So my original plan was to do the entire review in the form of a re-written version of A Visit from St. Nicholas, but after doing just the first verse I realised how much of a stretch that would be, its a really long poem and I’m already pushing it - shrubs dont stir, even if they are crazy excited.
Last week I received an email from our current No #1 pub, The Imperial Hotel, with some very interesting news - They were launching a new Christmas parma on December 1st and they wanted the Parma Daze team to come and give it a try. We figured it was a perfect time to get a holiday special on the site (plus I’d never turn up the chance for a parma at The Imperial), so we loaded up the Parma-Sleigh and headed back for the first time since our initial review!
The pub hasn’t changed, still as cosy, warm and inviting as ever, As we took our seats in the dining room we had one thing on our minds. The christmas parma. We got our hands on a flyer to see what we were in store for…
We placed our orders and awaited the arrival. A turkey parma? would it be good? how would the cranberries in place of napoli go?
I won’t lie, I was a bit worried, even when we are at a pub with novelty parmas I rarely go any more extreme than a “mexican” so a turkey parma with cranberry sauce is a completely new ballpark.
before long our dishes arrived
It looked… Like a parma! Slightly smaller than the chicken schnitzel but still pretty sizeable. I picked up my knife and fork and cut my first bite.
It was damn good.
As soon as I tried it all of my concerns were out the window - My major worry was that there were a lot of very strong flavours on the dish - any of which could have overpowered the thing, but they all complimented each other fantastically. The brie, the ham, the turkey and the cranberries all worked together amazingly well.
Now, it is different than your regular parma, the sweetness of the cranberries add a completely new flavour, it kind of reminded me of honey or lemon chicken that you get at chinese restaurants, but on a plump, fresh turkey breast.
The chips were the same as last time - still served in a separate bowl to minimize sogginess, keeping them crisp and delicious.
Instead of a salad the Christmas parma is served with a bowl of veggies, I thought this was a fantastic choice, as it rounded out the whole vibe of a hearty turkey dinner. I thought it was a great choice, however some of the opinion around the table was that the option of a garden salad would be nice.
This is gonna be a short review as we covered all the basics of the original Imperial Parma in our first visit. The Christmas Parma is only available in December and I can’t recommend it highly enough, get down to the Imperial and try it while you can!
Okay, that was awful, Note to self, don’t quit day job and become the “Weird Al” of 18th century poetry.
The search continues…