I recently asked a question of my readers that read “have you ever toyed with or have become a vegetarian or vegan?” and I was amused to read that a couple of readers had but that a cheeseburger was the item that they clearly remembered had broken their resolve. It’s understandable really – a good burger is hard to resist and I rarely do. This afternoon we were in need of a burger and I had heard that there was a Hamburger place that had been churning out delicious old skool burgers since 1957.
I admit I don’t visit the Shire very often. So much so that I tweeted “Going to the shire…I don’t venture there often!” and people tweeted back things such as “Good luck with that!” ( @fionalaughton) and “Make sure you get your vaccinations first!”(@TudorGrrrl) and “got your passport?” (@vitav). Then there were people that grew up there like @OohLookBel and @pathologic_kt.
Paul’s Famous Hamburgers is located on the Princes Highway in Sylvania and if you’re coming by car, it’s slightly tricky to get to in that there’s only a short merging space so if you miss the merge, you can turn left at a later stage and loop back around. Inside, it’s pure retro with the painted text menu with a list of variations but essentially it’s what you add what you want to the beef burger i.e. egg, bacon, cheese and pineapple. All burgers comes with tomato, lettuce, sauce and onion. As for the thoroughly Australian addition of sliced beetroot? You have to specifically ask for that.
They’re all made and assembled fresh to order and there’s also traditional milk bar milkshakes as well as their equally as famous Pineapple Crush drink. On a wall and outside there are plenty of framed newspaper clippings acclaiming these as the best burgers in Sydney. We decide to split some burgers and grab a 2 litre bottle of the Pineapple Crush ($6.50) from the small fridge on the counter. They give us 4 cups for the drinks even though we’ve only ordered 2 burgers to split among us which is nice and the servings are enormous. If you put the burger next to those incredible shrinking burgers of the well known burger chains, it would dwarf them.
Hamburger with The Works $7.20
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October 1, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
I realise the title of this story sounds like one of those wonderfully magical children’s tales (and there is a little bit of a tale of a small child for you here too). The Ugly Cake that I speak of from Buppa’s Bakehouse in Newtown is not very ugly at all, despite the name. Buppa, a childhood nickname that stuck, contacted me a couple of weeks ago asking me if I would like to come in and taste her home baked goodies at her American style bakery, all made by her and her alone. I was in the throes of the flu (and no, not Swine Flu) and despite wanting to try them straight away, I begged off until my taste buds were back. They came back shortly after and I was looking forward to my visit.
Open for a mere 5 weeks, Buppa’s Bakehouse (Buppa rhymes with Papa) is on the quieter end of King Street in Newtown. In an elegantly hued building, it has a sparkling shopfront but you’d have to know it was there to find it amongst the jumble of shops. Buppa shows me her range of items and they’re certainly American in theme with peanut butter, chocolate and cream cheese featuring in many, cookies in many forms, all manner of American cakes and of course real boiled bagels - the New York way.
“My baking philosophy is that things should contain real ingredients, look delicious and be highly edible rather than just decorative. I am hoping that my ‘homemade’ style catches on and people start to remember what real cheesecake tastes like rather than the ones you can get that came out of a box, shipped from a warehouse etc.” she says. She’s more West Coast low key (actually San Franciscan) rather than the forward driven East Coast type.
Her story is interesting too – as the story goes she grew up very poor and to supplement the family’s income, her mum would enter baking contests but as there was a limit to the number of entries she could make, she entered under her children’s names. Buppa however was one of the 9 children that could cook so she entered her own goodies and ended up winning many prizes. The $5 for the children’s division and $10 for the adult’s division would prove a windfall for the family and set off a baking obsession for decades on and would urge her to quit her teaching job at an international school to open the bakehouse.
Blueberry bagel with cream cheese $4
I started with a blueberry bagel with cream cheese. She brings it out toasted and it’s generously spread with cream cheese. “It’s American style!” she says. “You’ve been to America right so you know that everything there is over the top and very generous in size” she says. The bagel is indeed a real boiled bagel with real blueberries (and her trick is to use dried blueberries which are costly but fresh ones are too soft). The cream cheese is thickly spread and some falls out as I bite in but it’s delicious. And yes it’s a bit more home made looking than bagels you may see which are made on a machine but that’s the point.
Pear & Plum Cheesecake $6
The baked cheesecake has small chunks of stewed cinnamon pears and plum and is topped with Beurre Bosc pears and cinnamon sugar. The filling is beautifully creamy and yet light. The buttery, crunchy crust is fantastic – possibly my favourite cheesecake crust ever and never discount the power of cheesecake crust. Get the wrong biscuit and it won’t be nearly as good.
