Piccalilly Hobart

Goats and Shanley's

2010-11-20T02:08:00.001+11:00

Goats form the inspiration for this post. Elysia and Iain spent the weekend in the Huon Valley and we took the opportunity to visit a couple of our favourite producers, as well as a bit of eating and some lovely accommodation.

The trip began early on Sunday morning with a quick visit to Piccalilly to pick up a couple of ingredients and then to the Hill Street Grocer for some more bits and pieces for dinner (which we will dicuss later).

The day was warm but not sunny and the roads were quiet so our trip to Cradoc for our first stop went quickly. Peter and Lorraine at Rivendale Boer Goat Stud had agreed to show us around their property and introduce us to their wonderful goats. Rivendale’s goat has featured on Piccalilly’s menus for nearly three years and is a product that we absolutely love. Leaner, sweeter and more delicate than lamb, it is a real treat.

Boer goats were developed in South Africa in the early 1900s specifically for meat production. They are a large and solidly-built goat with a long body, red-brown head and white body.

The older kids

The Rivendale goats had kidded in late August so there were heaps of little goats around – skipping, jumping and climbing. The older ones that had just been weaned were occupying a paddock adjacent to the house. It seemed that they would stand on anything to get off the ground, whether it be a log, an upturned bucket or even each other! Lorraine bottle-feeds the kids and as a result they are very friendly, and as we stood and observed their hjinks they would come right up to the electric fence, sometimes to their detriment - a zap and crackle and the kid would spring away with a very loud exclamation of surprise, which all the other kids would join in on making for quite a chorus.

The farmers explained that the electric fence is very important with young goats because of their inquisitive nature, rambunctious play and ability to climb anything which makes it hard to keep them contained.

We then went to visit the even younger goats that were still on the bottle and confined to the shed. The little ones are even more social, jumping at the fence and making a lot of noise – very cute!

Little kids

Being friendly!

It was then off to see the adult does and bucks in another of the green hilly paddocks. The adult goats are far more relaxed than the little ones, happy to examine their visitors with quiet regard. We could see how muscular these goats are and why they are held in such high regard as a meat producing goat. They lounged in the sun munching lush green Huon grass, at ease with us and now with a couple of Lorraine and Pete’s puppies that had joined us.

Big ones

The sun was now out and we were introduced to the rest of the Rivendale menagery - rabbits, a miniature white donkey (which was very shy), a couple of very large horses and the big white maremma that diligently looks after the goats in the bottom paddocks.

Maremmas are a breed of dog bred to live amongst livestock to protect them from any predators. The dogs regard their hoofed companions as members of their own pack and will defend them to the end.

The puppies tumbled around while we collected some goat shoulder before heading in to Cygnet to try and find some lunch.

It was a pleasure to finally see the goats at Rivendale. Very happy and healthy animals that lead a good life. Fantastic ethically-grown, hand-raised meat. Thank you to Lorraine and Pete for the tour and for supplying us for the last few years.

You can meet Lorraine and Pete at the Farm Gate market on Sundays when they are there. To subscribe to the Farm Gate newsletter and keep an eye out to see when goat is available click here.

In Cygnet we headed straight to the Red Velvet Lounge and weren’t surprised to see it was packed. We shared a large table with a couple of other people and studied the menu.

Unable to narrow our choices down we opted to have entrees and main courses (and good coffee). Vegetable and ham hock soup and cheese croquettes with cucumber salad hit the table first. The soup packed with ingredients in a minestrone-style was a big portion and we were starting to regret our decision to order mains.

Croquettes

Hok soup

Pulled-pork sourdough sandwich and squid with chickpeas. The house-made sourdough with its shiny glazed crust was excellent and packed full of crispy pan-fried pork. The squid was soft inside its crunchy coating. A lot of food!

The pulled pork sandwich

Squid and chickpeas

On the way in we walked past the selection of cakes in the display cabinet and were looking forward to tasting a couple but were forced to take some away to enjoy after dinner.

Next was the long drive back up to Huonville and back down the other bank of the river to our accommodation. Just before Dover, Shanleys click here is very new boutique B&B accommodation and we were looking forward to seeing it! We were met on the driveway by Eamon Shanley, a very large horse and a friendly brown and white spaniel.

Shanley's view

Shanley's sheep

We pulled up to the little house that was to be ours for the night, set in its newly landscaped garden. Bespoke furniture, polished boards and a lot of glass to make the most of the stunning view. We relaxed for a couple of hours before shucking some oysters that we had pinched from work and opening a bottle of Glen Shian sparkling. We also got stuck into white anchovies, olives and cheese from Hill Street.

Shanley's spa with a view

Cheesy snacks

We had read on the Shanley’s website that they had a pizza stone so on Friday Iain had started the process of making a light rye sourdough pizza dough that we topped with simple tomato, mozzarella and salami with a little bit of garlic and oregano oil. Perfect pizza. For dessert we tried unsuccessfully to finish the banoffy pie and berry trifle we had bought at Red Velvet Lounge, before watching a DVD and turning in for the night (on possibly the biggest bed in the world)

Simple pizza the way it should be!

The following morning (after waking up in possibly the most comfy bed in the world) started with bacon and eggs (from the Shanley’s chickens) on home-made bread that was provided as part of the Shanley’s service, and made the most of the view while the small flock of sheep and a chocolate-coloured horse in the neighboring paddock started their day.

We said goodbye to the Shanleys before driving about 10 minutes south to the St Imre Vineyard click here. We were excited to see the natural wines produced in at this small, family-run setting. They grow gewurtztraminer, pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris as you might expect, but also blend in some unusual varieties like gamay, ziegerrebe, and the very rare baco noir click here.

The wines are made with grape juice, and only grape juice. This means that each vintage is completely different and that vertical tastings are very interesting. We bought a couple of bottles to take home for the Piccalilly list.

