Burgin'

Urban Dictionary Burgin' :

Experiencing the intense need for a huge, gnarly burger,
passionately consuming a burger, or recovering from burger overindulgence.

"Man, I'm burgin"
or
"Oh yeah, I'm burgin!"
or
"Goddamn it, help me, I'm burgin!"

That was the case as we soon as we had hit Melbourne. But not a general call burgin', there was a specific burger at the center of this crave. We had followed with amusement the posturing and cat calling on twitter over who had the right to call their burger the best in Sydney, when it reached flash point a blind tasting had been organized with Rockpool Bar and Grill coming out on top. Now we were within close proximity of the Rockpool bar and Grill located in the Melbourne Casino complex.

We arrived at the front door just as they opened and grabbed a seat at the bar rather than the restaurant side as we just wanted the burger. Having the burger cut in half was no problem, we added a side of fat cut chips as the burger came with none, a side of onion rings and one of the small plates of calamari with romesco. A couple of Aperols for the wait and we were all set.
The calamari arrived fast, with a generous portion of sweet, nutty romesco. The calamari more a spoon to convey the sauce to our mouths than the star of the plate. With the calamari quickly out of the way we waited eagerly for the burger (burgin).



Arriving cut in half and on two plates showed some consideration from the kitchen. The center showing a nicely cooked medium rare with plenty of juiciness. We took our first bites and began the analysis....nah, we ate it, we ate it good. And a mighty fine burger it was! The fat from the minced wagyu veered towards too-much but Zuni's famous courgette pickles helped to draw it back in. The cheese and bacon seemed almost superfluous, nice but not needed.



The fries were true to their word and cut fat, but they paled beside what were possibly the best onion rings I've ever had. Crispy crunchy with a mild onion center. Not so taken with the home-made ketchup not that it was bad, maybe I just like the amplified artificial umami flavor of the commercial varieties.



Was it the best burger I've ever had? Maybe. I'll have to add to the list, up there with the Mcfoie from Tapac 24, Barcalona, the Mckobe from Feugo Negro, San Sebastion, and lets not forget the hand minced wagyu burger with truffles and foie at Brown Sugar in Singapore... top ten at least.

One flaw in the night was the aggressive service with more drinks being offered while our first were still half full and the obvious distain that we were only sharing one burger. Left a slight taint to an amazing burger. (We arrived at 6pm for a little pre-dinner burger, with a booking at MOMO for 9pm).

I would like to come back and dine in the restaurant proper. When I peaked though on the way to our seat the room looked amazing, grand and plush like a old timey clubby steakhouse. A glance over the menu and a walk past the meat dry aging re enforced the desire to return.

Rockpool Bar and Grill

Open; Lunch Sunday to Friday
Dinner 7 Days

Reservations
+61 3 8648 1900

Crown Complex
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank VIC 3006
Australia

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Yatala Pies, on the Highway, Brisbane, Australia

Best Pie in Australia ... now that is a huge claim! Growing up in NSW, Robertson Pie Shop was my go-to pie fix growing up. In the last couple of years, on the visits home to family, I have learned of Yatala pies. Yatala pies seems to be known QLD wide, and beyond, as producing some of the best pies in Australia. Yatala pies is over 130 years old, and has grown from a humble little roadside pie shop to a store just off the Gold Coast highway in beautiful landscaped surronds with inside & outside seating areas and a drive through! selling over 3,500 pies a-day. We certainly help boost that number whenever we are home!

It is conveniently located between where Dad's place, and where the rest of the relatives live on the Gold Coast. Pie, chips, gravy & a Bundaberg ginger beer and I am all set.



The pastry at Yatala is hands down some of the best pie pastry in the galaxy. Crumbly, short crust base and a super flaky puff top. The fillings can be a bit hit-and-miss, but on this occasion I try the lamb, mint & peas. Definitely my favorite pie from Yatala to date! It's like a roast dinner, in a pie. There are decent chunks of the roast lamb and plump peas sitting in a minted gravy.



It's also impossible to leave Yatala Pies without some sort of sweet treat for later. When the sister is present, that is guaranteed to be a caramel tart! Today, apricot pie with cream, glistening under a layer of sugar crystals.



