Elephant Arms - Parmageddon

It was blind luck that I found out about Parmageddon at The Elephant Arms, and I am glad so I did. For the low price of $5 (and any drink purchase) you can choose from six different parms. Only catch is you have to go there on a Thursday night. Not really the best night for us workers, but you only live once. So why not.

We crewed up after work and headed to The Elephant Arms on what was probably the coldest night ever in Brisbane. Got there about 6:00pm and headed to the outdoor area after ordering some drinks. After finally finding the parma menu we ordered our food. With six different parms to choose from it was pretty exciting.

1. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Ham, Cheese and Napoli Sauce
2. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Ham, Pineapple, Cheese and Napoli Sauce
3. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Chorizo, Olive, Fetta and Napoli Sauce
4. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Pumpkin, Chickpea, Cheese, Tzatziki and Tandoori Sauce
5. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Bean Salsa, Cheese, Guac, Corn Chips and Sour Cream
6. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Chefs Famous Gravy

Pretty cool. Enough there to have some important decisions to make. I went with the Chorizo parm while the rest of the crew had the Mexican and Indian parms. How was the Chorizo parm? Picture is below.

I can't really review this like a regular parm, but for $5 it was an absolutely ripping meal. The salad was tasty enough (for a salad). The chicken was really well prepared and cooked and the toppings were pretty good. It could have done with a more generous helping of toppings but really, for such a low cost the meal was great. The chips were pretty boring and there wasn't enough of them. But the quality of the chicken made up for it.

It's probably only the second time I've been to the Elephant Arms (and the first time I've kept my shirt on) but I would definitely go there again. Monday and Wednesday is $5 steak night, and Tuesday is $1 tacos so we might be there again sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the great meal Elephant Arms. Brisbane needs more fun time parm joints, keep it up!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Bitter Suite

I'm going to say this right off the bat, this isn't going to be a chicken parm review. "This is a parm reviewing blog though Mega-Parm, what's the deal with that?" Well, I figured anyone that is interested in reading about chicken parm is also going to be interested in roast pork sandwiches, and beer. So here it is.

It's Mothers Day here in Australia and seeing my birth mother is in another state we took Mrs Mega-Parms mother out for lunch to Bitter Suite in New Farm. We've walked/driven past it many times and I'm stoked to finally go there for a meal. We made a booking and got there a couple of minutes early. No problems though, we were pointed to our table in the corner and sat down. The waitress stocked with menu's came over a couple of minutes later, explained the huge selection of beers to us and left us to our devices.

I already knew what I was having, but I was surprised that both Mrs Mega-Parm and her mum also went with the roast pork sandwich. At $18 it's fairly well priced for someone looking for a nice meal, and there was plenty to eat. Not the largest meal I've ever had but certainly enough to fill me up.

The pork is absolutely amazing. Soft, juicy and succulent. Falls apart as you chomp into the sandwich. Sometimes with pork like this you have to tear the meat apart, or a huge chunk of it comes out when you bite, but not this. Historically I haven't been a huge fan of pork but this was perfect.

The roll was rustic and toasted nicely, and the 'slaw and lettuce was just what it needed. The chips were also pretty good but needed a bit of salt to draw their flavour out. We had a discussion about this during the meal though, it's probably better to be under-seasoned and have salt on the table, than to over-season in the kitchen. Great crunch to the chips too, they were fun to eat.

I also had a couple of beers with the meal, my favourite being the Fortitude Original from Fortitude Brewing. With 7 beer taps and over 60 bottled beers available it's definitely a place to check out if you're into beer drinking. Have a squizz at the beer menu.

We really enjoyed our meal at Bitter Suite and can't recommend it enough to anyone looking for a nice place to go for lunch. We'll be going there again (for either breakfast, dinner or a drinking session). Looking forward to it!

One last thing before I go, a huge Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. Mrs Mega-Parm is a Glutenoid. The bread they supplied with her meal looked pretty good and she was very happy it.

Koala Tavern

Who would have thought, that's a strangely named place called the Koala Tavern in Capalaba would do a nice parm, but they do.

