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

Breakfast Creek Hotel

I've lived in Brisbane for nearly eight years and this is the first time I've ever been to the Breakfast Creek Hotel. I've heard before that it's awesome and great and somewhere you have to go, but for some reason just haven't been, until today.

It's a beautiful, sunny, autumn day in Brisbane today and what better place to spend it than outside in a beer garden, eating chicken parm and drinking XXXX out of an f-ing wooden keg!! Beer off the wood!!! We got there at about midday and the place was already pretty lively. We took our seats, got a few drinks and ordered lunch.

Does the Breakfast Creek Hotel do a chicken parm? You bet they do. Before I show you the picture, I just wanted to say how proud I am of these ones. The somewhat new DSLR camera of the better-half was used to take these. It sh!t's all over what my little iPhone 3G can do.

For $29.00 it's well and truly up there is the price stakes, rivaling the cost of some of the steaks on the menu. But the service was pretty good and the food was ready pretty quickly. You order/pay at the bar, the staff give you a beeper and you go collect your meal when it's cooked and ready.

Funny thing about the ordering. When you go out for chicken parm there aren't really many choices to make, "I'll have a chicken parm please". When you go with someone getting a steak, hoo boy, "fillet mignon, medium rare, jacket potato and salad, put the sauce on the side, and wave it in front of a registered JP, to make sure its legit".... Pretty sure I'll get in trouble for this comment, haha.

How was the parm though? 

Size: Large bit of chicken. Chips were on the smaller side, could have done with another 50% helping. Salad was a good size, but salad is a salad, not too fussed about the greenery.

Chicken: Delicious. One of the best cooked bits of chicken I've had since starting this blog. Cooked perfectly, was a uniform thickness all the way through, juicy and succulent and crumbed to perfection. Hats off to the mother chicken, you did well.

Ham Bacon: Great pork product. Worked really well with the meal. Cooked so it was crispy but not over the top to be brittle. 

Cheese: Large amount of cheese, was slightly dominating the flavour in the middle of the chicken but worked well. Better too much than not enough, at least in this case.

Sauce: Not much sauce, but the extra cheese and the tasty bacon helped here. Would have been a more balanced and complete meal with more sauce I think. Or even sauce with a bit more flavour.

Chips: The disappointment of the day. Chips were plain and boring. And not enough of them to really help with the chicken. I did however dunk a few into the chilli sauce on my partners steak. That's some really great sauce. Whoever decided to pair chilli sauce and steak together is a genius.

Salad: Nice salad, had a mustardy vinaigrette on it. Plus all the "bits" were cut up really small (shredded), well except for the massive tomato, but that made it easier to push to the side. 

Here's another picture of the meal.

All in all, I enjoyed my chicken parm experience from the Breakfast Creek Hotel. If they could make their chips more interesting and mabe lower the price of the parma by $5 I would highly recommend it to anyone. As it is though, I would only go there again if there was a proper reason to.

Talking of reasons to go back though, the XXXX in the wooden keg was awesome. Less than $6 a schooner, and tasted much nicer than regular XXXX, smoother and more gentle... Love it!

I want one for home!

Until next time (tomorrow, it's Parm Sunday).

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Quick Post: Coffs Hotel

Quick parm update. Spent the weekend in Coffs Harbour. On Friday night (after a fair few beers) we went to the Coffs Hotel for dinner. Here's a picture of the chicken parm!

I don't remember a huge amount about it but I do remember it was pretty nice. Very small bit of chicken though. Would certainly go back and try it again in a more sober state.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME

Ribs and Rumps - Fortitude Valley

Ribs and Rumps holds a special place in my heart. Every time we travel to Sydney (which isn't enough) we share a meal with a long time friend and his wife at the Ribs and Rumps in North Ryde. To learn that there is a Ribs and Rumps, not only in Brisbane but in Fortitude Valley and walking distance from where we live was just too much. We had to go.

Ribs and Rumps are well known for their great steaks and amazing ribs. If I wasn't doing this blog I would certainly have gone with a Ribs and Rump combo but there is a chicken parm on the menu, and that's what I had. Picture below.

At $19.95 it was a middle of the road priced parm. While we got there just as it opened the service was very good with the drinks coming out shortly after ordering and the food coming out not too long after that. Was also nice to get a 568ml Little Creature Pale Ale for less than $10 to go with the chicken. Not my favourite beer but still very nice.

How was the parm though?

Size: Medium sized chicken parm. Good amount of chips. Salad just right too. I was completely full at the end of the meal.

Chicken: Good thickness to the chicken, consistent over the whole piece. Was cooked really well. The chicken was juicy and the crumbing was just right.

Cheese: A lot of cheese on the chicken, and it was very oily. Could have done with either a little less cheese or a bit more time under the grill. The cheese (and sauce) didn't reach the edges of the chicken either. Kind of pooled up a bit in the middle of the parm. Tasted good, although I don't think my heart will be too happy at all.

