Wednesday before last I was at Three Blue Ducks Brisbane with the very cute @markthreeblueducks and a whole heap of fab bloggers. Talk about an epic Wednesday! Three Blue Ducks was just named one of Marriott Bonvoy's top 52 restaurants in the Asia Pacific. To celebrate, we got to cook mud crab, eat all the things and drink cocktails! It was so hard!
Three Blue Ducks is an East-Coast institution, having started in Bronte and expanding to The Farm in Byron Bay, Rosebery and in Brisbane Quarter as part of the W Brisbane.
Mark LaBrooy is one of the three ducks and we were thrilled to have him guide us through a cooking class in the kitchen at the W Brisbane location. Our focus was Mud Crab, and that was enough of a hook for me! The hero of the meal was the Chilli Crab we created; showcasing more Thai flavours than the Singaporean version. While half of us were pounding up aromatic lemongrass, garlic, ginger and chillies for the flavour base, the other half were creating a coconut sambal to serve with the crab.
We cooked the Chill Crab in the wok; which was my favourite part. Woks in a domestic kitchen can be so frustrating; even with a gas stovetop it’s impossible to get the intense heat that you need to create that smoky, authentic flavour and sizzle. Not a problem at Three Blue Ducks! The industrial-strength gas flame turned me like crazy. We had a ball frying off the curry paste and poaching the crab in the sauce, with flames dancing about the wok all the while. Amazingly, the whole dish only took 10 minutes to cook once the wok got started.
While the crab was sizzling, some of my comrades were cooking up Roti, which has got to be in my top 8 favourite breads! I love learning how to make different styles, and the Roti were perfect for mopping up that delicious chilli sauce.
Get the recipe for Mark's Chilli Crab with Coconut Sambal here.
Once our cooking adventures were done, we sat down with Mark at a long table to enjoy our feast. We devoured the crab dishes we’d cooked, as well as so many more!
The cocktails and wine flowed, the food was delicious, fresh and abundant. This is Three Blue Ducks. Is it fancy? Yes. But is it pretentious? Also yes. Kidding!! It’s really not. That’s what’s so refreshing about dining at Ducks. It’s good, honest food that’s exciting to eat and perfect to share. The W Brisbane location is gorgeous and makes you proud to live in our Big Country Town.
Three Blue Ducks and other venues within the W Brisbane have more festivities than you can shake a stick at this month.
With Holiday feasting menus, breakfast feasting menus, Christmas day and New Year’s Eve parties, I implore you to party at the W this festive season. You won’t regret it! The Tutti Frutti NYE Party at the Wet Deck looks especially tempting. I might just see you there….
Click here to go to the W Brisbane Facebook page for more details on Christmas and NY at the W.
xoxo,
Amanda Mapp
Brisbane Foodie