RiverMint Dining recently held its second pop-up dining experience at Riki Kaspi's The Cooking Professor, in Mt Hawthorn. Cosy, and vibrant and decorated with illustrative art by Jodie Davidson, the dining space provided an interactive environment for guests to taste and explore ingredients from the season of Makuru.
On arrival, guests were treated to canapés and welcome drinks featuring Broome Pearl Meat, Bunya nut and truffled Emu egg. It was great to see some new faces in the mix and to connect with return guests who attended our first pop up, Celebrating Djeran.
Following a beautiful Welcome to Country by Noongar elder and guest Aunty Neta Knapp we began the sit down meal for Moments of Makuru with a drinks list featuring Swan Valley wines from Garbin Estates and Upper Reach Wineries as well as Matilda Bay Dirty Granny cider and Feral Brewery beers.
The interior of The Cooking Professor provided an intimate and beautifully curated space for Jodie Davidson of Nature Art to display her colourful and clever illustrations, water colours and sculptures of Australian animals, It was such a lovely collection of work and a privilege to be able to exhibit them alongside our menu.
We tried to reflect the transition from sea to land throughout the Moments of Makuru menu whilst offering comfort from the rainy, very wintery weather outside.
Moments of Makuru
Shaved Smoked Crocodile, Confit Jerusalem artichoke, Pepperberry spiced rhubarb, cucumber, nasturtium
Exmouth King Prawns, Native lemongrass and Gubinge glaze, Sea Rocket and Baby Pigface, Burnt Citrus, Prawn head emulsion, Blood root
Davidson Plum Sorbet, Atherton Ginger syrup, Caraway crisp, Wild fennel
Seared Kangaroo fillet, Kangaroo tail croquette, braised red cabbage & WA apple, Illwarra plum chutney, game jus
Sauteed winter greens and fungi : Rapini, Ice Plant and wild mushrooms, Ruby Saltbush
Heirloom Carrots and Braised Fennel, Creamed Omega walnuts
Wine-poached Southern Forest fruits with Native Berries (Pink berry, Munthari, Lilly Pilly, Illawarra Plum), Chestnut Cream, Chocolate Sable, Lemon Aspen
Sandalwood Nut Fudge & Davidson Plum Truffles
Lemon Myrtle Tea & Choc Wattleseed Espresso
It was a fantastic and boisterous night filled with laughter and discovery and the reward was some great feedback. Even better was the discovery of some food blogger diners whose fantastic photos and blog posts truly captured the essence of the night. Be sure to check out Sandy Lim's blog post and photography featuring Moments of Makuru on her blog sanlive.com and let's not forget Perth food bloggers and fanatics @food_and_I who posted a neat video and photos. It was great to meet you and we hope to see you exploring native ingredients with us again in the future.
A special thank you to our indigenous and non-indigenous suppliers whose produce and guidance is invaluable. We hope in 2018 to start hosting pop ups not just in Perth but further afield in Fremantle and the Swan Valley.
RiverMint Dining caters for corporate and private events and functions from a discovery canapés party at a private residence to native-inspired executive grazing tables. Our pop up dinners are a unique dining event featuring foraged, wild harvested and plot grown ingredients usually only available in limited amounts. They are very special to the Rivermint Dining team and we always look forward to holding the next one with a new season in mind
Photo credit: Sandy Lim sanlive.com
