On Wednesday night we assembled the core candle crew – PJ, Drew, Pruey, Clay and myself – and hit up Queenie’s, above The Forresters, in Surry Hills. This is a newish, Jamaican themed restaurant, done in the increasingly popular ‘authentic’ sort of decor. This is all good as long as it works, and in this case it does. It has a cosy but cruisy sort of vibe.
Drew, having learned of my Chili exploits was kind enough to bring me a pot of The Chilli Factory’s Turbo Supercharge Extreme Hot Habanero Paste, as a Christmas present. Hell yeah!!!!
This is Drew – legend!
Queenie’s is amazingly hipster as evidenced by the waitress showing side bra, and a guy sitting across from me in a Danzig cut-off shirt (I like this as long as it’s not an ironic gesture).
I had to attend the bathroom upon arrival, due to pre-loading (that’s what the kids are doing these days isn’t it?) on some Moo Brews and Mumm. It’s a bloody unisex bathroom! This sucks on a number of levels, but I’m sure in a pub-restaurant, it sucks worse for the girls sharing with us! I had to wait for a stall, and as the girl came out we made eye contact, and had a moment of understanding about what she had just been doing, and what I was about to do – awkward! No fucking paper towel either, so shit.
Back to the table and straight into some Red Stripes Jamaican Lager. A nice, flavourless, quaffable beer. Other beers consumed were Moritz and Palma Cristal. Pretty much the same description. The only beer we didn’t have was Dos Equis. Pretty lean and flavourless beer menu but it went well with the food and vibe, so whatever.
Weirdo drinking Red Stripe
We started with some bbq corn that came coated in coconut and a spicy mayo. Great little dish, even if I was left picking my teeth. The sweet corn couple with the smokey bbq and fatty coconut was a hit.
Don’t know whats more appetising – The Corn or The Clay?
Also for starters we had the fried plantain (like an unripe banana). This was also a ripper dish especially dipped in the creamy aioli. My photo of this was too shit to post.
They had some chili sauces on the table but these weren’t very hot so I cracked the habanero sauce, Drew gave me. BOOM! Great sauce. Hot as anything I’ve had, and made by an Aussie company (full review in the next few days).
Drew’s generous gift – Hot Sauce!!!
Onto mains and I couldn’t go past the pork neck feast recommended for 3-4 people. I got PJ and Pruey on board for this. It came out and I immediately knew I’d made a mistake. Too small. Prue hardly ate any and PJ and I shared the rest, but it definitely does not deserve the title of a ‘feast’. I reckon I could have easily eaten this whole thing myself. It was amazing though, and cheap at $35. It came with buttered rolls, sweet potato fries (kick arse) and slaw (fresh and tasty). I loaded up my rolls with some of Drew’s hot sauce, a slab of pig neck and some slaw. There were no bones in the neck, the only bone was in my pants. This dish is awesome and perfect with some really hot sauce.
Shit picture of the “feast”
PJ demonstrating how to eat pork neck
For dessert we went up to Crown St to get an ice-cream from Gelato Messina. There was a line coming out the shop and down the street! Fuck that. I’m not a huge cold dessert fan so in my opinion no ice-cream is worth lining up for, especially with all the pencil neck hipsters.
Dickheads at Messina Gelato
Pros: Cheap, tasty, pork neck!
Cons: Unisex toilets, hipsters, not enough hot sauce options
Rating: 6.5/10
Chilligasm 