Food Slutting

The Nandos Micro Burger

I'm a big a food slut. I'm always on the hunt for a good feed and any excuse to knick off with a friend or two and talk crap over lunch. Particularly during the week at work! Before every "foodie" with a camera and a blog was religiously capturing and critiquing their every meal I was food slutting my way around Perth and Subiaco. Our objective however was to help answer the burning "whats for lunch man?" dead end question we aimlessly rebound off each other. "I dunno what do you feel like?"  ... " I dunno man.. healthy or filthy?".  "I dunno wot do you want?".....  The net result being you all can't decide on anywhere to go!!

As a food slut the everyday eating choices especially in the city can be hard work. Its hard to find something reasonably healthy which is good vallue for money.  Cause you can still get great food and produce its just expensive.  How all this translates to the average humble food slut is less and less good food options for lunch during the week. It begins to add up when your spending more than $10 for lunch every day. What irks me the most though, is the flood of crappy imported foods our food businesses from Woolworths to local takeways are willing to buy to sell to us.  Is it our own fault? We need to as consumers, be not so conscious all the time of just always buying the cheapest. So there in lies my boggle.

Lets take Nandos for example - which actually is whats prompted me to write today's food rant. There was a time where I was totally addicted to their delightful Peri-Peri chicken goodness. Nandos was always more expensive than your run of the mill Red Rooster or Chicken Treat, but it was hell more worth it! Hell also being the fiery belting of your tongue (and bum) - its intensity  of which determined by the enthusiasm of the Nandos chef's peri peri sauce brush! Anyway, Nandos have for a while now seem to be using smaller sized chickens and skimping out meal sizes. I used to want to buy a salad from Nandos for the lush portion of sliced chicken breast you would get on top of that green stuff.   Its about half as much you get now.  Paying $22 for their F#cking Fiesta meal with ya buddy is even more depressing as you hyena-Ly scrounge through your half share of the whole chicken carcass for any remaining flesh. 

The last straw for Nandos for me was last weeks pigeon sized chicken we got which I swear must have been the smallest chicken ever raised in captivity.  I kid you not the leg was literally  this big
|<------------------------------------------------>|   as it looks on your screen.  So like Bunnings (Warehouse we'll make your face grouse) Nandos has become a victim of its own success and perceived popularity amongst the public. Just like Subway, they have raised their prices and have gotten more and more stingey on quality, servings and sizes. The latest joke from Nandos is their mini-burger thingo for $4.95.  (in the picture above) This burger has a radius of your average single tomato slice.  I will give them some credit  - they do call it mini.

But, all is not lost.. I've found some great places to eat and also an awesome Nandos substitute.  Charcos Flaming Chicken is a charcoal chicken shop which also does a Portuguese style chicken.  Their servings are decent and they have burgers, wraps, kebabs, roast and cream potatoes and even big range of salads (for the Francis's amongst you).  Home style burgers are all the rage these days now with new burger shops springing up everywhere.  I love Jusburgers,  Flipside and in the CBD -  The Burger Bistro. Even Macdonalds and HJS have lifted their games their Angus range of burgers.  You can even get an Angus beef Pie!  

In the Perth city lunching is pretty hard.  My pick in the city for regular grab your lunch at work stuff is Lunches Downunder in Allendale square.  You will actually get real chicken and yes its the chicken breast too from this place!  I know margins are probably tight for a lot of places, but please don't skimp on the chicken man! Everyday Lunches Downunder does a different hot meal ranging from chicken curry, to rump steak and to the famous Friday Roast Beef (rolls).