American Restaurants @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: American

South Restaurant (Cajun, Creole and Soul food), Neutral Bay

Please allow me to do a bit of housekeeping. Not Quite Nigella has been nominated in two categories for Well Fed Network’s awards! Thankyou so much for the wonderful people that nominated me And if you would like to vote you can do so on:

Best Food Blog – Post (for my Freeganism story)

Best Food Blog – City

Lots of love and happiness,

Lorraine aka NQN

xxx

And now onto the story…

I’ve always wanted to visit the South in America. There’s something about the lilting accents, the heat, the fabulous array of delicious and richly historical food imbued with legend that sparks my interest. I also do a mean Southern accent on occasion but so far I’ve only visited via restaurant or via the ingestion of cake. My friend Teena sent me the link to South on eatability knowing that we all love Southern food, particularly my friend Gina, whose birthday we were celebrating. I was a little suspicious given the rave reviews with particular mention for Leo, the owner, from people who had only written one review but hey it’s in a neighbouring suburb so I was willing to give it a try and aid in Gina’s quest for Chicken Wings and Pumpkin Pie from back home.

Bread and melted butter

On busy Military Road, South is a small restaurant with red and white checkered tablecloths, a (faux) possum sitting on top of the inside awning, a dessert case full of home made desserts and a bright, eyecatching mural. We are seated and the owner Leo comes over and introduces himself. Ah ok, this is why everyone mentions him by name. It’s also slated to be featured in next week’s episode of Food Safari on SBS.

Lemonade $4

We order Lemonades (very sweet and not fizzy but quite refreshing nevertheless). The menu is a mix of all things Southern, Cajun and Creole and features items such as crab cakes, BBQ Ribs, okra, Gumbo, catfish, Crawfish Etouffe, country fried steak, Jambalaya and of course the desserts (my favourite part of Southern cuisine-I am after all the person that had a Red Velvet Wedding cake).

Photos of our Red Velvet Wedding cake (photography by ViL Photography)

Hot Wings $16

Now as I mentioned, the reason why we’ve chosen this place is for Gina, as she’s Canadian and many a time she would cross the border in search of good chicken wings and pumpkin pie. Having tried chicken wings everywhere, she is always trying to find ones like back home (well technically back home and a bit south) so she and her fellow chicken wing loving husband Hot Dog hone in on these. She notes that they’re a bit pricier than your average wings so there’s a lot riding on them and we all wait to see their reaction. Hot Dog is too busy eating but gives it a big thumbs up as does Gina. The wings are spicy, with a vinegary tang and are juicy and delicious and served with celery sticks and a blue cheese sauce.

Crab Cakes $31

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33 comments | January 22, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

BenBry Burgers, Manly

“The best burgers in Sydney you say?” I ask my friend. “Yes” she replies definitively. Granted she has yet to try the Plan B Wagyu burger but she insists that while Plan B’s is no doubt good, BenBry’s burgers are enormous, juicy and filling. From the dreamy look on her face, I’m almost convinced so I do what any curious food fanatic does, I went to BenBry to have a taste of them myself.

I’ve come armed, armed with hungry men. Which is a pretty good way of judging the size of a burger. Inside, there’s one large wooden table with bench seating which seats up to 8 as well as high bar stools to the left. Not a great deal of space to eat in but we are in luck and the couple inhabiting the large table leave soon after.

Waiting for the table to clear has given us plenty of time to contemplate the menu. There are several types of beef burgers, lamb burgers, chicken burgers, a Barramundi burger and 2 vegetarian burgers as well as kid’s sizes and sides. We make our choices and wait about 10 minute for our orders which all come at the same time as there are many takeaway orders for the waiting crowds behind us. The first thing we notice is the size of the burgers, at about 13cms in diameter they’re huge. Figaro suggests putting a McFeast or Big Mac against them to show the size comparison. They’re also flatter than other burgers so that they’re easier to eat.

Tropical Feast burger $8.50

I try my Tropical Feast burger Prime Australian Beef, streaky bacon, cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, BB aioli & sauce tomato.

Inside the Tropical Feast

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17 comments | September 24, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Bite Me Burger Co. at Paddington

It’s a cold, wintry night that brings us to Bite Me Burger Company, and one in which we’re pressed for time having spent the half half hour looking for a park in Paddington. Ever since the Wagyu burger at Plan B, I’ve been trying to find other Wagyu burgers to try. Call it my latest obsession. So with only 45 minutes to order, eat and go, we enter Bite Me Burger, a small, red lit small Burger place on Oxford Street in Paddington with a neon red Coca Cola type sign. It’s bustlingly full, there is a football game on at the stadium nearby and we explain our impending movie dilemma to the staff. They suggest that we pre-order our meals as it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes for the burgers during a busy period and by then a table should be free.

Sure enough, we’re seated within about 5 minutes and help ourselves to water. There is a large communal table as well as two high tables at the front. We’re seated at one of the front tables but not the very front. Once when we sat there everyone stopped and watched what we ate which made us feel like monkeys in a zoo exhibit.

Everything is visual merchanised to within an inch of itself, the fork and knife come in a sleeve that says “Hold Me”. The ketchup is in a tomato squeezy and of course the salt and pepper co-ordinate.

