All You Can Eat: ultimate Mexico/USA food safari

La Parrilada is perhaps the first restaurant we’ve reviewed which is an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is a little odd given the title of this website, but it’s a great place to begin. Located in Leichardt, traditionally an area only associated with Italian cuisine, La Parrilada is an eating experience unlike any other: a South American charcoal grill buffet which is famed for it’s value, flavour and copious amounts of meat.

Born in Peru, Jose Cruz has lived in Australia for twenty-two years, and opened La Parrilada four years ago, after realising the strong mutual love of the barbeque that exists in both his home country and his adopted homeland.

The restaurant itself is not very inviting from the outside, and the inside isn’t very flash either: multi-coloured fairy lights adorn the walls, along with Peruvian ornaments (ranging from flags to soccer balls to faux-Incan artefacts to stuffed Piranhas [no joke]). It’s tacky but in a cosy way; the smiles that you’re greeted with upon entry go a lot further than any wall hanging could.

 

But the real attraction is the meat, and there is lots of it. Jose gets his meat from a reliable and trusted source: a Maltese farming family from Western NSW who have been farming grain-fed livestock for over fifty years. Everything is cooked on a charcoal grill and is “100% fresh, it must be fresh” according to Jose – something which I believe; this place goes through around 400 kg of meat per week, so I don’t think the meat has any choice but to be fresh.

The real attraction of La Parrilada is the $20 buffet grill experience; which begins with a few chorizo sauces and Peruvian chilli dipping sauce, a plate of fries, a small salad (which is very much in need given the feast which is to come) and then the centrepiece - a huge plate of marinated meat: ribs, sirloin steak, charcoal chicken, and chorizo sausage.

All of the meat is incredibly rich in flavour; you can feel his passion when Jose speaks about his cooking methods, but when you tuck into the food, you really feel it. I’m a huge fan of chorizo, and this was hands down the best I’ve ever had – the taste explodes in your mouth. The charcoal chicken is marinated for 24 hours in a “Peruvian sauce” (the ingredients of which Jose is very reluctant to disclose. His response to people asking about his secret sauces and marinades is a cheeky “Piss off, mate”). The sirloin is soft and delicious, and the ribs are equally impressive. The meat platter comes with accompanying sauces too, a green medium chilli, an orange (capsicum) extreme chilli.

But the best thing about this place? As soon as you finish a platter (or rather, if you finish a platter. This is not for the faint-hearted), they bring you another one. And if you finish that one, they bring you another.

For a brief moment when looking at the feast which lies before you, you can’t help but stop and wonder just how many animals have given their lives for the sake of this gigantic meal.

The moment soon passes.

Restaurant name: La Parrillada
Address: 470 Paramatta Rd, Petersham NSW - 9560 0943
Menu recommendation: All you can eat grill extravaganza.
All You Can Eat Tip: Make sure you visit this place on an empty stomach and try the home-made Sangria.

www.laparrillada.com.au

Why do Thai restaurateurs insist on the puns in their title?

I’ve always found it quite bizarre but it’s always kind of amusing

Here are some of my favourite Thai restaurant names:

I’ve never been to this place, but this is quite possibly the best Thai restaurant name out..

Do you have any restaurant names to share? Leave a comment..

I found Sujet Saenkham’s separation of authentic Thai food and “Australian Thai food” to be an interesting one; having been to Thailand before and eaten myself stupid, I did notice that there were differences between the two countries, despite being the same dishes. I spoke to a few experts to try and figure it all out.

Renowned food critic and popular culture blogger David Dale once famously stated that “there is no such thing as bad Thai food”. I spoke to Dale earlier this week about his experiences with Thai restaurants in Sydney, which he has been reviewing since they started to first started to pop up all over Sydney.

“I began reviewing Thai restaurants in the early 1990s, that’s when Thai food became really popular with Australians” says Dale.

Dale gave me his take on Australia’s love affair with Thai cuisine: “It gave Australians salt, sugar and chilli – which Australians love. People didn’t and still don’t really realise just how much sugar is in Thai food.”

Through his reviews, Dale noticed that the number of Thai restaurants that were springing up to cater for Australia’s newfound love of Thai food, didn’t quite match the number of Thai immigrants who were coming to Australia.

“What I wrote I wrote about ten to fifteen years ago was a phenomenon I noticed emerging: there were lots of Thai restaurants springing up but there were very little Thai people actually immigrating to Australia. What was happening was people who had previously sold Chinese and Vietnamese food were changing to Thai food, because that is what the people wanted,” says Dale.