Heading north again we made straight for Geeveston and the Tahune Airwalk click here. The galvanised walkway snakes through and above the treetops offering stunning views of the forest and the tree canopy that cannot be seen from the ground.

The view from the end of the Airwalk

We stayed in the Tahune car park and used the raminder of the pervious evening’s dinner to make some sandwiches in the back of the car before heading further north.

Sandwiches in the boot

We had an appointment to meet Dr Anne Clark and her herd of Toggenburg dairy goats at Belstone Goat Cheese click here. The long driveway snakes over Bonnet Hill then back up a small rise to the house and cheese-making room on its own little hill.

Standing in the parking area you look across the top of Blackmans Bay towards Bruny Island and the Southern Ocean. Spectacular!

Belstone's view

We were met at the door by Anne all kitted up in hair net, apron, gloves and special boots to keep any foreign bodies out of the cheese room. We were given all the appropriate coverings and headed into the very warm room. The aroma of warm goats milk hung in the air, sweet and sour at the same time it is a wonderful thing. Pots on induction plates warmed slowly, curds were pressed and brined, and several large collar boilers were busy setting big pots of milk.

Cooking whey for ricotta

We spent a couple of hours helping Anne and her assistant Kate in making chevre, soft white mould cheeses and natural ricotta. Fascinating processes left-right-and-centre. It was then time to leave the clinical environment of the production room and prepare bottles for the baby goats in one of Anne’s paddocks.

The nine kids knew what was coming and were clamouring at the gate as we approached. The scrum of very vocal kids shoved each other as the bottles are upended into a rack where all the kids can be fed at once without bottles being held by hand (although we did hand-feed a couple).

Very excited!

Elysia feeding one of the Belstone kids

We left the kids to it and went to meet the small herd of milking goats. Very docile, they regarded us in a casual way and went about their business of eating and sitting. Anne showed us her antique milking machine and her tiny dairy before we met the two huge Toggenburg bucks. Looking like rugged hairy mountain goats, their paddock faces Mt Wellington making for a spectacular backdrop.

Anne and one of last year's kids

Vintage milking machine

The boys

Anne loaded us up with cheese samples and sent us on our way home. Thank you to Lorraine and Pete, the Shanleys and Anne Clark for a wonderful weekend!

Spring 2010 Menu

2010-10-14T23:50:00.001+11:00

It’s that time again… New menu time! It’s time to tempt you all with our new dishes and Travis’ beautiful photographs (to see the menu click here).

On returning from Melbourne we wrote a mostly new menu but included a couple of favourites that we weren’t keen to see the end of yet. Since our last menu we have managed to get our hands on quite a few new plates so a couple of old dishes have been re-vamped to suit.

We will start with Raw yellowtail Kingfish with ginger and watermelon. Quite simple as it sounds, raw sliced king fish with fresh watermelon - but we have also added tiny pieces of lime, cabbage shoots, a little bit of green chilli oil (which is invisible on the black plate until it touches the white Kingfish). The ginger is in a pipette, along with corn syrup, yuzu juice and light soy sauce to be applied to the dish to the diner’s taste.

The good old Vegetable salad with Meredith’s marinated feta remains (although technically there is some fruit on the plate too). This dish changes quite often as different veggies come in and out of season, but the dish is always tied together with the combination of hazelnuts and the wonderful Meredith’s goats’ cheese. Some of the vegetable items are cooked sous vide, some are blanched and some simply raw. Textures vary from soft to crispy and, as there are so many differing elements, each mouthful is different in both flavour and texture.

The Local white fish with various onions and roasted onion essence is another dish that has been on Piccalilly’s menu in the past. The onions prepared in various ways: caramelised brown onion puree; confit garlic; raw, crispy and sous vide shallots; glazed spring onions; pickled white onions; raw red onions and chives with a couple of slices of red radish. The roasted onion essence uses red onions and the principles of ice clarification to extract only the sweetest juices. The onion essence contains so much pectin that it sets quite firmly in the refrigerator. The fish in this case is latchet however it changes from day-to-day. All our fish comes from Mako Fresh Fish.

Chicken liver and cinnamon parfait with wood sorrel and pickled beetroot is our nod to all the livers we ate when last in Melbourne. The parfait is created from chicken livers, salt, red wine vinegar and the obligatory butter; then set into cylinders and coated in cinnamon and honey jelly. Pickled beetroot retains its crunch and colour through the pickling process in Pendleton red wine vinegar. We forage wood sorrel and wood sorrel flowers from a couple of local Battery Point gardens. We also have yuzu panagratta, dehydrated orange zest, Cypriot salt and salted cinnamon biscotti.

White rabbit with pea and ham veloute and turtle beans is a simple dish of green pea puree let out with ham stock to a silky consistency. We then add rabbit, in this case rack, loin, kidney and liver (but we also use hind and fore legs as well as the belly and flank of the rabbit). A piece of golden-fried ham and buttery black turtle beans top the pea sauce with roasted carrot oil and chervil shoots to complete the dish. We will allow you to make up your own mind as to what it all represents.