Ugly Cake $7
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September 9, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Time ran away from me this month and I had intended to make a special dish for the 4th of July (Independence Day in America) so I thought that the next best thing would be to eat American food. I have an obsession with American things, particularly American retro – my Twin Peak’s Cherry Pie is a prime example of this. I blame it in a steady diet of American TV growing up which continues to this day. So when I read in Grazia and on Simon’s site that the Big Rig Diner was an American style diner in true American fashion, it jumped to the top of my list. Part of the Ruby Rabbit venture, Mr NQN and I tried to book for a Sunday afternoon via the mobile number only to find out that they’re only open at night for this month. So after traipsing through the city and Surry Hills one evening, my magical friend The Second Wife and I are peckish having devoured not very much except finger food in the last few hours. We find ourselves at the door of the Big Rig Diner.
The Big Rig kitchen
Booth seating
They weren’t kidding – it’s a diner alright. There’s booth or bar style seating only and a jukebox playing Elvis. As it only opened officially the day before and we are on Oxford Street, the pans aren’t yet covered in a coat of grease and there isn’t someone called Irma tending to the tables. The staff are all young and good looking but oh so friendly. We’re shown our menus which is a single photocopied page. The food ranges from their famous homemade chili, fajitas, pies as well as of course burgers and hot dogs. Prices are very reasonable ranging from $9.50 to $19.50 particularly given that they’re American sized servings too. And it needs to be said – they play some fabulous music here too (think Jump by Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit).
The Menu
Our waiter who has The Second Wife and I giggling like schoolgirls takes out order. He recommends the Fajitas, the Hot Dog and a serve of fries and we’re happy with that order and of course what else should we wash this down with but a Coke if we’re going for the true American experience. Drinks are $5.50 each.
Chili chips $5.50
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July 6, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
One of the disadvantages to foodblogging is the complete inability to go back to a place. No matter how much you’ve enjoyed your meal, there’s always somewhere else to go being that this is Sydney and there are more restaurants than you can poke a fork at. However after our first meal at South I had a craving for the ribs. An intense craving. I’d managed to procure one from Gina’s plate only to lust for more, not helped by South’s proximity to where we live. Every time we’d drive past it, I’d think of the ribs. So a return visit was scheduled, indeed it was scheduled with the same group of friends we originally went with as they were also hankering for a repeat. And I had my ribs, yes I did.
Leo, the chef and owner
The day we visit is also the day that South received a huge almost full page very positive review by Helen Grreenwood in the Sydney Morning Herald. So we’re lucky we’ve booked. Indeed many people show up without bookings to be told nicely that the tables are booked.
There are some must trys, obviously the finger licking, lip smackingly good ribs are to be ordered. In fact everyone bar Phillippe (who doesn’t share) and Hot Dog (who in a friendship-stretching gesture has taken up Phillippe’s non sharing cause with a difference-he won’t share his meal but he will partake in our meals) wants to share so that we can try as much as possible.
Hot Wings $16
We start with the Hot Wings, those vinegary deliciously sauce wings from last time. It’s something Hot Dog can’t go past and he reluctantly offers us some.
Crawfish Pie $15
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March 5, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
If you’re in any doubt that the American chain The Counter burger has come to town, take a peek at the menu. For the first thing that my eyes rest upon is a Peanut Butter Shake. If that isn’t American I don’t know what is. Today we’re having lunch at The Counter burger, where you can get a fully customised burger that your heart or tastebud desires. I was first tipped off about The Counter by an NQN reader-got to love tips!
It’s table service here and when you sit down, you get a clipboard with a 5 part checklist of items that you can choose from starting from the patty (Beef, Turkey, Chicken or Vegetarian), then a cheese (from a list of 10 including horseradish cheddar, Gruyere and Danish blue), then some extra toppings (from a list of 18 regular toppings and a list of 10 premium toppings) and then a sauce (from a list of 17) and then a bun (hamburger bun, English muffin or wholemeal). This gives us a potential for 312,120 plus burgers! For low carb eaters, there is also the breadless option where instead of having it in a bun, you’re given the patty and toppings on top of salad leaves. We are literally staring at the menu, pencil paused in our hand, for about 10 minutes. For the terminally indecisive there are burger combinations already laid out.
Surfboard decorations
We are not sure what size patty we’d like so we look at the table next to us. Theirs looks like a fat juicy burger patty and they tell us it’s a 150g one and very filling (in fact they leave some of it behind). My husband rises to the challenge and chooses a 300g burger, despite being egged on to try the 450gram burger by the other customer who wants to see how big it would be. I am relieved to see that the item that I saw on the website, the Maryland Crab Cake burger is indeed the burger of the month here as I had presumed that it was a US only burger but everything there seemed to marry up exactly with the other locations.
Oooh Angus beef!
We ask the waitress about the shakes, apparently the peanut butter one is rather large and rich and she suggests sharing it and she also suggests combining a peanut butter and chocolate shake with malt which delights me as I am a big Reese’s peanut butter cup fan. We also share an order of 50 50 fries with half onion strings and half sweet potato chips.
Peanut butter and chocolate malted shake $5 (one of the two glasses)
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February 17, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
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