There’s nothing fairly like beginning a month off with a bang—particularly with younger 2023 dragging its heels. But March has actually hit the bottom at a tempo and is making up for a while misplaced.
Even simply two weeks in, we’ve hit a couple of nice locations in Sydney to eat and drink, celebrated Sydney WorldPride and Mardi Gras, International Women’s Day and our anniversary, and have even organised some journey plans.
Best of all, we’ve acquired information on the possibility to win fairly some huge cash—like one million bucks with hundreds in secondary prizes.
So strap your self in, we’ve acquired numerous great things to inform you about!
Cheers – Jim & Christina x
Brought to you by McGuigan Wines
To kick issues off, let’s discuss cash. So we learnt {that a} favorite little Hunter Valley vineyard—you will have heard of it—has began an unimaginable competitors.
McGuigan Wines (I instructed you you will have heard of them!) is providing a jackpot of $1,000,000 to at least one fortunate winner with one other $10,000 in secondary prizes. And all you must do is purchase a bottle.
Click right here to seek out out extra.
Once you’ve purchased your bottle of McGuigan wine (bear in mind to maintain the receipt) and have registered it right here on their web site, winners can be drawn on June fifth 2023.
The winner of the draw then has a 1-in-100 probability of choosing the $1m card however remains to be assured a $10k-minimum prize in the event that they don’t choose the biggie.
There are additionally 10 $1000 runner-up prizes going.
The comp runs from March 1 to May 31 and is just out there to Australian and New Zealand residents who’re 18+. You should buy and register a number of bottles too, and bottles purchased from Liquorland or First Choice Liquor earn you a double entry!
But all of the Ts and Cs are laid out right here.
McGuigan Wines is a implausible vineyard with an unimaginable historical past going again over 100 years and 4 generations of winemakers, and is a number one gentle within the Hunter Valley and Australian wine trade.
It was one of many first wineries within the Hunter Valley we ever visited and we all the time make an effort to return there at any time when we’re within the area.
We’re able to have fun profitable with a bottle of McGuigan Cuveé from their Shortlist vary.
But when the wine’s this good, profitable a cool million if you purchase it’s only a bonus.
But whereas we dream of profitable one million, Christina and I make our manner for drinks on the just lately opened Spice Trader—the rooftop cocktail bar of the Porter House Hotel on Castlereagh Street in Sydney.
Part of the Accor model, the Porter House and its element eating places and bar are all as lovely as you’d anticipate. Even the grand artwork deco facade of this 1876 constructing provides you a way of the previous world appeal you are feeling if you enter the Spice Trader.
Spice Trader takes its title from the age of mercantile commerce that swept Sydney alongside to wealth within the late 1800s. And the decor of the bar displays that bygone period too.
Shiny brass notes, wooden heat paneling and white marble surfaces, accents of turquoise towards uncovered brick and hurricane lamp-like fittings, and a characteristic wall of the unique spices and herbs that had been all however forex again within the day.
Drinks at Spice Trader are beautifully made and the signature cocktail menu incorporates a component of spice too.
Christina’s Trade Wind Clover Club—a brilliant but spicy interpretation of the basic gin cocktail. Using a Grenache-infused gin from Never Never Distilling in McLaren Vale, cassia bark extract and raspberry protect, it’s a scrumptious riff.
My Penicillin—a whisky cocktail that has a punch of ginger to it—is divine. Spice Trader has swapped out the normal blended whisky base for French cognac after which adopted the remainder of the recipe with ginger, lemon juice, honey and a peated scotch layered on high. The dice of candied ginger for garnish is a beautiful contact.
Here you can even see the complimentary popcorn Spice Trader is known for. They have a lot of completely different flavours you possibly can attempt.
Bar snacks at Spice Trader are additionally price taking a look at. As effectively as our popcorn we attempt the spiced tuna tartare with salted cucumber served on crunchy puffed crackers, yellowtail kingfish sashimi with a deliciously wealthy soy sesame dressing and Korean chilli and what the menu merely calls ‘milk buns’.
In actuality, the 2 sticky spherical rolls, coated in chives and crispy garlic, are magically stuffed with slow-cooked lamb shoulder with a teriyaki seasoning. Absolutely unbelievable.
This menu adjustments seasonally, so anticipate ever larger issues every time you come right here.
We end our time right here with a pair extra cocktails: a Quickdraw made with tequila, jalapeño agave, lime, and cassia spiced salt and a Cascara Negroni—Australian-made amontillado sherry, Mancino Ambrato vermouth, recent nectarine and cassia bark.
