Does Redland City have any contenders for the best Parma?
This week Natalie Bochenski of the Brisbane Times told the story of Brisbane man Stephen Humphreys who is searching for that city's best chicken parmigiana. Here's her story.
Is the chicken the key ingredient, or the breadcrumbs? Is it the ham, the cheese or the sauce? Could it even be the chips or the side salad?
For Brisbane parmigiana expert Stephen Humphreys it's all of the above.
The 37-year-old is almost one-third of the way through a personal challenge to find Brisbane's Best Parma.
Prompted by wife Jodie, who noticed he always ordered the chicken parma when they went to their local in Mitchelton, Humphreys is eating his way around the city's pubs and blogging his findings.
"I think it's a staple of a pub menu because it's a hearty meal that doesn't need to be expensive, and has so many elements people are bound to like something," he said.
"You get chicken, if you're trying to look like you're eating healthy there's the salad, and everyone loves tomato sauce."
Humphreys maintains "Parma" is the Queensland nickname for the dish, with "Parmi" used in New South Wales and Victoria, and "Parmy" in Western Australia.
A forensic accountant by day, he uses those skills to dissect each parma, rating things like the size of the ham, the level of cheese coverage and richness of sauce.
"I've got a bit where I talk about presentation – I hate the chicken placed on top of the chips, for example, because it makes the chips soft," he said.
"One of the biggest fights I have with people is whether the chicken parma is just the chicken piece with stuff on top, or whether it counts the side dishes as well.
"For me there's no part of it that's a bigger factor than the rest."
Dryly witty, Humphreys described his most recent parma – the $15 Wednesday night special at the Shaftston Hotel – as the "Shane Watson" of parmigianas, because it should have excelled but just fell short.
With 15 parmas literally under his belt, Humphreys has so far ranked the Calamvale Hotel's offering on top of his leaderboard, followed by The Flying Cock in Fortitude Valley and the Waterloo Bay Hotel at Wynnum.
He said he had settled into a routine of one parma per week, reaching 50 by Christmas.
"The eventual winner will be awarded the Robert Parma, because it's simply irresistible," he said.
"It's not really scientific, to be honest, it's what I think, and I hope people will have a different view."
Humphreys rejected a recent story suggesting Instagram was killing the parma as customers didn't like taking photos of it for their social media accounts.
"There are all these Instagram accounts devoted to parma, of which mine is just one, and I know they're there because they like all my photos on Instagram," he said.
"If the argument is that social media is killing pub food and chicken parma, then I'm not sure the people writing it are eating that food."
Humphreys said his wife Jodie had settled into the routine of a date and parma night every Wednesday.
"She'd never actually had a parma until we went to the Flying Cock because it was two for one," he said.
"But anytime I hear any negativity I remind her that it was her idea."
