International Hotel

On what is pretty easily the crappiest Brisbane weather day in at least the last year we headed off to the International Hotel for lunch and a few beers. It's no secret to anyone that knows me and the team at In Parms Way that I we're huge fans of the International Hotel but this was the first time we've been there for lunch.

A quick picture to show why we hold the International Hotel in such regard.

This is a pint of their Indian Chief. Yes, the International Hotel has it's own micro brewery and yes that beer has a slice of lemon in it. The first sip of the Indian Chief is quite bitter but it has this delicious citrus after note, even without the slice of lemon. After a brief chat with the bar staff I learned that there is also orange in the beer. Quite interesting. I've even had dreams about this beer with today being the third Sunday in a row that we've been there for drinks.

But, we also went there for lunch and you know what that means, chicken parms to be devoured. How was it? Picture below.

This wasn't your standard chicken parm, it's the Mexico variety, and boy it was nice. The meal came out pretty quickly, we waited about 20 minutes from ordering to the plates coming out to the table. The price was pretty good too at $19.90 for the parm.

Instead of the normal cheese, ham and napoli sauce the Mexico has jalapeno's, pepperoni, roast peppers, Mexican salsa and guacamole. You can also see they've stuck corn chips into the top of the salsa which was a fun touch.

Size: While the chicken wasn't huge in area, it was quite thick. Definitely a meal that made me full at the end. There was also a fair amount of chips sitting under the chicken. The salad was huge but came in a separate bowl so was easy to remove (except for the leaves that fell onto the plate).

Chicken: Very nice, cooked pretty much perfectly and it looked/tasted like a lot of effort was put into the crumbing. You could see the herbs in the crumb too, something that I like.

Cheese: There was a small amount of cheese on there which was nice. Fairly neutral but helped hold it all together.

Jalapeno: Delicious and hot. My first bite had two bits of jalapeno and I think set the scene for the rest of the meal. There is never anything wrong when chicken and jalapeno's are mixed.

Pepperoni: Not too many on the dish, but they added a nice texture and flavour component. Could probably have done with a few more on the plate. I think ham works better on a meal like this because you can have a lot more on the plate without it taking over the meal completely. But the pepperoni worked really well.

Roast Peppers/Mexican Salsa: I'm going to combine these are they were pretty much mixed together. The salsa was delicious and so were the roast peppers. Did the job of the sauce just as well as napoli does. You can never go wrong with roast peppers and they were great. Cut up into small strips, small enough that you didn't have to worry about getting too much on your fork at once.

Guacamole: I'm not a huge fan of guac but it worked well with the corn chips and the salsa, had a few bites of chicken and corn chip too. Very good, fun addition to the meal.

Chips: Standard beer battered chips, didn't bring anything exciting to the meal but were good none the less. With the all the other flavours going on it wasn't missed but I think with a standard parm if might have been different.

Salad: Pretty boring and unexciting. At least it came in a separate bowl. Moved it away and forgot about it. Had what I think was a lemon vinaigrette on it.

Another member of our lunch team got the Ploughman schnitzel. I took a photo before he started eating it. Looked pretty damn awesome.

Bacon, creamy mushroom sauce, mushroom and cheese. I'll get that next time!

Overall I was very happy with my lunch. Nice food and excellent beer. It doesn't really get any better. If you're in the area (or even if you're not) I highly recommend a visit to the International Hotel. For $5.50 per pint of beer there's no reason not to go and check it out.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Glasshouse Mountain Tavern

First parm review of the new year. A few weeks in I know, and I apologise. Parm reviews will become more frequent now that the team at In Parms Way are getting back into the swing of regular life (and not the fun times of the holidays). Today we ventured up the coast with another couple to visit the touristy town of Montville and the rather ho-hum (but somewhat interesting) town of Maleny. On the way back we stopped at the Glasshouse Mountains Tavern for lunch and a few beers. Does the Glasshouse Mountains Tavern do a chicken parm? They sure do!

Picture below.

At $18 it's a lower than average priced parma. The restaurant was nice and the service was quick. No problems at all there. Though they did have a small issue with the Extra Dry tap, but it was fixed pretty quickly.

Size: A standard size chicken breast with a good amount of chips. They went well under the chicken. Salad was also quite large (but who cares?).

