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CHINA.
THE MOTHERLAND,
A GREAT UNKNOWN.
I was born to a Taiwanese father and Australian mother and raised in a single parent western household from the age of 10 in Australia. Save for what I remember as a young child and what I’ve taken the initiative to learn as an adult, I grew up removed from my Asian heritage, from Sino culture and half my family.
Over the years I started to reconcile the uncomfortable sensation of familial displacement.
Growing up, I noticed the absence of a People with comparable heritage or relatable upbringing. I struggled with my ethnic identity and internalised a quiet confusion.
The food and the dishes of my childhood were a great comfort to me. Nostalgic flavours, tastes and smells were a steadfast, unchanging constant in a landscape of longing and wonder.
Food heals. Food comforts. Food finds us and holds us to a time and place.
Between 2011 to 2023 I had only visited Taiwan and my Father’s side of the family on two occasions. Our ancestral home of mainland China seemed as foreign and fantastical as Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. I’d never asked about my family’s mainland roots or how and when they came to Taiwan.
For most of my adult life, I safeguarded a burning curiosity and desire to experience the country and culture responsible for half my family and half of me.
In the early months of 2023, Down The Rabbit Hole was born.
Conceptualised as a brand collaboration rooted in connection, discovery, personal storytelling and shared heritage with Peddlers Gin Co.
I’m an avid appreciator of the “closed loop”. When the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed and the concept is watertight. It seemed a touch ethereal that this would take place during the Year of the Rabbit. To be able to harness the spirit of cunning, speed, journey, adventure and safe ventures home.
To do as Alice did and fall down a rabbit hole.
CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION,
SHARED HERITAGE
I’d met Ryan, one of the Peddlers Gin founders in a chance meeting when he happened to be in Brisbane in the closing months of 2022. At that time I was unfamiliar with the brand and it’s Chinese roots. The early stage pitch was essentially a series of guest shifts across Asia leading to Shanghai under the Down The Rabbit Hole concept. The Peddler's team came back with a counter proposal for a month-long residency in Chengdu at the Temple House’ Jing Bar.
It’s a rare and unique opportunity to have this kind of freedom, creativity and collaboration between brand, bartender and venue.
Independent and start-up brands are usually bound by a myriad of limitations, particularly when considering activations without a direct financial ROI and established brands have are at the mercy of their channes, requiring countless steps of review across a similar amount of eyes and departments.
Peddlers afforded me full creative control of the project. I took it, with thanks and ran.
The comic to promote Down The Rabbit Hole was born out of the single irritating factor that I had no access to the host venue for visuals or imagery. I wanted to do something creative and different, that would evoke the wonder and emotion driving the collaboration.
Originally, I thought about an animation inspired by the iconic scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice chases the White Rabbit and falls down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Visuals that wouldn’t need to rely on photography or videography and a format that would allow a storytelling component and afford complete creative control.
As animation can be prohibitively expensive, I storyboarded a comic/manga with additional references to the Matrix, Fight Club and Mirai.
Peddlers granted branding and usage permissions and the comic was released on social media, one page per day in the lead up to the residency and partnership announcement.
Written by yours truly and illustrated by Soussherpa
The Down The Rabbit Hole menu aimed for smashability, conceptual coherence and value whilst maintaining versatility across a completely Gin-based cocktail list. With several nostalgic love letters to taste and ingredient pairings to reflect my mixed heritage. The menu consisted of four newly ideated cocktails just for DTRH and four signature cocktails tweaked to serve on Peddlers Gins as well as suggested Peddlers Gin and tonic and martini serves. It’s a great joy & opportunity to bring unique flavours and their stories from Australia to the rest of the world and a personal pleasure of mine to pair them with Asian ingredients.
PAINTING THE ROSES RED
Peddlers Shanghai Gin, Rose, Lychee and Citrus, Clarified, Carbonated, red cacao swipe.
杜松子酒, 玫瑰, 柠檬, 荔枝, 可可, 碳酸的
QUEEN OF HEARTS
Peddlers Barrel Aged Gin, Mr Black, Campari, Sweet Vermouth, Chewy Nougat, edible card.
杜松子酒, 咖啡, 金巴利, 红苦艾酒, 胡桃
DRINK ME
Peddlers Barrel Aged Gin, Mango Trail Mix, Tea, White Aperitif, Wattleseed, dissolvable instructions.
杜松子酒, 芒果, 茶, 胡桃, 苦艾酒, 澳大利亚人土果
AROUND THE FUR
Peddlers Salted Plum Gin, Baiju, Soy Berry, Citrus, Emulsifier, Davidson Plum
杜松子酒, 话梅, 柠檬, 味噌, 野果, 澳大利亚人李子
FRANKLY MY DEAR (aka IDGAF)
Peddlers Shanghai Gin, Strawberry Gum, Cranberry, Tonka, Pandan, Yilk Punch
杜松子酒, 澳大利亚人草莓桉树, 蔓越莓, 零陵香豆, 班兰, 酸奶
THE RIZZ (aka I Want To Squeeze His Fluffy Little Tail)
Peddlers Shanghai Gin, Peach, Citrus, Vanilla, Coconut, Clarified, Carbonated, CocoWhip, Dairy-free.
