So yeh, hi I’m Josh of Josh VS Food.  You may better know me as Junior, as I was lovingly referred to, but now I’ve spread my wings (so to speak) and come off the sidelines of the world of food blogging to get in there and hopefully make you laugh (mainly at my misfortune).  Also to shed some light on the challenges around this great city of Sydney and who knows, maybe beyond, using the wonderful power of the internet and YouTube with video entries. By the way I’m not a professional eater just a hungry guy.

For this new section of Belly Rumbles I wanted to start with a bang and I love Schnitzel, so off to the Austrian Schnitzelhaus at Gladesville for a light lunch of 1 kilo of chicken schnitzel, chips, with 1 litre of beer.

WARNING:  Do not jump straight into this challenge. Just don’t. Think of the children, please.

The Challenge
1 Kg Schnitzel with chips & sauce of your choice, plus 1 Litre of Beer (Erdinger weissbier or Stiegl Beer)

The Cost:  $55

The Reward
Free Dessert, T -Shirt, Schnapps, your Picture on the “Champions” wall of Fame and your picture on the Net.

Rules
Challenge is to be completed in 1 hour.
All the food on the plate, except garnish, is to be eaten
NO sharing with anyone
If you throw up…. you’re out of the contest
Finish the beer
Make a mess in the bathrooms – CLEAN it up or you will be charged $ 50.00 cleaning fee

Spectators
Will be charged $ 15.00 to sit and watch at the table if they do not eat and drink

What can I say I was peckish and I love food and a beer every now and again.  I went into this challenge with a smile on my face, a song in my heart, which went along the lines of  Duran Duran’s “hungry like the wolf”, and 3-4 litres of water from breakfast.  When we arrived we were greeted by our waiter, I’ve nicknamed Mr. Smiles, he was overly happy especially after he found out I was doing the challenge.  It was a little unnerving but being the proud idiot I am, I dismissed that feeling and headed into the thick of it. Now I know why he was smiling, and I didn’t know this before but Beer is filling.  I’ve found out first hand why it’s called liquid bread, especially German beers (they are a crafty lot).

The food is set down in front of me and the first thing I notice is that unlike the picture on their website showing a lovely side of chips on your plate, there is a kilo of them at least.  First lesson learned don’t trust their pictures on the website.

Now as the picture quite clearly conveys the average size of the schnitzel, using a very technical measuring device, my head, is actually the size of my head.  After wasting a minute of making mental notes on how to tackle the schnitzel I left all strategy behind and started eating like I’ve never eaten before. I have to say this was one of the most tender pieces of chicken I’ve had, It was moist and the chips more-ish. Hitting the 10 minute mark I had polished off the first head size piece, a quarter of the beer and a hand full of chips.  I felt on top of the world.

15 minutes into the challenge I hit a wall half way through the second piece of moist, juicy fillet and the half litre of beer hits me.  I shrug it off determined to finish the plate.

About 20-25 minutes in and the pile of food isn’t shrinking, it just seemed to stay there mocking me.  I had to call it quits.  I made myself feel better by setting this as a bench mark and telling myself that this is a humbling experience for the challenges to come.

So yeah, first post I may have failed the challenge but now to move on to the next one.  Look forward to my next posts as I am leaving and will be back the 9^th of December to share some stories from Fiji about the food, the  people and the Islands themselves, so see you then.

Josh

Share

Saturday (2nd October) morning, Mac, Josh and I headed out to Fairfield Showgrounds to attend Oktoberfest.  I didn’t have breakfast as after reading all that was to be devoured I was going to stuff myself silly.  I have never actually been to an Oktoberfest before.  I am not a beer drinker, I was in this for the food.

Fairfield is a million miles away from where I live and I just don’t go out that way.  Which is a shame in one way as it is right next door to Cabramatta, and that is one place I do wish I got to more often.