Sauce: Nice sauce, chunks of tomato in there, great flavour. Not enough of it though, and was overpowered by the cheese.

Ham: I'll let this picture do the talking...

Chips: Good chips, crunchy and well cooked. Though probably not exciting enough for a chicken parm. If they were paired with a juicy steak and gravy or ribs with BBQ sauce they would be perfect, but there just wasn't enough sauce with the parm to bring them the extra flavour they need. Certainly serviceable and they were all gone at the end (though I did steal some of my partners tangy BBQ sauce).

Salad: Surprisingly I really enjoyed this salad and aside from some strips of carrot at the end I ate it all. A really sweet sort of honey like dressing on top. Really tasty.

All in all, the parma at Ribs and Rumps was good. If they got the balance of cheese and sauce right it would have been amazing, oh and something extra for the chips. Not sure what, just something to bring them up a bit. I had a bit of edge chicken with the tangy BBQ sauce and it was amazing. A parm with that instead of napoli sauce, and maybe some bacon would be awesome.

Lastly, they have a massive red coloured bull out the front. I wanted to start the blog with a picture of its face and end it with a picture of its arse but didn't have the balls to take the second photo. Here's the head.

Until next time.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Beach House Bar & Grill - Brisbane CBD

For the office secret santa last year I was lucky enough to get a $20 gift voucher for the Beach House Bar & Grill. After sitting in my drawer for the better part of two months it finally got used last night at their Brisbane CBD restaurant.

It's always busy at the Beach House Bar & Grill so we went after work during the week. The service was good and the food came out pretty quickly. Jugs of beers are dangerous at $13 and we were lucky to get one of the raised up stool tables giving us a nice view over the railing. It's a pretty open place, even had a small bird fly past our heads during the evening.

The Beach House Bar & Grill do a few varieties of parmas. I went with the "standard" parm however others at the table had the Green and Gold (chicken with cheese, avocado and sweet chilli sauce) and the Sand Castles (chicken with salt and pepper squid on top). By all accounts both alternative parms were pretty good.

I can only comment on my own parm though. Picture below.

At $20.90 it's a fairly well priced parm. The meal is much larger on the plate than it looks in the photo. Certainly large enough to not be hungry at the end and pretty good value overall.

Chicken: Looks a little burnt but didn't have a burnt flavour, nor was it too dry. Not a very thick piece of chicken but it tasted very nice. Worked well with the other ingredients (which were the star of this show).

Ham: No ham on this parm, nothing to see here.

Cheese: Excellent cheese and a lot of it. Could have done with a little bit longer under the grill but worked perfectly with the sauce. Would have liked the cheese to go all the way to the edge though.

Sauce: Great sauce. No, amazing sauce. Chunks of tomato in there, tasted home-made like nonna used to make. As mentioned above it could have gone all the way to the edge of the chicken but it did spread out pretty easy once I started eating. The sauce was the highlight of the meal.

Chips: Nice chips, but I've had better from the Beach House before. Maybe they needed more seasoning. There were so many under the parm too, it was like a little mountain.

Salad: Avid readers will know I'm not a huge salad fan, but this was pretty good. Definitely in the top 5 chicken parm salads I've had (not that I really keep a record). Huge amount of salad too, and most of it got eaten.

All in all, the chicken parm experience from Beach House Bar & Grill was a good one. It's been a long time since I've eaten there and it lived up to the memory.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

The Tempo Hotel

Tuesday was a busy day, we're currently in the process of moving house and after spending a solid six hours in packing stuff up, moving and putting stuff away I decided it was time for something to eat (and to drink). So I walked up to The Tempo Hotel at about 12:45, hoping they had chicken parm on the menu. They did. I was happy.

Picture below.

At $16.50 it is a pretty reasonably priced parma. And the meal came out very quickly, but how was it?

Size: Good size meal, certainly enough to be full at the end. Actually to be honest I wimped out and didn't eat all the chips (or salad). For $16.50 it is great value.

Chicken: Crumbed very nicely, and was nice and juicy. The only gripe with the chicken is that it was very thin. Could have done with being a couple of millimetres thicker all over.

Cheese: A good amount of cheese on top, and it was tasty. Could have done with a bit more cooking of the cheese though, it wasn't oozing and kind of held itself together.

Ham: My goodness, there was a lot of ham on this parm. It was tasty and nice shredded ham but there was so much. I had to take an extra picture of it. See below.

It wasn't bad though, actually worked really well with the sauce.

Sauce: Very mild sauce, had chunks of tomato in it that were delicious. The saltyness of the ham turned the mild sauce into something really nice.

Salad: Boring, dry and uneventful, but who cares about salad?

All in all I was pretty happy with the parma from The Tempo Hotel, plus they had Miller Draught on tap so that was pretty good. Will certainly go there again!!

-Dave the Mega-Parm