Eat The Film

Eat The Film is an event put on by The Roxy cinema in Miramar. They did it last year, and possibly in previous years too, but this is the first one we’ve been to. The premise is simple: take a film – it doesn’t need to be a food-based film, just one that has some food references in it, and provide the chef’s rendition of those foods at the appropriate times, whilst showing the film. This year’s film was King Creole, the 1958 Elvis Presley vehicle.

We arrived in plenty of time, so decided to fill it by trying Coco At The Roxy’s entry into the Cocktail Wellington competition, Welly(on)Wood. This is an unusual pinot noir cocktail – yeah! – macerated with secret spices, a foraged gorse and flower foam, and Lyall Bay bitters. It had an unusual, herbaceous flavour.

We picked up a glass of spiced berry aperitif and took our seats The MC outlined how the evening would work – as shown above. He asked about people with any allergies (too bad, was the general reply; don’t eat it if you’re allergic to it), and who would prefer a non-alcoholic version of the various beverages. Housekeeping was provided as a paper bag each, for empties.

The menu was:

I can’t show you what they looked like because it was dark, but they were all tapas-style dishes, eaten either with fingers or a disposable spork.

Then the film got under way. The film is the story of young Danny Fisher, who drops out of high school and eventually becomes a singer. It’s terrible. And it’s terribly dated – we were laughing out loud at some of the dialogue and sentiments expressed in the film. It’s very much of its time, I suppose, and furthered the young Elvis’ career before he did national service.

But the food was good. Inspired as it was by New Orleans cuisine, which is very much the theme that Coco At the Roxy has taken for this year’s Wellington On A Plate, we had gumbo; a banana, bacon and peanut butter sandwich; crawfish; and oysters; We finished up with a kind of affogato made with banana icecream, espresso and bourbon. Cocktails were provided with some of the courses to complement the food on offer.

All in all, an enjoyable night out.