In our Mount Gnomon rare-breed pork shoulder with sweet corn mousse and carrot syrup dish the pork is cooked in butter and its own juices for around 30 hours. We mousse fresh sweet corn using algae and again use ice clarification to extract the essence of organic carrots, which on top of which the corn mousse floats. Pork crackling and South Australian caper berries add crunch and acid to cut the silky richness of the mousse and the pork. Click here to see Mount Gnomon's blog

Our Baked mushrooms with mushroom tea and confit egg yolk dish has appeared on several menus over the last couple of years, however this time it has had a re-working. There are no longer sauté mushrooms on the plate as they are now baked to allow their individual textures to come through and we have added thyme and avocado puree to the base of the dish for richness and an interesting favour combination. The mushroom tea is clarified mushroom essence infused with parsley, thyme and sage and poured at the table. The egg yolk is confit in olive oil at 62.4°C for 120 minutes and topped with Cypriot salt. Read about one of our local mushroom suppliers here

For the Slow-cooked goat shoulder with grains and chic pea puree dish the goat shoulder is cooked at 70°C for 40 hours before being crisped in a very hot pan and seasoned. It sits on top of black rice, soybeans, farroh, bhurgal, and barley, black, white and red quinoa and millet each cooked individually before being mixed with preserved lemon and vinegar. Chic pea and garlic puree and house-made labneh add moisture to the dish while toasted almonds add crunch, and fresh mint and cucumber foam add freshness. We use Boer goat meat from Rivendale Boer Goat Stud in Craddock, Huon Valley click here.

Rolled duck breast with duck leg Bolognese and prune puree was a dish we created for a VIP who had never tasted duck before, so we tried to do something a little bit different and also to try and use the whole duck. The breast is trussed before being cooked at 85°C for 4 minutes before being rested. It is then rolled in salt and herbs. For the Bolognese we mince duck leg meat by hand before caramelising it in a hot pan and deglazing it with fresh tomato puree and cooking it down until it is almost dry. We then add carrot and onion for sweetness. On top is a duck cracker, much like a prawn cracker but made with duck mousse set in the oven and shallow-fired until it is puffy and crisp. Prunes are rehydrated and cooked with caramelised onion before being pureed with a little bit of stock to create a silky puree, and a splash of brown chicken sauce floods the bottom of the bowl.

Dry-aged Longford eye fillet with umami and horseradish includes the dry-aged fillet has been a staple on the menu since the day we opened but this is the first time it has been plated without piccalilly (the relish) being involved. Instead we have added an umami (click here for more information) rich dashi stock for its strong savoury flavour. Dashi is the base of most Japanese cooking and comprises kombu seaweed and bonito dried tuna flakes. It is rich in umami, which is the 5^th distinguishable flavour on the human tongue otherwise known as “savoury”. The many Asian cultures have known about umami for a long time but we in the west have only just really discovered it. It is found naturally in high quantities in foods like tomatoes, parmesan and Thai fish sauce - and lots in bacon and in a refined form in MSG. The umami stock is added at the table over a blob of spiced orange bitters jelly, which melts and becomes part of the sauce. Horseradish and beef are old friends and I think that this too adds a savouriness to the beef. Lastly there is a cube of 40-hour beef cheek just in case the dish wasn’t rich enough.

Textures of Tasmanian apples is the first of our sweet dishes. We use Jonathan and Granny Smith apples and prepare them in various different ways without adding much at all apart from a little bit of sugar and a bit of algae. We have dehydrated apple, apple sorbet, apple marshmallow, apple juice, apple foam, apple jelly, raw apple and poached apple. Simple.

To make Mock coconut pina colada we produce a little mock coconut through a long process of setting coconut sorbet into hemisphere moulds, scooping out the center, filling it with liquid frozen Lark’s Island Rum Syrup, sticking two halves together and sealing the seam, then brushing a couple of layers of chocolate onto the outside. It is delivered to the table with two salads, one made with the flesh and jellied liquid of an immature coconut along with pineapple compote, dehydrated pineapple and mint; and the other a salad made from the flesh and jellied liquid of a mature coconut with mint and pineapple. The two fresh coconuts have very different flavors and textures and it’s a nice expression of the same product at different stages of its life.

Untraditional black forest gateau is chocolate and hazelnut sponge batter cooked to order so it is still warm which is then soaked in kirsch and plated along side sour cherries, sour cherry gel, kirsch cream and aerated crushed chocolate. All the elements of a black forest cake are present but in an untraditional way.

The process of preparing Soft centered chocolate and violet mousse with crystalised blossoms begins by adding another algae-based compound that is commonly used in commercial confectionery (and also in Hollywood movies) to slightly thicken a French violet liquor before it is frozen into disks. We then set each disk into the centre of a larger dish of dark chocolate mousse so that when the mousse is disturbed the violet liquid will run out. We top the mousse with a little chocolate nest made using ice and chocolate and crystalised blooms - in this case violets, pansies and nasturtiums.

If you would like any more information on any of the ingredients or dishes we have mentioned here please let us know. Otherwise we look forward to seeing you at Piccalilly to see it all for yourself…

A bit more Devil Dinner

2010-10-13T14:02:00.000+11:00

We have been sent a few photos by the official photographer of the night of the Devil of a Dinner. They are bit better than the iPhone ones in the last post so here they are.

Plating the crayfish dish

Our vegetable salad

Pre-service briefing

Plating Matt's quail dish

At the end of a long day...

Devil of a Dinner

2010-10-11T22:27:00.002+11:00

Devil of a Dinner October 4^th 2010

As you may or may not have heard, Iain was asked to prepare a dish for The Devil Island Project’s Devil of a Dinner held this year at the Hobart Function and Conference Centre.

The idea behind the dinner was to raise as much money as possible to purchase land that can be used as safe and disease-free habitat for Tasmanian Devils. The aim is to rescue this Tasmanian icon from extinction from the facial tumor disease.

Local philanthropist Jan Cameron from Chickenfeed had agreed to match every dollar raised, so the pressure was on to make it a great night. Fiona Hoskin, formerly of Fee & Me, had agreed to be the chief organiser and had recruited a group of Tasmanian chefs plus the illustrious Tetsuya Wakuda to produce a multi-coursed dinner. Dr Andrew Pirie had also been hard at work selecting and organising sponsorship for wines matching each dish.

Preparation for Piccalilly started nearly a week before the dinner, on the Wednesday, when sponsored ingredients from the good people at Chung Sing & Co. were delivered.
Vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables!

