A coffee-styled Balinese Dinner at St. Ali

OK so this was another surprise evening at St. Ali. The brilliant chef - Ben Cooper ex-Long Grain, put on a real performance. Mo and I turned up, we didn't know what to expect. The usual ambience that's so easy and comfortable to slide into, hang on - it looks like a lab experiment is underway! Nope, it's Toshi Yuki Ishiwata, grand master of the siphon. (A siphon! Isn't that found in a toilet?). With an array of wild bubbling glass tubes, crucibles, back lit by amber lights (heating lamp) and an oh so complex, deft mad-scientist inspired performance, Toshi (who doesn't, or rather isn't inclined towards conversation) delivers some smooth, light, airy coffee. Voilá siphon. The video clip - Toshi + test-tubes - is here below.





We were seated around several shared large tables scattered about, Salvatore was as effusive and welcoming as ever. That chap has advanced, finely tuned people skills.
I kept dashing over to the kitchen to see Ben and his team crank out his magic. It smelt wonderful. The kitchen clip is here below.



Salvatore, behind the scenes, literally....

St. Ali's chef, Ben Cooper







Kris, our maitre de, suggessted a light, fruity Piñot Gris from New Zealand - I can only remember it's name sounded like you're clearing your throat. Must be a Maori thing.
This was the Menu for that evening:
- Tumeric Caramel Fricasee of egg (how's that, Ben?)
- Coconut soup of pumpkin and almonds with bean sprouts and chili
- Salad of crisp Asian vegetables with sweet vinegar and grilled squid
- chicken sate with peanut sauce and coconut rice
- Balinese style curry with young broccoli, salmon and dried shrimp dumpling
- twice cooked tumeric spiced pork belly
- roast duck with chili and coffee sambal wrapped in banana leaf
- babnana fritters with caramel and vanilla sugar

Of course, we had coffee - selected from Bali & Sumatra, and designed to complement our courses.
Iced siphon coffee
Bali Kintamani
Sumatra Blue Batak
Java Affogato








We had a few couples sharing our table, here are some of them...

Welcome, Jemma...

Ann & Peter have a gorgeous little girl - finally! We're happy for you, and your wonderful package... Welcome Jemma.
Here's my little girl, Tia - all of 9, looking so grown up with Jemma.


And Mo with Jemma...

An Inner-City prowl with the 'Kommandante of Kool Haunts' - Kapil

An impromptu stopover at the Old Town Hall, and we had a chance to drop in on a concert - a free organ performance by some Russian organist performing Bach. The organ was this huge, entire rear wall covering unit, and had that large rounded sound. The average age of the audience was about 150! We didn't stay too long....... The town hall is a magnificent space, and curiously, I noticed that the large tubular handrails on the way up were brass on the left, and copper on the right! I tried to think of a reason for that, bt couldn't come up with any logical explanation, just the architect's whim?



Pierre at the Belgian Waffle.
I recommend the absolutely perfect ham & cheese baguette. They call it the Parisienne. Ooh La La. Plus this bizarre postcard tacked up on a shelf. The music playing was by 'Hot Chips'. Never heard of them, great music though.



We stopped for coffee at a well-known joint called Café Mediterraneum. It was in a great old building called Manchester Unity International Order of Oddfellows. MUIOO. Oddfellows Indeed!





A wrapup to the day with this warm fade out, view from Beaumaris/Black Rock.

South bank Pavement face

Trek Fuel 9.8

I thought I'd put up these images of my bike. I ride practically every day, about 30 km. There IS a bond you build up with a pure mechanical device. I do love it. Mechanical advantage via gears; and a person on a bike is more efficient than geese migrating! (Measured in BTU's - British Thermal Units), whatever, it's my way of keeping fit.

Images from downtown...

This was one of the books I was researching from for the coffee doco - at the State library. Published in 1922, it's an absolutely unbelievable piece of work, and some of the information chronicles the story of the beverage we take for granted...

Another after-school sailing session

(That day there were literally thousands of jelly-fish like this one. One of the older, seasoned sailors told me that was an indication of a 'healthy bay'. Not so frickin' healthy mate, if you capsize and land thrashing around with those squishy bastards!)