latcui 4.21 – longitude 146 – Alex & Sinead’s, Shoreditch

On May 22, 2012

latcui 4.21 – longitude 146

This Week

Sinead & I invite you to Shoreditch to straddle the 146th longitude on Friday night from 8.

It’s the final tip of Japan and things get all hot under the collar with Russia as both claim sovereignty over the southern Kuril Islands – lands of fish & ore where even the etymology is contested – ‘kur’ possibly meaning man or, erm, smoke (they form part of the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’).

We sail past the Marianas and back to (New) Britain – off PNG rather than GBR, where they speak more languages than any other country, with an average of only 7,000 people per tongue – and over 3 times as many languages than belong to the whole of Europe.

We aren’t yet the Jubilee but we are Aussie Queensland - land of one Mrs Rawson, C18th chef and auterur and keen cook of ibis and iguana, flying foxes & bandicoots.

Have you ever enjoyed anything more serenely, sedately, pragmatically obscene than Aussie Beer Can Chicken?

Last Week

Damaris hosted a superb evening in her converted bit of an old Synagogue tucked behind Ridley Road market.

Rhoden fumigated the neighbours with the bliss of his BBQ chicken while indoors we feasted on some of the following:

pakoras, crab and callaloo soup, guamese shrimp kelaguen, spanish tortilla & some fine antipasti (including lidlean wasabe crisps);

japanese salads & shitake mushrooms, rice salad, melanzane alla parmigiana, lamb tagine with prunes, molten (lava) goats cheese salad, roast italian chicken, saltfish & ackee & even a gnocchi with tomato and mozzarella sent by an absent ill guest;

all followed by banana cake, fruit salad, contested pavlova & something delicious that got half eaten before getting to the table