It's nothing I've never eaten before and I find no novelty value in eating rice (or Asian style food for that matter) at breakfast.  The hipsters surrounding me certainly didn't help the situation.  I couldn't help but implant thoughts in their head - 'Bacon and eggs?  Hmph, that's so mainstream.' *adjusts hipster scarf*

Cibi.  Nice but I'm just not won over by it.  

The Bogan Burger

I'd never heard of the Bogan Burger until Tina mentioned it while eating at Abla's.  Served at the Napier Hotel, it comprises of a steak fillet, chicken schnitzel, potato cake, bacon, egg, pineapple, beetroot plus the usual trimmings of cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato.... why have I not heard about this burger!?!?!  On the side you're also given wedges and coleslaw.  You know, just in case you're still hungry.

Spuey said that he'd eaten it twice before and was prepared to join me on his third endeavour.  In preparation for the meal, I had only eaten salad all day and I was starving by the time I finished up work at 7.30pm.  I did contemplate sharing the burger with Spuey but hungry minds think alike and we ordered one each.  

Believe it or not, it was smaller than I expected but I checked and yep, all ingredients were included.  Although we didn't really get a schnitzel.  It was more like two chicken crispy strips.  All this for $19.  The classy toothpick umbrella is complimentary.  

Spu digs in.  

This is point where I surrendered.  I did pretty damn well.  The 'bun' is actually foccacia and not a burger bun.  

Spu nearly polished off the whole plate.  The only thing that stopped him was me telling him to stop and the fact that wedges aren't very nice cold.  

What can I say?  It's something I'll eat once and never again.  Weighing in at an estimated 7000 kilojoules, I'm ashamed and embarrassed of what I've devoured.  *hangs head*  The produce used in the burger is very much on a bogan basic level and I couldn't wipe from my mind images of bulk-buy packets of bargain steaks, giant bags of frozen potato cakes and sacks of frozen chicken strips.  It is what it is - a collection of a bogan's favourite foods altogether in a burger.

Eat it if you dare.  Starving for an entire day beforehand is suggested.  

Abla's

With my release from the chains of studying, I am now undertaking an Eating Mission.  Partner in Crime will be Spuey.  He's got nothing else to do until he gets handcuffed on to work, so might as well live a bum life to the fullest.  While I was busy studying, I delegated one task to Spu - compile a restaurant hit-list.  We are gonna trawl the streets, knocking down restaurants one by one.

So today immediately after picking me up from the airport, Spu and I drove to Abla's.  No pit stop to drop off my luggage, nah no time for that.  Must eat food.  Needing to bear the food load, Tina and Shazza completed the quartet and we were ready to draw comparisons to Rumi.  We learnt from our previous attempt that a weeknight reservation is much easier to obtain than Saturday.

The restaurant itself is a modest, converted Victorian terrace with minimal, dated signage.  I've driven past it numerous times and never realised it was there.  Walking upstairs, we caught a glimpse of the kitchen which looked tiny.

I have been avoiding alcohol in desperate attempt to retain brain cells for my exam.  Well, now it's time to destroy them! 

Our initial plan to 'order every main plus starters' was met with a 'that's too much food' from the waitress.  Tina had his doubts but lucky for us, the waitress was right and no food wastage eventuated.

Complimentary pickled... radish (we think) and olives.  Mixed dips with flat bread (labnee, hummous bi tahini, baba ghanooj), $15.  

Mjadra (lentil and rice pilaff served with yoghurt), $15.  Lahem Mishwee (marinated grilled lamb fillet with tabbouleh), $25.  Farrouj Mishwee (marinated grilled chicken with garlic sauce and tabbouleh), $25.  

Cabbage rolls (cabbage leaves stuffed with minced lamb and rice, cooked with tomato, mint and lemon juice), $25.  Chicken and rice (rice pilaff with minced lamb, chicken and almonds), $25. 

Dessert.  turkish delight, $3.  Lebanese coffee, $3.  Home made baklawa, $3.

There pictures don't really demonstrate so, but servings were decently sized and we were all pretty full.  Taste wise, there's nothing I could complain about.  Surprise of the night - chicken and cinnamon go well together!  All the food had a home-cooked feel to it, like it came out of a Lebanese mama's kitchen.... which it kinda did.  The mama's name is Abla.  This is the kind of place you would come to if you craved the comfort of your Lebanese/Greek/Turkish grandmother's cooking.  That seems to be what fellow diner Helen Kapalos did - she was on the table next to us!

Overall I can't say that Abla's kicked ass all over Rumi but there was something ... better about it.  Maybe it's the grandma vibe.  

Student Eats

I had screwed myself over by failing to adhere to my intended study schedule for an upcoming exam.  Getting back into studying mode after an eight year hiatus was pretty EFFING difficult.  In the end, I pretty much ended up cramming out of sheer panic.  This behaviour was unheard of for me in undergraduate days when I was quite the study champ.  I've been so damn stressed that for the past three days I have been waking up with heart palpitations and had episodes of dry-retching.  Bloody hell, if I had to encounter this amount of stress on a regular basis, no doubt I would be lying in an early grave.  

Anyway with studying comes student food.  Having holed myself up in a Sydney hotel room for the past three days, apart from eating a wedding lunch, I've been making the most of the nearby food options in Chinatown.  

Daikichi Ramen.   It was average.  Reminded me of an instant noodle ramen I had, which for an instant noodle costing about $1 a packet was pretty good.

Chicken Teriyaki Don from Kura.   Very much a uni student's paradise.  So far, so not a very nutritious trip. 

Having been disappointed by Daikichi, I went to Menya.  Even though Menya has slipped down my rankings after being spoilt in NYC, they still serve up a decent bowl with tasty stock.  I'm also happy to report the return of the hanjuku egg with a soft yolk :D  Maybe they've had a change in management.  

I'd like to say all that stressing and studying paid off but no, it kinda didn't.  I don't have my marks yet but the exam was full of stuff that wasn't covered in the lectures.  So unfair.  How dare they make me waste my energy.

So my post exam treat was a Korean ice cream.

No idea what it says but I liked the look of vanilla ice cream, honey and nuts for $2.   

Yah I liked this. 

Goodbye Aussie Burger

Whilst searching on FB for Hungry Jack's locations, I came across this group.  What the hell.  THE AUSSIE BURGER IS GONE?!?!?!?!?  After checking the Hungry Jack's menu online only to confirm the worst, I was so upset that I had to FB Moo the bad news.  The link on my last Hungry Jack's related post had also died.  I didn't want to believe it, but it's true.  I will no longer be able to eat an Aussie Burger again.  Crinkle cut beetroot and a microwave 'fried' egg will never adorn my burger once more.  Had I'd been aware of it's impending death I would have given it the good-bye it deserved and delivered a farewell chomp.  

It seems I'm not the only upset one.  There are several FB groups petitioning for the return of the Aussie Burger and many upset customers mourning it's removal on the Hungry Jack's FB wall.  

I might have to look at this in a positive light.  This might just be a personal message to me from the Hamburger God.  The McFeast and the Aussie Burger have both been removed.  They were my default orders at Macca's and HJ's respectively.  Maybe I should... stop... eating... burgers?!?!

R.I.P Aussie Burger, R.I.P.  I do hope to see you return temporarily for promotional periods.