Stuck for ideas? Get yourself to the market

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As a kid growing up in a health conscious household, strawberries and ice cream for dessert was a rare treat, and one that I felt at the time was unfairly withheld by my mother’s refusal to buy imported berries. “But look Mum, they have strawberries,” I’d moan in the aisle of Marks & Spencers. “They’re from Spain,” would come the rebuff. Given Scotland’s notoriously inclement weather this meant that we would only get to enjoy this delicacy for a month or so each year, which, with the benefit of hindsight, was probably a large part of the appeal.

My mother is by no means a nationalist; she was actually just ahead of her time in appreciating the idea of seasonality that has become such a central tenet of culinary, and bartending, endeavours. 

One of the first drinks I remember well, remembering, was beautifully simple. It was springtime, in a pop-up bar in London, and featured a snow pea infused riesling. The name of the bar and exact composition of the drink are lost to the mists of time (or alcohol), but the delicate grassiness of the snow peas elevating the tart orchard fruits and citrus of the wine was a lesson in flavour pairing and heroing a perfectly in season ingredient that has stayed with me throughout my career.

I’ve just finished writing my second book, and the idea for this one was to let home bartenders in on the tips of the trade that we use to preserve fruits, vegetables and herbs at the height of their deliciousness. Writing it with an eye on overseas audiences really underlined how lucky we are in Australia with the bounty of high quality local produce we have to work with. Things like yuzu, shiso, or lychee (reasonably stock standard on drinks lists these days) are not items that many other countries have the pleasure of working with fresh, and that’s before we even get started on native ingredients.

For many in Melbourne, the Queen Victoria markets are a weekly pilgrimage. They are a rare and precious thing: a huge, centrally located market with a massively diverse range of produce at affordable prices. At my house, we do a weekly shop and get change from a crisp fifty, including a bratwurst for him and a börek for me. But alongside grocery necessities, they serve as a source of creative inspiration. 

Wandering the colourful and fragrant fruit and veg aisles there has sowed the seeds of many a drink idea for me, and I’m not the only one. At The Elysian Whisky Bar in Fitzroy, Yao Wong features an oft-rotated seasonal Highball, sourced from the Queen Vic. “I just see what’s cheap,” he says with characteristic forthrightness. “I do the rounds of the different stalls and take photos of anything on special. Once I find the best deal on something that looks delicious, I buy a tray of it.”

Yao then assesses the fruit for the best processing method. If they are starting to go a little soft, he does a dry sugar maceration to draw out all the wonderfully ripe flavour. If it’s a harder or juicy fruit, he lacto-ferments with a standard 2 percent salt ratio in a ziplock bag before blending and acid balancing. Both are delightfully easy techniques that create amazing depth of flavour and pull the best out of produce nearing the end of its life cycle, which might otherwise end up in landfill. 

Next year, Yao is taking this method on the road, alongside fermentation fanatic Kayla Saito. They’ll be hitting up three cities (Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai) and spending a day perusing a market in each, seeking out interesting local ingredients to apply these techniques to, which will form the basis for a pop-up menu. The format of the menu will stay the same – one Highball, one Spritz, one shaken drink and one stir-down – but I can’t wait to see how the regional variations in fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs show themselves in the final drinks.

I undertook a little market research (pun intended) for this article, asking interstate bartenders if they had a Queen Vic equivalent. While some did – Adelaide’s Central Market, for example – a lot said that their markets were either less accessible and situated on the outskirts of their city, or more expensive, organic farmers’ type deals. “Brisbane just has disappointment,” bemoaned Carmen Hartwich (who is happy to be proven wrong if any Brisbanites have a hot market lead for her).

If this is the case, going direct to the source might be an option. This is the approach taken at highly respected, seasonality-driven Byrdi in Melbourne. “Part of my job is to work closely with local growers and producers to understand which ingredients are going to be peaking at various stages throughout the season and to plan our menus in advance with that in mind,” says head bartender Samuel Thornhill.

“In Melbourne at this time of year, sometimes that peak can be pretty short. Whilst we’ll often use a number of different preservation techniques to extend produce beyond its traditional season, sometimes the beauty is in embracing how short that peak can be.

“We have a drink on the menu at the moment that I always look forward to revisiting each year called In Bloom. It’s inspired by the aroma of fresh jasmine that fills the air here during the earliest days of spring and it runs for as long as we can pick fresh jasmine, which is usually only a few weeks each year. Once it’s done, it’s done. It’s true to the time and the place that we’re in and I think there’s a lot that can be said for that.”

I think my Mum would agree with you, Sam.

About the Bars

• Purple Pit is hosting a Michter’s tasting on Wednesday from 1:30pm, with their twenty percent off industry night following. Michter’s Toasted Barrel was the first American whiskey to tempt me away from Scotch — hopefully they have that in the line up!
• PSA: the Italian Greyhound is the new Garibaldi. I had a comment on a YouTube video asking for uses for Punt e Mes other than the Red Hook, and so did a little rummaging around on the internet and came across this bitter belter. 60ml Punt e Mes, fresh grapefruit and a salt rim. It definitely puts some hair on your chest!
• I’m obsessed with Libby Haines’ joyful art prints. She appears to love food and drink as much as we all do, with convivial table settings often being her subject. Check out her stuff @libbyhainesart — it’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas presents after all.