Grill'd

Here’s the funny thing about pork belly: in the Asian culinary world, it’s the Holy Grail, the Rolls Royce of all cuts of swine. However, in the Caucasian culinary world, it’s a cheap cut of meat that most wouldn’t bother with unless they needed bacon.

Fortunately for me, Grill’d, a proudly Aussie burger chain, isn’t gonna let the lowly status of pork belly dissuade them from working some magic with it.

The Underbelly (A$15.90) isn’t just some seedy scrapper from the slums, it’s quite the superstar in its own right. Two sizable slabs of slow cooked pork belly that’s been marinated in Grill’d’s top secret marinade is fused with a refreshingly light zucchini & kale slaw as well as their proprietary Green Goddess Mayo.

While it is a little oily due to the fat on the pork belly, it’s undeniably unctuous and that slow cooking just makes that pork belly melt away in your mouth. The moderately creamy and pleasantly herbal qualities of the Green Goddess Mayo serve as a pleasant perfume, as well as adding even more flavor into the mix.

The additional zucchini chips I had on the side were rather disappointing though. Instead of being the razor thin slices of deep fried zucchini that resembled potato chips, it was a thick cut of zucchini that had been battered and deep fried. As you might’ve expected, it was dreadfully soggy, but at least the chipotle mayo on the side was a bit uplifting to the otherwise dreary zucchini chips.

The Underbelly is probably one of the many factors of what’s contributing to my burgeoning belly, but damn it tastes so good.