Yatala Pies
Exit 38, Yatala North
48 Old Pacific Hwy, Yatala QLD 4207, Australia‎
T: +61 (0) 7 3287 2468‎
Open 7 Days a week, 7.30am~8.30pm


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Fish & Chips at the Fishery, Milton, Brisbane

I have an issue with cooked fish ... I didn't even eat battered & fried fish as a kid. I ate lots of chips, and pluto pups, and bacon egg rolls, and pineapple fritters. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy eating fish! Mainly raw fish though. It's the texture of cooked fish I generally don't like. Living in Hokkaido for close to 3 years though, I have developed a whole new appreciation for fish .. tsubodai is my favorite thing to get at an Izakaya now - a rich, fatty fish from the Northern seas of Japan that is salted and hung to dry for a day or two before being grilled over charcoal. I even somewhere along the way, in my last couple of visits developed a real liking to battered fish - even when it tastes of more than oil & salt.

Now, we eat a fair bit of fish in Japan, as you would ... but it's the same with beef. We are blessed with some of the most premium beef & seafood products in the world. The quality is gob-smacking, and that's just the stuff in the supermarket! But, like we still often crave for a nice, grilled steak as everything you get in the stores is small portions, usually sliced very thin, and so rich I don't even think eating a 300g steak would be possible without some serious stomach cramps!

Fish is the same, the quality and variety of fish we get at the supermarket exceeds anything I could have dreamed of. But again, because of the quality & just their culture of how they eat, fish is eaten in small amounts, often raw, or grilled bone in, used to flavor stocks or salted & dried. A huge chunk of meaty, white fish coated in a thick batter and fried until golden .... nuh uh, not around here. Even if we are lucky to find seafood other than shrimp tempura'd, the batter is much lighter and the pieces of seafood would be tiny bite sized bits. Which brings me back to Fish & Chips. Something I now crave when heading back home. Sitting outside, by the water, a whole spread of deep-fried goodness with wedges of lemon & a Bundaberg Ginger Beer, bliss!!

The world of twitter introduced me to The Fishery at Milton. This was on our must-eat list. The address is punched into the Tom Tom and before we know it we are headed towards the GBB? "Take the GBB?!" WTF is the GBB? ahhhhhhhhhhh, the Go-Between-Bridge. We put our faith in Tom Toms hands and arrive at a little community shopping village. I imagined it would be by the water? We head inside and place our order.



There's a large menu on the wall, some daily specials, and showcases filled with all sorts of fresh seafood delights. We settle on some fried cod, crumbed whiting & sea scallops, home-made potato scallops & of course chips.



The chips are golden & crunchy, the perfect nest for all of the fresh, delicate seafood on top. The sea scallops were sweet, still translucent in the centre with a golden crumb coating. The whiting was salty & delicious, and the huge battered piece of cod was divine. We had home-made tartare & aioli to dip everything into and both stopped in our tracks with the first bite of potato scallop... Thick cut chunks of potato were coated in a dreamy batter and fried until the color of the sun on a clear Summers day.... Yeah, those little fried potatoes messed with my head.. hot, crispy, salty overload!

This was the first of several fish & chip meals on our visit home, and something I am already missing now we are back in Japan...

The Fishery
6A / 16 Baroona Rd
Milton QLD, Australia 4064

T: +61 (07) 3369 4707
Open Daily, 10am-8pm


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90 years strong ....

After a brief stopover in Seoul, we find ourselves back in Brisbane on the morning of my Oma's 90th Birthday. A quick freshen up, and we are on the Gold Coast before lunch time. Way back on May 14th, 2011 (was that really nearly 3 months ago??!) my one and only grandparent, Klara Cornelia, or Oma, turned 90. To be there with her to celebrate this milestone, truly a blessing. She has been there for me throughout the years on countless occasions, and spending time with her while we were home and seeing that she still has her sense of humor & cheekiness was extremely refreshing! Lunch is had, and little things that day will stick with me forever. As we all sit down, a casual "What would you like to drink, Oma?" and we are quickly put in our place with a "Well... I haven't even seen the drinks menu yet .." *smile* We all help her navigate her way around the menu a little, as of course the font is quite small. The words Iced .. Coffee .. Ice-cream pass through my lips and her eyes light up. 1 iced-coffee, with ice-cream, for the Birthday girl. She was truly glowing throughout the day, I think a very rare occasion having the family together like this, as well as iced coffee with ice-cream, was probably why.



