The White Lady

Cocktails Au Go Go 101.

While reading the Captain's Table by Richard Gordon (famous author of the Doctor in the House series), a mention of the White Lady cocktail came up at regular intervals. "What is it, how do I make one and why haven't I heard of this drink before?" I found myself asking me - quite pertinently I thought.

Well may I have asked myself. The recipe given: "Two jiggers of gin, one jigger of Cointreau and a jigger of lemon juice." Oranges and lemon with gin! Now there's an idea. My interest was further piqued by Cointreau's packaging as I gathered together the vital ingredients. "At the four corners of the globe. Used in the world's most famous cocktails including the white lady, the side car and cosmopolitan."

As usual with my experiments into ancient libations, the entire process was educative as well as mildly damaging to my soft tissue physiology. I found through experimentation that it's good to be heavy handed on the triple sec and back off a little on the lemon juice to get the balance. And that all important ingredient that demonstrates you're a cocktail genius? Internet reveals egg white! (Blurgh - can it be true? What about selmonella?)

Either way, here's a recipe and some interesting background information from Great Cocktails UK. For a video presentation on how to make all these variations, follow the video link at the bottom of the page! Salut!

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The White Lady cocktail was first recorded in Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, although Harry MacElhone, famed cocktail creator of Harry's New York Bar in Paris, also lays claim to having invented it in the 1920s.

It's a clean-tasting drink that needs to be drunk very cold.

You need:

2 parts gin
1 part Cointreau
1 part lemon juice
Shake the ingredients together well with ice. Strain into a frosted cocktail glass and serve.
Some recipes include an egg white, which adds a smoothness to the drink.
For a Pink Lady, add a dash or two of grenadine.
Replace the Cointreau with blue Curacao for a Blue Lady.
And for the Perfect Lady, use crème de peche instead of the orange liqueur.

Video how to link here!
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Cutler and Co.

55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
ph: 9419 4888, email: info@cutlerandco.com.au
www.cutlerandco.com.au

The pen is rusty but the spirit is willing. Much could be said to be the same with Cutler and Co. A rustic fit out in an old cutlery factory at the - dare I say it? - mental patient end of Gertrude St. Homeless shelters abound and it's located a handy stone's throw from Turning Point. Still, the the edgeyness of the neighbourhood adds to its charms; plus it is just a couple of blocks from work!


A cocktail bar at the front with excellent martinis can also be used for a drop-in quick bite, since they don't take bookings in this section. The main restaurant has been tastefully fitted out without having gone to too much expense; the loos are in a large black box reminiscient of tawdry cocaine nightclubs.

While the menu is unavailable online for reference, after all it is constantly changing and it's a competitive jungle out there, I was impressed with it's brevity and yet wide range. Something for everyone, including oysters in different guises, a favourite. I had and can recommend the quail entree; beautifully cut and presented it was almost like crispy quail sashimi. Jane enjoyed her pork, slow cooked and absolutely falling apart; the best pork she has apparently ever eaten. I think I had the fish for mains -though I'm now unsure! The whole event became slightly unhinged with my party; all thoughts pushed aside as my sister launched a tirade at the end of the meal as there was no skinny milk for her cappucino! Quel damage.

I've heard nothing but good reviews about this place, so it was disappointing the service was a bit slack the night we went (we were at the back with a party of seven and had a prickly customer or two). The waiting staff were, however, all still charming. One of my dear friends had a very romantic dinner for two with her husband - probably what this restaurant is best suited to- where they shared a pheasant baked into a loaf of bread.

Think the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover with a disco come Home and Away overhaul. I give it six tentacles out of eight.


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The Station Hotel

59 Napier St
Footscray VIC 3011
ph: 9687 2913
www.thestationhotel.com.au

What was ostensibly an old man’s pub only a few years ago, the Station Hotel has been transformed into what I have been reliably informed is a gastro-pub; and no, you won’t get a stomach complaint. Apparently it’s become the project of Sean Donovan, formerly of the Botannical Hotel - and that’s how good it is!

The outside looks unpromising, a blue trimmed corner pub looking down at heel 80’s, but step inside the refurbished dining room and be transported to the watering hole of the literati and glitterati of the West.

The restaurant has a high end menu, featuring some fantastic seafood, but apparently they take particular pride in their steaks- all of which were surprisingly good. The top of the line is a Gippsland (VIC) grass fed Black Angus rib eye at $38 (and not the Wagyu that also graces the menu). I’d go out on a limb and say it was the best steak I’ve had in two years.

