Welcome to Counter Meal, our monthly dive into what’s good to eat at the bar.
Got a great dish or a new food menu at your bar? Let us know at countermeal@boothby.com.au, or shoot us a message on Instagram (@boothbydrinks).
The potato is a staple of gastronomies around the world. From its South American roots, the starchy tuber was introduced into Europe in the 1500s and since then has been adopted around the world.
That’s because potatoes are rich in nutrients and easy to grow, but — and we think this is when potatoes are come into their own — they grow in deliciousness after a couple of drinks. Science.
Which is our way of saying that this chip butty from Brisbane bar, Milquetoast, is drinking food of the most elevated kind.
Milquetoast opened down a laneway in the Brisbane CBD last year — they turned one year old this past July — and quickly became a must-visit destination. Accolades have followed: at the Boothby Best Bars Queensland awards in June, they picked up not one but two titles, being awarded both Best New Bar and Best Bar Eats.
And that Best Bar Eats accolade has a lot to do with this chip butty, which has been so popular they had to take it off the menu (though we hear that it becomes available from time to time).
Below, we have a look at some bite-sized bar food news happening this week, and then we get into an in-depth Q&A with Milquetoast co-owner George Curtis about why a great food offering is so important in bars today and the backstory behind the chip butty. Scroll to the end for the award-winning recipe.
For starters...
It’s a busy time for the Maybe Group. They’ve just moved El Primo Sanchez from Paddington to Surry Hills; having sampled half a dozen of the drinks on the list there last night, it’s a place you’ll want to visit (the Banana Daiquiri is absolutely sublime). They’ve also reworked their food offering, to focus more on Latin American takes on street food, but I think their cheeseburger in taco form (pictured here) might be everyone’s go to snack.
They’re also getting set to open Bar Allora on the ground floor of the Mantra hotel on George Street in Sydney, as part of their collaboration with hotel group Accor. As the name suggests, expect an Italian vibe — espresso, aperitivo, and digestivo is the tagline — and with head chef Josh Donachie (whom many may know from Re) on board and Puglia-born Rosy Scatigna (ex Bar Morris) on the pans. Foodwise, the menu will be southern Italian by way of Milan. “In a lot Milanese restaurants, the chefs were all from the south of Italy,” says Maybe Group co-owner Stefano Catino, “which made the food so much better.” Expect Bar Allora in two weeks or so — follow them on Instagram at @bar_allora.
Newtown’s Bar Demo is open again this Sunday 26 October for their chef takeover series — Bentley chefs James Tai and Rahul Tandel will be on hand, with Sydney hospo’s favourite DJ Pasan Wijesena on — as they say — the ones and twos. There’s no bookings — head on in from 4pm, drink wine, eat food, and be happy. See more at @bardemosyd.
BOOTHBY: Why is the food offering at Milquetoast a big deal for you?
GEORGE CURTIS: A number of reasons really. First of all, we’re the only venue of our kind in the CBD, being a wine bar and being food-driven, especially since Alba Bar & Deli closed down. We really wanted to fill that space of doing substantial food, but doing something really different to what other guys are doing. And then also serving it until late every night that we’re open. [It] gives a lot of accessibility to people who are wandering around having cocktails late at night and feel hungry.
I think generally, the way bars are going now is very much towards food. I think it’s really important to have a substantial food offering. It’s one thing getting people through the door, but keeping them in the venue is super important. Food is the way to do that.
Can you talk about the chip butty, where it comes from?
The butty is pretty much the most iconic British fast food dish you can think of. It’s just because it’s so simple. It’s just hot chips between two pieces of plain white sandwich bread — which actually sounds super boring — lathered in ketchup or brown sauce. And it’s a really iconic thing. We wanted to recreate that, and make it a bit more sophisticated.
With a British angle on our food, it was something we’ve really wanted to do from the start. We brought it in at the start of this year. We thought it’d be popular, but it’s almost famous now, not only in Brisbane, but also interstate; people were coming in during Bartenders’ Weekender and they came for the chip butty. It’s just become this hugely famous iconic thing that’s associated with Milquetoast.
What are the hallmarks of a good classic chip butty? What you do differently for yours?
