It's the question that has divided university and college students for years, who does the best AB? Before you can go ahead and answer the question you may need a little background first.
The AB is one of Adelaide's great urban legends. The name supposedly stands for '
Abortion', but other variants are '
After Birth', '
Absolutely Beautiful' or '
Atomic Bomb'; we figure the later two are just trying to be polite. The story goes that a group of drunk university students wandered into an O'Connell Street yiros store one night, unable to choose between a yiros or chips. Instead they ended up with chips topped with yiros meat, slathering the dish with tomato, barbecue, and garlic sauce.
Who knows if the story is true, and there are others floating around, but it does make sense. When the mess of chips, meat, and sauce is sitting in front of you it seems only a drunken mind could have conceived such a dish.
So who is contending for the top spot?
The Blue and White Cafe and the
North Adelaide Burger Bar (Also known as the Red and White) both claim to have created the AB, and most AB fans will have a loyalty to one of these stores. They're actually both on O'Connell Street, only about three stores apart. They're open late at night, which is perfect for drawing in the drunken crowds, especially when there is a pub crawl roaming around.
A group will gather round a table, the AB sits in the centre, and floppy plastic forks controlled by drunken hands start to dig in.
Phevvy's Steak and Yiros in the Mile End Homemaker Centre is rumoured to also have a variation of the AB on their menu, and you may find something similar on other menus across the city, but none come close to the fame of the two North Adelaide joints.
So let us know where your allegiances lie, and tell us which is Adelaide's best AB. It may be hard to distinguish between the two at 3am when you're covered in beer and the smell of stale cigarettes, but we're sure you've got a favourite anyway.
If you've ever had an AB, even under another name, anywhere else in Adelaide make sure you tell us where. We'd love to know if the AB craze extends further than North Adelaide and it's thriving college student population.