There’s additionally a secret menu you possibly can entry utilizing a QR code. This brings up an inventory of smaller variations of lots of the basic drinks they make right here at Spice Trader. Pretty cool.
Tonight, Christina and I are out once more, this time again to one in every of our previous haunts in Surry Hills. Mille Vini Pasta and Wine Bar, simply throughout from the Clock Hotel on Crown Street, has been a Sydney establishment for years.
We got here right here with Christina’s mum and pop when Mille Vini first opened within the mid-noughts. It’s a splendidly cosy spot, hiding you away from the busy Crown Street crowds behind its lovely sandstone partitions and below its uncovered timber rafters.
We get issues began with a few cocktails. Christina’s La Vie En Rose (with Four Pillars’ Shiraz gin, Peychaud’s bitters and lemon) is scrumptious, however my massively elaborate negroni, made with a difficult-to discover small-batch Italian gin, vermouth and home Campari is great.
They use a smoker to infuse the drink at your desk utilizing wooden chips from France (additionally arduous to get) then place an enormous dice of ice by means of the smoke into the drink adopted by a sliver of orange peal. Perfection!
TL-BR: aperitivi, anchovy crostini, zucchini flower, entrees of burrata and bresaola
At our server’s suggestion, the 2 aperitivi (small bites) we attempt—crostini stracciatella with anchovies and zucchini flower—are wonderful.
The virtually brittle crostini, smothered in luxurious stracciatella cheese, works with the tender salty anchovy fillets. You also can select prosciutto or marinated capsicum in the event you’re not an anchovy fan.
As for the zucchini flower, the tempura-style batter is gentle and crunchy, whereas the flower is delicate and delicate. Within the flower is fluffy ricotta that’s been blended with truffle pecorino cheese and on the plate a honey that’s been blended with pepper to provide spice and sweetness to the dish.
Like I stated: wonderful.
Then with entrees subsequent of a plump shiny burrata on delicate ox coronary heart tomatoes, olives and basil, and a plate of wagyu bresaola sliced so skinny it’s virtually clear, artichokes and parmagiano reggiano, we’re frightened about how we’ll get by means of our mains!
Mains quickly arrive, together with our selections of wines: a saffron tagliatelle with prawns, zucchini for Christina and a rigatoni amatriciana with smoked pancetta and pecorino romano for me. Talk about consolation meals, these dishes make me virtually look ahead to the colder coming months.
Our wines, each Italian reds from the very beneficiant by-the-glass menu, are simply the ticket for these wealthy, full-flavoured dishes.
Although we take a look at the waters with a dessert–a tiramisu that re-establishes my confidence within the dish after too many unhealthy ones–however it’s a bridge too far.
Delicious as this tiramisu is–a wealthy, full-flavoured instance of a candy that I mark arduous towards Christina’s Italian aunt’s–there’s simply not sufficient room! We have a fast look around the mezzanine and admire Mille Vini’s cool decor earlier than dragging ourselves to the road for a taxi dwelling. What a meal!
This night, Christina and I’ve made our strategy to Newtown to the vaunted partitions of Bloodwood for a double celebration dinner.
Not solely is it International Women’s Day at present, it’s additionally our 14th wedding ceremony anniversary!
This is in truth a working dinner for Christina although: she’s the host for the IWD night placed on by Nip of Courage, an organization that sells Australian craft spirits.
Nip of Courage is a big advocate for ladies and has in truth arrange the Women of Australian Distilling, a collective that promotes, encourages and helps ladies and gender numerous folks inside the Australian craft distilling trade.
TL-BR: the spirits represented this night; Christina chatting to the opposite audio system; the Nip of Courage crew Kendell, Roz, Keeley and Zandria; Bloodwood signal
Bloodwood has been the venue for Nip of Courage’s International Women’s Day celebrations for years now and it’s all the time a enjoyable occasion.
This is Christina’s first time to MC the occasion and she or he (clearly) nails it.
The night’s an enormous success–the cocktails are all very good, made with the spirits from distilleries represented right here tonight: martinis with North of Eden’s Oyster Shell Gin, vodka sodas with Mother of Pearl Vodka, gimlets with Ester’s Strong Gin and a style of Black Snake’s Pechuga mezcal-style agave spirit and a welcome drink of an RTD gin and soda can with Four Pillars’ Yuzu Gin.
Food by the wonderful Claire Von Vuuren, proprietor and head chef of Bloodwood, is spectacular and a extremely constructive feeling across the room usually. What a beautiful strategy to have fun IWD and our anniversary.
We hope you’ve loved this version of TWE. Chat to you once more quickly.
Cheers – Jim & Christina xx