KFC - Zinger Pie

I know it's not a chicken parma, but one of the first things that springs to mind when I think of chicken is KFC and with the introduction of their Zinger Pie I just had to try it.

So for lunch today I made the trek into one the KFC's in the city and picked one up.

How was it?

Pretty good. I wasn't expecting much from a pastry from KFC but they did a great job. The pastry on top was flaky while on the bottom it was soft. The casing kept the insides in without any issues and ther was no leaking from the top separating from the bottom.

The filling was good too. Had a little bit of spice (not enough to cause anyone any issues I wouldn't think) and the chicken tasted really good. I was expecting larger bits of chicken and less gravy but it didn't disappoint.

I wanted to take a photo with a few more bites taken out but I couldn't stop myself. That's a good sign.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

International Hotel - The Pepperbomb

Last weekend we went to the International Hotel for lunch. I was excited because there's still a few of the new parm/schnitzels left to try. This visit I had The Pepper Bomb.

Here's a picture.

As always, the chicken, chips and salad were good. Unfortunately I didn't find the pepper sauce to be too flavoursome, but the fire roasted capsicum was awesome and the rest of the meal made up for it. Not my favourite schnitzel at the International but that's probably just my taste buds, cause everything was made to near perfection.

While at lunch I tried a different beer as well. Normally I drink only the Indian Chief but this time I finished the visit off with the Noble Pilsner. Pretty damn good! And you can't go past $5.50 pints.

Next time I'll have the Mad Dog schnitzel. Looks pretty impressive on paper!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Random Parm Stuff

Quick and dirty mini-post/update.

A friend of In Parms Way is traveling interstate at the moment and sent me this little pic and review.

This parm from Melbourne Alleyway Cafe, RMB Cafe, smashed my appetite, as much as the Melbourne Storm smashed the Eels, and at $18.50 was worth every cent. The Neapolitan sauce was mostly sweet bit a bit of a spicy bite to it. The chicken was well cooked as my tender love for this great city. What made this parm spectacular was the large chunks of ham. The chips were as crisp as the Melbourne weather and the salad was delightful and tangy.

I've gotta say, one day I will get to Melbourne, the parm capital of Australia and try as many parms as possible. Shame you've got a light beer in the picture there though mate, if you're going to go light though, Cascade Premium is a good way to do it.

In other news, the In Parms Way team went to Irish Murphy's for lunch this last weekend. The atmosphere there on a Sunday is pretty craic'ing but our enjoyment was let down when they weren't able to do a side of vege's for one of us.

The Parm was good, but not as nice as it was when it got Favourite Parm of 2012.

Compare the picture above with this and you'll see what I mean.

I'll be going back there though. Look at this...

I dare to try chilli INFERNO option! I'll review the experience on here of course!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Gilhooleys Steakhouse - City

Gilhooleys in the Brisbane CBD is a pretty memorable place for me. When I first started coming up to Brisbane in 2005 we went there a lot. Many fun nights drinking and hanging out with friends, seeing the Irish dancers come out at whatever time of the night they did and do their jig, all with the backdrop of friendly CBD night time atmosphere.

Now that I've been living here for over 8 years, I still like to get to Gilhooleys and today Mrs Mega-Parm and I went for a nice Sunday lunch. As with most places I drag Mrs Mega-Parm to, they do a chicken parma.

We got there about 1:00pm and the place was pretty quiet. I like the atmosphere in there but when questioned why, I couldn't really answer it. The place feels homely and quaint, and there's no poker machines, which is quite strange in this day and age. Meals are paid for at the counter (which I love) and about 20 minutes after ordering our food arrived at our table.

How was it though? Picture below.

Chicken Parm with half a pint of Guinness 

For $17.90 it's a good value parm. Something you could sink your teeth into after a long days work (and just before a long drinking session).

Size: Quick large piece of chicken, both in area and depth. A fair bit of the chickens thickness came from the crumbing but the chicken itself was also fairly thick. A large salad, shame there wasn't too many chips there thought.