Now, I don’t think there’s any problem at all with non-Thai people running Thai restaurants (Bar Italia, in Leichardt, has a kitchen comprised of Chinese chefs and they do a stellar job) – food is food, really. But it does shed a bit of light on the distinction between authentic Thai food and the sugary Thai food which we are served here in Australia. Which, for the record, I adore.

Air Chartthanan, former manager of Newtown Thai 2, confirms this distinction, but says that it’s not intended as a watered-down alternative to authentic Thai food.

“Lots of Thai food already contains lots of sugar and salt. Yes, a lot of the Thai food which is sold in Sydney and also Australia does contain lots of sugar and salt too, Australians love this,” says Chartthanan.

“There are many types of Thai food. Different regions in Thailand make different types of food: some have lots of spices, some have lots of sugar, some lots of chillis, and so on. You can’t just say that there is one type of real Thai food,” she says.

I’ll eat to that.

First off the rank is Spice I Am, a restaurant which has attained a god-like status amongst diners. Spice I Am’s flagship restaurant is located in Surry Hills, literally 2 minutes from Central station; a second store was recently opened in Darlinghurst (a more “upmarket, sophisticated dining experience” according to Spice I Am owner Sujet Saenkham).

Like most Thai restaurants, the premises are small, tables are closer to each other and the patrons are densely packed in – but it’s all part of the charm. The restaurant’s interior has an understated elegance to it, the walls adorned with various accolades and glowing reviews. The phone ringing off the hook and the steady stream of people picking up containers of food told me that they do a roaring take-away trade at Spice I Am.

Sujet Saenkham maintains that, while Sydney’s food landscape is dotted with Thai spot upon Thai spot, there is a distinct difference between “traditional Thai food and Australian Thai food” - I’m not quite sure what he means just yet.

We order Mieng Kuay Teaw, a Thai dumpling of sorts which contains sliced pork, bean sprouts and mint wrapped in a flat rice noodle, and accompanied by a ginger, lemongrass and chilli sauce. The bite-sized pieces are delicious: so soft and so full of flavour.

We ate some Ho Mok, a Phuket style steamed fish curry paste, wrapped in a banana leaf. The flavour was so intense, but in the best way possible: a neat little entree.

Next we ate a Basil Crispy Chicken dish with rice, which was out of this world. The crispy pieces of chicken were so soft and light, but were coated with this crispy glaze. The basil which was hugging the chicken was incredibly fresh, as were the fairly generous slices of chilli.

We then tucked into some Pad Kee Mao, a spicy, stir fried flat rice-noodle dish, with chicken. This dish was great, but holy shit: was it hot. To be fair, if spice is what you signed on for, you can’t really complain about how much chilli there is. We made our way through the dish, exchanging faces of chilli-induced agony but disguised our discomfort in case we looked like amateurs.

Sujet later explains that “Australian Thai food” contains high amounts of sugar and salt, whereas the traditional Thai food which is prepared at Spice I Am is more along traditional lines of spice and chilli.

“We add sugar where it is needed, we add salt where it is needed. But in Thailand, we maintain a balance of all flavours. Some Thai restaurants think that Australians only want the sweet taste, so the sugar can be overpowering,” he says.

The spices and Thai herbs which the Spice I Am chefs – each restaurant has a team of four chefs: two handling the woks, one handling curries and one preparing salads – are produced in Australia, in North Queensland and in Darwin.

We then began on our Massaman beef curry – it was unbelievable, hands down the greatest I’ve ever had. The beef was slow-cooked, it simply fell apart in your mouth, and the potato was just as soft.

To cap it all off, we finished with Pla Lard Prik, a whole fish cooked in Green curry sauce and topped with four different types of eggplants: paw paw, purple, cherry and Thai. I didn’t know there was more than one type of eggplant. The colours of the dish were impressive enough, but the crunchy eggplant and intense flavours of the lime and lemongrass garnish sealed the deal.

The service was fast and friends, the atmosphere was cozy and the food was nothing short of incredible.

I ask Sujet about how he feels about non-Thai people opening Thai restaurants in Sydney. Thai immigration numbers aren’t particularly high whereas the number of Thai restaurants to spring up over the past fifteen years as been astronomical – something doesn’t add up, surely?

