ANZAC Day, Kings Park

"They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted.
They fell with their faces to the foe."

Memories from the Polaroid tin

Ask people to pose for a Polaroid and they almost always smile. What's not to love?

Ben Shewry (Attica) and Christian Puglisi (Relæ), Attica, Melbourne, March 2012

 Clare Valley, South Australia, February 2012

Hendrick's Theatre of Curiosities, Sydney, April 2012

 

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand, July 2011

Dinner with Doris (Saturday November 17)

Just wanted to spruik an event featuring Anthony Georgeff and Jane Cornes - she's on the right in the above picture; with her is friend and other half of music duo Doris, Margie Hanly, not Mr Georgeff - two (retired?) food and drink writers who've played big roles in helping Western Australia eat and drink a little better (Anthony used to edit the sadly defunct Spice Magazine while Jane was Australian Gourmet Traveller's former WA state editor before I took over). Great part of the world, Balingup. If you're after an excuse for a south-west road trip, this'd be a good one. Details of the dinner below copied from press release.

Join WA’s favourite gal duo for a night of good food and fine original music. Includes a three-course long table Spring Feast created by Anthony Georgeff

SAT 17 NOV

6.30pm, Balingup Lesser Hall

$65 per person BYO

Bookings essential – book online at trybooking.com/35768 or at Taste of Balingup

Golden King BBQ Express, Morley

Seeing as search engines don't crawl instagram comments, I'm going to start reposting images in a blog-ish format for the benefit of those eating out in Perth. First cab off the rank is Golden King BBQ Express in Morley, a spin-off of the Northbridge mothership on William Street. Small place. Eight chairs. BYO. Service standards appear to be set at perfunctory, but really, people who get shirty at brisk service at low-end Chinese restaurants need to check themselves. To the food: the pork in this two-meat combo ($9.30) is a little leaner than I'd like but does what's asked of it. The duck ($9 in the same rice, meat, gravy and vegetable combination), however, is the real star. If more places roasted duck like this - crisp skin, fat properly rendered and the meat pleasingly juicy as - I'd probably promote it from third in my Chinese barbecue rankings. They're not shy with the star anise either, both on the duck itself and, by extension, the gravy too. The chilli oil tastes like it's out of a jar. Not a patch on the deeply flavoured house made version at Aberdeen's excellent Hong Kong BBQ House. All in all, fair value, and a far comelier prospect for a feed in Morley than tackling the hordes at The Galleria.
Shop 19, Morley Market (Walter Rd West), (08) 9375 5556, Mon-Sun 10am-9pm

Gosling's Family Reserve Rum

Well look who remembered his Blogger password. Life happens. Blogs get neglected. It’s a recurring theme. I hope you’ll find it in your e-hearts to forgive. A peace offering of sorts, a few thoughts on a premium rum I hadn’t seen around these parts. Champagne bottle. Hand-numbered. Dipped in black wax (hence the Gosling's "black seal" name). All things that denote something special. And pricey. Maybe this might be of interest to Perth locals eying off a bottle (I bought this at the excellent Raffles Liquor Merchants on Canning Bridge) or anyone completing some pre-purchase recon via Google. Atypical rum aromas of nuts and honey. Based on olfactory and visual cues, I’d probably believe you if you told me this was a glass of muscat. Entry in the mouth is very gently-gently with little spirituous thwack (this is a 40%ABV bottling). Refined isn’t a word one normally associates with brown spirits but in this case I’d think long and hard about allowing it. Gingerbread through the finish together with a handful of similar flavours. Long, assured, hard to see where the joins are. A rum whose flavours fall somewhere between the vegetative lift of agricoles and the flavour king-hit of older rums. Not quite well-priced, but still glad to have it in the collection.

Hemingway Daiquiri

Just in time for World Daiquiri Day tomorrow, here's my current method for making a Hemingway. If you haven't got all the ingredients in your cupboard, do yourself a favour and order one at your favourite bar. In the same way not not everything poured in a cocktail glass is a martini (or blah-tini), daiquiris aren't just restricted to the contents of a frozen slushee machine.

While great, the agricole blanc called for in this recipe is entirely optional - feel free to swap out your fave white rum or even white spirit. I've used gin in the past with good results, although calling it a daiquiri doesn't seem quite right. Anyone got a good name for a Rose's-less gimlet with a dash of maraschino?

As history tells us, Papa Doble drank his daiquiris without sugar, however this was merely a survival tactic as the great author was diabetic so don't feel like you've got to grit your way through a cup full of citric acid in the name of tradition.

Also, this recipe assumes you're using ruby grapefruits rather than the tarter white ones (which are hard to find at the moment in Perth). If you do luck out and manage to get some of the white variety, maybe add a touch more simple syrup - I make mine using a 1:1 sugar to water ratio, the sweetness of yours will dictate the amounts added - to snap the drink into balance.

I'd also like to credit Imbibe magazine and 320 Main for hipping me to the lime-shell-in-shaker trick to ramp up drinks with extra pithy-ness. Hooray for resourcefulness, I say.

Hemingway

45ml PMG Rhum Blanc Agricole
22.5ml grapefruit juice
15ml lime juice
7.5ml Luxardo Maraschino
5ml simple syrup (or to taste)
1 spent lime shell¹

Combine over ice in a mixing glass and shake for 15 seconds. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

¹If you've got time, cut the lime shell in half again to maximise surface area and thus flavour extraction, but don't sweat it if your citrus goes straight from the cutting board into the shaker either.

MAD 2012 Polaroids

In keeping with the retro photography theme of this blog, here's a selection of Polaroids from my recent trip to Denmark for a friend's wedding and the MAD 2012 Food Symposium. I'm slowly coming around to the new Impossible Project film, but expired original Polaroid material is still number one in my heart and worth shelling out the extra bucks for.