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Wasted Pop-Up, Darlinghurst

It’s a random tweet that brings the Wasted Pop-Up to my attention, but the moment I’ve read the details on the Wasted website I’m fascinated by the concept and have booked in for Astroboy and myself almost before she’s even agreed to come with me.

Wasted promises a dinner collaboration designed to make you think about what’s on your plate, and deliberately uses ingredients often discarded as part of the cooking process. There’s a tantalising email sent out a few days later, teasing us with dishes promising Nettle, bugs, and Intercostal. I’ve no idea what to expect but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen so curious about a dinner.

We’re at Ten Buck Alley tonight, a tiny cafe tucked on the side of Oxford St. It’s back to back seating as 30 people have somehow been squeezed in tonight and I turn to apologize to the person behind me when I accidentally elbow her. Luckily for me it turns out be Anna of Morsels & Musings!

Our hosts Douglas McMaster and Kym Lenoble are obviously excited about tonight’s concept, it’s a menu that took 10 minutes to conceive and is designed to carefully highlight the concept of nose to tail cooking. We’re seated only a meter away from the tiny kitchen and I watch fascinated as the staff dance around each other as they plate up 30 servings simultaneously.

The first bite has arrived, the serving of salted beef is hidden below the leaves and cubes of Celeriac but a kick of salt suddenly hits before being tempered by the milder taste of the Celeriac leaves.

These adorable green pots are quickly deposited and it’s with delight that I realise each holds a single Chicken Heart each proverbially stabbed with a toothpick. I have fond memories of eating Chicken Hearts as snacks as a kid so my bite is gone in moments, it’s a slightly chewy texture with a flavour close to liver and a great starter to this curious meal.

I manage to sneak a few shots of the staff as they start to plate up the first course, I’ve no idea where the futuristic soup bowls have come from but I know I want one for myself! The boys work as a tight-knit team, with one pouring soup servings while the other finishes up with the various flourishes. Almost as soon as the plating is done, the bowls are being whisked away for our eating pleasure.

I’m enamoured with the Nasturtium, it’s the first time I’ve heard of this lilly-pad lookalike but adore how my soup bowl seems to have become a miniature pond for one. Hiding beneath the lily-pads is a creamily green soup which is surprisingly flavourful with pockets of Back Fat floating around providing a much welcomed hit of salty pork flavour.

The most intriguing menu item of the night is finally here! Blood, Brain & Skin is such an evocative name and I take a moment to analyse the dish when it arrives before taking a bite. Wondering if we’d been served a fish dish it’s only a second before I realise that the battered portion of the dish is strangely creamy rather than the flakey texture I’d anticipated, it’s the first time I’ve tasted Lamb Brains and I’m impressed that they’ve been cooked to such a soft texture while still keeping their shape. The Blood has been cooked into a puree like sauce sitting on the base of the plate with the Skin emerging as sprinkles of crackling giving of a teeth shattering crunch.

Asian cooking essentially embraces nose to tail cooking and I can’t remember a time when I haven’t been enjoying these unmentionable animal parts for my dinner! I love the interpretation of the dish, the psychological presence of the blood on the dish is enough to turn off the diners sitting next to us and they’re unable to get past the first bite but Astroboy and I wipe our plates clean. I’ll admit though, hearing Astroboy tell me, ‘I love how creamy these Lamb Brains are!’ isn’t the most appetising dinner conversation (lol).

After the previous course there’s nothing that can stop us! I’d seen a tweet of the Frisbees used as serving dishes on the previous night but it’s still a juvenile delight that comes over me when they’re placed in front (I somehow resist the urge to spin my dinner across the room). The Yabby is delicately prepared and placed on a bed of Dill Stem and Wild Rocket and strangely enough is the toughest dish of the night for me.

Hidden in the depths of the Dill Stem is Finger Lime Caviar which gives off bursts of acidity cutting through the increasingly bitter notes of the Dill and Rocket. While the sweetness of the Yabby provides a balance to the Dill, in the end the bitterness takes over the entire dish for me.

We’ve been debating on the meaning of Intercostal throughout the night, I’ve been joking that since it’s Costal it’s obviously fish! Our waitress suppresses a laugh and tells us that it’s actually the part of the meat that runs between the ribs which has been slow cooked into a dish of deliciousness (my words not hers).

The Intercostal falls apart at the poke of a fork and is served in Potato Skins which provide an addictive crunch all topped off with the slightly bitter note of the Cauliflower Root. It’s not as out there as I would have thought of the night, but it’s a hearty comforting dish that is obviously popular judging by the number of empty plates going back into the kitchen.

I’m more than ready for dessert and notice with amusement that our soup bowls from the first course have returned to hold our Whey Sorbet. It’s a milky white shade not unlike lemon sorbet, but it’s not until the first bite that the chalky texture of the Whey comes through. It’s salty and sweet and almost cheese like and I’m addicted, it’s perfect with the Feijoa, a Guava like fruit that compliments with sweetness finished off with a crunch of violet.

I happen to be walking past the kitchen as the chefs are plating up the last dish of the night, it’s almost like a dance as swirls of custard, sauce and pomegranate are flung almost seemingly at random onto the plates and a deliberately pretty array of autumn browns and reds that arrives at our table.

The smokiness of the Custard is immediately apparent in the first bite, and when eaten with the Molasses and crumbly oat-like biscuits it’s almost as though we’re having a Canadian breakfast in dessert form. A lovely end to the dinner and I take particular pleasure in eating the Pomegranate seeds one by one until the plate finally returns to the kitchen wiped clean.

Service throughout the night has been informal and friendly, half the fun has been discussing various dinners with our server who is increasingly curious about our reaction to the dishes. It’s been a tight squeeze throughout the night, but good wine and conversation makes the night fly by and Astroboy and I are more than a little giddy by the time we leave!

It’s been a fascinating dinner, dishes that I would never anticipate being on a menu but at the same time a little tamer than I had thought from the initial description. Unknowingly Kym Lenoble echoes my thoughts only days later with a well-timed tweet, “Inercostals + chicken hearts = tame. #melbourne is going 2 make #sydney look like a vego picnic. Not 4 the feint of <3“.

Good luck Melbourne! You’re in for a ride.

The Wasted popup ran in Sydney from the 12th-14th of May 2011. Dinner was $72.50 a head or $123 with matching wines.

Wasted – http://wastedpopup.com/