“It doesn’t matter, really. The chefs cooking in these restaurants have gained experience, they understand the principles of Thai cooking and I’m sure they can do it. I mean, I can cook some Italian food and have some knowledge of French cuisine. It is all about knowledge,” says Sujet.

Restaurant name: Spice I Am
Address: 90 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills, NSW2010‎ - (02) 9280 0928
Menu recommendation: Basil Crispy Chicken. And the Massaman.
All You Can Eat Tip: Bring your own carton of milk just in case the chilli and spices are too much for you. They are no joke at this place.

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Thailand is home to some of the world’s most flavoursome, easily-prepared and freshest food – not an easy combination to perfect when you think about it. Despite not having much of an ethnic Thai community in Sydney (unlike Darwin, which has a vibrant Thai community), this city is awash with Thai spots. They’re reasonably priced, they’re tasty as shit and, as you would expect from the land of a thousand smiles, one is almost always greeted with a friendly face.

For the next few posts we’re going to be exploring Thai cuisine in Sydney. We’ll be looking at some of the best Thai spots that Sydney has to offer, the best names of Thai restaurants, the most popular dishes, etc.

What is it about Thai food that has made Australians fall in love with it? And how does Sydney have so many Thai restaurants without much of an ethnic Thai community?

All will be revealed.

I decided to break with our regular programming for something a little different tonight. On Saturday, I went to Groovin the Moo , a massive regional music festival which is held in Townsville, Maitland and Bendigo. Some friends of mine are in a hip-hop group and are playing the whole tour, so I was lucky enough to be able to ride their coat tails all the way into the festival - access all areas.

Hilltop Hoods tearing down the stage at Groovin’ The Moo

While I was ploughing through the back stage food stalls and stealing drinks from artists’ rider, I decided that the back stage food set-up at one of Australia’s biggest travelling music festivals would make for an interesting food blog.

So here we are..

The back stage set-up at this particular festival consisted of a number of canvas tents (starting at about 20m square each and getting a little bit bigger for the headline acts), outside tables and chairs, a long food bar and a ping pong table. Each tent had a big esky full of ice and drinks and the food bar was cooking food all day.

The food that they were serving was actually pretty impressive: marinated chicken and lamb skewers, chorizo sausage pieces (which were fantastic, might I add), pastas, those weird vegetarian burger things (I’ve got plenty of love for vegetarians but have never understood vege burger patties; really, what the fuck is going on with them), garden salads, greek salads, bread rolls, potato bake, etc.

Note: this is a photograph of Solo from Sydney hip-hop/emo outfit Horrorshow, who were playing at the festival. Solo was looking a little glum, so I put him onto the All You Can Eat tip: combine chorizo, lamb pieces, lettuce, feta and tomato sauce on a bread roll.

You get the impression: there was shitloads of food there. They had a team of “chefs” cooking all day and all night to make sure that the artists and their coat tail riders were fed. At the end of the day, it wasn’t gourmet Neil Perry stuff but I was pretty impressed with how it tasted, as you may have gathered.

Now this was the communal stuff. Depending on how big a band/artist/DJ you are, you were also given special fruit plates, sandwich platters, salted nuts, etc - you’ve heard the jokes about super star bands ordering the most obscure shit in their rider.

Being the slippery investigative journalist that I am, I managed to slip into De La Soul’s tent and sample some of their fruit plate and Remy Martin flavoured cognac - needless to say, it was baller.

This is the first in a series of backstage festival food specials that we’ll be covering - stay tuned..

As this blog draws to a close (in it’s current form anyway), it has dawned on me that I haven’t exactly shown much love to some other similar blogs. Which is, after all, what one is meant to do in this blog world: link to other blogs - I guess it helps to develop a sense of community? Anyway, it’s about time I did it.

Here a list of some of my favourite food blogs, most are Sydney-based but not all. If you, like us here at AYCE, take an active interest in all things food, make sure you check them out:

A Table For Two - this Sydney-based blog has it all: great lay-out, high-quality photos, fantastic editorial content - the whole blog reeks of professionalism.

Eat show and tell> - this blog is Sydney-based but also features international spots which are written from the author’s travels. Straight-talking, the design and lay-out is top notch and the food which is profiled is on-point.

Put it in your mouth - written by Melissa Leong, this is an enjoyable blog. What it lacks in lay-out, it more than makes up for in content and restaurant choice.

Not Quite Nigella - great reviews and also features interviews, which adds a bit of depth to the blog.

