Hotel’s sweet idea fails to impress locals
A SWEET idea to incorporate the region’s produce in a restaurant’s menu has left the managers scratching their heads.
Managers Nigel Squibb and John Whitley renamed the Ayr Travellers Motel restaurant Burnt Sugar and have since introduced sugarcane juice to their breakfast menu.
However Mr Squibb said the menu item, sometimes
seen at markets, had been met with reluctancy by the region’s diners.
“When you go to Tassie, because I am from the apple community, it’s all about apples, or you go to a fishing village and it is all about fishing – well you come to the Burdekin and it is all about sugar,” he said.
Despite this, he said it was not really mentioned on menus in the region.
“We did the sugarcane
press for when it’s in full flight because the cane season is coming to an end,” Mr Squibb said.
“So you have to have the nice lush, green cane, you’ve got to have it all clean …
“So it was a bit of a bender for the sugarcane guys because they are just used to mass production.
“We want premium stalks that can go through the presser.”
Mr Squibb said despite
health professionals often speaking about the impacts of refined sugar in a person’s diet, sugarcane juice was “better for you than apple juice or orange juice”.
“It’s so good for you, it hasn’t got all that bad stuff that refined sugar has. It is better for you with the micro nutrients,” he said.
“We did a chilli and mint one, so the chilli just adds a nice little aftertaste to the sweetness.”