Is it possible that a vegan created this duck? To make meat-eaters understand that ducks are human too? A fair amount of work went into that lace dress. The duck’s creator has even taken the time to draw some nose holes on its beak.
Alternatively, you could place this duck near the entrance of battery egg farms to scare off all the animal liberationists in the middle of the night.
I found this abandoned animal in an antique-furniture store in Mornington.
Degustation at Dromana Estate
August 14, 2006
Originally uploaded by Fat Duck.
Are degustations often a little underwhelming? I’m willing to entertain this theory, having only ever had one myself. Somewhere in my imagination, I’d had numerous. But now that I think about it, dinner at Dromana Estate must’ve been the first.
The ad in the tourist brochure said, ‘Stillwater at Crittenden, known formally as Dromana Estate…’ M and I spent some time trying to work out whether they really meant ‘formerly’.
M and I also spent some time in Dromana playing ’spot the Australian flag.’ M has a natural flair for this, and beat me easily, even though he was supposed to be keeping his eyes on the road. There are a LOT of flags down there.
Our degustation spanned six courses, starting with three fantastic natural oysters, one of which was served with a reduced vinegarette. A couple of the dishes were served with mashes, as pictured. Unfortunately the mashes were really baked cream with a little potato whipped through. The cream was far too rich and overwhelming.
My favourite dish was the duck liver parfait. It’s was very well done: light, fluffy, creamy, and not too heavy with the duck taste.
Overall it was a fairly good meal, but with so many small courses, I felt like I was waiting for something to happen the whole time. By the time I realised something had happened, I’d drunk so much rose I felt sick.
Am I just not happy unless someone slaps the better part of an entire animal down in front of me?
Monday night’s swordfish
August 1, 2006
I was concerned that this recipe would be too ambitious for a Monday night. There’s nothing worse than waiting until 10.45pm for those lamb shanks to cook when you’ve been at work for 10 hours.
Luckily this is a very straightforward dish, from Christine Manfield’s Stir. An outstanding cookbook. P bought it for my birthday one year. I didn’t use it once for the first three years I owned it. One day, I woke up.
The swordfish is simply pan-fried, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Served with fried strips of eggplant (it’s always good to have a fried item in there), thinly sliced kalamatas, preserved lemon, sundried tomatoes, and parsley.
I asked T to bring me some lemons from her tree, so that I could preserve them for her. ‘Preserved lemons are the best,’ I said, perhaps more articulately than I am quoting myself here. ‘Oh no,’ said T. ‘I had them at the pub the other day in risotto. There was lots of it in there. It was awful.’
Imagine a risotto with way too much preserved lemon in it. Yuck.