You need crispy chips and you need fluffy white bread. That’s essentially it. And then you can just lather it in whatever sauce you want to lather it in. And then, the one that we’ve done, obviously it’s not just chips — it’s a kind of pressed potato fondant that’s pressed for 24 hours and then deep fried to make it super, super crispy, but still fluffy on the outside. So a big piece of potato within some sliced white bread, which is smeared in curry butter and then you get a big dollop of curry aioli on the side to dip it into. It’s pretty tasty.
With a classic chip buddy, has that always got butter on it?
It’s been a while since I had one back home, but it’s always got a bit of butter. You need that juicy, greasy butter to accompany the hot crispy chips — smeared in butter. The more butter the better for me.
And classically like a brown sauce — maybe an HP or something like that?
Most people would lean towards ketchup, but I’m a brown sauce guy. In our case, we do a curry sauce, but one which is elevated and not so conventional. But whatever classic British sauce you want to use works perfectly fine.
And the bread — is it regular supermarket sandwich bread?
Yeah, that cheap sandwich bread from Tip Top. You don’t want good bread. You just want cheap sandwich bread. It’s just that fluffy, spongy white bread — anything else could be maybe bit too tough or just a bit too artisan. And it has to be white bread, it’s not the same with wholegrain.
You have chefs working there, but who makes the chip butties? Can the bartenders do them?
No, no, no, wouldn’t be allowed near them for sure. It is actually quite a long process. You wash the potatoes, mandoline them, wash them and then press them overnight; then they’re portioned and deep fried. It’s a 24 hour process. It’s not just boiling potatoes and deep frying them; it’s a skilled chef thing, even though it sounds really simple.
Excellent, okay. How many do you tend to do a night?
It can range from anything like 30 to 40, but then on the nights that we were open for Bartenders’ Weekender, we did 70 on the Monday and we did another 50 on the Tuesdays. So we did 150 in two days. And I think for the whole week, we did about 250 that week. Brilliant.
Yeah, how did you feel about winning that Best Bar Eats award
Amazing. You always think you’re really desperate to win awards and you tell yourself, we won’t be that bothered, we’re gracious losers; but when it happens, it’s really meaningful and we were absolutely stoked. It’s a recognition for a lot of hard work that a lot of people put into this place. It was hugely satisfying to win that. And it’s awesome that people are recognising what the guys in the kitchen are doing. Really, really proud.
Milquetoast’s Chip Butty recipe
INGREDIENTS
For the potato:
- 5kg potatoes
- 100g potato starch
- 200g water
- 200g canola oil
- 20g salt
For the curried butter:
- 6 eggs
- 500g brown butter
- 20g Dijon mustard
- 50g rice wine vinegar
- 20g Keen’s curry powder
- 6g salt
For the curry aioli:
- 7 egg yolks
- 50g rice wine vinegar
- 320g Dijon mustard
- 850g canola oil
- 30g Keen’s curry powder
- 7g salt
METHOD
For the potato:
Pre-heat an oven to 200°C.
- Thinly slice the potatoes into iced water.
- Drain and combine with the potato starch, water, canola oil, and salt.
- Layer the potato into a deep tray lined with baking paper and cover with foil.
- Bake in the oven for one hour, or until a skewer easily pierces the potato.
- Remove from oven, and weigh down overnight.
- Portion the potato into 5cm squares, 2cm deep.
- Using a deep fryer or a deep pot, bring oil to 180°C, frying two potato squares at a time until golden and crispy. Season with chicken salt.
For the curried butter:
- Boil the eggs for six minutes, remove from the pot and immerse in iced water.
- Peel eggs.
- Using a stick blender, blitz the eggs with the mustard, vinegar, and curry powder, until it is a smooth paste.
- Slowly introduce the brown butter and emulsify until thick and glossy.
- Season with salt and curry powder to taste.
For the curry aioli:
Blend all ingredients — except for the oil — into a smooth paste. Slowly incorporate the oil and blend until smooth and glossy. Season to taste.
To serve:
Cut the crusts from two pieces of cheap supermarket white bread (Milquetoast uses Tip Top). Cut the bread into 5cm squares, the same size as the potato squares. Spread curried butter onto the bread, and make a sandwich with the potato squares. Serve with a dollop of curry aioli on the side.
Recipe from Milquetoast, Brisbane.
Recipe to come. Recipe to come.
