Out of Parms Way

This will be a short but sweet post. After "running" this blog properly for about a year, and then half-assed for another year it's finally time to close it up. Thank you to everyone that's read the stuff I've written, thank you to my friends that gave me the idea to do this and most of all thank you to Mrs InParmsWay for putting up with pub meal after pub meal.

I had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good (and some bad) meals but now it's over (I've discovered craft beer, no blog yet though, ha).

Be cool and in Parms we trust.

Dave the Mega-Parm

Bread & Meat Co

Just a quick post today. If you live or work near Fortitude Valley then you owe it to yourself to go to Bread & Meat Co for lunch or dinner (or a post drinking session meal).

Went there today for lunch, here is the Beef Brisket Dip with BBQ Sauce

Forgive the poor picture. I was too hungry and it smelt too good to faff about getting the perfect picture.

Not much else to say about it really, 36 hour slow cooked beef brisket, cheese, aoli and jus for dipping. You just cannot go wrong.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Statler & Waldorf

I know this is a parm blog, but we haven't been to places that do parms that much lately. What we have done though, is visit the awesome Statler & Waldorf on Caxton St in Brisbane's Petrie Terrace.

What is Statler &Waldorf? They call themselves a "gastronomy pub" on their website, and that seems to be a rather apt description. Excellent (albeit a little eclectic) menu, great selection of beers on tap and what I've been advised is a pretty damn good cocktail list.

This is our second lunch visit to Statler & Waldorf and once again they didn't disappoint. The service is impeccable, the food was absolutely amazing and sitting in the beer garden out the back on a lovely autumn day, well there's nothing else like it.

After umming and ahhing for a while I went with the beef cheek cheeseburger...

Now a few things to say about that picture, the nearly finished cider behind it is a small glass. The burger in the middle of the picture is not enormous.

The first thing that struck me about the meal when it came out was how perfect the burger bun was. The trendy guy that brought our food out said (after we all went oooh when the burger was put down) that the buns are cooked in house and it took them a while to get the recipe right. Boy they did though, the bun was perfect.

I have to be honest, I was expecting there to be a burger pattie in the middle of the burger, but it was more slow cooked and shredded meat that was kind of formed into a burger shape. Really good though, didn't make it bad, just made it interesting. The flavours were spot on too.

It was quite a tall burger, as you can see there is a skewer holding it upright.

The onion rings we also really good, but really anything covered in batter and deep fried is going to work.

I can't really talk about the other meals on the table (as I only ate mine) but everyone had a really good time. It looks like Statler & Waldorf change their menu each season, so it's become a place we're going to go to at least four times a year.

A few more things to add (in point form).

* Some of the meals come out on wooden boards with the cool logo on it. Great touch.

* The staff at Statler & Waldorf are top notch, and that mustache is super impressive (you'll know what I mean if you go there).

* Caxton St isn't that hard to get to.

* I didn't comment on the name of the place (until now). Haha.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

L'angolo Bistro Hamilton

Italian food isn't something that Mrs Mega-Parm (Adrasteia) and I have very often. It's not because we don't like it, we really do. But quite often it's hard to find a place that will cater to Mrs Mega-Parm's dietary needs without her having to settle with what she calls a "boring steak".

The bar with the kitchen in the background

When we were invited to a media night/dinner at L'angolo Bistro in Hamilton, and they said they'd be happy to cater to her needs we jumped at the chance to go. And we weren't disappointed. Instead of picking items from the menu we were given a taste of twelve different dishes. Five entrees, four mains and three desserts. By the end of the night I was surprised I could un-wedge myself from the table and fit out the door.

Entree

For entrees we were given two different types of pizza, a meatball dish with a delicious tomato sauce and bread, baby calamari with a pesto mayo and sardines marinated in chardonnay vinegar with breadcrumbs.

Pizza L'angolo

For me, the highlight of the entree options was the Pizza L'angolo. With mozzarella, pistachios, grated zucchini, diced tomatoes, parma prosciutto and shaved grana it just worked so well. Salty but not over powering. I would probably skip by it when looking at the menu but now that I have tasted it, I'd be hard pressed picking a different pizza to try.

The meatball meal was a close second, there's something really nice and homely about a rich tomato sauce soaking into crusty bread with delicious succulent meatballs on top.

I'm not really a seafood eater, but I had to try the sardines. I'm glad I did, and everyone around the table said they were amazing but I could only manage one bite. Mrs Mega-Parm even said it was her favourite meal of the evening. I'm also pretty sure I heard the waiter laugh at me as he cleared the table after the entrees, my sardine sat there with only one bite taken out of it.

Main

For the mains, we were given four meals to try. A risotto with prawns and a lobster bisque, a lasagne with truffle sauce and spinach, tagliatelle with marinated quail and, what was my favourite, crispy skin pork belly with mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce.

Pork Belly

I've only recently discovered pork belly but what we were served was heaven. A really tasty sweet mushroom sauce and perfectly cooked pork belly. It wasn't chewy or fatty but just melted as it was eaten. And the crackling was awesome. I could hear others on the table eat it, and I am sure they could hear me too. I didn't finish all of the courses during this evening (as it's a lot of food) but I could easily have had a second serving of the pork belly.

