Pray to the Lord...Of The Fries
At this point it’s no secret that Set Your Goals LOVES Lord Of The Fries. And sure enough, first thing we did when we got to Melbourne was go straight there.
On this first trip there (don’t worry, we went there more than once…I’ll be discussing each time) I gorged on some poutine, a spicy mini burger, and chicken nuggets. To the unfortunate souls who still for some reason haven’t gotten down on some poutine, it’s a French Canadian dish of fries with gravy and cheese. Although LOTF is far from French Canada, they still serve up a mean dish of poutine. Delicious as always. This was my first time eating the spicy mini burger, but since my spice tolerance has been going up these days I was able to handle it well, jalapeños and all. Let’s talk about those nuggets though…first off they’re fake meat (everything at LOTF is vegan…burgers too), and I love fake chicken meat. Something about all that gluten just hits the spot. They’re also pretty new too and since I’m all about new noms I had to get some. Glad I did, they’re now my favorite thing at the Lord. I got them covered in Thai peanut sauce. So good.
On our second day in Melbourne and second trip to LOTF I got a box of fries covered in Vietnamese chili cheese sauce and Japanese wasabi mayo. The Vietnamese topping used to be a cream sauce topped with a separate chili sauce but it seems like they’ve switched it up to a sauce that’s more of a mix of the two. Still good though; a bit spicy but very tasty. The wasabi mayo was good too, but it was really reminiscent of the Belgian mayo, like maybe they just added wasabi powder to that. It was the special sauce of the month though, so I figured I had to try it because I might not have a chance to next time. And of course I had to fill up on my new favorite, nuggets with Thai peanut sauce.
On our third and sadly final Lord outing we changed things up and went to the Central location in downtown Melbourne. I kind of liked this one a bit more than the Flinders St. spot.
I had fries with Belgian mayo and a chicken burger. Despite the fact it’s called mayo, it really tastes nothing like mayonnaise. I would never eat my fries with straight mayo…I believe there’s a section of hell reserved for people who do this. LOTF’s Belgian mayo is more like a thick ranch than anything else, and pretty damn delicious too. The (fake) chicken burger was pretty good, but I should have stuck to the nuggets. Next time.
Well, as you can tell at this point my band and I love Lord Of The Fries. A lot. So much so that we discussed it and on our next trip to Australia we’ll be getting some sweet LOTF tattoos. It’ll be the perfect testament of our love of the Lord.
Chilli Cha Cha
On our last night in Sydney Junior and I went out in search of food and stopped in at another Thai spot called Chilli Cha Cha, which was right up the street from where I was the night before, Capital Thai. Despite the fact Chilli Cha Cha was far less fancy and more of a hip spot than the latter, I had an insanely good meal there.
This mountain you behold in front of you is a heeping pile of soft shell crab. Yeah. About a foot high. Drenched in coconut curry sauce. When I ordered I was expecting to get a dish of just a few little crabs neatly arranged, all cute looking and such. I didn’t expect this gargantuan mound of fried crustacean. I kind of just spent the first couple of minutes this thing was in front of me just laughing and behind amazed before I dug in and ate some…and that’s when the real amazement of how good it was started. The sweet and slightly spicy curry was delicious, and the crab of course was great. Huge chunks of crab in a good batter…can’t beat that. I’ve had soft shell crab plenty of times in my life, but it’s always these petite, little things. Nothing like this colossus. I couldn’t even really finish the whole thing, Junior had to help with a few bites. Without a doubt I will return someday to Chilli Cha Cha so I can bow down before this mountain of crab and humble myself before it once more.
Capital Thai - A Pointless Journey Through Sydney
After our Sydney Soundwave show Mikey and I traversed to the ends of the city and back trying to meet up with Junior, Matt and Lewis. We made it all the way down to Sydney Harbor and back only to settle on a place two blocks from our hotel called Capital Thai because we were done trying to find the other guys. Despite how tired we were from our epic journey across the city and how much we didn’t really feel like Thai, this place ended up being a blessing in disguise because we ate like kings.