Chicken: Cooked well, juice and succulent. The crumbing was pretty boring and a little soggy on the underside though.

Sauce: Tasted a bit like tomato paste, the kind of stuff you make homemade pizza with when you're not using fancy stuff. There was a good amount of it though and it did work pretty well with the rest of the meal.

Ham: Just one large piece of ham in between the sauce and the cheese. Usually when they do this the ham slides around on the sauce but not here, it stayed in place. Nice ham too, could have done with another layer, or a bit more ham and cut up.

Cheese: Lots of cheese, was melting over the edge of the schnitzel. Could have used just a fraction longer under the grill to give us a bit of a crispy outer later. Can't fault its flavour though, worked well with the ham and sauce.

Chips: Nice pubs chips. Needed a bit of salt or sauce (they supplied the sauce on the plate). Cooked well though could have done with a few more chips.

Salad: Leafy salad with a tasty balsamic type dressing. Most of it was stolen by Mrs Mega-Parm though.

Close up of the half eaten parma

All in all the meal was good. At the end I had polished off everything on the plate and was extremely full. The service was great and our meal was fairly inexpensive. There's also something to be said about Guiness in an Irish pub too, it just tastes better.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

International Hotel - All Parmed Up!

A couple of weeks ago I learned that The International Hotel has done a revamp of their menu. A fair bit has changed but what excited me most is that they've gone from three parms to a whopping eight different parms.

We went there for lunch today. Having already had The Original, The Ploughman and the Parmigiana previously there was a bit of a decision to make. In the end, I went with The Smoking Hog (what a freaking cool name too).

As far as chicken schnitzel meals go, the Smoking Hog was awesome. The BBQ sauce was sweet and tangy and the bacon was thick and delicious. Chips and salad were standard International Hotel fare and were enjoyed as always. And the chicken was thick and succulent.

Halfway through the Smoking Hog!

Aside from the Buccaneer (not much of a seafood eater), I've got another three parms to check out (though I've had the Mexican before it was taken off the last menu, so I'll have to have it again). As always, the pints of Indian Chief were awesome and the service was good. Will be back again soon.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

The Smoke BBQ - Authentic American BBQ

No one can accuse Dave the Mega-Parm of not taking one for the team. Instead of getting a sweet and juicy pulled pork sandwich while out for lunch today at The Smoke BBQ, I had to get the delicious and tasty pulled chicken sandwich. Ok, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice as the chicken sandwich was awesome and something that is deserving of all the praise I can heap upon it.

Being our first trip to The Smoke BBQ we had to start with an entree; I present to you, The Smoke Onion rings.

I've had a few onion rings in my time but these were really good. They'd just come out of the deep fryer and were hot and crunchy. The flavour was spot on though they could have done with thicker bits of onion in the middle. The dipping sauce was pretty damn tasty too.

After the onion rings and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which was nice but nothing to write home to mum about) our meals came out.

The chicken was amazing, tasted really smokey and was juicy and flavoursome. There wasn't a huge amount of St Louis sauce but there was plenty of garlic mayo, that's not an issue though as it was really good. They're not lying when they say "soft bread roll", soft and delicate but kept up to the moistness of the meal and didn't fall apart.

One small gripe with the sandwich though, too much spinach.

Probably the highlight of my meal though, were the chips. They were as good as any I've had from a regular pub type place while out parming. I shouldn't be surprised though, this is an American BBQ restaurant. They're going to get fries right aren't they?

What got us keen to go to The Smoke BBQ was a segment on an episode of Food Safari from 2008 where the host went to The Smoke BBQ (I think it had a different name at the time). Wow it looked good on TV and the food was amazing in real life too. Will certainly be going back!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. In Parms Way has its 1 year birthday today. Actually it's one year since the first review type post. The site was created a couple of weeks before them. Thanks to everyone who's reading this!

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.