"So this is Christmas..."

... as the great John Lennon sang, "And what have we done?" Our answer is eaten ourselves to a stupor! As 2010 draws to a close, we reflect on the special meals we shared with family and friends and thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives for another year. A word of caution, I hope you've got yourself a cup of tea and a few biscuits and you're sitting comfy on a lounge because this is going to be quite a long read...

Part 1: Dinner at Etch.

Circumstances having kept us from organising our annual (birthday) degustation dinner earlier in the year, we settled on this well frequented venue. Entering via a recessed doorway in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, we meet up with friends in a small waiting area populated with low lounges. The dining room looks busy and well patronised.

The food is certainly well presented, each dish was a work of art and we almost felt guilty hoeing in.


This night, the menu consisted of:

Beetroot cured Petuna ocean trout, horseradish cream, baby beetroot.

Easily my favourite of the evening, the trout was reminiscent of Tetsuya's signature dish but with a smaller portion, less overwhelming and not fatty in the least.

Duck Terrine, pickled cherries, coffee reduction.

Merry Christmas from the Yummers @ Yayas

Wow!! How fast has this year gone. There's usually a 3 week period before Christmas where everything starts to wind down. This year Christmas has just walked up to me and double-slapped me in the face.

Mulled wine granita

One thing I'll miss from living in Europe, is the northern hemisphere Christmas. Wrapped up in your many layers, at Christmas markets outside, holding a steaming, cup of mulled wine .. Awesome! An experience I recommend to everyone!

Still, hardly an experience I can replicate here - Christmas here in Sydney is glorious and hot. We're outside, but holding onto an icy cold drink.

So how to somehow combine the two? Mulled wine granita!!

Shanks So Much for L...inner?

There is much to be said for technology:  it helps us to be more efficient, to have more leisure time, to have more fun, to get places faster, to cook things in ways that our forefathers never imagined, to provide experiences we would never have anticipated. And last but not least, to help us to waste more time!

To explain the headline (and no, I didn't write this while I was on one of my vodka-fuelled, I mean medicinal, binges) the Shanks recently sent out an invitation for a family get-together. It started as an email which progressed to a facebook event courtesy of Lobo. Aside from the fact that I'm not monitoring "fb" every minute of the day (she says to people at work who are reading this!), electronic communication as opposed to a phone call or face to face leaves plenty of room for interpretation, or in this case, mis-interpretation!