We had decided to produce the feta and vegetable salad that has been a staple on our menu at Piccalilly for the last couple of years. For those who haven’t had the salad, it comprises as many seasonal and tasty vegetables as we can get our hands on, served with toasted hazel nuts and Meredith’s marinated goat’s feta. Typically it has around 12-15 different veggies. The dinner was for 200 people so the vegetable prep was going to be a big job! We began peeling; cleaning and tidying baby carrots, baby beetroot, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, fennel and cucumber. Then, over the next couple of days, we hit the Salamanca and Melville street markets for potatoes, broad beans, radishes and shallots. We also managed to forage nasturtium flowers and tat soi leaves.

We had also arranged for Hans and Ester at Tongola Goat Products to sponsor a few kilograms of their new season’s spring goat’s curd (preferring to showcase Tasmanian products over the Meredith’s), which we marinated in Ashbolt extra virgin olive oil.

John Zito at Nuthatch had agreed to sponsor a couple of kilograms of his hazel nuts grown in the Huon Valley. We toasted these at 140°C for 40 minutes on the Monday morning before the function itself. It was then just a matter of skinning and crushing them by hand.

Marcus, our apprentice had also agreed to give up his Monday off to help out - with the bonus of working in the same kitchen as Tetsuya - so we headed down to the Convention Centre, with all our little vegetables safely in cryovac bags, at around midday to make a start.

Our Mise en Place

I had been down to the Convention Centre kitchen a couple of months before to meet Exec Chef Will Godwin and have a look through the kitchen to give me a better idea of what was possible to produce out of there. At the time I thought the kitchen was a vast construction, with loads of bench space and a bank of ovens and stoves. This time, walking in to the kitchen that was already housing four of Tetsuya’s gun chefs from Sydney and all their ingredients and special equipment, it looked a lot smaller.

Since about half the components to the dish are either cold or raw, we had the opportunity to pre-plate a few things on plate stackers to make sure service was as speedy as possible (thank you to the Henry Jones Art Hotel for lending us a stacker). We got fennel, tomatoes, cucumber, goat’s curd, radish, hazelnuts and tat soi on to the plates and gingerly wrapped the precarious looking stacks in cling film before wheeling them into the refrigerator.

Marcus plating the cold component of our dish

Half a plate stacker full

One of three stackers all wrapped in plastic ready to go

By this stage the other Tasmanian chefs and their various assistants had begun to arrive and unpack their things too. Space was looking hard to come by, particularly in the cool rooms.

By the time the all the guests had arrived and canapés were being served, we were already running an hour late, so we needed to be quick about it.

Will Godwin’s venison pies, confit duck spring rolls, scallops with béarnaise and truffle polenta with pimento and brie went out to the hungry guests under the watchful eye of Tetsuya’s Service Manager Michael Dore. Wines to go with this course were 2005 Jansz Tasmanian Premium Vintage Cuvee, 2006 Meadowbank Mardi Sparkling and 2010 Holm Oak Pinot Gris.

Tetsuya’s marinated Tasmanian crayfish with avocado and avruga caviar was the first plated dish. All 14 chefs began laying out small bowl plates and then filling them with a ladle of creamy chilled avocado soup, a stack of salad made from croutons and finely-diced peppers of different colours before being topped with a large spoonful of chopped raw dressed crayfish and oily avruga caviar vinaigrette. A beautiful dish that was carried out promptly amidst the constant barking of instructions from the ever watchful and impossibly well-poised Mr Rowe. Matched to 2009 Spring Vale Reserve Chardonnay and 2005 Frogmore Reserve Chardonnay.

Bowls laid out for the crayfish dish

Next was our dish. Marcus and I wheeled the stacks of plates out into the warm kitchen to take the chill off them and began heating sugar snap peas, potatoes, carrots, baby beetroot and broad beans. When plates started to leave the kitchen they went out fast, perhaps too many chefs means many hands make light work with everyone having only one item to add to each plate before being topped by a nasturtium petal and a brilliant blue rosemary flower given to us by the Monty’s team. The dish looked great with its vibrant colours and essence of spring. Matched to 2008 Bream Creek Riesling and 2008 Pooley Riesling.

Plating our salad. Paul, Tess (Monty's), Cam (Marque IV), Brandon (Peppermint Bay), Luke, Stu, Kevin, Sam (all from Tetsuya's), Matt, Fiona, Will, Marcus and me all hard at work

Our finished dish

Next came Matt from Monty’s on Montpellier. A stylish-looking dish of quail Kiev with pinot noir honey roquette oil and Ferron risotto. The quail breast had been filled with fragrant parsley butter and crumbed in the Monty’s kitchen before being fried golden-brown and perched on top of a tall cylinder of risotto wrapped in pancetta and a perfect line of thick red wine syrup. Along side 2007 Tamar Ridge Kayena Reserve Pinot Noir and 2007 Frogmore Creek Pinot Noir.

Tetsuya followed with his second dish. Braised Cape Grim short rib with ox tail and sea cucumber. His chefs now working like a military SWAT team produced risotto studded with brilliant green asparagus slices, soft ox tail meat, slippery sea cucumber, beef jus and fresh parsley. The meat had been cooked sous vide so it was still pink but very tender. It looked and tasted great. Guests were served 2008 Holm Oak Cabernet and 2008 Velo Reserve Shiraz to go with this dish.

Paul Foreman was next with the first of the sweet courses. A line of chocolate was applied to the plate with a tiny paint roller. It was then topped with pecan crumble, salted caramel sauce, a candied cumquat and a pillowy soft poppy seed, cumquat and white chocolate double baked soufflé. We all thought it was very brave to attempt something so temperamental but it worked out flawlessly. Lastly for the wine matching was the 2007 Tamar Ridge Botrytis Riesling.

