ChrisTaylor

The Glee Club from Dead Rabbit: amontillado jacked with yellow Chartreuse, raspberry eau de vie, absinthe and bitters (I used Ango).

I put away a couple of Martinis last night. Both based on .75 oz Dolin dry and 2.5 oz gin. I made one with Miller's Westbourne and the other with West Winds Cutlass.

Pisco.

A Brooklyn using my freshly-opened Amer Picon. I think I like it more than the Manhattan.

A couple more Death drinks. One, One, One and a White Nergroni. The OOO really sings with the Westbourne (a new acquisition).

I bought some of the Ango amaro recently. Not a huge fan of this product.

A couple of recent drinks: Gin Smash a la Byron -- one of my favourites from the Dead Rabbit book. And two from the beta cocktails book: European Union and A Moment of Silence.

The vermouth, sherry and genever were restocks.

I'm having some 10-year-old Longrow.

The description sounds like it's the same one I bought at one of Aldi's Australian outlets. I've used it two or three times. It's okay for the price. It's cheap enough to qualify as a curiosity, I guess. I'm not anywhere near interested enough in dehydrating to be able to justify the cost of an Excalibur, for instance.

Scorpion via Serious Eats via Jeff Berry via whoever. I used the bitters as a garnish.

I approve of this experiment--and I'm very keen to hear about the results.

LN2 ice cream, yes. It's an optional 'post-dessert'. They push it pretty hard and a lot of people seem to go for it. It works out to $15AUD per, which isn't too bad in comparison to some of the shops that make a point of selling ice cream made by this method. I'll pay extra to eat it if I get to sit in an actual dining room in something that's recognisably a chair instead of perching atop a milk crate in a cramped shop with thumping music. Let me know if you make your way over here. Booze shall be consumed. The cost? Nah, I don't take it as rude. Fair question--especially considering the absurd asking price that went with The Fat Duck pop-up. It worked out to just shy of $400AUD for the two of us. We had three courses plus the optional ice cream post-dessert. We had two cocktails each. I also had a coffee. The coffee was a little more expensive than what you'd normally pay in a restaurant but it was the best coffee I'd ever had at a restaurant. Though small, the coffee and tea menu had clearly been the subject of some thought. Price-wise, Dinner works out on par with many of the other 'premium' offerings of Crown Casino -- e.g. Rockpool and Rosetta. We paid half that a week earlier at RuYi, a 'modern' restaurant, and I thought the sense of value there was inferior to Blumenthal's offerings. My partner took care of the booking, so I can't provide a detailed commentary. A couple months ago we decided we'd like to go there for Valentine's Day. She called and was told both the lunch and dinner sittings were full. We had two options: going on a waiting list or going for lunch on the Saturday. We opted for the latter. I doubt it'd be as difficult to get in on a normal weekend. Your mileage may vary. I think there was a two hour window for our sitting. I think. I say that because we had a late lunch (2PM) and there'd been someone at that table before us. I think they departed early, though, as the restaurant contacted my partner at about 1:30 to inform us our table was ready. As an aside, yeah, if I was offered a 'free meal' sort of deal, I suspect I too would lean towards something like Dinner over Noma. In some ways Dinner reminded me a little bit of Sydney's est. And so far as I'm concerned, that's a pleasant thing to be reminded of.

I was curious about that myself, as the menu itself doesn't give detail--and as you can see, everything on the plate is recognisable as food. And so I turned to Google: http://www.sugarednspiced.com/london-dinner-by-heston-blumenthal/ According to the above blog, the 'powdered' refers to the brining process. Apparently it's an old word for describing the brining/curing process.

tl;dr review: Excellent meal A drinks program better than many local bars Mint Rickey and Sarsaparilla Shrub. Roast bone marrow, anchovies, snails, pickled vegetables. Rice & Flesh. Amaranth, saffron, curried 'roo tails. Very intense flavours. Slow-cooked pork belly with lard, spelt, pork skin, baby turnips and sauce Robert. Powdered duck breast cooked in ale with artichokes. Sides: buttered cabbage and fries. Cider Gimlet and Bloody Mary. Brown bread ice cream. Sambocade. The centre of the cheesecake was filled with an apple and elderflower jelly. The pears were topped with candied smoked walnuts. Ganache infused with Earl Grey. This was served with my coffee. Table-side ice cream service: vanilla ice cream topped with your choice of freeze-dried raspberries and white chocolate/hazelnuts/fennel/popping candy.

Visited early in the New Year. tl;dr review: Excellent meal Nice dining room and service--you forget you're in a sleazy casino Good use of native ingredients Plantain chips, guava puree and caviar. Scallops with Davidson plum and sawtooth coriander. Barramundi chip. Omelette (rolled and cut like a thick noodle), potato cream, salt cod and onion ring. Pepperberry biscuit with mud crab. Blood sausage loaded with sweet potato, cucumber, parsley, desert lime. Jerk chicken skin with lime zest. Calamari, green mango, green papaya, sour apple broth, seaweed. Roti (cooked with a lot of butter), bush apples, smoked onion puree. This was served with the lobster (see below). Charlie the rock lobster (before). Charlie grilled with much butter. Braised carrot, oxtail, sorrel, hibiscus, sweetcorn puree. Dry-aged saddle of lamb, black-eyed peas, mustard leaf. Palate cleanser: various expressions of passionfruit and coconut. Almond cake with lime. Cassava and green banana. Banana leaf ice cream, cherry, raisin.

