Hi Everyone!

Well, I promised you all updates on our leaving party celebrations so here is the first event....

Last night we went for a SEVEN course Degustation meal at a very swanky modern Japanese restaurant called Taxi in Federation Square. Darren had organised for all the management team to go for a 'Thank you' dinner following the opening of the Icehouse and I was invited along too as a guest :)

The location of tonight's meal was one of the poshest restaurants I have ever been in and I immediately felt under-dressed in my purple flipflops..however Joey had taken all the rest of my shoes home so I didn't have much choice it was either those or trainers!

For any blog readers out there who have never been to a Degustation Meal before (similar to myself) it basically comprises of a very long menu filled with lots of tiny portions of the chef's speciality dishes.

Here is our menu (with my personal translations underneath) :

Tuna sashimi with konbu

(aka raw slither of pink fish topped with fish poo droplets)

Sticky pork with roasted sea scallop & hot chilli dressing

(aka a rubix cube of pork and a medallion of another type of fish)

Szechuan soup with crispy wonton

(aka dark broth with what looked like tiny white split pins floating on the top)

Yuba cumbed kingfish with green apple salad, seared scallop & orange miso

(aka Tiny bread-covered fishfinger smeared with orange goop)

Crispy Szechwan duck with lime pickle, Vietnamese salad, sesame tamarind sauce

(aka bones covered in dry dark leg meat on a seed floating sauce)

Dark chocolate tian with passion fruit foam

(aka yule log with fruity shampoo bubbles)

Taxi Petit fours & fine teas

(aka mini heart meringues with mini chocolates and cookies)

I don't know about you but as I read it the first time around, I had absolutely no clue as to what half of these things actually were! The portions got progressively larger as the meal went on and the waiter took great pride in introducing each dish as if it were his own child..so proud and full of enthusiasm! :)

Well...needless to say I got through it!...For those of you who don't know, I'm not very experienced with this type of cuisine so I tried to eat a little bit of everything and make all the right noises when everyone else did :)

I also had a LOT of trouble with the chop sticks which Chris found very amusing and I was sat opposite the big boss which didn't help with my nerves!

Chris on the other hand managed to eat everything on his plate and even polish off all the left over mini truffles when everyone else had finished!

Hope this blog has been as enlightening for you as it has been for me!

I think I'll stick to good old Yorkshire Puddings and a knife and fork ;)

Speak soon

Netti xx