Onion Rings $4.50

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21 comments | June 17, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Plan B by Bécasse

Would you believe me, Dear Reader, when I told you that the humble sausage roll had broken the $7 price barrier? You might be even more surprised when I tell you that at $7 it was worth every lip smackin’, finger lickin’, slowly savoured bite. The sausage roll in question is from Justin North’s “Plan B”, the tiny hole in the wall cafe next to Bécasse. I was put onto it by Y from Lemonpi who had visited earlier and told me about their fantastic Wagyu burger and $7 sausage roll. The most expensive sausage roll I’d had was the sausage roll at Bourke Street Bakery and even that was hardly what you’d call expensive at $4, and a lovely sausage roll it was. But I wasn’t too fussed about trying this one as it was almost double the price. I had no idea that Plan B existed, so tiny hole in the wall it was, I even dined at Bécasse right next to it without knowing of its existence and that it has been there for as long as the restaurant has, for 3 whole years.

Cake selection $3.50-$4 each

There are 3 tables outside that seat 2 people each, so it’s definitely more of a takeaway your lunch back to the office and read blogs during your lunch-hour kind of place. Apparently the new logo’d umbrellas call out its existence a bit better to passing trade. It’s small but it is stylishly outfitted of course. You’d expect no less from Becasse. I’ve rung ahead to pick up my lunch as we’re stopping through the city. I ordered a Wagyu burger (made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu beef) and a sandwich with pork and apple. The crisp pork belly, hoisin sauce and spring onion was out unfortunately so I made do with the pork and apple although I did toss up between that and the coronation chicken. I’d decide on a cake when I got there and I could see them up close.

Sandwich selection, $8 each

My wagyu burger was lost, apparently there was a miscommunication between the cafe and kitchen and my burger was just put on the grill when I arrived to collect it. Two suits who are standing up inside having finished their burgers get up to leave. I see the range of prepacked sandwiches and a plate of cakes and biscuits as well as designer drinks (I don’t think they even had Coke). The cakes look particularly good. The menu on the website seems to have changed slightly for the seasons. Whilst they had a caramelised mango tart, now it’s caramelised apple.

My burger is still running late and a man comes in from an outside table asking for a paper napkin. He happily declares “I’m covered in crumbs but it was all worth it, that was the best sausage roll ever! Worth every crumb!” and wipes the imaginary crumbs off himself and exits. I need no more convincing and I add a sausage roll to the order. I also buy a caramelised apple tart and a candied lemon and vanilla cookie for good measure. I get a coffee takeaway and it is fantastically good, one of the best coffees I’ve ever had (if not the best). It eventually all comes together in a brown handled paper bag and the lovely girl behind the counter apologises profusely for the delay.

Wagyu burger made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu $10

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39 comments | June 9, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Social Experiment: Who goes to Hooter’s on Valentine’s Day?

After a recent visit to Carne station in Parramatta, we were driving back home and passed Hooters, to which we immediately screeched with laughter. Once our laughter subsided we realised that we just had to come out for a visit. More for morbid curiosity than anything else. Hooters is an American phenomenon that hasn’t quite made an impact here with just the two locations in Sydney and one in Queensland. We wanted to know whether the “image” of Hooters was anything like reality. Would it be like a down, down home version of the Playboy mansion much like the show Blokesworld? I haven’t known a single person that has visited, due to its location being rather far away and the reputation being that of a busty, bawdy, blokefest.

We needed to convince my food adventure friends Queen Viv and Miss America that this was indeed, something we should do in the name of research. Miss America was more than amenable, she even threatened to bring along her own inflatable swimming pool and lime jelly. Getting the regal Queen Viv to agree was another thing. We asked if she was busy and that we were thinking of having another food adventure out to a place that has a certain charm. Once we had ascertained that she was free, we told her that it was called “Oouteurs” suggesting that it was a chic little French bistro. I gave the game away as I couldn’t keep a straight face and Queen Viv was a good sport and thought that there was some merit to our morbid curiosity. We thought that it would be an interesting thing to see who would go there on Valentines Day and my husband, relieved of Valentines Day cooking duties, agreed. I didn’t mind giving up Valentines Day. After all, our wedding anniversary is only a few weeks later and we have planned something big for it.

I wanted to dress up as a prim and proper Victorian lady with high Victorian collar and lace parasol and ask in a haughty voice “Where are the OWLS?” but my husband, Miss America and Queen Viv said that I would be the only one

Ringing ahead to book I was told that it was indeed “singles night” where they match up a girl and a guy to go off and have dinner together. Half of the restaurant was booked up for this event with places running out but the other half was walk in traffic.

At 7.30pm on Valentines Day, we arrived after fighting some insanely awful traffic. Miss America and Queen Viv have just arrived too and are looking a little distressed. “Its very LOUD music in there!” Queen Viv exclaims and we walk in to an aural assault. They have our booking and we’re led to a high table with menus on the side, a caddy of squeezy bottles of tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and American mustard and something that makes us laugh, a paper towel dispenser, with the last towel decorously folded over modestly.