'Far North Queensland -- Port Douglas 1992' by Brett Whiteley

On a recent trip to Sydney, I spent some time in gentrified Surry Hills, a previously rundown suburb on the southern edge of the city.  It now boasts some of the grooviest new restaurants, cafes, furnishing & homewares and edgy shops in Sydney.  Art Galleries also seem to be multiplying (7 are listed in the very useful Surry Hills Walkabout guides found in every shop www.urbanwalkabout.com).

I can particularly recommend the Brett Whiteley Studio.  This is where one of Australia’s most celebrated artists lived and worked from 1988 to 1992 – and it’s one of Sydney’s best kept secrets.  The Studio exhibits a changing selection of Whiteley’s work.  Go upstairs and you get glimpses into his private world, with his sketchbooks, photographs, music and personal memorabilia.  It’s free and open on Saturdays & Sundays 10am-4pm at  2 Raper Street, Surry Hills.  (Don’t be put off if the heavy wooden door is closed with a note saying: “Warning, don’t enter if nudity offends”.  Often life drawing classes are in progress.

This is not a small restaurant, yet it’s busy every night and they don’t take bookings.  We went at 6.15pm on a Tuesday night and were seated immediately, however it was already 3/4 full.  They turn the tables a couple of times a night, and service was brisk without you feeling you were being pushed out.

Porteno is an Argentinian grill restaurant and Elvis’s Dad is the pitmaster.  He mans the asador, where whole baby pigs (from Melander Park) and lambs (Suffolk) are splayed across crucifix-like pieces of steel.  The meat slow cooks over the smouldering campfire.  Blood sausages, roasted red peppers, veal sweetbreads and steaks are directly cooked over coals on 2 parrillas — adjustable grills.  The food here is a genuine labour of love and don’t miss the white polenta smeared onto a wooden board, or the chocolate pudding.  This restaurant is fun and you also get a good feed.

So why can’t we sell the stuff in Brisbane?  Wine writers and critics love rosé (as they do rieslings which are also not popular), it’s perfect for our weather especially when you are sick of drinking whites.  Perhaps you have to have been there (i.e. Provence) or perhaps they have tried those toilet duck pink wines posing as rosé. But my theory is that we just have to get people to taste the real thing … and they will be hooked!  So …

… this Spring (Oct-Dec) at Baguette bistrot+bar we will feature a flight of 4 rosé wines matched with some yummy mediterranean tapas.  Cost will be $21 (value $40).  So get some friends together and experience ‘The Rosé Revolution”.

* Duck liver parfait on apple galette, date confit   * Soft boiled duck egg, tarragon brioche & white asparagus soldiers   * Duck consomme with asian flavours, artichoke tortollini   * Confit duck leg, crisp potato mille-feuille, veloute of wild mushrooms   * Pan roasted duck breast with giblet & fig pie, cinnamon sauce   * Pear & duck egg clafoutis with brown bread ice-cream

WINES

The food was team with some very interesting wines made in France by a group of Australian and French winemakers …  for the Australian market.  Fascinating idea and highly successful, if comments on the night are anything to go by.  The project put together by Fosters is called Maison de Grand Esprit (loosely “a meeting of the minds”).  Ask for them at your independent bottle shop — they go under La Belle Voisine, Les Petites Vignettes and Les Seize Galets labels.