A and I headed down to skipping girl take away (the title on the page is all in lower case, so I'm guessing that's how they like it written) in Abbotsford for lunch today.
It was likely named after the famous sign that was made for the famous Skipping Girl vinegar that used to be produced nearby. Unfortunately, the skipping rope used to light up and make it look like she was skipping, but it wasn't on today (and I'm not sure if it has been working, or maybe it's only on at night time).
If you look at the video on their website, I think heart attack is probably the first thing that springs to mind. Everything is fully loaded with fat, or sugar. But that wasn't even what caught my attention at this place. The part that made me excited was their giant shelf of hot sauces.
If you're getting take away, they provide little plastic containers for you to fill before you go, but if you're eating in, there are small glass cups to hold the sauce.
A and I decided to go with their regular beef burger (minus the cheese for me). Unfortunately, they have brioche buns, and I crossed the dairy line recently at Meat and Wine Co., but I didn't want to ruin the day, so I guess I'll live with the consequences for a little longer. At least the weather is a bit cooler now, so it's not as bad. To continue our search for the best potato cake, we also order a side of potato cakes, and A wanted to try their chicken nuggets.
The nuggets were nice, but they felt a bit more like a large piece of popcorn chicken than a chicken nugget. A had them with BBQ sauce, but I thought they were good on their own. The meat was really tender and juicy, and it was lightly seasoned with something.
Next up was the potato cake.
They make them in-house. The batter was nice, and it was nicely salted. I found the bits that were mostly batter a bit too oily for my liking, but when I got to a chunk that was filled with potato, oh my gosh. Unexpected heaven. The salty, crunchy batter, with the lovely fluffy potato. It was probably a lot nicer because it was surprisingly good compared to the rest of the potato cake. So far, Easey's has the best overall potato cake, but the fluffy part of the potato cake from skipping girl definitely win out. If only all of it could be that fluffy consistency, I'd rate it above Easey's. They're a bit smaller than your average potato cake, but you get 6 or 7 depending on the size of the ones that you get.
Oh, I should mention that because we arrived when they opened, 11:30am on Sunday, we were the only ones in the store, so we were able to ask them a lot of questions. We learned that their chips are triple cooked, and not frozen, and their home-made milkshake jars (because serving milkshakes in a cup is so old-school) are coated in chocolate and other lollies (which I didn't take a photo of, but it definitely looked like a sugar-fiend's dream).
Next up was the chips, but they were basically a vessel for the hot sauce / spices. The chips were lightly salted on their own, and had a slight taste of canola oil(?).
I was pretty hesitant about the spices. The last time I tried something spicy just for the challenge of it was Crazy Wings, and my sense of taste has never been the same since. I think I may have permanently killed off some taste buds, and since food is one of my favourite things in the world, it's like chopping off the fingers of a concert pianist.
First up was the "Slap ya mama" seasoning.
It had a slight bit of spice, but nothing powerful.
Then we tried the Old Bay Seasoning, which I don't think is meant to be for chips, and it tasted more herb-y to me than spicy.
The last of the seasonings we found was called Spontaneous Combustion.
A was a bit too liberal with this, and put on a lot more than he wanted.
This one definitely had a bit of a kick after a few seconds, but wasn't that high on the spice-meter. A did pretty well, he hadn't even broken out in a sweat yet.
We moved on to some of the sauces. A had already cracked open some of the Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce for the nuggets, and I tried some on the chips. It is definitely sweet!
I couldn't read what this bottle said "o-something-mi sauce", but we tried it. It seemed like the sauce they put on katsu. Not spicy at all.
On to the spicy sauces next! We tried Bone Doctors' Brazen Heat first, just because we both thought the picture on the bottle was hilarious.
Slightly spicy, but just barely. It tasted like the BBQ sauce you can get at McDonald's / Red Rooster.
A suggested we try different sauces from around the world, so next up was Australia, with the Byron Bay Chilli Co's Heavenly Habanero chilli sauce.
Extra hot seems like a mislabel, it wasn't hot - though at this point, it was the spiciest of the sauces we had so far (but less spicy than the spontaneous combustion seasoning).
Next stop was the Mexican La Costeña red jalapeño sauce.
Definitely had some heat, but not that strong. A was being a really good sport, trying out all the sauces even though he starts sweating when he orders the mild sauce at Nando's. I think he did well.
After that, it was Jamaica, with the Walkerswood Plenty Hot Jamaican Fire Stick Pepper Sauce.
I wasn't really sure what I was so worried about, none of these sauces came close to Crazy Wings.
We eventually tried what looked like some of their hotter sauces, going for Crowley's Hot Sauce Cajed Heat and Seeded Lava.