After a morning of playing golf (very poorly) the In-Parms-Way team headed to the Koala Tavern for lunch and beers. The Koala Tavern is a strange little place, we walked around the building a couple of times before we found the entrance, and the setup in the main bar is like a massive lounge room with the UFC on a screen larger than the moon. Would love to have a setup like that at home.

We did however find where one orders food from, and at the spiritedly time of 11:30am we ordered our lunch. As you can see from the picture below, the Koala does a few varieties of parms.

After about 20-25 minutes our meals were delivered to our table. At $16.45 for the normal parm, and $17.45 for the BBQ parm that I ate, it's pretty good value. How was it though, picture is below.

Size: It was good value for $17.45, could probably have upped the price a dollar or two and made the chicken larger and thrown some more chips in there. Had no problems at all finishing the good stuff on the plate.

Chicken: Really nice, seemed like pre-made chicken before I started, but after eating some it was really succulent and tasty. I'd be surprised if it was pre-made. Really good and not a bad size either. Juicy on the inside, and crispy on the outside, can't ask for much more with crumbed chicken to be honest.

Cheese: Not much cheese on top, could have done with a little bit more.

Meat Toppings: The bacon was crispy but didn't have much flavour. The pepperoni on the other hand, was delicious, delectable and delightful. Gave the meal a really tasty BBQ meat lovers pizza kind of vibe. 

Sauce: As mentioned above, the BBQ sauce helped give the meal a nice BBQ meat lovers pizza feeling. Worked really well with the nicely cooked schnitzel.

Salad: Boring and uneventful. Didn't taint the meal in any way however, and was easy to push to the side. Which is a thumbs up to Dave the Mega-Parm.

Overall, the Koala Tavern experience was a good one. Plenty of parms to choose from and $13 jugs of beer, there isn't much to not like. If this was my "local" I wouldn't complain.

Another at the table had the regular parm. Said it was pretty tasty.

As a quick aside, In Parms Way is now on Facebook. If you're a fan of parm (and who isn't), click the Like button.

Looking forward to the next meal!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Burleigh Heads Hotel

On a fine Autumn day in South East Queensland we made the trek down to the Gold Coast for markets and lunch. Our destination for lunch was the Burleigh Heads Hotel. I'd done my parm-research before hand, knowing full well they served chicken parm, and that is what I had.

So how was the chicken parm? I'll start with the picture.

We got to the hotel at about 12:20pm and the place was nearly full. Only a handful of tables inside and out were available with a few more having reserved signs. If we were another 15 minutes later I don't think we would have gotten a table straight away. Not that it would have been a bad thing, they have Sail & Anchor's Monkey Fist beer on tap and I would quite happily have sat there drinking away until a table freed up.

But we got our table, took a look at the menu and Mrs In-Parms-Way went and ordered our food. About 25 to 30 minutes later the food came out. Something we all noticed about the Burleigh Heads Hotel is the size of the meals. The prices are slightly higher than you'd expect for "pub-grub" but the meals were massive. One lady near us had a Cesar salad that was larger than her head. And her head wasn't overly small, was normal size. Just an enormously large salad.

Anyway.

Size: As mentioned above, it was massive. By far the largest chicken parm I have eaten. And they didn't skimp on the chips or salad either. For $24 it was well worth it. I'd say a couple could pretty easily share this for dinner.

Chicken: Perfectly cooked, succulent and moist in the middle. The crumbing was thick but tasty. Slightly overcooked on the edges but only just. One could even argue that is more preferable for a bit of extra crunch.

Cheese: Just like the chicken, the cheese was perfect. Heaps on there, went near close to the edges all over and they even let some fall onto the hot plate and get all crispy. Was delicious.

Ham: Fairly non-existent. Was small bits of shredded ham. Didn't add too much to the overall flavour of the meal.

Sauce: Lots of chunky tomato sauce under the cheese. Was quite mild in flavour and a little bit sweet. I prefer parm sauce to be a bit higher in the flavour mix, but the tasty chicken and cheese helped bring the sauce up.