At this stage, (now two hours late) it was time for us all to head out into the dining room to take a bow. It was revealed that the dinner had raised $180,000 dollars! And we were presented with limited edition prints of devils for our efforts. It was then that the last course arrived from Aaron Gillespie from Big Bikkies in Launceston: Petite fours that he had titled “Devil’s Pleasure”.

Everyone on stage

Aaron putting the final touches on his dish

Aaron had been slaving away by himself in another small room within the complex for the last 10 or so hours to get everything finished. The plates themselves were white chocolate with a devil sketched (using dark chocolate) in the center of each. There were various macarons, chocolate tortellini, chocolate and chilli teardrops, apple teacake, white chocolate lotus flowers, and a little edible rice paper pinwheel. A wonderful display of skill and creativity.

We headed back into the kitchen to have a celebratory glass of wine while Marcus and I returned the things we had borrowed to the Henry Jones and headed back to work to clean and pack away all our tools with just enough time for it to be worth heading home before we needed to be back at work to start our normal week.

A huge congratulations to all those involved. It was a great night and an awesome result for the Devils. See you all again next year!

Melbourne Epic Part Five

2010-09-23T10:35:00.000+10:00

The next few days were pretty low key in comparison to the first few. Sunday, after a big night at The Station and two lunches, we thought we should have a quiet day culminating with a few of us cooking at a friend’s house.

Former Piccalilly chef, Peter Cooksley (Now working at the new MONA/Moorilla development and who joined us at Attica) and Iain walked the friend’s dogs down to Footscray’s CBD to buy some Chinese barbecue pork and Peking duck that can be found hanging in windows.

How they get away with it not being refrigerated we will never know but it tastes good.

Meanwhile the others made pasta, a stroganoff style ragout and garlicky bruscetta.

Pork bun filling

The finished product

On Peter and Iain’s return they set about eating the duck and converting the pork in to steamed pork buns. We cooked the pasta and over a couple of bottles of wine we wiled the night away with the interlude of Masterchef Junior to see a friend of ours’ younger brother cooking up a storm. Go Jack!

Messy strog

The following day was an early start for Iain to get to the city to start work at the Melbourne Fine Foods Show at the Melbourne Convention Center. Iain had been commissioned by Rely Services (click here)(purveyor of all the high-tech kitchen tools that make Piccalilly’s food possible) to demonstrate and give a chef’s perspective on the sought-after equipment.

You can't even see the end of it!

Meanwhile Elysia and Peter headed in to the city so that Peter who hadn’t seen Movida could get in n the action and see what the buzz is about for himself.

Later in the day Iain had a break from his sales job to meet up with Leish to have one more go at Mamasita to have the wonderful street style corn with chipotle mayonnaise. We also tried a couple of items that we were keen to try on our previous visit but weren’t on the set menu.

The very hot hot sauce at Mumasita

Street style corn

Tostaditas - crunchy corn chips topped with yummy pork and corn

Quesadilla of mushrooms and truffle, slow cooked goat on the bone with smashed sweet corn and braising juices and a cleansing civiche with crunchy toasted tortillas. A much better experience from our previous visit where we could hear ourselves talk and see what we were eating, and the food was great!

Mushroom quesadilla

Ceviche

Awesome braised goat

It was the time for Elysia to head home to Hobart while Iain headed back to the show and then out to dinner with the crew from Rely Services.

Bacash (click here) in South Yarra for what is well regarded as Melbourne’s best seafood. The menu predominantly seafood displays influences from classical European to Japanese.

The illuminated exterior of Bacash

Iain’s entrée was finely diced raw tuna with sesame seeds, shredded nori and just the right amount of wasabi, dressed with fresh lemon juice. A simple dish that allowed the fresh fish to speak for its self with complimentary ingredients.

Tuna entree with lots of baby basil

Main was crispy battered fillets of King George Whiting with a couple of crunchy, cheesy potato croquettes a wedge of lemon and parsley packed tartar sauce. The fish soft and perfectly cooked in its golden batter. We also enjoyed sides of dressed leaves, buttery asparagus, chips and brussel sprouts.

King George Whiting

The flounder that Bacash is famous for

Dessert was a simple blood orange jelly along side a ball of crème fraiche ice-cream and a tiny mille-feuille of caramalised puff pastry and silky and mousy orange curd. Clean and light the dish was a wonderful finish to the meal.

The guys form Rely Services dropped me home to Footscray with enough time to wash a uniform for the following day’s work.

The next two days were much the same, A few hours spent demonstrating and talking about Pacojet, Roner and MyCook with the occasional sojourn in to the other stands to see if I could find any interesting products or plates for Piccalilly with little success.

The Fine Foods show its self is vast. Hundreds, if not thousands of exhibitors, mainly bulk catering and bakery products all show off the latest and greatest products. It takes at least 5 minutes to walk for one end of the show to the other if you don’t stop. Many of the people I spoke to had spent two full days at the show and still hadn’t seen it all.

The third day at the show passed without incident and it was time for me to join Elysia back at home. Summing up Melbourne. Attica rocked our socks off! The perfect balance of great service and incredible food. Movida, The Station Hotel, Cumulus Inc, Little Press and Cellar, Mamasita and Bacash all exceeded expectations and has made us excited to return to Melbourne again soon. Oh, and the Little Press parfait is something to behold so try and get in there before they take it off the menu.

Thanks for reading!

Melbourne Epic Part Four

2010-09-18T14:47:00.001+10:00

One much-anticipated restaurant meal was followed closely by another for lunch. Cumulus Inc. (click here) was our destination. We arrived later in lunch service and walked in to the busy and buzzing dining room.