Chicken: Very nice chicken, well cooked with a nice crumbing. The thickness was standard throughout too. No complaints at all.

Sauce: The highlight of the meal, awesome sauce. Was tangy and sweet yet had a punch of flavour that made it amazing. There was a just the right amount of sauce for the dish. Wasn't a puree, had noticeable bits of tomato with some onion and a hint of garlic. Awesome.

Ham: Didn't see any ham on the meal, nor did I taste it. If it was there is was very subtle. It wasn't missed though.

Cheese: Nice tasty cheese and was quite thick. Cooked just right. Complimented the sauce and chicken perfectly.

Chips: Beer battered and cooked well. Nice and crunchy and heaps of them.

Salad: Standard parma salad with a french dressing. Would have preferred the salad in a separate bowl as the dressing tainted my chips at the end. Didn't detract from the meal too much though.

All in all a pretty good parma, was full at the end and if I was ever out that way and looking for a meal I would go there again. It was the first time one of our party had eaten chicken parm too, was exciting to be part of it.

Oh, our table also won the meat tray raffle. We spend $20 on tickets and won a $25 meat tray. But it was good fun, and good to help the local touch football team (touch football right?).

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Chicken Schnitzel - Australian National Hotel

Just a quick post today, went to the Aussie Nash on Thursday this week. They do a chicken parm but for $10 you can get a simple schnitzel and gravy from their lunch time menu. Wanting to be a bit of a tight ass (being on holiday for three weeks can be expensive) I went with the simple schnitzel instead of the parm.

Was pretty impressed too. Quick picture.

The chicken was cooked perfectly and tasted great. The gravy was nice as were the chips too. Salad was boring but you know we don't care about that very much here at IPW. Would have preferred the salad in the bowl and the chips on the plate, but for $10 it's a minor issue.

Will definitely go back for the parm! Will review when that happens.

-Dave the Mega-Schnitzel(?)

ps. watched the Brisbane Heat smash Warnies team from Melbourne at the Gabba afterwards, was awesome!

In Parms Way - Favourite Parm of 2012

Today is the last day of the year. And with the chances of a New Years Eve parm being relatively slim it's a perfect day to announce the favourite parm of 2012. It's been a big year for In Parms Way, heading to 21 different establishments and having a chicken parm at each. We also had a guest review which went down really well (more of those please everyone, it's good fun). As well as a few missed opportunities where the amber liquid played too much of a part in the evening and the parm review didn't happen.

But enough about that, what was In Parms Way favourite parm of 2012?

Irish Murphy's

There was nothing bad about the meal and everything great about it. For $15 it's amazing value and a parm I would recommend to anyone.

Thanks for reading my crappy little blog. 2013 is going to be another big year, looking forward to it!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Ettamogah Pub

This last weekend we made a trip up to the Sunshine Coast. Eumundi markets were a bit lame, and the chef at the cafe we went to for breakfast in Noosa completely screwed up one of the orders, but the day was saved by the awesome and really strange looking Ettamogah Pub. Which was where we went for lunch.

And would you believe it? They do a chicken parma. How was it? Picture is below.

I was a bit sneaky this time and went with their Hawaiian chicken parm. It's pretty much the same as a regular parm except it has pineapple on it. The reason why is their regular parm doesn't have shredded ham on it. So it's either have a meal with one ingredient missing, or an extra ingredient. I like tropical pizza, it was an easy decision to make.

At $20.50 the price is in the middle of the ballpark. And the food came out relatively quickly. It was a nice day to sit outside on their balcony (and enjoy the sounds of the motorway go by).

Size: A fairly large piece of chicken. Was nearly too much for me to handle. A good amount of chips too. The salad was small but really who cares. We're not here for that.

Chicken: Cooked well, nice crumbing. Though the chicken was a little thin it's only a minor gripe.

Sauce: Very mild sauce, but I don't think that detracted from the meal. The pineapple brought a lot of extra flavour to the parma. And the mild napoli sauce complimented it very well. There was just the right amount of sauce too. There was also a bit of onion in the sauce which worked perfectly.

Ham: Shaved ham, a good amount of it but not enough to overpower. You got a hit of ham every bite.

Cheese: Nearly covered the whole parm, but if it did that would have been a lot of cheese. A good crusting on the cheese. Cooked very well.

Chips: Probably the weakest point of the meal, the chips were rather boring and needed seasoning. Didn't eat them all.

