Although southerners might be sceptical about Brisbane’s culinary offerings, Brissos are serious about their food and discriminating when catering for others. They have sophisticated tastes and have strong opinions about the menus and styles of cuisine at well known restaurants they’ve dined at in Sydney, Melbourne, Paris and NewYork.
A dinner party will be a trigger for at least one story about a Brisso doing or saying something gauche in some extremely posh restaurant overseas. The story will be told with pride rather than embarrassment.
The Brissos’ culinary sophistication might not be apparent to the outsider because Brissos hate affectation, and shun elaborately prepared dishes. If a meal takes longer than 20 minutes to prepare, the host will play this down, lest they appear pretentious, fussy and above all unAustralian. If the meal is praised they will say, “Oh, God this is so easy, it literally takes 2 minutes. You just throw it on the barbeque and serve.”
Eye Fillet Steak and/or Barramundi, with an interesting salad and some form of gourmet potatoes, are the mainstay of Brissos when entertaining. Brissos invariably have kitchens that are on display to the living area, so it is essential that when guests are coming, meal preparations are done well in advance and remain invisible, so that guests get the impression the meal has been whipped up at the last minute.
The Brisso hosts will have spent a small fortune on exquisite shellfish, reef fish, meat, poultry, and will offer large portions of these (sometimes all of these together).
best shellfish, fish and eye fillet steak
The fruit and vegetables they casually offer may have cost as much as the barramundi, but it must look like an afterthought, as if it is the part of the simple fare they eat all the time.
Donna Hay’s cook books sell their sox off in Brisbane because her recipes suit the casual, simple, unpretentious, Brisso style.
Here is one Brisso recipe that is emblematic of the distinctive ‘offhand’ Brisso culinary style; a dessert which is 50% performance, and 50% pure taste experience. Visually it never fails to disappoint, as it looks like ‘cack’. This is a dish prepared with relish for sceptical southerners.
Boiled Bananas: The Brisso takes some green bananas out of the fruit bowl on the sideboard….and declares he/she thinks they’ll have Boiled Bananas, a special Brisbane treat, for dessert. The guests assume the host is joking. The host tops up their wine glass, throws the bananas into a large pot of boiling water, stirs from time to time, while drinking wine and talking (as if nothing at all is the matter – this is an important part of the performance). Guests drink nervously. The host plonks a cooked banana onto each person’s plate and urges them to cut it open and eat with cream and sugar (Some audacious Brissos add Bundaberg rum instead of sugar). It is of course delicious. The group of friends (by now pissed) enjoy this dessert of barbarians.
