Monday, April 14, 2008

Mussels in Marrickville

Last Friday night, Mel and I ventured out in our local neighbourhood to Kelby's cafe, for some Mussel Madness (not my bad name; that's what the cafe was calling it!). Kelby's is a local daytime coffee place - it also happens to sponsor one of my netball teams. As Mel and I frequently lament the lack of lovely evening venues in Da Ville, when we heard this event was on we locked it in. Basically, a three course meal for $35 a head and bring your own wine...all within stumbling distance from home...what more could two Marrickvillains ask for?

We met up first for a cheeky bottle of pop with Jacs and were subsequently running late. Only by ten minutes or so, but as there were only about 10 of us there it was quite conspicuous. It was odd - all the tables were joined together communal style. We likened it to being on the rejects table at a semi-stranger's wedding. It was an odd crew; the majority of us were locals who were keen for a bit of Marrickville Mussel action, and there were four people there celebrating a birthday. The guy next to me was disgracefully drunk - spilling wines, swearing like a sailor then apologising with more cusses! He was a little obnoxious but other than that the company was interesting. Lots of laughs (probably due to said pop...and then almost another bottle more each of vino!), lots of talk about the suburb, and general wedding-table banter!

We started with antipasto plates (with the most amazing fetta), and what I swear was home baked olive bread, followed by wholemeal and white garlic breads. This then led in to huge steaming pots of mussels, in a tomato broth, flavoured with herbs. The sauce was delicious; flavoursome but not too rich and absolutely perfect when soaked up in buttery bread. I personally prefer the white wine / garlic combo for my mussels but these were pretty darn good. More than enough for all - there were many left over at the end. The dessert was a biscuit-soaked-in-alcohol-then-made-into-semifreddo sort of jobby, served with really tart berry coulis which complemented it well. Overall the meal was good - and I think it'd be perfect if you rustled up your mates and did it together. The staff were fab (well it was the owner there and he's lovely) and it was a really relaxing evening. We topped it off with a wodka party at the pub (witnessed a Marrickville maul - there was a fight as we came in but that's hardly unusual) and then back to Mel's where I was too lazy (read: pissy) to walk home so I couch crashed.

The odd thing was, not one but two different people assumed when I said 'mussel night' that Mel and I were going to some sort of 'male review' (OK, grossy male strip show!). Kelby's is apparently running the same type of event over winter with lamb shanks instead of mussels; at least the same mistake won't be made for that!

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