Fool’s Gold Loaf

2 Elvii are having hotdogs on the street at the Parkes Elvis Festival

“A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart
and baby satisfy me, satisfy me baby”

- Elvis Presley

Elvis ‘The King’ Presley is a very spiritual man, when he preaches, you have to listen.

I agree with his philosophy in “A Little Less Conversation” whole heartedly and went all the way to Parkes (instead of Colorado) to look for Elvis’ favourite sandwich: The Fool’s Gold Loaf. And now I can see why Elvis loved the Fool’s Gold Loaf so much, as it’s truly a meal fit for a King!

Elvis’ die hard fans are no strangers to the Fool’s Gold Loaf is. If you never heard of it, Fool’s Gold Loaf is a sandwich consists of a single load hollowed out, warmed bread filled with one jar of peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, then stuffed it with one pound of grilled bacon. It is not for the faint hearted! At US$49.95 a loaf, Elvis and 2 others flew all the way to Denver, Colorado from Memphis, and ordered 22 loaves delivered to his private jet. They spent three hours chowing down a few gold loaves before flying back without leaving the airport.

We don’t have a private jet plane, but we did spend 5 hours driving from Sydney all the way to Parkes to look for the Fool’s Gold Loaf, at the annual Parkes Elvis Festival. And we found it!

peanut butter, jelly and crispy bacon goodness

I am determined to find the Fool’s Gold this year at the festival as I was disappointed that I didn’t find any at last year festival. No Fool’s Gold Loaf at an Elvis’ festival, that’s outrageous?! As I was almost giving up hope looking for it this year, a guy (I’ll call him Tall Boy) who saw me taking pictures of the Elvii (plural for Elvis) came up to me and suddenly we started chatting. Before long our conversation has evolved around the Fool’s Gold.

“Yes, you can try the loaf at the Coachman, is in the program,” as he pulls out the program and shows me an article about the loaf and the Coachman Hotel is where I can try the smaller version of the Fool’s Gold at $11.50. YES! We definitely strike the gold this time!

'Elvis favourite' The Fool's Gold - $11.50

As we were so looking forward to have the Fool’s Gold for brekky the next day, to our dismay the Coachman only does Lunch and Dinner. Mr P made a call to the hotel to check whether the loaf is on the lunch menu and we got tipped off that they actually haven’t made that many Fool’s Gold this year and the chef is quite excited about us asking for it and ready to make a few loaves when we get there!

The idea of having a whole loaf of bread stuffed with bacon with peanut butter and jelly smeared all over is quite shocking. Hence, we starves ourselves without breakfast and saving the tummy for some gluttony love. Our new found friend, Tall Boy also kindly join us for some fool’s gold action and no surprise that we are the first group arrived at the Coachmen when the clock strikes twelve.

L to R, clockwise: gooey sticky peanut butter all over; Tall Boy uses his disecting technique on the Fool's Gold; healthy portion of salad on the side; Beardman finally defeated and didn't finish his loaf

It is a full weekend to celebrate Elvis’ birthday in style at Parkes, so you can’t really avoid a full lunch menu catered for the Elvis die-hard fans with names like:

• ‘Jailhouse Rock’ Damper Loaf – $5.00
• ‘Devil in disguise’ Cajun Chicken Wrap – $14.90
• ‘Cant help falling in love’ with Lamb Baguette – $18.50
• ‘Double Trouble’ Salmon & Avocado salad $14.90
• ‘It’s now or never’ gourmet Steak Sandwich – $15.90
• ‘Surrender’ pasta Chicken $14.90 or Salmon $15.90
• ‘Live a little, Love a little’ Tempura Chicken salad – $15.50
• ‘All shook up’ Chicken caesar salad – $15.50
• ‘Elvis Favourite’ Fool’s Gold Loaf – $11.50

But we only have the Fool’s Gold in our mind so the decision is loud and clear. “3 fool’s gold loaves, please”, as I placed my order after Tall Boy (he also had the Fool’s Gold), I could see the smile on the barman’s face, sending our order into the kitchen full of enthusiasm. The waitress comes back just as excited as the barman with 4 plates of fool’s gold loaf. “4 gold loaves for the boys.”

We are all rather disappointed with the whole meaning of smaller version of the fool’s gold loaf when it looks more like a burger with a side of chips and salad. My heart skipped a little faster when I opened the lid of the cob loaf to check what is embedded inside. The crusty cob loaf is hollowed out, filled with crispy bacon, a generous portion of peanut butter and strawberry jelly spread all over.

I followed the Beardman by grabbing the whole loaf with two hands and stuffed it inside my mouth while the Tall Boy goes for the “split-in-half-with-knife” technique, which ended up with melted peanut butter leaking everywhere. Oh my god!!! Who would have thought peanut butter and jelly would go so well with greasy crispy bacon?!? Every mouthful is packed with amazing flavour of the salty crispy bacon and the sweetness of the peanut butter and jelly. It is truly genius! Thank god the cob loaf is fresh, nice and soft inside makes it lot easier to eat the whole loaf without choking myself to death.

Despite our disappointment with the size of the Fool’s Gold, only three of us managed to finish it but Beardman was struggling and defeated with few mouthful left on his plate. If this is the smaller version of the original Fool’s Gold, I really can’t imagine how Elvis managed to eat a whole one, or two! Perhaps, that’s why he lived up to his title, “THE KING“.

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Coachman Hotel
Welcome St.
Parkes, NSW 2870
Email: bookings@coachman.com.au
Phone Number:(02)68622622
http://www.coachman.com.au

p/s: The Fool's Gold only available during Elvis Festival early Jan every year.

Tagged as: australia, elvis, elvis presley, festival, fool's gold loaf, nsw, parkes, Sydney