The Boys from Binjiwunyawunya by Robert G. Barrett Read Free Book Online Page B

Tjalkalieri.
    â€˜What’re we havin’ anyway?’ asked Murray, undoing his napkin.
    â€˜Ohh, I shot a few fruit bats the other night,’ said Mumbi. ‘We’ve stewed them up with some witchetty grubs and yams and a few wild berries. Got a big jar of sugar ants there for dessert too.’
    â€˜Sounds nice.’
    â€˜Yeah Murray,’ smiled Yarrawulla. ‘Like the bloke said in that movie. You can live on it — but it tastes like shit. Try some of this instead.’
    Yarrawulla had no sooner spoken when one of the girls placed a steaming bowl of potato, leek and smoked-salmon chowder down in front of him. Another girl brought in a huge wooden bowl brimming with crisp caesar salad which went in the middle of the table, and another brought in two chilled bottles of Clarendon Estate 1979 Beeren Auslese which went on one side of the salad, and a bottle of Wolf Blass 1974 Shiraz which went on the other.
    â€˜Hey this soup isn’t half bad,’ said Murray, taking a liberal slurp from his bowl.
    â€˜Yeah, it’s tasty,’ smiled Mumbi, reaching over and filling Murray’s glass with the Beeren Auslese.
    Murray took another couple of slurps of soup and a large mouthful of wine. ‘Shit this wine’s sweet. Bloody nice though.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Tjalkalieri. ‘Generally Victorian wines aren’t that sweet. Actually, it’d be better as a dessert wine. But you know what us ignorant dumb savages are like. We go for all that sweet sticky shit.’
    â€˜Yeah,’ said Murray, taking another mouthful. ‘Still, I suppose this stuff 11 do when you run out of sweet sherry.’
    Murray finished his soup just in time for Mammanduru to place his entree in front of him. Tiny freshwater lobsters, barbecued to perfection in chilli and garlic, on a bed of fluffy rice and chopped, fresh coriander. The meat literally fell off the shells and melted in your mouth.
    â€˜Jesus, these bloody yabbies are all right,’ said Murray, chewing away with delight. ‘I’ll have to get the recipe off you and give it to Elaine.’
    â€˜How is Elaine these days?’ asked Yarrawulla. ‘Still cooking up those ferocious meals like she does?’
    â€˜Yeah, that’s her all right. You’d think we had a team of sumo wrestlers livin’ in the house. My two young blokes’ll end up lookin’ like Arnold Schwarzenegger by the time they leave school.’
    Next came the main course. Fresh barramundi cutlets, stuffed with caviar and anchovies, in a saffron, cream and pernod sauce accompanied by more rice and crispy stir-fried vegetables. Once again, cooked to perfection. The girls had joined them at the table now with Koodja sitting next to Murray where she didn’t say much but just smiled and made sure he had enough on his plate.
    â€˜Jesus, where did you girls learn to cook like this?’ asked Murray, smiling back at her as he wolfed down some more barramundi.
    Nantjinin answered for Koodja who was smiling shyly into her food. ‘Tjalkalieri taught us,’ she said.
    â€˜Ah, I might have known. Well keep up tfc good work Chalky.’
    â€˜Glad to see you’re enjoying it, Murray. Though I suppose I should apologise offering you red wine with seafood.’
    â€˜Yeah. Well I wasn’t going to say anything. But seeing you’ve brought the subject up. It is a little galling having to drive over a thousand Ks through the wilderness then get served red wine with seafood. Still...’ Murray took a mouthful of the Wolf Blass, ‘it’s not a bad drop of the old claret all the same.’
    â€˜Yes. It’s not a bad... claret. Is it?’ Tjalkalieri shook his head and smiled at the others.
    It didn’t take them all that long to polish off the fish — with Murray eating almost the equivalent of a whole barramundi on his own — and then the girls brought out dessert, which wasn’t