A more casual offshoot of Andrew McConnell’s Cutler & Co and simply called an “eating house”, Cumulus has no rules on its menu. Small dishes designed to share like modern tappas. You can order as few or as many dishes as you like at one time or simply order one at a time.

The room has high ceilings and wondrous and some times crazy lights that bear the unmistakable signature of McConnell’s partner Pascal Gomes-McNabb. A long galvanized bar runs down one wall and a long white marble kitchen pass (which you can also sit at) is its opposite. The remainder of the timber floor is taken up by tables and chairs.

Since no bookings under 7 are taken at Cumulus you have to rock-up and hope that they can accommodate you. We were offered stools at the end of the bar or at the tall, round, shared table in the centre of the dining room. We chose the bar so we could see some of the action as the many service staff looked after the packed dining room.

We were presented with menus and a drinks list. Some time passed before we were asked what we would like to eat and drink. A bottle of French pear cider and a blood orange cocktail for Leish.

Round one of drinks

Food arrived quickly, oysters. A large selection is on offer at Cumulus, mostly from Batemans Bay but Tasmania gets a look-in too. The oysters, split to order were great, fresh, salty and each one very different.

Batemans Bay oyster selection

The next couple of dishes followed quite quickly. Silky smoked eel and waxy turnip dressed in a pungently umami mayonnaise and fresh horseradish.

silky fatty eel

Silken soft-shell crab with house-made hot sauce. The brilliant red sauce came with a dollop of sour cream to temper its furious heat and the crab with its crispy starch coating was a treat. It is hard to find delicious soft – shell crab but Cumulus managed it perfectly.

lots of soft shell crab

Nettle soup with thick slices of raw scallop that cooked in the heat of the soup while you were drinking it. The brilliant green soup fills you with a warm glowing feeling from its subtle natural spiciness and its nourishing chlorophyll. The large soft scallops added an opulent texture.

Nettle soup

The last slice of barely cooked scallop

It was then that they service staff forgot about us. Although we were at the bar it seemed that the only time we were approached was when another of our dishes was ready for delivery. Glasses were empty for most of the remainder of our lunch. Not to dwell on a negative we will focus on the wonderful food.

Next came large cubes of very lightly-cured tuna on top of fresh peas and pea tendrils coated in a soured cream dressing. The tuna firm and meaty and the peas sweet and bursting.

Tuna with peas and roquette flowers

cocktail #2

Air-dried beef sliced delicately thin and simply served with grated fresh horseradish as nature intended.

perfectly simple beef and horseradish

The obligatory liver parfait was the next three dishes. The parfait soft and almost whipped in texture with softened sultanas and some little herbs. Very rich especially when spread on to the toasted brioche that appeared on the side.

Cumulus parfait

We also shared pigs’ tails and snails. Soft cooked pork tails flaked off the bone and formed into cylinders where then crumbed and fried before being chopped up and served with soft-braised snails, caper berries and vibrant green spinach puree. Very rich and very sticky with natural gelatin, the tails were great.

Tails and snails

within the tail crumbs

And lastly, florets of purple sprouting broccoli that had been simply blanched and coated in a creamy anchovy and umami rich sauce.

Blanched broccoli

We paid up at the bar before heading back out on to the street with the aim of seeing some of the famous Melbourne city street art before heading back to Little Press for another go at their parfait with cinnamon wafers and syrup.

The Little Press parfait had been so good the first time we had eaten it we thought it was worth another look and it didn’t disappoint. The same as last time, coated in butter and cut by the cinnamon this parfait is a wonder in itself.

We looked at some more paintings and headed back home to get ready for dinner at the renowned Station Hotel in Footscray. Just a short walk from our accommodation, the station is divided into two parts - a pubby-style bar with 8-ball tables and tall stools; and a dining room seating around 100 people with stylish wallpaper and cut flowers.

Outside the Station

A small, steely, open kitchen is staffed by 6 busy chefs who reportedly pump out some of Melbourne’s best steaks every night. The walls of the bar side are adorned with souvenired menus from many of Europe’s best past and present restaurants which give a sneak peak at the station’s head chef’s dining pedigree. A full-scale diagram of a dissected cow with all its parts labeled on one wall gives a sense that they take their steak very seriously too.

Station's cow diagram

Our table was made ready and we were seated, our waiter promptly brought menus and drinks (in contrast to the service we had seen at lunchtime). Along-side the various steaks, the menu boasts some big flavours and skills.

A homage to Pierre Kaufman’s famous pigs trotter stuffed with sweet breads and rich mushroomy sauce caught Iain’s eye so he decided to have duck liver parfait followed by a 400 gram t-bone and the trotter dish. Elysia, who is a bit more realistic about eating two main courses, had a scotch fillet.

Food arrived quickly, good silky parfait with dressed greens and crunchy croutons comparable to some of Melbourne’s best. Then the steaks - vast elliptical plates piled with delicate-looking salad and golden hand-cut chips accompany the char-grilled beef. Very good quality and very well cooked. And the trotter? Awesome! Skillfully de boned and stuffed with a fine sweetbread mousse with a sweet and sticky mushroom sauce and a huge dollop of silken and buttery mashed potatoes. Most kitchens, let alone busy pub kitchens, wouldn’t attempt to prepare this trotter dish so it was a real treat.

Station's parfait

Kaufman's trotter homage

Iain't t-bone

Elysia's Scotch fillet

After mains, and since we were on a table of ten, someone thought it would be a good idea to order one of each of the desserts on the menu. Crème bruee, bread and butter pudding and both chocolate and pistachio soufflés. The bread and butter pudding had apparently won best in Victoria recently and it was a good one. Soft and moist with a jellied jammy topping.

