Of all the cheesy gimmicks a restaurant can come up with, having really really good food isn’t a bad one. Filling this niche is The Ugly Duck Out of Swansea, Tasmania, pop 529. As one of the few places in Australia not to major in frozen meat pies, Ugly Duck uses local organic products (sheep) to amaze stupid American tourists (us).
Here’s a recipe suggested to us by the Duck’s Mark for a Banana Smoothie…interpreted slightly for those of us who don’t have a neighbor with beehives.
Ugly Smoothie
Combine in a food processor:

• About 1 cup of fresh plain yoghurt- the extra creamy Greek-style stuff if you can.

• 1/3 cup of honey: Tasmanian leatherwood if you can, anything sweet if you can’t.
  
• A peeled banana.
  
• Maybe 2 ice cubes. One if it’s a biggy. Just enough to cool things down. That’s my addition, actually.

• A pinch of cardamom
  
• Cover with milk, but not too much- you can add more later if it’s too thick.

Process on low until everything’s smooth. Then slurp it like it’s the first non-fried food you’ve had in weeks. Which it might be.