Meet Our Local Suppliers

By Niall Roeder.

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. The game dictates that to get by everyone must have inside connections and we’re lucky enough to have certain contacts in very specific areas. Flavour traffickers, spice gangsters, produce dealers, call them what you will… we’re proud to have a group of associates that supply us with the top shelf ingredients. Let’s meet a few of them…

Black Garlic

John Pye (Bredbo Black Garlic), Bredbo, NSW

A photo posted by Alps&amicifoodstore (@alpsandamici) on May 11, 2016 at 10:46pm PDT

It’s garlic, but it’s black, sweeter, smoother and milder than its white cousin. We get our supply from Bredbro Black Garlic, from a farmer by the name of John Pye. Señor Pye partners with Tobias and Beatrice Koenig (from Ingleara – who also supply Capitol Bar & Grill with spuds in season) to grow biodynamic “Monaro red” (hardneck) garlic at Michelago, south of Canberra.

He was inspired to experiment with fermenting garlic after reading about in an airline magazine. The process requires a highly controlled, very humid environment for a minimum of 40 days, with the result being a soft, chewy and surprisingly sweet flavoured product. Nothing is added to enhance the fermentation process; it is entirely about the conditions and the garlic.

If you are a garlic lover you will definitely be digging the black stuff… and even better, if you’re not generally a garlic lover, the mildness means it’s more palatable.

We use this in Octopus & Spanish Flavours (Grilled Legs of Octopus, Black Garlic & Squid Ink, Edamame, Chorizo Sauce, Steamed Potatoes).

Camel Milk

Michelle Phillips, Muswellbrook Camel Milk

Now, here is a lady on a mission. In 2014 after hearing about the potential health benefits of drinking camel milk, Michelle Phillips rounded up 11 wild camels in the Australian desert and brought them to her property in the Upper Hunter Valley. Phillips tamed these wild animals to hand fed with chicory, which is very bloody impressive. Some call her the camel whisperer, others the hump wrangler, some even call her the captain of the ships of the desert.