#MEATEASY order bong
Originally uploaded by Manne.
Some extraordinary work done in this kitchen. 5 burgers, 4 fries, 2 sets of buffalo wings, 1 serving of onion rings and not one thing to fault later I felt like a pig that found his first truffles.
Unfortunately the dingy old pub where #MEATEASY resides is too dark to take iPhone photos, check out the links to other blog reviews instead. But be careful, you will end up ravenously hungry in front of your screen...
Throughout 2010 I heard friends and bloggers rave about the creations of Yianni Papoutsis sold out of the side of his food truck, aptly named The Meat Wagon.
Apparently capable of making people not only queue around the block for hours for a burger, but achieve remarkable feats like eating three of them in a sitting or travel all the way from north London to the southern regions (gasp!) just to try the Philly cheese steak, it all sounded a bit hyped up to me.
Yes, I am an old lazy git who do prefer to book my food outings and not have to wait for my food.
How wrong can a man be? As wrong as John Travolta serenading the Socceroos, clearly.
Having heard all over that Yianni after his truck was stolen (who would do such a thing?) would set up temporary shop called #MEATEASY in an old pub in New Cross (The Goldsmiths Tavern), recently taken over by Capital Pubs (check out this great interview about the plans by Helen Graves), I felt I had to go and finally try this phenomenon out. It is right around the corner from where I live after all.
Chris Pople has written quite extensively about The Meat Wagon, so I knew before hand that the methods and ingredients that go into Yianni's food are the best researched ever. Clearly a perfectionist, nothing is left to chance.
Bringing along a bunch of friends, we planned our order to make sure we could try a few different things on the menu which is surprisingly extensive for being a temporary pop-up.
There was much waiting. We had to wait to be called to place our order as the kitchen was swamped when we arrived. Which was fine as we then could hawk over a table where a group of people were getting ready to leave. And then we had to wait in the queue behind the people who had waited longer than us to be called to place an order (no joke, they had magic clothes pegs). Then we waited for our food.
Waiting is not a problem at #MEATEASY. They have beers and cocktails (served up by the skilled Soul Shakers), and they serve them with laser like speed. So we waited, and waited and then BOOM our table was filled to capacity with burgers, onion rings, buffalo wings and fries.
A few minutes of concentrated silence later, only broken by the occasional moan of pleasure, I knew why people can't stop raving about The Meat Wagon.
Sure, I knew the burgers would make me swoon, but not just how much. The level of detail is amazing
I wasn't prepared for just how perfectly the sourdough bun would hold it all together despite the juiciness of the meat.
Or how the chilli burger really packs such a punch that a chilli scented cloud prepared our taste buds for it even as Yianni approached the table carrying our treats.
Or how the cheese melts into the meat patties, steamed in by covering the burger with a lid while cooking.
Most amazing to me were the buffalo wings. My friends know how much I love chicken wings, and I have the Google ranking to prove it.
The flavour was really good, hot as you would expect from buffalo wings but not lip searingly so. But the plumpness and texture was what put me in chicken wing heaven number seven. Once I recovered from my petite mort I grabbed Yianni to try and get some pointers from the master.
He mentioned a few things, in a Zen like slightly mysterious way:
"Have you heard of bresse poulet? Look it up." and
"Cook them slow and low. As slow and low as you can go."
Based on those words I will try and find a butcher where I can get wings from bresse poulet, the tricolore of chickens, and find out how long they have to be in the oven at about 110 degrees Celsius to come out perfectly juicy.
I am going again, for sure. Have to try the Philly cheese steak and the mac+cheese. And hang at the kitchen counter to get more info on what I would dare to bet are the most amazing buffalo wings in the world.