Long time listener, first time caller ... No, really, I haven't posted in a while. Someone, somewhere might be awfully concerned that I've started to look after my health and have begun to abstain. Not wanting such noxious lies spread about me, I've decided it's time to post a boozy update. These are in no order at all. These were not consumed in one sitting. Or were they? >_> <_< >_> A Negroni. A boilermarker. Talisker 10 and, er, a local porter. Smoked? Maybe. I don't know. I have a feeling it might be Feral's Smoked Porter. They mix it up. The bacon garnish is a standard with the 'Devil's Smokehouse' pairing, even though the beer changes. This was consumed at Boilermaker House in Melbourne. I am rather fond of that place. Whisky? Beer? A good chance you'll hear Tom Waits, Creedance and John Lee Hooker within a period of 20 minutes? Quill. An equal parts Negroni with a quarter ounce of absinthe. Not a fan. Well, I don't dislike it, but it's the kind of riff that's inferior to the original. It's like listening to Scarlett Johansson attempt to cover Tom Waits songs. Or, to make use of a rather charming Australianism, 'Yeah .. Nah ...' A couple drinks from the local branch Dinner by Heston Blumenthal: the Mint Rickey and Sarsaparilla Shrub. The latter was nicely gin-forward. Made me think of The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual. More from Dinner: the Cider Gimlet and a Bloody Mary. I remember, once upon a time, asking Adam George and Rafa and others if the Bloody Mary could ever be a truly lovely cocktail. The answer was no, no, no. I've since learn to accept a well-crafted Bloody Mary that uses good quality ingredients (and loses the boring vodka in favour of blanco tequila, if I'm the one mixing) is, at least, drinkable ... but this was something else. Would a purist consider it a Bloody Mary? Obviously not ... but those guys are no fun, anyway. A riff on the Planter's Punch from Berry's Potions. Not really a Planter's at all--will not fight anyone on that point. The bitters served as garnish. I'd just bought them (at Australian prices!) and was looking for an excuse to do something with them. And, yeah, a split base. Death & Co. mixing at its simplest: Shanty Town. Workable. More Berry. Puka Puka Punch. Worked with what I had, rum-wise. I'm sure Jeff will forgive me. Berry again. Meeting House Punch. Diamonds on my Windshield. Like tears from Heaven ... Duboudreau. Rather pleasing. Would revisit. A Daiquiri. It's rather warm down here, after all. Cobra's Fang. Death & Co. Yeah, no overproof rum. I maybe added a bit more Havana Club. Shoot me. A couple drinks from one of my most very favouritest most favourite bars, Romeo Lane. They're too busy making killer drinks in a pleasant setting to worry about silly things like useful websites. The African Flower is in the foreground. Bourbon and, er, some kind of amari. Lucano, from memory. Forget what my partner ordered. Something with strawberries in it. Heaven is a Place/This is the Place. Stupidly long name. Pretty banging drink.

Never seen homemade miso soup--or, indeed, many restaurant misos--look so appealing. Nicely done.

This is pretty banging. The Tom ref adds to the flavour.

Finishing off the last of the pecan-infused Buffalo Trace I made a while back (Death & Co). I much prefer it on its own. Maybe its just my aversion to sweet things, but the cocktail that essentially showcases the stuff--Buffalo Soldier (2 oz pecan-infused BT, .25 or .5 oz or so of Dem syrup)--is just too fucking sweet. Less than the sum of its parts or something. Maybe.

Picked up a couple bottles of bitters; both Bittermens brand. Hopped Grapefruit and 'Elemakule Tiki.

Nicely done. If you're up for another run at quail, I'd be inclined to remove the heads, wings and feet. Not to discard them--oh no--but to serve as the base of a simple gravy. Although then again, it's hard to go past black vin--the master race of condiments.

I second what Melissa says: you could stretch it to three servings but it'll be very obvious. I don't know if that'd bother you--the presentation, I mean. Sorry to say but you will need some sides. If you're grilling a piece of meat it wouldn't be a stretch, surely, to grill some vegetables as well. And if the weather's warm (some of us are at ease with Christmas Day being 30-40C) and you're cooking outdoors, I reckon it'd be hard to go wrong with a potato salad. Even though it's based on evil starch of evilness.

No, but I reckon it'd hard to go wrong introducing it to gin. A sort of Dark and Stormy. Might see how it pairs with Campari, although it's possible that would be too much of a good thing.

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/roast-quail I like this recipe, although I tend not to bother searing them in the pan first. I also rub them down with butter instead of oil.