The lobster risotto looked pretty epic too, coming out with the lobsters on there with their antennae sticking out everywhere. Was quite the sight.

Dessert

All good meals end with dessert, and this was no exception. We were given a single plate with three different dessert offerings. A dark chocolate tarte with cherry gelato, an Italian donut with chantilly cream and little chocolate truffles filled with nuts.

Dessert



I was a huge fan of the truffles, all decadent and chocolaty with the nuts in the middle. Both of mine were eaten very quickly.

Wines

All throughout the evening they supplied us with wines that matched the meals we were eating. I'm not much of a wine person so I can't really comment on them too much, but it was a lovely touch.

All in all I had a great evening at L'angolo Bistro. The food was amazing, the staff there are very friendly and kind and the place itself looks great. There's even a nice little "glassed" off outside area that would be great to sit on a nice warm day and have a lovely meal.

A few more things for the end of a blog post..

• The beer menu has Peroni Gran Riserva Doppio Malto on it that I had never heard of but want to try.
• L'angolo means "The Angle", named because they're on the corner of a building.
• The menu had dietary info on it too (gluten/dairy free/options), a big plus in this day and age.

I'd like to go back for breakfast one weekend, mainly because of this on the menu.

For two? Challenge accepted!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Schonell Theatre - Pizza Caffe

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I like pizza. I really like pizza. Whenever we get pizza bought for us at work (which doesn't happen as much as it should) I smash it. I love it.

So when Mrs Mega-Parm told me about her trip to Schonell Theatre a couple of weeks back I was super keen to go and see it for myself. Not the theatre, I don't really care about that. It's the Shonell Theatre Pizza Caffe that I am interested in.

So on a Sunday afternoon Mrs Mega-Parm, her Mother and I made the trek to UQ in St Lucia on the hunt for pizza.

Unknowing what the parking situation is there we parked a fair bit away, but it was so worth it. They've got 26 "authentic" Italian pizza's on the menu with another bunch of Australian type pizzas. You can see the full menu here with a little snippet below.

We ordered the D and the U and they were both amazing. The marinated mushrooms on the U worked perfectly with the calabrese, and the garlic and oregano just brought everything out. The D kicked ass too, I really couldn't decide which one I liked the most and ate way more than I wanted to.

Here's a picture before we started.


It was a fair trek for us, but it was so worth it. If you're looking for nice, tasty Italian style pizza then I can't recommend it enough. The food came out quickly and was very well priced. Plus they also do schooners of 150 Lashes for $5.50.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Pepe's Mexican

It's not a chicken parm post I know, but I am so excited I just have to get this out. This last weekend we went to Pepe's Mexican in New Market for breakfast. I've never had a breakfast burrito and was really excited to try it...

And it didn't disappoint.

We got there about 10:00am (which was when the booking was for) and they were kind enough to allow us to order alcohol. The food came out in due time though one meal was a little later than the others. Not by much but enough to be noticed.

The burrito I had was the Sepremo and it lived up to its name. All the ingredients in it worked well together, and the serving of hash that was also on the wooden plate was awesome too. You get your sauces in separate bowls too so you don't have to have guac if you don't like it.

Great value for $16.50.

A couple of the guys on the table got the El Ranchero Grande, a huge bowl of Mexican food goodness. I'll be getting that next time.

Lastly, they have a beer on the menu that I haven't had in about 10 years.

Deperados, if you ever see it when you're out and about it's worth trying. Heck, it's worth going to Pepe's to try it!!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Brewhouse Brisbane

Last weekend the In-Parms-Way team went out for lunch and instead of going to one of our normal places we made the trek over the river to the Brisbane Brewhouse. Having been there a few times for beers I was pretty excited.

We got there about 1:30pm and sat down for lunch. Ordering was pretty tough, we had a tight-ass voucher from the Entertainment book but were advised we couldn't use it for the steaks, so two separate orders later we sat down and waited for our meals. They don't do a Parma but there is an interesting chicken schnitzel on the menu. This is what I ordered.

The two steaks came out pretty quickly (one looked perfect, the other was well over medium-rare) and after the rest of the In-Parms-Way had finished their meals, my schniztel arrived on the table.

As far as schnitzels go it was pretty much perfect. The crumbing was delicious and the chicken was juicy and succulent. The warm potato salad was interesting, with huge chunks of bacon and tomato. It worked well though. The slice of lemon squeezed over the chicken brought a great freshness to the meal.

I had a Brisbane Pale Ale to go with the meal which was also excellent. Can't complain about pub with a microbrewery.

All in all my meal was good at the Brewhouse, but one of the steaks being well over cooked and the huge time different in the meals coming out sullied our experience a little bit.

Up until the 30th of September they are running "Rib-Fest" and there is a pulled pork sub that has my name on it. Want to go back for that!

-Dave the Mega-Parm