That’s the Capital quail. In case you’ve never had quail, it’s great…as you might imagine it tastes like chicken, but with a lot more little bones in it. I like to think of eating it as a game where you eat around the bones and try not to swallow and choke on them. But honestly this dish was great. The quail was sauteed in this great spicy coconut curry sauce with lots of aromatic vegetables around it, like basil, peppercorns, thai chilis, and little tomatillos. I’ve been getting more into spicy dishes, thanks mostly to my girlfriend Alison whose love of spice is rubbing off on me. Only months ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to handle the spiciness of this dish but I was loving it when I ate it. It was just intense enough to give the dish kick but still allow the flavor of the curry and the aromas to really come through and taste great. Mikey had the pad thai and he said it was some of the best he’s ever had.
Despite our needless trip through Sydney, I’m glad it at least wasn’t a fruitless one and we were able to end up with some great Thai food in our bellies.
Soundwave Noms begin! First up...Pancake Manor
So Soundwave Festival in Australia has been done for a couple of days now and I’m back home in the US. I didn’t update while I was there because internet is expensive down under and I was pretty busy. But not so busy that I couldn’t get in some pretty good noms. It all started at Pancake Manor in Brisbane, a cool 24 hour diner that’s inside of an old converted Gothic-style church. The morning of the Brisbane Soundwave date a few of us in SYG joined a few of the Four Year Strong guys and our ginger tech Lewis Usher for some good “brekky” to fuel us up for our gig.
Pancake Manor serves up tons of sweet pancakes with fruit toppings and ice cream, but since it was morning and I was hungover I had to get something a bit more substantial with some protein, so I got the fixed breakfast with sausage. I still had to get pancakes though, and they were good. The sausages hit the spot too. But seeing the pictures of some of the sweet pancakes I knew I was going to have to come back later to try some, which I did later that night after the festival with Junior and Mikey.
That’s the “Hot ‘n’ Troppo”, two buttermilk pancakes topped with chocolate ice cream, walnuts, fried bananas, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Heavenly. I’m glad I didn’t have this early in the morning because I would have been sugar crashing the rest of the day. It was late at night when I had this sinful dish so right after I just went and passed out in my hotel room. Perfect way to end the day and a perfect way to start two weeks of great noms. It’s only getting better from here…
Ike's Place
Alright, here’s the last Motion City Soundtrack tour Road Noms entry. It’s been a good run without a doubt; I think I had some of my most ridiculous meals ever on this tour. I also got to try out a ton of new spots that I’m really looking forward to eating at again. But to cap it off I’m going to write about a place I’ve been to a couple times now because it’s in the city I was born in, San Francisco. It’s called Ike’s Place and they make some of the most creative sandwiches on the West Coast. It’s also become my favorite sandwich spot in the Bay Area.
That there is a veggie “We’re Just Friends”. Yeah that’s what it’s called. They have a huge list of crazy sandwiches, all with names like “Can You Smell What Barack Is Cooking”, “Super Mario”, “Eli Manning”, “Montana To Rice”…the list goes on and on. And so does the amount of great tasting sandwiches they have. The ingredients are staggering…you name it, if it can be put in a sandwich they have it. Even things like stuffed jalapeños, mozzarella sticks, it’s all there. Anyways, the “We’re Just Friends” has halal chicken breast, sweet orange glaze, avocado, and pepperjack, but I wasn’t feeling up for chicken breast so I ordered the vegan chicken nuggets at the suggestion of our friendly order-taker. Somewhere along the lines of communication my order got a bit fudged and I got veggie turkey instead, but it still was really good. The kicker in their sandwiches is their ‘dirty sauce’, a house garlic aioli sauce that kicks ass. On the menu they say to “trust us, you want it” on the sandwich, and I’ll back that up…trust me you want the dirty sauce. It makes the sandwich.
I went with my girlfriend Alison and she ordered the “Not Tonight, I Have A Headache”, which had halal chicken breast, bbq sauce, bacon and gouda. I tried a bite and it was quite good. The last time I came here I ordered the “King Koopa”, a meatball sandwich with mozzarella sticks, stuffed jalapeños, and marinara sauce. Needlesstosay I wasn’t doing too much later that day.
This place hasn’t been open too long but it’s quickly becoming one of the most talked about places in San Francisco. If you come during lunch be prepared to wait for about an hour in a line that literally wraps around the block. But luckily Ike’s has changed its hours and is open until 7pm! Tour or not I will definitely be coming back to Ike’s first chance I can.