Salad: Small, but was quite tasty. Had a nice dressing on it that made it quite appetising.

All in all I was impressed with the chicken parm from the Ettamogah Pub. The schnitzel topping was pretty much perfect, they've gotten the balance just right. A thicker chicken breast and some nicer chips and this would certainly be in my top three for the year.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

The Boundary Hotel

I was so excited, The Boundary Hotel in West End was going to be great. When you clicked on their link for what happens on a Monday night it showed that it was International Super Parma night, with ten different types of chicken Parms to try, from Traditional to Texas, Pacific to Italiano and many others. It was going to be awesome! So we got there, went to the bar and was told the site was incorrect, there's no International Super Parma on Monday night, but we could still have a regular parm...

So we did.

How was it though? Picture is below. Sorry about the photo quality, the lighting is quite dark in there.

For $17.90 it's one of the cheaper parms. The food came out quickly, quicker than we could finish our first beers so that wasn't too bad.

Size: Chicken was on the smaller side. Not many chips and the salad was very small. Was still a bit peckish at the end of the meal, which isn't really what chicken parms are all about.

Chicken: While it wasn't the tastiest chicken I've had it was cooked well enough. Was a fairly thin bit of chicken though. Could have been thicker and would have made the meal much more enjoyable. 

Sauce: A huge amount of sauce, oozing out from under the cheese each time a cut was made. Seemed like it was tinned sauce as well, no zing or pizzazz.

Ham: One big slice of ham under the cheese, was quite thin and rather un-flavoursome. 

Cheese: The cheese was cooked pretty well, had a nice crusting while melted underneath. Went to pretty close to the edge of the chicken too.

Chips: Standard pub chips, they were cooked pretty well and had a nice seasoning on them. Probably the most enjoyable part of the meal. Not enough of them though.

Salad: Very nice dressing on the salad, not much of it though. Not that a small amount of salad is a bad thing. Made it easier to push to the side of the plate.

All in all I was disappointed with our outing to The Boundary Hotel. I was so excited about trying an international parma, only to rock up and it not be available. Sting and the Police were playing in the background as we ate our dinner though, that's pretty cool right?

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Irish Murphy's

This is a return visit to Irish Murphy's after my first parma outing there ended in being too far gone to remember what the meal was like the next day. We were going on a 12 Pubs of Christmas pub crawl and instead of starting on an empty stomach we visited Irish Murphy's for a meal. No jokes here, it was a warm day and we were hungry and Irish Murphy's was the perfect place to go. The beer was ice cold, the food came out quickly and the aircon was on nice and strong.

So how was the parm? Picture below.

The picture really doesn't do the parm justice, it was a lot nicer than my photography skills can show. As part of their $15 menu, you can't go wrong though. Options also include a side of veggies instead of salad and chips but I was having none of that.

Size: A medium to medium large size meal. There were enough chips to fill my up after I'd finished the parm without there being any wasting. The salad was also pretty well compacted into the little bowl too.

Chicken: Very nice chicken, slightly overcooked on the edges but not enough to detract from the meal. Uniform thickness throughout the chicken too.

Sauce: Tasty tomato sauce, not overpowering to underwhelming. Just enough to say "Hey, I'm here, but I'm not going to unbutton my shirt and hog the microphone".

Ham: Strips of ham, very nice. Like the sauce there wasn't too much or not enough. Just the right amount of ham.

Cheese: Awesome cheese and cooked perfectly. Like the other toppings the balance was just right. My only gripe here is the cheese didn't cover the whole parm. Was pretty close though, probably only two or three fork-fulls that were missing all three toppings.

Chips: In one word, perfect. The best chips I've had with a chicken parm meal since starting this blog. Crunchy beer battered chips, fluffy in the middle. Doesn't get any better than this.

Salad: For once, a nice salad. In a separate bowl, with what I've been lead to believe was a french dressing. Had a bite or two and passed it on to my better half. She finished it.

For $15 a chicken parm doesn't get better than this. Couple that with a nice atmosphere, relatively cheap beers and aircon blowing a winters chill into the dining area makes this the best chicken parm I've had since starting this blog.

I'm sorry Irish Murphy's for being too drunk the first time, but I am glad we went back.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. I didn't get any cucumber in my beer this time. A big FU to MC and PS.