Brulee and bread & butter pudding

The brulee was also textbook. Set, but not too set, and flecked with black vanilla seeds under its sugary crust. And soufflés, at a pub! Almost perfect, the chocolate one was ever so slightly over-cooked but the pistachio with its glowing interior was very well done. Now very full of food we made our way back home for a nightcap and bed.

Souffles! And the green interior of the pistachio one.

Melbourne Epic Part Three

2010-09-18T02:10:00.002+10:00

Our last full day on Phillip Island started in a very pleasant way - not waking up to an alarm! We chilled-out in the house due to some stormy weather and put on Bolognese sauce in preparation for dinner - this allowed maximum time to cook-down and intensify in flavour.

By lunchtime Iain had formulated a plan to use the left-over dinner from the night before. It turned out to be thinly-sliced duck fat potatoes, smashed up cauliflower cheese, and cheddar grilled on top of grainy toast. A bit of a holiday/heart stopping treat!

Cauli cheese toasties.

After lunch we headed back to Cowes to have a proper look through the antique shop and purchase the items we had earmarked the day before. Leish got a couple of coats and a new dress and Iain - always thinking about work - bought some little glass bowls with a dessert in mind.

The main street in Cowes

Nick-nacks and antiques

After a couple of hours sifting through second hand knick-knacks we headed back home and then straight out again to the far west tip of Phillip Island to “The Nobbies”, a few basalt islands that extend from a spit on the ‘mainland’ of the island.

The Nobbies with Seal Rock last in the chain

The last of these rocks is home to a large colony of Australian fur seals that can be seen with binoculars as they lie on the rocky foreshore.

Iain's trousers with bird poo on them

The spit itself is home to mutton birds and hundreds of nesting silver gulls that dot the grassy hills and wheel about in the sky, riding the strong sea breeze.

The cliffs dotted with silver gulls

We stood and took in the rugged coastline and huge Bass Strait swells as they slapped into the rocks. We then made the short drive back along the coast to the Penguin Parade (click here), one of Phillip Island’s most famous attractions.

For a $21 entry fee you are permitted into the vast penguin building set in amongst the sand dunes. You can buy snacks and souvenirs or walk through the penguin information centre before strolling along the elevated duckboards down to the illuminated grandstands that front onto the beach.

You then wait until it is nearly dark while you listen to facts over the PA system about the famous Little Penguins of Phillip Island then, slowly off in the gloom where the water meets the sand, little groups of tiny black and pearly white penguins start to appear. They wait for each other until they feel comfortable to make the dash up the beach to the safety of the dunes. We watched several hundred little penguins brave the beach before we headed back to the dunes to see the birds up-close.

Not as elegant on land as they are in the water, the penguins waddle up to a kilometre through the dunes to find their burrows which each contain a single, large and hungry squawking chick. Photography isn’t permitted at all but the experience is well worth braving a cold night to see.

It was then home to Spaghetti Bolognese and a movie before our last night on the island.

V8 Supercars woke us up the next day as they did their track testing on the nearby circuit. We packed up and cleaned the house before jumping into the car and heading back to the big smoke through drizzling rain.

By the time we had got home it was time to pick up another Tasmanian chef from the airport and head down to St Kilda for a pre-dinner drink at the Melbourne Wine Room (click here) on the corner of Grey and Fitzroy streets.

A group of 6 past and present Tasmanians had a booking at the much-talked-about Attica. After jumping on a tram to get to the nearest train station, it was some time before we realised that the tram was heading in the wrong direction. Now pretty lean on time, we decided to stay on the tram all the way back to Flinders Street station and get the train from there to Ripponlea Station and a short walk to the restaurant arriving about 10 minutes late.

Walking up to the restaurant in suburban Ripponlea, it gives the impression of being just that - a suburban restaurant. Its brown brick exterior displays a subtle sign and a warm glow from behind the curtained windows. We were spotted from across the road and by the time we had reached the door it was opened for us. I should pause at this point to give an overview of Attica (click here). This year they were voted number 73 in the world’s best restaurant awards (click here) and chef Ben Shewry was awarded Chef of the Year by the 2011 Age Good Food Guide as well as being Restaurant of The Year in the same publication in 2009. Obviously we were expecting big things from Attica. Having booked several months ago we were very, very excited. Chef Shewry famously spends hours each morning foraging for ingredients near to his beachside home for use in his clever modern dishes.

The first taste of Attica!!

Initial impressions of the dining room too are that it is uncomplicated and suburban. A simple mural painted onto one of the walls the only artwork. Exposed drainpipes and a plain sealed concrete floor offset clothed tables and leather cushioned dark timber chairs. The small room is divided by a small bar and a waiters’ station has a partly open kitchen at one end. The kitchen, like the room, surprised us - not a folded steel masterpiece with a bank of blinking LEDs from immersion circulators and combi ovens. The small engine room of the restaurant looks like a kitchen!

Tiled walls, normal pots, gas stoves and six normal-looking chefs were bustling around getting set up. A tiny pastry section is set off to one side encased with glass for the dining room to see.

One small frivolity is allowed in the pastry section: proudly displayed behind glass on the end of the pastry bench is a vast vacuum-distilling machine. (I will indulge in some chef-talk here for a second) a body of water using induction is kept at a constant temperature. A glass flask is immersed in the water and then placed under vacuum. The vacuum means that the contents of the flask will boil at very low temperatures, 30 degrees for example. Vapours rise with the heat and are condensed within the machine and drip into a secondary flask.

This low temperature distillation enables the chef to create essences of virtually anything without heat destroying volatile fragrances and flavours. These intensely flavoured essences can be added to foods or liquids to infuse amazing flavours that could not be created in any other way. A very cool and very expensive piece of technology.

We were seated against the bar area crowned with gleaming stemmed glasses and served with pre-diner drinks. Joking that an exuberant hand gesture might result in a glass stem shattering disaster. We were very impressed to see that a silent waiter from the other side of the bar had already started to move the glasses back from the edge of the bar out of the way of any good stories being told at the table.