Food, Booze and Shoes - not entirely focused on food but nonetheless a well-written, funny and insightful experience.

The Unbearable lightness of being hungry - what a great name for a blog; could do with a few more photos to break up all the text but on the whole it’s an enjoyable read.

I really didn’t intend to include a one-word review of those blogs, it was meant to be a list. Perhaps that’s the critic within that this blog has unleashed.

Enjoy x

Last week we plotted the meteoric rise of Subway, trying to understand how the transnational giant has revolutionised the sandwich game. This week we’re bringing it down a few levels in scale, but most definitely not in quality. There is something about freshly-made sandwiches, with home-made sauces and marinades, fresh ingredients and gourmet bread, that can’t be matched by tasty, efficient but nonetheless processed food.

This week we’ll be profiling one of inner city Sydney’s most infamous sandwich spots, King’s Lane, in Darlinghurst, in order to find out just how a smaller sandwich spot can compete with the giants.

Kings Lane is only a stone’s throw from one of the busiest strips in Sydney, Oxford Street, yet it’s managed to occupy a quiet pocket of Darlinghurst, tucked away from everything. The premises are small, the seating is limited and the interior design and furniture is simple, sleek and modern. One of the store’s large white walls is covered with scrawled graffiti in texta: tributes to the sandwiches, b-grade celebrities that have eaten there, meaningless messages, etc.

The wall helps to create the charm of King’s Lane, which is hard to describe but is probably easiest put by saying that the sandwich spot is missing the air of self-importance and pretentiousness so often associated with this part of Sydney.

Agata Dudek and her business partner Aaron Fox bought the business nearly four years ago, and since then they’ve worked hard to build on it’s existing reputation for gourmet sandwiches and salads; they’ve introduced a rice dish, which combines their gourmet sandwich makings into a risotto-esque dish.

I ask Agata just how much the local area has changed in that time, and she explains how their quiet pocket has seen a few more restaurants pop up. “There are a few more businesses in the area, some have closed and then some have opened – but, if anything, that’s better for us. It draws people over” she says.

I order myself one of King’s Lane’s famous sandwiches, a chicken schnitzel panini (which costs $9, slightly cheaper than a Subway footlong equivalent) – not the easiest of decisions since their other famous sandwich is BBQ chilli chicken with home-made red pesto. One of their signatures is to use fresh Vienna bread, but I prefer the panini.

The ingredients bar is well stocked with fresh makings and home-made sauces and marinades, including an eggplant spread and the herb mayonnaise that my sandwich comes with. I’m a sucker for red pesto, which is made with “capsicum, tomato, garlic, onion; roasted and then mixed.”

My sandwich takes about ten minutes to arrive, as they cook the schnitzel fresh, but when it does, I was honestly blown away. It’s simple – only lettuce, avocado, schnitzel, herb mayo – but everything about it reeks of brilliance. The bread is soft, the whole sandwich is massive and the combination of herb mayo and avocado (real avocado, which doesn’t come in a zip lock bag) is delicious. What has really blown me away though is the quality of the chicken; it’s fresh, tender and very tasty.

But if they’re cooking the chicken fresh, how do they navigate through the chaotic lunchtime rush? The limited seating suggests that the bulk of King’s Lane’s business must be take away, which Agata confirms.

“Our customer base is spread around the local area, and the majority of people phone up in advance. We also do a lot of catering, most days we have catering jobs,” she says.

So how does a smaller operation like King’s Lane fare against the corporate muscle of Subway – do they feel affected by it’s dominance? I put it to Agata bluntly – do they ever feel like they’re being squeezed out? >

“Not at all” she replies, with a reassuring confidence.

“As much as we’re in the same industry, we’re selling two completely different types of sandwiches. People hear about us through word of mouth - King’s Lane is a hard place to find, unless you know about it.”

And has the sandwich industry been as recession-proof as people predict?

“It’s an undulating business, that’s just the nature of it: we’ve always had our quiet days and our busy days. But it hasn’t really affected us too much, at the end of the day, everyone’s got to eat.”

Yes. Yes, they do.

Restaurant name: King’s Lane
Address: Shp1/ 28 Kings La, Darlinghurst.
Menu recommendation: Chicken Schnitzel sandwich / BBQ Chilli Chicken
All You Can Eat Tip: The homemade sauces and marinades are incredible – and make sure you phone ahead to avoid having to wait too long. 02) 9360 8007‎

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