Chips: Standard pub chips. Were very lightly seasoned and needed some help from the salt shaker. Was plenty of them on the plate and under the chicken. I didn't get close to finishing them.

Salad: As far as the green accompaniments go, the salad here was pretty good. Shredded beet, green leaf stuff, mild vinaigrette and what I've never seen before, sweet potato chips. All little and over the top of the salad to bring some delicious flavour and crunchiness to it. Good work Burleigh Heads Hotel, no salad has excited me like yours did.

All in all we had a great lunch at the Burleigh Heads Hotel. Service was good, drinks were cold and the food was nice. Burleigh Heads is a long way for the In-Parms-Way crew to travel but I'd certainly recommend it to anyone in the area.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Did he go to the International again?

Yes, yes he did. Two times in one week, and I am pretty sure we were there a few weeks before then too.

After having the regular parma last week there was only one chicken schnitzel meal left to have, and that was, as the menu puts so eloquently, the "Schnitzel - House made gravy and fresh lemon". Here's a picture.

Without the toppings they quality of the chicken really stands out. If it's good then the meal will be nice, if it's poor then it will be a horrible experience. There's no hiding here, it's schnitzel at its essence. 

So how was it? Pretty nice, just like the other parma's at the International it was cooked well, with a tasty crumbing and far from small in size. I squeezed my lemon over the top of the chicken (and threw the watercress away). Chicken was dipped in the gravy as I went. Which probably wasn't the best idea as a) I had a couple of bites of chicken at the end without gravy and b) it made it easier for Mrs In-Parms-Way to steal chips and gravy from my plate. Would have been smarter to pour it over the chicken at the start.

As always though, the beer was delicious. Had a Noble Pilsener with the schnitzel that worked really well.

Thank you for the tasty meal International Hotel, see you next time.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. I'd also like to say a big YOLO to our lunch buddies! Haha.

The International Hotel... again.

Loyal reader(s), you're probably getting sick of Dave the Mega-Parm going to the International Hotel but I love it, I really do. The food is good, the beers (that they brew themselves) are awesome, the prices are perfect and the service is impeccable. There is really no reason not to go there.

So on a night where we had to find somewhere to go in a hurry (and with the Waterloo having a function) we headed off to the International Hotel for dinner and a couple of a drinks. This is the first time I've had the normal Parma at the International so a quick overview below.

Pic!

The regular Parma at the International hotel is middle of the road price wise at $19.90. The meal came out nice and quickly and the service was good as always.

The chicken was cooked perfectly, succulent in the middle, pretty thick but not too thick. The ham was standard thin sliced ham and could have done with a bit more separating. Tasted good though. The sauce was quite sweet and I don't think there was enough of it on there. Cheese was good and held itself well on the chicken. Would have been a bit better if it went all the way to the edge of the chicken though. I'm dwelling on the minor negatives too much though, it was a really good meal.

All in all, I am full and happy. There is nothing more you can ask for with a dinner. Thank you International Hotel!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

International Hotel - Ploughman Edition

Regular readers of this blog would know that I have a huge man-crush on the International Hotel in Brisbane's Spring Hill. And what makes it even more "In Parms Way Friendly" is they do a couple of varieties of chicken parm.

With today being Palm Parm Sunday we had to go out for lunch, and what better place than the International Hotel.

As we've already been there before this won't be a long post, but just a quick outline of what the Ploughman Chicken Parm is like. Here is a picture...

The ploughman has chicken, chips and salad like a regular parm. And some cheese too, but instead of napoli we're met with a delicious and tasty mushroom sauce. And no ham, this is bacon siting on top of the cheese. Two field mushrooms finish the dish.

It was pretty damn tasty too, the chicken was cooked just right, and aside from being a touch too thick in places it couldn't be faulted. The whole meal had a really nice earth flavour to it and the chips we're done spot on.

I only had a touch of salad, being in a separate bowl I could offer it to "Mrs In Parms Way" as her seafood stuff wasn't too large. She enjoyed it but said the dressing was a bit strong...

Footballs about to start again, see you next time and happy PARM SUNDAY!!

-Dave the Mega-Parm