KFC - The Parmy

It's with interest and reservation that I head to KFC to get lunch today. A Parmy burger, from KFC. Can it be good? Can it live up to the high standards of a real chicken parma? At $6.95 for the single fillet it's not too bad value, and as always the service at KFC was fast (though I did get there at 11:00am).

I unwrapped it and this is what looked back at me.

The chicken was fairly thin and looked quite processed. Not to say it didn't taste good though, it was enjoyable. And the crumbing was good too. There was a lot of sauce on the burger too, and it was rather sweet. Close to being to sweet for my liking, but not sweet enough to take it too far.

The cheese and lettuce was unexciting but something that did surprise was the oatmeal bun. It was as sweet as the sauce however it worked much better and probably made the meal as enjoyable as it was.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Parmy burger at KFC. I don't think I'll go back again for one but I would recommend that anyone out there who likes KFC and Parmas should give it a go. There's also a double fillet version for the hungrier people out there.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. no ham, but you can have bacon on it for 80c extra.

In Parms Way on Facebook

Not much of a post here, but In Parms Way is now on Facebook. Get all your Brisbane/South East Queensland Parma information on Facebook as well as from this little blog.

https://www.facebook.com/InParmsWay

Looking for recommended parms too. Leave a comment or message on Facebook if you know of a good one somewhere.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Shafston Hotel

Mrs In-Parms-Way and I used to live in East Brisbane, but for some reason during the year we lived there we never visited The Shafston Hotel. That changed today as we visited for a Parma for me and a Roasted Lamb Rump for Mrs In-Parms-Way.

We got there at about midday and inside the place was already pretty busy. Not sure if it's because there was some sort of UFC fight on the pay per view or if it's because Sunday Crafternoon had begun.

What a great little pun.

Either way it made for a nice and lively atmosphere (and for a cheap James Squire 150 Lashes). We made our way to the outdoors dining room with drinks in hand, passing a cozy looking couch setup facing a good sized TV (prime real estate for a Sunday footy and beer session) and ordered our meals. I liked the ordering process for two reasons, the first is that if the server/order taker doesn't ask you if you want a garlic bread, then you get one for free, the other is that you pay for your meal as you order. I hate when we go out and have to wait for the bill. Granted, that doesn't happen very often when ordering Parms at pubs but I don't eat Parms for every meal (unfortunately).

So, about the Parma.

About 25 minutes after ordering our meal was brought to our table. Here's the picture.

Shafston Hotel's Chicken Parma, see the sprig of Rosemary?

Size: While the picture doesn't show it, the plate was fairly large. It's certainly on the larger size of average, and excellent value at $15.90. There wasn't too many chips sitting under the chicken there, it's just the chicken was really thick. The salad was quite large, I didn't eat much of it.

Chicken: Cooked well and was tasty. Juicy and succulent though the crumbing was a bit soggy. Only the last couple of bites had any crunch to them.

Closeup of the chicken. How succulent is it?

Sauce: Nice sauce, had the taste of a few different varieties of tomatoes in it. Or it could have been the little bits of onion that were in there. It could have done with a bit more sauce to bring its flavour higher in the mix, but it was good.

Cheese: A good amount of cheese, very tasty and cooked really well. No qualms or issues with the cheese in any way.

Ham: Really tasty ham, only problem is that it was only covering half the chicken and on the half it was covering, it was doubled over. My favourite bites of the meal came right at the end as I was having crunchy bits of chicken, cheese, sauce and ham all in one bite. If the whole parma was like those last few bites it would have been amazing.

Chips: Good pub chips. Nice and thin and were fluffy on the inside and had texture and crunch on the outside. Needed salt, but that's a minor issue and really doesn't matter when they put salt on the table. Better to add your own salt than to be saddened with too much. The crunch of the chips kind of helped the chicken.

Salad: In a separate bowl, which is always a massive boon. Had a few bites and took the bowl off the plate. What I had was nice, a good tangy dressing on it too.

All in all, we had a great lunch experience at The Shafston. The service was excellent, the meals were well priced and filling and the atmosphere was nice and relaxing. Perfect kind of place to kick off an afternoon session. Planing to go back some time just to do that ($5 beers and pizza). Very happy we finally made our way to The Shafston.

Mega-Parms plan is to go back on a Wednesday for the Monsta Parma experience.

Lastly here's a picture of the Roasted Lamp Rump. I had a taste, it was pretty awesome! I'm not really a lamb man all that much but I would have scoffed this down without trouble.

Thanks Shafston Hotel, we'll be back.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Archive Beer Boutique

This isn't the first time we've been to the Archive Beer Boutique, but it's the first time we've gone there with a plan for lunch. For those that haven't heard of the Archive Beer Boutique, well it's as great as it sounds. A fairly large size pub found halfway down Boundary St in West End. What are they known for? Beer of course. With 14+ (constantly rotating) on tap and over 400 in bottles it's where you go if you like beer.

Bridge Road Bling IPA (with the food menu)

They also however, do a pretty tasty lunch. And on Sunday they rock out with $10 schnitzels and live music. We didn't stay long enough for the live music (getting there at 12:15pm and leaving by 1:30pm) but the meal was amazing. $10 is pretty cheap for a schnitzel of this quality. It was fairly sizable and came with a generous serving of chips.

chicken schnitzel 

w beer battered fries, house salad, sauce

The sauce was a really tasty gravy with hints of pepper. The chicken had a delicious crumbing on it and was cooked to perfection. Chips were crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.

The Archive really know their Sunday lunch patrons as you have to pay $2 extra to get it with a salad . A year ago I would have not ordered salad and had been cheering they give this option. Now I am just cheering they give us the option. The salad was good, ate it all (except for the cucumber and tomato that was pinched of my plate, no complaints there though).