We rock up to Fairfield Showground, the place for the Oktoberfest festivities (I was lead to believe via the German Austrian Club’s website) to find markets happening.  I sped through those markets at hyper speed in search of pork knuckles, bratwurst, potato pancakes, gingerbread, assuming that the Oktoberfest would be at the other end.  I was wrong.

It was not being held at the showgrounds this year, they had cancelled it.  Mac started talking to a nice couple selling strawberries and they told him that it was actually being held at the German Austrian Club at Cabramatta.

We bought some strawberries, had a wander through the markets, I pulled out my trusty iPhone and we were on our way to the German Austrian Club.
The Club is quite cute and reminds me of a ski chalet.  We arrived just after 1pm the opening time for Oktoberfest and already there was quite a few people there.

Entry is $12 per person unless you are a member.  There is continuous entertainment and a German band was playing when we were there.
First thing I made my way over to was a small area to the side of the large hall which was selling German groceries and gingerbread hearts.  It was quite funny reading the translations of the German writing on the hearts.  I chose a large heart for $12 which read something along the lines of “kiss me continuously”, it comes with some ribbon tied on it so you can wear it around your neck, hehehe.  I chose not to wear it.
Next stop for Josh and I, to get in to the spirit of the festivities, was to pick up  some fun hats.  Josh went for a Jack Sparrow hat, complete with dreadlocks and I went for a green hat with feather.  Mac chose not to participate in our antics, though I did get him to try on the beer goggles and glowing Viking hat.
With hats on heads we decided to sit out in the beer garden out front near where the food was.  Main reason was it was packed inside due to weather.
The boys had a beer stein (500ml) of beer for $16, you get to keep the stein and refills are $8.  As mentioned previously I don’t drink beer so it was Riesling in a plastic cup for me.
The line for food was massive, seriously long.  I jumped in line while Mac went and got me my wine.  20 minutes later, one Riesling down, we were about half way up the line.  All in all it took just over 40 minutes to get served.  We took turns in the line The line with about 30 minutes still to go in waiting


We weren’t bothered, everyone was in great spirits, chatting and all wanting to have a good time.  Was a very friendly happy vibe actually.
The line with 15 minutes to go

I decided to have wiener schnitzel and salads $20.
Mac went for the smoked pork knuckle, served with a dumpling and sauerkraut $20.Josh had chicken schnitzel served and salads $20.
I also ordered some spatzel and bratkantoffel, $4 each.

The schnitzels were really great.  Very tender and moist on the inside, crisp on the outside.  The potato salad served with it had a nice tang and the cabbage salad I can best describe as a cold crunchy sauerkraut.

The smoked pork knuckle was massive, dumpling not that impressive in texture or taste, sauerkraut was spot on.  You could have baked pork knuckle, which would have had that drool worthy crackling, but sadly when we eventually were able to place orders we would have had to wait another 3o minutes and decided not to.
The food was all kept in bain-maries and it was instant service when you eventually got to the head of the line.

The meals were very large and very filling.  We got a takeaway box and filled it with our left overs for Sally, a true doggy bag.

Josh wanted dessert and went for the black forest cake.  I just had to have a mouthful (or two, maybe three).
The club members running the event were all very inviting and friendly.  I think they really just wanted to share Oktoberfest and for people to enjoy their club..    We had a fun time, had some drinks, had some laughs and left with extremely full bellies.
Oktoberfest at the German Austrian Club is happening all this long weekend.

Sara
xxx

German Austrian Club
3-75 Curtin Street
Cabramatta NSW 2166

Share

I love mussels, and surprisingly they are a relatively new thing for me, I have really only started to eat them over the past 4 years.  I found generally they were a very unappetising part of a seafood platter, chewy and pretty unimpressive, so didn’t venture further.  Then I happened to try some that were offered as a canapé on the half shell with a chilli sauce, yum, now they were alright.  That then brings me to around three years ago when I visited a Belgian pub in Auckland and had a pot of mussels, that was it, they had me, hook, line and sinker.  Simply served in a wine sauce with chips and mayo on the side. Read more →

Share