Love Pho Vietnamese Cuisine, Myer Centre Food Court

Presumably I've missed the point by having lunch at a place called Love Pho and not ordering the pho - but today's lunch was decidedly average.

I ordered honey bbq pork, lemongrass beef and noodles.



The honey bbq pork was certainly sweet but it had no discernible texture - neither tender nor crispy nor juicy nor crunchy nor glutenous; the lemongrass flavour was noticeably absent in the oddly fishy-tasting lemongrass beef; and the noodles were very greasy.

In the interest of fairness I'll come back and try the pho and let you know how I go.

Wendy's, Myer Centre Food Court

I had a Wendy's shake'n'dog combo for lunch today. For me, Wendy's has always been more about the milkshakes and hotdogs rather than the ice cream. Shun me if you will but Wendy's retains a certain magical high school nostalgia - more so than Hungry Jacks or McDonalds or KFC. In many ways, Wendy's represented the pinnacle of adolescent achievement. Because the outlets were less accessible you had have the means to get yourself there (a car and a certain amount of freedom) and once there you had to be able to afford to buy your meal (implying a high school job of sort) and the outlets were usually located by the beach or near cinemas (which often meant babes and dates).

Today's meal was my old stand-by of chocolate thick shake and a hotdog with butter, BBQ sauce, mustard and cheese.



Thick and cold and sweet and chocolatey the thick shake was just as I remembered it. Because I can hoover down a milkshake in 30 seconds I always order a thick shake. It might be smaller but it takes much longer to knock back and means you've usually got something to drink with the dry nub of roll at the end of the hotdog.

And this is probably the great flaw of the Wendy's hotdog - the final nub. The fourth to last and third to last bites are invariably the best. There's still some dog left and all the buttery/cheesy/saucy goodness has oozed down to the bottom to create a mouthful of ultimate flavour. The second to last bite probably still has some residual flavour ooze and is ok. But the last bite - just a disappointingly dry heel of bread. I mean, look how far the dog is poking out of the bun. No wonder the flavour doesn't reach the bottom.



Having said all that, Wendy's probably still do the best hotdogs available in Adelaide (but I'm happy to be corrected). I'm not sure whether that's an indictment on Adelaide's hotdog scene (does Adelaide even have a hotdog scene?) or my own tastes. Regardless, Wendy's will always take me back to those halcyon high school days of hot cars, hot babes and hotdogs.

Big Beefy Burrito Battle - Burp Killer Burritos vs Zambrero

Last week a colleague of mine bought a small silver torpedo into the office that looked a bit like this...



... I know what you're thinking and no - he doesn't have a boogie board bag full of these and is planning a trip to Bali. This is in fact a burrito from Zambrero. This foil wrapped bundle started a debate about the relative merits of Burp Killer Burritos vs burritos from Zambrero. We didn't form a consensus so I felt I should subject both burrito outlets to a rigorous scientific review to decide this matter once and for all.

To keep the burrito sample pool as constant as possible I ordered beef burritos with whatever fillings came free and some sort of smokey sauce.

Let's start with the Zambrero burrito - slow cooked beef with refried beans, sour cream, rice, corn salsa, tomato salsa, onion & coriander salsa, cheese, jalapenos, smokey tamarindo sauce and a squeeze fresh lime.



I question whether this beef was slow cooked - it was quite chewy and had very little flavour. The various salads, fillings and salsas were fresh and tasty but didn't really add any textural crunch to the burrito. In fact, eating this burrito was like eating a small log of Mexican mush. The smokey sauce didn't come through and jalapenos didn't add any heat. But the squeeze of fresh lime really helped. In fact, that's probably the best way of describing this burrito - fresh.

Now, lets have a look at the Burp Killer Burrito. Keeping the boogie-board-smuggling theme going, for some reason it was wrapped to look like a giant spliff. I should warn you that the lighting in Burp was pretty low so the photos aren't that good. 



The Burp burrito was Mexican beef with guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, corn salsa, tomato salsa, rice, red onion, lettuce, cheese, jalapeños and smokey chipotle sauce.



Tender and falling apart - this beef was definitely slow cooked but once again didn't taste like anything much. The various salads, salsas and fillings stayed more compartmentalised and therefore the burrito had a bit of crunch and texture. Burp was more generous with their fillings - especially the sour cream. The jalapenos had some heat and the chipotle sauce carried through the whole burrito.

The verdict? Let me start by saying that both Zambrero and Burp did a few things badly. I really disliked the wraps they used - it was likely trying eat flattened glue. And the beef from both places didn't taste like anything - but at least Burp's was meltingly tender.

But I think I've come down in the Burp Killer Burrito camp. For one, they didn't try and charge me $2 for guacamole and the burrito was significantly larger. It also had more flavour and texture.

That said, neither were as good the smokey beef mocha mole burritos I made on the weekend.