I actually liked the Cajed Heat sauce, it was a spicy version of the Brazen Heat one we had earlier. The Seeded Lava wasn't that strong.
I forgot to mention this, but at the Meat and Wine Co dinner, redbeanpork told us about how he ate a carolina reaper with Voltzy. A whole ghost pepper, raw. He said it was painful in his mouth for about 5 minutes, then he could feel it eating through the lining of his stomach, and that was the worst pain. Then there's the morning after....
Well, at skipping girl, they have another Crowley sauce behind the counter called the "Hallucinator".
One of the guys said he'd dip a toothpick in the jar and let me taste it. He dipped just the tip (about 3mm) in. For reference, the carolina reaper that redbeanpork ate currently holds the Guinness world record for the hottest chilli (though the dragon's breath chilli claims to have scored higher and is awaiting confirmation for whether it is decided to be the new hottest). The Trinidad scorpion, which features in the Hallucinator, was the chilli that the carolina reaper knocked off the leaderboard. So it's pretty high up there.
I put the toothpick in my mouth and thought, pfft, this is nothing. Then this huge ball of fire exploded in my mouth. A found a website listing a bunch of warnings for this sauce:
!!! PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASING THIS PRODUCT !!!
This contains capsaicin and is an irritant. Use with caution.
Do not ingest this without adding it to another product.
It contains 20% extracts and these are listed as an irritant to the human body.
If you do choose to consume this directly, be aware of the following reactions (not limited to):
- Increased heart rate
- Increased blood flow to extremities and around the body
- Possible blurred vision
- Possible numbness to extremities, face, arms, hands
- Possible pain within the ear canal / Eustachian tube
- Ringing in the ears
- Mucous membrane reaction resulting in uncontrollable salivation
- Uncontrollable and involuntary tear production
- A pain level that you may never have experienced before
- A feeling of a "natural high" that may come with the release of pain killing endorphins
Well..... I didn't know that before I tried it. I sat down and shoved a potato cake in my mouth to try and numb the burning. It didn't help. Even though I knew drinking water was a bad idea, I did it anyway, because the brief relief from having the water wash over my tongue was worth the pain of feeling like I was drinking lava. There were tears coming out of my eyes, my vision was starting to blur. Breathing was painful, because every breath of air was stoking the fire.
I think the guy took pity on me, because he said, "Nooo, don't drink water, it's the worst thing you can do! You're supposed to drink milk!" When I ordered and said I didn't want cheese on my burger, he asked if it was an allergy, and I said yes. I reminded him that milk wasn't really an option. He kindly poured me a glass of soy milk instead.
If I thought love was the feeling of seeing the cheung fun trolley at yum cha, I think true love is the feeling of seeing someone offer you a glass of soy milk while your mouth is on fire. I knew from the crazy wings experience that soy milk really doesn't help with the burning sensation, I think because it lacks the fat that regular cow's milk has. But I think another part of my brain was trying to suppress the logical side of my brain, in order to let the placebo effect take place. It must have worked, because drinking that milk felt amazing.
Then the stomach burn started, and now I have a better idea of why redbeanpork said that if he tried the carolina reaper again, he'd drink some milk beforehand to line his stomach.
I got so caught up in the memory of the chilli sauce that I nearly forgot to report on the burger.
To be honest, I thought the burger was the weakest part of today's lunch. I'm not a huge fan of rare / medium meat, but I didn't even notice that over the brioche bun. Don't get me wrong, the brioche was amazing, you could really taste the buttery goodness. But personally, I found it too overwhelming. I think the bun shouldn't detract from the overall flavour of the burger. I saw a box saying Phillippa's, which I'm guessing is where they get their buns from (which are branded with the skipping girl logo on top - something I thought was really cool). I don't doubt that they're an amazing bakery (though I've never been, but they're incredibly popular around Melbourne), but to me, brioche should be a light bread. This one felt very heavy, like there was far too much flour in the dough. Just my personal preference.
I have to say, the staff were amazingly friendly. They gave us an extra metal box thingy to make it easier for us to try the difference sauces and seasonings. They were really helpful in suggesting things. I really want to go back and try their wings, since the chicken nuggets were so delicious.
I'm also super sad that it wasn't until after the hallucinator that I noticed their salt shelf.
With what looks like a bunch of different salts for their chips. There's an Asian curry salt at the back, that I really want to try, and I love chicken salt. Even though the burgers weren't my cup of tea, I'd definitely go back for the chips and to try the wings. No more hallucinator though, I didn't even get the endorphin rush. I came home and had some lactose-free cookies and cream ice-cream, and I couldn't even taste it.
A ordered their Snickers milkshake (which wasn't on the menu, but it was suggested to him), and he said it was incredible. He's pretty keen to go back, too.
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