杜松子酒, 桃 ,柠檬, 香草, 椰子, 碳酸的, 椰子生奶油
XOXO
Peddlers Shanghai Gin, XO, Dry Vermouth, Soy, Sesame
杜松子酒, XO酱, 苦艾酒, 酱油, 芝麻油
SUNNYBOY (by The Gresham)
Peddlers Shanghai Gin, Coconut-Butter Wash, Pineapple, Passionfruit, Vanilla
杜松子酒, 椰子输液, 菠萝, 百香, 香草
With Asia 50 Best coinciding around the time of departing Australia, Down the Rabbit Hole consisted of several guest shifts before the residency in China, starting at The Gresham in Brisbane Australia then on to Hong Kong at Shady Acres and Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou before settling into it’s month-long residency at Temple House’s Jing Bar in Chengdu.
To have the opportunity to stay and work in the country I had always been so curious about, was a priceless venture in self-discovery and introspection.
The meetings and planning and emails and admin about Down The Rabbit Hole started way back in January 2023, but the story, the experience, started in July 2023 when we landed in China.
On July 26th, Down the Rabbit Hole touched down in Chengdu amongst the warmest of welcomes. Launch night was surreal, months and months of hard work and planning by all involved was realised over the course of a few hours, settling the residency into its month-long home of Jing Bar at The Temple House. I’ll be forever grateful for the support of Ryan, Jannick and both the Peddlers and Temple House teams, it could not have gone smoother or have been better received.
Everbody eats.
Food reaches across cultural barriers and societal differences. In my opinion it’s one of the purest forms of connection we can experience no matter where in the world we are or come from.
Being of Chinese heritage, eating in China was a pilgrimage to culinary Mecca.
Enough travel has taught me that you will never have pasta as it’s made in Italy or tacos as they’re made in Mexico.
Those who love to eat, who love to be adventurous with food will know what I’m talking about.
Which is why I’ll take street food over restaurant fine dining any day.
The sight of plastic stools on pavement and wonky tables and hand-drawn signs send me onto paroxysms of delight and anticipation.
Photographing and eating street food and local fare is one of my favourite things about travelling.
It's almost the direct antithesis to all the content I shoot professionally. You can't orchestrate it, you can't organise it, you can't direct it. Sometimes you’re not even allowed to photograph it. Shots are snuck in between bites. The people are there to eat. They're not there to angle the fork this way and that, lift the plate a little more, stab and hold. And you are too, just like all forms of candid photography it's great practice for efficient shooting and composition.
Most of the time these meals are special moments of discovery, shared with new and old friends, a true insight into the host country's culture and an experience you may have been looking forward to your whole life. It’s one of life’s pleasures that I get the regular opportunity to capture something I love and enjoy so dearly.
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Mapo Tofu, Dan Dan Noodles, Hot Pot and Kung Pao Chicken are all traditional dishes of the region. Everything is spicy. The only thing that rivals the attraction of the city’s food is the Giant Panda.
Of all the wonderful food I ate whilst in Chengdu these experiences were my favourite and the most notable.
Tell anyone in Chengdu you’re visiting for the first time and the two recommended must do’s are always the same;
Pandas and hot pot.
We’re in Sichuan so the food is spicy. A week is all it took to shift a fundamental food preference for me, eating anything without heat started to taste bland.
Hot pot in my childhood home was a clear, salty broth with glass noodles and assorted meat and vegetables for dunking and cooking. Streaky rolls of frozen beef, prawns, fishball, beef ball, cabbage, enoki and shiitake mushrooms. The broth was enjoyed as a soup at the end. If you tried to drink the broth of Sichuan hot pot you’d probably shit yourself for a week.
Peddlers developed their gin with Sichuan Hot Pot in mind, one of the main botanicals is Sichuan pepper.
On my first night in Chengdu, we went to a restaurant not far from the bar for a Sichuan hot pot induction. The menu had over a hundred options for accompaniments to choose from. We ordered abalone, shrimp, bullfrog, tripe, tofu, lup chong, lap yuk and assorted vegetables. The spicy side of this hot pot is more like a boiling chilli oil with Sichuan pepper and handfuls of dried chillies dancing ominously on the surface. One of the best welcome dinners of any welcome dinner ever.
“Cold Pot” was a late night, after work affair at a 20+ year establishment on Wangping Road.
This style of hot pot is served in giant metal bowls, no fire.
Ingredients are cooked in boiling water and submerged in the hot pot stock. Paired with peanut milk, good company and pink tiles.
