Morris Jones Bloody Mary

My boyfriend and I walked into The Smith on Sunday ready to have a feast for a friend's 30th only to realise we had arrived approximately 1 week early. As The Smith only offers very limited sunshine we headed back to the Morris Jones courtyard out the back which is inviting and ever so pretty.

I downed a couple of glasses of bubbles with my chicken sandwich (will post on this later) and then for good measure ordered a Bloody Mary.

Not for the unseasoned BM drinker as it packs a wholloping chilli punch to the back of the throat, however, as I made my way down the drink the tomato (and there was some of the real stuff in here, like for real real off the vine or perhaps a can?) soothed the throat. The chilli had cleared the nose before that so it was like the Vicks Vapour drop of Bloody Marys.

In terms of wonderfulness, it was good but not great. I'd order it again though.

talking 'bout my favourite restaurant

I've said before that Cicciolina has never really hit the mark with us so it was a wonderful, lovely, sensational surprise when we tried Ilona Staller. It was love at first bite and sight.

I'm not sure if it was the retro bar which serves of fantastic martinis, the lovely waiters and bartender or the delicious food. It been hot so the cool air-con is a bit of a turn on as well. I almost wanted to head down there and curl up on one of the couches during that heatwave.

We've been looking for a local for so long. A place that you go to which is casual enough for a mid-week meal but can also be fantastic on a special occasion night. I can also walk there and back in high heels.

We had a 3 course meal there just before Christmas (which was a great start in stretching our bellies before the big day). We ended up in a little bit of a mess and walked home in Paula Abdul's footsteps - two steps forwards and two steps back.

(Acne shirt, Suno skirt, Estelle Deve Rings, ridiculous expression courtesy of 2 Dirty Martinis and a bottle of Chablis)

I recommend absolutely everything on the menu - the triple cooked quack, the small bites, that lemony dessert and my god the venison is truly something special.

The breakfast is also great, the Breakfast Martini made with lime marmalade is exceptional. The only thing I'm not sold on is the truffled grits with poached eggs. perhaps I'm just not a grits kind of girl.

life and times

So quite a bit of stuff has been happening in the life and times of notbloodymary likely. I've eaten at lots of new places (I've actually crossed the river and the Pacific too) and tried several new bloody mary's including a revolting 'pickled vegetable' one in the Upper East Side and really fantastic one from Balthazar.

From the bright lights and terrific sights of NY we headed south to Cuba where something dysentary-like set in. It wasn't all bad (the place is an amazing leap back in time) as there was heaps of salsa dancing and the odd rooster friend in Trinidad...

Mojitos by the thousands in Havana...

And young coconut by the Caribbean.

This was then followed by a million hamburgers in Los Angeles where the living is meant to be clean.

So I'm back in Melbourne and things are pretty much how they've always been: I'm still in St Kilda and still totally unsatisfied with my wardrobe.

My exciting news is that I've taken over a company and am working really bloody hard to make it a complete success. The new work means my writing is on the backburner a bit so I'm going to start back on the old blog. Say Yay!