Bistro Livi: Humble sorcery

Recently, I dug back through my phone to find photos I took on my first ever visit to Bistro Livi in the northern New South Wales town of Murwillumbah, around 45 minutes' drive northwest of Byron Bay.[[That visit took place on March 16, 2024 – blessed be the day.]] One image in particular stood out. It was a plain white plate containing a small pile of halved shiitake mushrooms, glossed with some kind of dressing and what looked like a bit of garlic. 

I shuffled back to the photo I took of the menu – a habit of the job – and uncovered a bit more detail: Stokers Siding mushrooms with a la grecque dressing.

So a sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs. A few mushrooms tossed in the stuff most of us would have in our pantry right now. But even more than two years on, I get a bit lightheaded when I remember exactly how that dish tasted. I can recall the exact balance of earth, lots of acid, salt and umami. The slippery springiness of those mushrooms is branded into my hippocampus.