Warning story about offal and tongues.

I don’t actually remember what Last weeks entry was called.

Not important, onward.

On Saturday I went to Master Duck and Bento with a friend.

I have wanted to go here since I heard about it a few weeks ago and am definitely going to be going back. It’s a tiny place just at the back of Market Square in Sunnybank. I am not 100% certain it is part of Market Square, but a tiny complex just behind it.

On to the food, and the misconception.

The reason I wanted to go here is that I love duck (for those of you who haven’t already guessed that, maybe you’re are new, maybe I hadn’t made it obvious, who really knows). One column of the menu at this place is duck. Everything except the bits you would usually get. No breasts, no legs, no thighs. Everything else though. Wings, hearts, necks, head (why didn’t I get the head, dammit), feet, giblets, liver, tongue and bones. So basically all the stuff other places throw away.

I probably don’t have to tell you I was very excited.

The misconception came from the name of the section and the dish we had picked. The section of the menu is called Stew section, we got a small mixed stew, and some tongues as they weren’t in the stew.

When I think of stew, I think of stew in a pot with many vegetables and a lot of liquid (broth, gravy, what do you call the liquid in a stew? According to google either broth or gravy). So when we ordered the mixed stew, we were expecting a bowl of broth/gravy with bits of duck parts floating in it and maybe a vegetable or two.

Now the stew part isn’t a lie in this case, the meat had been stewed in a spicy broth and served to us on a plate cold, not in the broth. I loved it. We didn’t get any ducks feet as they were out, but we got the necks and the wings, as well as some honeycomb beef and a couple of things of beef.

I ate all the pieces of neck first, then the pieces of honeycomb beef, and the other bits of beef and finally the wings, the whole time only stopping to eat another tongue…

Maybe I should have put a warning story about offal and tongues…Ha, if you got this far the original title of this was ‘next week will be Z’, now it is  ‘Warning story about offal and tongues’. Back to the track…

I have eaten a lot of duck, and this place has very quickly inserted itself into my number four spot of favourite places for duck. So it goes Bamboo Basket, Detour, Libertine, Master Duck and Bento, and number five is Jackpot. These are all really close together in case of the first three, and I think one weekend I should dedicate to eating duck at these five places again and see how they compare again. Maybe the order will change.

I’m rambling because that was all we ate there. On the way out I bought a container of duck hearts to eat at the friends house we were going to. Unlike the rest of the food we ate, the hearts weren’t spicy. They were really tender though, and I am definitely getting more than these. At the house we were at there is a biggish, very friendly dog who realised very quickly I had something tasty. At first I told her no. She kept looking at me. Everyone who knows me would not be surprised to find I caved and gave the dog two of the hearts, much to her delight.

Ok, so next week is definitely Z. I am still going to Ze Pickle, but whatever time I said last week will hopefully coincide with this weeks. I will be at Ze Pickle by 1pm or a little bit after. I have not booked and am just going to wing it. If you want to turn up I will see you at 1pm or a little bit after.

Eat well.