The humble dumpling 饺子 [jiaozi]
If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life. It would be the humble dumpling.
Specifically the Taiwanese pork and cabbage/pork dumplings I grew up making and eating.
Every province in China has its own cuisine, its own specialty dishes and iterations of nationwide classics.
Since we’re in Sichuan, you best believe the dumplings are served with a chilli oil.
Egg and chive and pork and corn.
Honouring the fly restaurant BYO culture, dumplings were paired with a bottle of Peddlers Pineapple & Fizz.
Of all the incredible food experiences I had whilst in China, this topped them all.
Fried noodles, fried rice, pig’s feet soup, cooked oysters, spicy skewers, iced tea, milk tea, beers, more beers.
There are some things you miss living in Australia, if I had the choice it would be hard to deny myself eating here everyday.
Every city has a bar like Pollux. There’s a reason it’s nicknamed “The End Of The World.”
Find yourself here past witching hour and your chances of going home before sunrise are slim to none.
Pollux is an institution in Chengdu and Carson, the face, is what we in Australia call a “legend”. But this bar isn’t just a nightly vortex party venue, the cocktails are excellent, the concepts creative and the hospitality rivals that of a bi-annual visit to Grandma's house. Xiaomu and Xiaomi [two very good dogs] are often brought to work by one of the team and the whole place exudes a homely, comfortable energy. It’s a neighbourhood bar. A bartender’s bar. A hard to leave, easy to stay kinda bar.
My first visit to Pollux was on the night I refer to as Noodlegate, with Tim and Edgar.
Welcome came in the form of a homemade bowl of scallion noodles with egg and pork alongside the Pollux Breakfast Highball; peanut butter fat-washed bourbon, coconut, white cacao, walnut and bubbles.
4am. Time to leave. Drunk [very]. Hungry [again]. More noodles? In hot, spicy soup? Eat it outside in the 30 degree heat? Carson took us to a little place not far from Pollux. I don’t remember where and I kinda like it that way.
The chilli got all over my face.
Our noses ran in the heat.
Cold beers fought the violent summer humidity and the Sichuan pepper made us all tongue-numb.
What’s not poetic about getting shitfaced and eating a bowl of noodles? We even sat on plastic stools 🥲. I may not remember everything about that night (or taking these photos) but I remember the vibes and the food just fine.
This was one of my favourite nights and only hangover in China. A beautiful, genuine show of hospitality to hospitality. Pollux is a must-visit bar in Chengdu. If you’re ever in town, do yourself a favour and drop in. Go ask Carson where we went for noodles.
I knew the month in China would be both challenging and rewarding professionally and personally. The length of stay, unfamiliar systems and culture, weather and language barrier all provided their respective challenges. It felt good to be uncomfortable, I was reassured by it. The Big Thing usually isn’t The Big Thing if it comes easy.
It both pained and quietly thrilled me to be an observer in the land my family came from and I was determined to lift the curtain on the one-sided rhetoric we’re so often subject to in Australia about China.
I have Peddlers to thank for this first touch of the Mainland. A gift so great that thanks will never seem enough. Their trust in the vision of the collaboration and their respect in honouring it appealed them to me as a brand with a human heart. Their drive to challenge the idea of what it means to be “Made in China” was one of the reasons I wanted to work with them in the first place. The desire to usher in a fresh perspective and point of view is one that we share across a myriad of industry standards.
My time in China challenged and delighted me. It demanded I sit up and pay attention, it intimidated me and fulfilled me, humbled and educated me and forced me to adapt and expand in numerous ways.
The best thing about my time here were the people… [and the food… and the bars… and Taobao] I was humbled and awed by the quality of the industry in Chengdu. It is home to some of the most creative and well executed venues any cocktaileur could hope to find anywhere in the world.
There’s alot about this experience I continue to process to this day, a lot I still think about, question, struggle with and want to understand. Leaving China only filled me with the desire to return. To explore more of the country, it’s bars and food, the ties and connection I have here, my family’s history and more.
It’s an understatement to say I look forward to returning in the future.
To say goodbye seems premature and final.
See you again soon is more fitting.
So is thank you, for all that I’ve learned.
Days off in Chengdu were spent exploring the city and keeping a step ahead of the heat.
Photos and moments include; watching a game of Chinese Chess, wontons at Jinli St, a local market alley, lucky dip oysters, Mahjong spotting, more wontons at Jinli St and my favourite window on the way home.
On Saturday the 19th of August, with help from the legendary Tiger from CMYK, Down The Rabbit Hole closed out its one month stint at the Temple House’ Jing Bar. This night signified more than just the last night of the residency. A celebration of the month, the Year of the Rabbit and a poignant goodbye to everyone I’d had the pleasure of meeting. The Jing Bar team were a joy to work with from beginning to end, I miss them all to this day.
On reflection, what can one say.
with thanks to Peddlers Gin Co and Temple House