Served with hand cut chips, salad and béarnaise sauce with just a touch of tarragon, it really was a meal to remember. I’d also recommend washing down your fleshy feast with a glass of Heathcote Shiraz – the wine menu is short but excellent.

The service is friendly without being OTT and while the general tenor, as against the many other pubs in Footscray and Seddon in its nearby surrounds, is a little bitty “spensy”, I can only say that some times quality is wirth the price. It is little surprise to me that this won the 3AW pub of the Year . I give it 6.5 out of 8.
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Enoteca

229 Gertrude St
Fitzroy VIC 3065
ph: 9415 8262
www.gertrudestreetenoteca.com

You may have heard of a biblioteca – a library for books in Italy. Well an enoteca is a wine library, and it seems it’s become the trendy way to name wine bars these days.

The Gertrude Street Enoteca is beautiful, lots of timber and a kind of poverty chique without the matching price tag. Some tables are made from wine boxes and the walls are covered in wines.

As a wine store, you can chose anything from the walls and pay an extra few dollars to drink it there. They also have a simple food menu – toasted panini and a “selection of cured meats”, known everywhere else as an antipasto, that is simply fantastic, with beautiful marinated olives and goats cheese.

As this venue is just down the road from Blue Vapours, a particular favourite of mine is their silver salver of oysters on the bar at $2 a pop on Friday evenings.

The seats may be a little hard, but the coffee is good. While some may decry the trendification of Gertrude St - Enoteca is, after all, like a piece of upscale Melbourne (Toorak?) landing on the old streets of blood – if you like a tipple and a fancy nibble, they are reliable. I rate it 5 out of 8.
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The European

161 Spring St
Melbourne VIC 3000
ph: 9654 0811
www.theeuropean.com.au

Welcome to what makes Melbourne great as the food destination of Australia. It’s not this venue, in itself, but what it represents about Melbourne food.

Welcome to what makes Melbourne great as the food destination of Australia. It’s not this venue, in itself, but what it represents about Melbourne food. The European has been around a long time. Its quiet café interior is casual and reminiscent of, well, Europe. And the food is excellent, without being budget breaking.

Located opposite Parliament House and in the theatre district, excess wooden chairs hang from hooks on the wall at the back and the staff are relaxed in their professionalism and black aprons.

On my most recent visit there, I had the Manchego, an aged Spanish cheese, with fig salami as an appetiser - which I must say was an education. The fig salami was just that – figs. Rather like a fig paste. I can’t say that I’d have it again, but it was tasty and washed down with one of their European beers was an excellent start. I enjoyed a Czech Pilsner.

As a piscean, I am a fastidious fish eater, and think that the hallmark of any restaurant is the quality of the marinara pasta they make. The number of times I’ve been disappointed by tinned clams in heavy tomato on flaccid pasta I can’t tell you. But here, magnificent! The spaghettini – al dente. The fish, all fresh. Done with a garlic infused oil coating on the pasta, a feast fit for a king!

The melon sorbet comes in traffic light colours of watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe to create a well rounded palate cleansing experience.

If visiting Melbourne for only a short time, you could do far worse than choosing the European for lunch. I give it 7 out of 8.

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Becco

11-25 Crossley St
Melbourne VIC 3000
ph: 9663 3000
www.becco.com.au

Tucked down a laneway on Melbourne’s dining hill behind the Melbourne institution Pelligrini’s, I have to admit I am biased when it comes to Becco. I was taken there a few years ago by a good friend, and had such a fantastic experience that I’ve gone back many times.

But be prepared to pay the piper at the end. It has recently been elevated to a two chefs hat ranking in the Age Good Food Guide, but it is not stuffy. Indeed, the large windows overlooking the lane beside Pelligrini’s let in tonnes of light, the staff never write a thing down and the kitchen is on show at the rear.

The food is Italian in its origins, but not of the cheap and nasty pasta and pizza variety,. Primi piatis coinsist instread of choice like pan fried sardines or beef carpaccio. They do do pasta, with lobster, and could potentially be faulted for not having a comprehensive cool food menu (I went there when it was 43 degrees) but the blue eye fillet was … enter the superlative of your choice here.

There’s something reassuring about a menu that doesn’t change much, staff that have worked in the one venue for years and the immutable law that cream always rises to the top. A restaurant for the cognascenti of Melbourne‘s dining scene. 7 and a half tentacles out of 8 from me!

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