Two Oysters and an abalone Wedding

Weddings are fun. What's not to love - dressing up, eating up and drinking up. Oh and there's the lovely speeches and getting all teary at the sweet reflections shared by family and friends. It's a celebration of love. And I am a big fan of love.

This wedding had the added bonus of being located in idylic haven of scenery and seafood galore - Kanagroo Island. On this same weekend Adelaide temperatures soared to above 40 degrees - hell hot. Kangaroo Island on the otherhand was a comfortable 36 degrees - ok more comfortable but still hot.

Kangoroo Island Source catered and I found myself making fast friends with the waiting staff after the first round of Oysters made its round. There were two versions of oysters on offer. The first being natural, the best way to enjoy nature.

The second was what they called Oyster Trinity. The oyster was served with a trio of salmon, trout and prawns. This was just a great blend of flavours and textures.

The abalone was cooked in a soy based sauce and it did magic to bring out even more sweetness from the abalone itself. This was my first time eating abalone, and is it wrong to think that I thought it should have been not so hard? Was this over cooked?

It would probably be easier to list what was NOT served at the bar at the wedding. So let's just revisit my standout favourite - Kangaroo Island Spirit Wild Gin. This is a great tasting gin that can stand on its own. However, when you team it up with quality tonic additional fruit and spices, well the world is bound to tip a little off the axis... perhaps not a good message for responsible consumption.

The bride's favourite way to enjoy Wild Gin is with dried strawberries and ground black pepper with tonic. At first I thought this was just a nice looking drink and doubted the fact that any real flavour would actually be imparted. Happily,I was wrong. The gin really did blend with strawberry and pepper, the spicy notes of the gin really opened up.

My favourite new way to drink Wild Gin now thanks to this wedding is with tonic, green apple slices and star anise. I don't know about you but my preferred way to drink G&T had always been a squeeze of lime and perhaps a slice of cucumber. How often though do you have lime in your fridge? Right? Granny Smith though, just like a reliable relative, is always around. Same goes for Star Anise because whenever you buy that, you get a bag of it and you only ever need 2 for the recipe that asked for it. So the rest of time it sits about seeking love and attention. Trust me you will want to try your G&T with Apple and Star Anise. What it lacks in zest it makes up for in refreshingness.

So here's to food, drink and love.