The World’s Longest Lunch.
March 13th, 2010
Yesterday my girlfriend Beth and I went to the World’s Longest Lunch. And no, I’m not still there eating – it’s long as in it was one very long table seating 1000 people. It’s one of the major events of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and this year that very long table stretched down St Kilda Road in front of the National Gallery and Arts Centre. I’ve been wanting to go for years (in previous years it has stretched around the boundry line at Docklands stadium and along the river front at Southbank). This year’s theme was Chinese and, as well a culinary theme, there was also Chinese dragons, drums, dancers and some very noisy firecrackers. The food was wonderful (see pics below). We started with Soft shell crab with black beans, four seasons’ dumpling and chilli spiced duck salad. Main course was Braised lamb with soy, star anise and Shaoxing wine with gingered sweet potato puree, pomegranate seeds and fried leeks. Then to finish off was ‘A Study of Fruits’, which I think was very nice – after quite a few wines in the warm sun it was getting a tiny bit hazy by then. The ‘Study’ included Coconut sorbet, mango brulee with lychees, poached pear and raspberry coulis. The Sorbet came perched on top of a little pot that had steam pouring out of its funnel (inside it was dry ice).
So. I’ll definitely be back next year. In the meantime I’ve still got plenty of opportunity to build up my waistline – on Monday night we are going to the Heat Beads Hawkers Market for four courses (and of course more wine!).
The Welcoming Party
The Lunch
The entree
The Main Course
The Dessert
The Dragons
On March 13th, 2010 Epiphanie said:
On April 1st, 2010 Tracey said: