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!

Luke Nguyen's Affair ... with Clinique

Affair? More like a marriage made in Heaven!

On a mellow evening in Sydney (soon to be repeated at Zinc in Melbourne), a 350 strong crowd of (mostly) women flocked to Doltone House to enjoy a 6-course degustation menu including 25 so-called super foods designed to make your skin glow.

  

Deep down inside, we all know “we are what we eat”. Cosmetic company Clinique uses specially selected ingredients in their products to help us look good on the outside, how great would it be if those same ingredients could be used to make a meal that would help us from the inside?

Zeta Bar. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Zeta Bar turns 5! And what an adorable little 5 year old she is. The 5th birthday is really something to celebrate, it's when a child truly gains their own identity. They are no longer just a laughing, crying, eating, immobile mass of meat with liquids coming out of every orifice. They have passed the terrible two's and have gotten over the fascination of making things disappear down the magic 'flush hole'. Yes 5 is a momentous age, if not for the fact that they can be palmed off to public schools for 6 hours of the day, then for the first memorable beach trip where they can truly enjoy the wonders of the sea rather than just getting wet and rolling around in the sand (a kid schnitzel). Mama Hilton and Papa Belvedere organised a fantastic beach themed party for their little woman. Happy birthday Zeta!

cw: Papa Belvedere, Baby Zeta, Aunties Patty and Selma Chandeliers (aka Aunt Chandy), Mama Hilton. 

Gentlemen! Gird your loins!

For what I am about to show you may make you squeamish!

So what do these little morsels remind you of? And what might they be made from?

You have no doubt watched Heston Blumenthal feed chickens' testicles to the English public and there are more articles online than I had expected discussing the eating of sheeps', bulls', goats', lambs', turkeys' and even kangaroos' testicles. Could a Chinese company (duck feet, tongue & giblets, chicken wings), really have gone to this extent?

Well, I'm happy to reveal that these are NOT testicles, they just look like them! He he! They are in fact:

Yes folks, "Porky Jujubes"! Now when I see a name like that, my imagination goes into overdrive as to the texture and more importantly the taste.

Well, to put you out of your misery, they are basically a more voluptuous form of beef jerky, only it's "pork-y"; which in itself seems wrong as I find jerky palatable only in very thin sheets and only once in a blue moon. Admittedly the volume of these "Porky Jujubes" makes them a little moister than your average jerky - but not much. Cross section alert!