Northbridge Brewing Company: Celebrating All Things Pig (Invited)
John from PPR Australia sent through an invitation on behalf of the Northbridge Brewing Company (NBC) to celebrate all things pig. Basically it was a night filled with different samples of their main dishes that they will serve between Thursday the 17th until Sunday the 20th of March. This limited edition menu was a collaboration between Torre Butcher, WA raised Linley Valley Pork and the NBC itself. The purpose is to bring the freshest produce from gate to plate straight to the customers.
Each dish that was created by Head Chef Phil Parsons will have a recommended craft beer or cocktail chosen by Master Brewer Ken Arrowsmith. If you go to the NBC’s FB page you can see 6 different items from their menu. What we tried was a mini version of the main dish, from number 1 to 4.
The Butcher & The Chef
#1 Pork Skin Crackers
Very crunchy pork skin crackers
The pork skin crackers were delicious and it was quite a rare occasion for us to find this elsewhere other than the local Asian shop. The seasoning of steak rub (bone dust) was really delicious and for $5 this is a good snack to try in between your meals or drinks. This was recommended to be paired together with Harrington’s Breweries ‘The Rogue Hop NZ Pilsner’.
#2 From Head to Tail
Recommended with Feral's 'Hop Hog'
The dish that Chef Phil created was a pig ‘4 ways’. From the left to the right you can see the pig’s nut or a crunchy ball created from pig’s head meat, followed by pork belly, cured leg and pork shoulders. Pig’s head/nut/ball was served together with beautiful rhubarb compote and five spiced Asian sauce. Whereas the pork belly and pork shoulders was served on top of the ginger and fennel puree. This dish was finished with a pigs tail of crackling which was really crunchy!
#3 Smoked Pig Cheek
NBCButcherChef Smoked Pig Cheek - accompanied with Rogue Voodoo Doughnuts 'Bacon Maple Vodka' and a slice of green apple.
This dish was my favourite of the night as well as Morsels and last night it was paired with Rogue Voodoo Doughnuts ‘Bacon Maple Vodka’. The pig cheek was extremely tender and so delicious when eaten together with green tomato relish and granola. This dish was also served together with the physical crispy maple bacon: delish!
#4 Belly Up
Pinapple, Jalapeno, Radish, Crackling and of course, pork belly :)
Belly up was a refreshing dish where the confit pork belly was served with pinapple in honey, lime and jalapeno sauce. The salad that came with it was apple and radish salad. The pork crackle made a comeback in a shape of thin crusty stick. The recommended drink for this was the tropical Brotherhood ‘Crushed Pinapple & Cider’ which was my favourite drink for the night. If you’re after something fresh and light(er), I suggest that you go with menu #4 and the recommended drink.
Since it’s only a 4 day event, booking is highly recommended. It was very interesting to see how creative Chef Phil was in bringing up such a menu for NBC.