To be honest, I can't even really remember what we ate, as it certainly was not the thing on my mind this particular day. But, looking over the photos I see the one that we have from lunch was a steak sandwich - toasted white bread, steak, caramelized onions, tomato sauce & even some bacon speared with a toothpick and with a mountain of hot chips. Oh yeah, we are back in Australia !!



Oma, Happy 90th Birthday !! You are an inspiration & aspiration to us all.

Bella y la Bestia Cafe & Tapas Bar, Grenada Spain

It was a particularly festive time when we were in Grenada. We were wandering around on a Saturday morning, and must have passed at least 4 different groups of girls on what definitely appeared to be a Hen's outing, starting quite early in the morning. We turn a corner, and there are people spilling out onto the streets, streamers, loud voices, and a whole lot of commotion inside. We brave the crowds through the door and manage to perch ourselves at the bar that runs the length of the room.



Behind there bar there are a few bar tenders at one end, and a tiny little kitchen set up at the other (where we managed to perch) with one lady just banging out tapas like a machine. With each drink ordered a yell comes from the bar to the lady in the kitchen, stating how many people, and what tapas plate they are up to. We constantly hear calls, with numbers flying everywhere, and it makes us dizzy. The lady on the pans though is not in the least bit fussed, putting up plates and shouting for runners. Each plate is completely different, all with some form of sandwich or roll usually, with different salads, condiments & breads.



We order 2 beers, and our first complimenting tapas plate is a small bagel brushed with oil and grilled, and filled with a generous amount of sliced jamón with chopped parsley on top. There is then a mountain of pasta salad with a Mary Rose dressing and crispy fried chips with mayo & ketchup.

This little tapa was a meal in itself.. And we later find out that the Bella y la Bestia Cafe & Tapas bar has a few other outlets under their wing, including an incredible looking fish restaurant & bar. Oh well, next time we are in Grenada ...



C/Carcel Baja 14, Grenada, Spain


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Cone of Chips; street-food in Marrakech

Way back last Spring on our holiday in Morocco, we were slightly startled when we went to withdraw money from Kim's bank account, and it wouldn't work! Then we tried mine, and my debit card had somehow long expired for my Australian bank account, without us realizing .... Herein lies the importance of traveling with various forms of currency. We of course had our credit cards to get us through, and always have some travelers cheques. We were then hustling around trying to find a currency exchange or bank that accepted travelers cheques (harder than you think in Morocco).

Time was ticking .... We needed some cash for small, daily transactions. We were running from bank to bank, trying to find one that would cash American Express cheques. When suddenly there was a major distraction,



A little street-side cart, with a small light dangling overhead and a whole glass cabinet full of fried potatoes. Thin, crisp, golden potatoes. We scrounge together a few coins, for this brief moment not worrying about tomorrow, or money for a cab home.. The crisps are simply scooped up in a simple paper cone... still warm, glistening in the afternoon sun with little diamonds of salt reflecting in the light.



..... now, back to finding a bank.

Another day at the office ..

.. and here we are trying to find the ultimate chipping spud. Of course, it has to be a local variety so on we march we the daunting task of chopping, blanching, frying and ultimately trying various types of potatoes ....

In an equal 2nd place, we had the King Danshakyu and new season Toya's. Only to find out the King Danshakyu are only available 2 months of the year .... #fail



The clear winner was the Kita-akari potato; cut, boiled, then oil blanched at 150C and then fried at 180C. The fries on the left were only blanced then fried at 180C, but the extra effort to double fry them really shows.



Okay, it's back to work for us ... who know's what next on the cards.

SAME SAME Burgers, Haad Rin

After a big night, and day at the Full Moon Party we both woke up craving something greasy ...  something homely ...  something like a burger !!  Luckily for us, just a skip down the sand is the SAME SAME burger bar.  



The burgers arrive in a little cardboard box. They are wrapped in some random burger and shawarma paper and a pile of crispy crinkly cut chips sit off to the side.



We both go for a burger with the works. It's piled high with a chunky meat patty, melted cheese, onions, bacon, pickles, shredded lettuce and tomato.



All washed down with some coca-cola, it was just what we were after !!