We spent the weekend doing some preparation for the next G7 Oscar Dinner in two weeks time.

You will hear me prattle on about this for the next couple weeks. Essentially, what you do is host a dinner party where each course is inspired by the five Best Picture nominated movies. This year:

• Crash


• Good Night and Good Luck


• Munich


• Brokeback Mountain


• Capote

So, Saturday, after dim sum at Bright Pearl, we wandered Chinatown and Kensington Market getting ingredients for the home-made duck consomme we wanted to make for one of the five dishes.


1) dim sum at Bright Pearl; 2) in Kensington Market; 3) Blee stops to shop!


4) stopping at Giant Empanada; 5) oh the aisles at Tap Phong; 6) looking for plates

We stopped in Tap Phong after buying ingredients to search for moulds and a certain dish we want to buy to serve one of the courses in. Damn, no luck. So it’s home to prepare the duck stock which we’ll eventually turn into duck consomme. Quick trivia question for you foodies: What is the difference between duck stock and duck consomme?

And bet you know which is freaking harder to make? Yeps, the consomme. Essentially takes two days. Here’s some pictures of the process from stock to consomme over the Saturday evening to Sunday at noon process. The result after 12 long hours? … a consomme so utterly duck-like, smooth, clear, and to-die-for favourable, it’s hard to properly describe.


1) the Peking duck becomes stock; 2) the half-pound of fat skimmed off (which will be used to make duck confit next week); 3) the ‘raft’ begins to form

4) the hole in the raft begins; 5) ladling the sweet consomme for straining; 6) the remnants of the raft (ick!)

The result being:

1) OMG! the perfect duck consomme