We had ordered pretty much as soon as we got there and the food came out soon after, about 15 to 20 minutes after ordering. The ambiance of the place is great too. All the tables outside were taken but there were heaps of tables inside for us to sit at. It's not always like that at the Archive though, been there on Friday nights where the place is pumping and you couldn't squeeze another person in.

Mrs Mega-Parm had the Pork Cutlet which she kindly let me have a taste. If this was "In Porks Way" I'd be writing a pretty favourable review of her my dish.

pork cutlet

w roast potato, apple, fennel, mustard, sage butter

Lastly, I am a big fan of wheat beers and when getting a second drink I asked the barman what he would recommend. After he suggested a few things I went with his last, which was the Moo Brew Hefeweizen. I really can't recommend this enough, it was smooth at first, nice going down and left no bitter aftertaste. Went to the bottleshop there (Next Door Cellars) to see if they have it for take-home sale, and they do!!

I've never had a bad time at the Archive Beer Boutique and once again it was great. I'm thinking of reasons to go back next Sunday...

Dave the Mega-Parm

The Queens Arms Hotel

On a rather pleasant winter's Saturday lunchtime we ventured off to The Queens Arms Hotel on James St in New Farm for lunch. Having never been there before I wasn't sure what to expect, but the restaurant section was very nice.

Already knowing what I was going to have made browsing the menu kind of pointless but they have a good selection of meals to choose from (unless your gluten intolerant, where we saw only one meal that could be eaten). Dave the Mega-Parm isn't gluten intolerant, so the chicken parm was what I had.

At $23 it's not the cheapest parm out there. It's also not the most expensive but it's certainly on the higher side of average. Here's the picture.

We ordered just after 12:00pm and our meal was out to us within 20 minutes. The staff were friendly and polite, and a bottle of water was brought out to the table as we sat down (I like that).

How was the chicken parm though?

Size: It's hard to tell with that picture, but the plate was massive and the meal took up a fairly large part of it. It was one of those funny shaped plates that is impossible to rest your cutlery on when you're having a drink or taking a break from eating. I was pretty full at the end of lunch though. No complaints, was worth the $23.

Chicken: My chicken was well cooked and juicy, though it was large in area it wasn't very thick. Some bites all I got was toppings. Not a bad thing, but one does want to taste chicken each bite. The crumbing was good but towards the end it was falling apart a little bit.

Cheese: Very tasty, though it could have done with a little bit more time under the grill to crust it up a little. There was a lot of it as well.

Ham: Nice pieces of shredded ham, a little bit more ham would have been good (or less cheese/sauce). When I did get a taste of the ham I was happy. Good ham is something that brings a smile to my face.

Sauce: Lots of sauce, and very sweet. Was a bit like tomato paste with its texture. Would have been more enjoyable had there been a little bit less. Or if it wasn't as sweet. 

Chips: Yum, beer battered chips that were cooked to perfection. Crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. They came out under the parm which made a few go a bit soggy, but not enough to cause any distress. The plate was large enough to be able to move the parm off them pretty easy.

Salad: One of the best parma salads I've had. Lettuce, cucumber (which I managed to avoid like a champ), olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Sun-dried tomatoes are one of the greatest inventions of all time and there was heaps in this salad. Perfecto!

All in all it was a nice meal at the QA Hotel. Would go back again to try the steak (saw two steaks go by to another table and they looked amazing). Plus the guy that brought us our meals carried all three of our plates like a boss!

Until next time.

Dave the Mega-Parm

Thank You International Hotel

Not a parm review, just a little story. Caught up with a bunch of mates last weekend for a round of mini-golf and some beers. After we finished our round we headed off to the International Hotel for lunch. My mates all know about this silly blog and a few of them hadn't had been there for lunch so it worked out great.

The only problem is we got there after 3:00pm and the lunch menu finishes at 2:30pm. One of my mates mentioned we'd all gone there for the parms and instead of shooing us away, they turned the deep fryer back on (or whatever they use to make the parms) and let us order.

Was a great afternoon, once again the International has shown me how great a place it is! Thanks guys!

Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. I had the Mighty Wangus Burger and it was very tasty.

Vroom Bistro

Having been to Vroom Bistro a few times for breakfast and enjoyed our meals, it was good to get there for lunch this weekend. They don't have a parm on the menu but I saw this last time we visited.

I was intrigued as to how a panko schnitzel would taste. As it turns out, pretty damn good is how it tastes. The chicken was a little thin but it was cooked to perfection. And the panko crumbing was far from plain, there was all sorts of other herbs in there, dancing on my palate  As far as chickens schnitzels go, Vroom's offering could not be faulted in any way, shape or form. It was also quite large on the plate.

That picture really doesn't do it justice, but that drink in the background is a 660ml Lick Pier ginger beer, it's a big bottle and looks kinda small.

The coleslaw was a bit of a surprise too, I'm not usually a 'slaw man but it had a really nice flavour and worked perfectly with the chicken. The salad didn't excite, fairly boring and not much of it was eaten.

The Chicken Schnitzel at Vroom doesn't come with chips so they were ordered on the side for $4. The chips were great. Beer battered, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Also came with a little tub of spicy mayo type sauce that was awesome.

Love you Lick Pier!!

I've read some bad reviews of Vroom in the past but I really don't see it. The food was great, the service was good and for what we ate, was priced very well. I'd recommend Vroom to anyone.

Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. if you sit outside you'll get to watch patrons drive around looking for a car park. It's fun (in a schadenfreude kind of way) to watch the trendy type think they have a park only to have it taken by someone else.