Butter, Sydney

Butter is a fried chicken restaurant in Sydney.  A well regarded fried chicken restaurant.  The menu, as you may have guessed, is mostly, well, chicken.  Wings, tenders, sandwiches.  Fried chicken can also come on top a salad if you are attempting to be a touch healthy, or served with a hot donut, their signature combo.  They have a lineup of fries, loaded with things like chili, or poutine, or Japanese mayo, sauce, and bonito, or, um, even Nutella.

But none of those things drew me in.  I was drawn in by the other side dishes, mostly all vegetables.  Mashed potatoes and gravy.  Slaw.  Fried halloumi fingers.  Interestingly topped Asian greens.  Corn on the cob.  Let's just say, that after nearly a month in Australia, I was really craving some vegetables.  I had plenty of great food while there, but, my vegetable intake was quite low.  

So one night, when I had leftover proteins and carbs left to finish off at my hotel, I ordered just some sides to go with, in an attempt to have at least a few token vegetables in my day.  I ordered on DoorDash, and my order was quickly confirmed, and it was delivered in a reasonable time frame, well sealed, and moderately still warm.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Miso Corny. $5.

"Corn on the cob, miso butter."

I started with the amusingly named "miso corny".  I have no idea if corn was in season, as it was the end of summer there (March) but corn on the cob sounded fabulous, and I do love miso and butter.

I had to laugh when I opened my takeout bag to find my corn in a little foil lined bag on its own, and, well, it was a single piece, just half a cob.  Uh ... the portion is *half* a cob?  That said, the corn was ripe, it was well cooked (no shrivled bits, not too tough, etc), and it was nicely smothered in butter.  I didn't taste any miso however, it just tasted like buttered corn, and badly called out for some salt or pepper.

So, well cooked, but a letdown in terms of flavor and portion size.  If you order direct, this is $4, on Doordash it was $5, which definitely seems high for half a cob.  ***.

Asian Greens. $11.

"Steamed and chilled Chinese broccoli with peanut dressing, togarashi and wasabi peas."

Next I moved on to the more interesting sounding dish, the Asian greens.

This dish I was excited for for both the Chinese broccoli itself (vegetables!  Green vegetables!) and the toppings.  I was pleased to see it was loaded up with the goodies on top.

The Chinese broccoli was fine.  Bite size pieces of stem, some bite sized pieces of greens.  A good base I guess.  The peanut dressing I expected to like, but wasn't really into.  It tasted more strongly like tahini than peanut to me.  There was tons of it, so impossible to get a bite of just greens to have something lighter and more vegetable forward.  The togarashi added interesting spice, but it seemed like it clashed a bit with the dressing.  Green onion was nice garnish for further Asian flair.  The crushed wasabi peas were great fun, crunchy and had a bit of kick.  Unique garnish, and one that worked.

Overall though, this felt a bit muddled, and wasn't really what I wanted at the time.

The portion of this was fairly small too, less than a small size deli container, definitely less than I was expecting. If you order direct, this is only $9, it was $11 on DoorDash, which again felt high.  ***.