The glasses in the back ground

Attica on Friday and Saturday evenings runs a degustation menu only so all we had to decide on was drinks. The obvious choice was matching wines, we all agreed and gave the go-ahead to our waiter to begin.

Condiments for bread arrived at the table. House-made butter in a little baquette-shaped mold and an insulated glass containing what we were told was “smoked olive oil that has been whipped”. We were given a moment to ponder these things before warm bread was brought out. A white sourdough and a wholemeal seedy sourdough with sesame seeds on top. Slowly proven, crusty and ever-so-sour the bread was a great start. The olive oil mousse had a strong flavour much like taramasalata, however it melted away almost instantly in the mouth.

Butter and olive oil mousse

Great sourdough

The first dish arrived as an amuse-bouche. A tiny vegetable salad of heirloom carrots, green cauliflower, broccoli and tat soi leaves and a slender wild onion. It was enriched with fromage frais and hazelnuts. The carrots had been sliced horizontally and very finely to show off their unusual colours. The dish was wonderful in both appearance and flavour. The wild onion snaked its way across the top of the salad much like a spring onion but with a silky oniony tuber at its base. A great start.

Fantastic amuse bouche

The menu started proper with a glass of ca’ del Bosco Prestige Brut NV from Lombardy matched with one of Chef Shewry famous dishes. Simply worded as “snow crab”. It came with a back story to explain its metaphor and we were given a moment to take it all in. A textural black plate with a wisp of blue glaze dripping from its rim towards its center, and piled in the center a measure of white powder with a hint of colour just visible at its center.

I will apologise here for not being able to list all the subtle ingredients and flavours because there were so many - but here goes:

The white powder made with maltodextrin (the compound that absorbs fat creating a powder that melts away in the mouth) was strongly flavoured with horseradish and capped a pile of soft-picked crab meat. Through the crab was leek ash, finely sliced endive, young coconut flesh and tiny sour red barberries - among other things. Each mouthful was different, but each was sublime. The textures melted like snow leaving behind the soft crab. Justifiably famous, the dish displays a lot of clever technique and many, many ingredients.

Snow crab

Next, marron tail, with cured beef and wild sea flora. A tiny pile of pink rose petal powder had an umami-flavoured stock poured on to it from a tiny glass beaker turning it instantly red. The marron tail was just cooked, still glassy in the centre. The beef, sliced wafer thin melted on the tongue and the salty seaweed and costal succulents added crunch. Paired with Alberto Longo “le Fossette” Falanghina from Puglia - the wine had an umami seaweed-ish character of its own that matched the dish perfectly.

Marron tail with the dashi broth flecked with rose powder

The next dish was one we had been hoping was on the menu for the couple of months since we booked the table. “a simple dish of potato cooked in the earth in which it was grown”. Much written about and much loved by seemingly everyone. On this day the potato was a King Edward. Turned-down to the classic potato shape, the gleaming buttery soft potato is cooked before service for 5 hours in warm earth. Paired with crispy saltbush leaves, goats curd, coconut husk ash, black salt and other concoctions in powder form. The earthiness of the cheese, ash and potato was sublime and the dish was wonderful, living up to the hype. Paired with Domain Pichot “Coteau de la Biche” Vouvray from the Loire Valley - also very earthy and strawy.

The wonderful potato dish

Bass grouper with slightly thickened shiitake broth with minute broccoli buds suspended in it. Topped with wild onion and cabbage flowers and crunchy-fried red quinoa that was reminiscent of popped corn. The pearl-white fish had been oven baked until its edge had gone slightly golden. The silken, intensely flavoured and lightly acidic sauce cut the fish and matched the Prancing Horses “Terroir de Courigs” Chablis perfectly.

Bass Grouper and the wicked shiitake sauce

The first of the meat dishes was lamb, cooked on the bone before being removed and plated along side “mushrooms roasted over wood, sauce of forbs”. The lamb was soft and very pink, and the hickory smoked pine, slippery jack and Portobello mushrooms were barely cooked retaining their natural texture.

The “sauce of forbs” pulled the dish together in a wonderful way both on the plate and it its conception. Forbs are the tiny buds of grasses - in this case clover - the first grass of spring and consequently the first grass that a newborn spring lamb will eat. The grass had been formed into a smooth thick puree combined with avocado and smeared under the mushrooms. Its flavour was, as you’d expect grassy, with the aroma of cut lawn. A wonderful expression of spring. And Elysia’s favourite wine match Tapanappa “Whalebone Vineyard” Merlot from Wrattonbully in South Australia.

Lamb, mushrooms and clover

The last of the savoury dishes was beef flank paired with smashed black sesame seeds, cured beetroot and black potato chips that had first been cooked in squid ink before being crisped. Flank is the steak eater’s preference for obvious reasons. It finds the balance of softness vs flavour. The appearance of the red beef offset by a large curved matt-black plate where the black sesame and black chips were almost invisible in the wrong light. The dish was matched to the very big Bella Ridge Shiraz (2006) from Western Australia’s Swan Valley.

Beef with underlying squid ink that was virtually invisible on the black plate

Attica's elegant spoons

The first of the sweet dishes was another we had heard a lot about. Simply called “terroir” it is another dish with a metaphorical back-story about Chef Shewry’s old life in his home-town in New Zealand.

The outside of the terrior

The dish skates the fine line between sweet and savoury so well that some mouthfuls are completely one way or the other and some find an ethereal balance between the two. Comprised of layers like the Earth’s strata, it is topped with a sour wood sorrel granita and wood sorrel leaves representing vegetation. Then a crumbled mixture of dried beetroot cake, freeze dried berries, all topping a smeary blob of yoghurt sorbet. All fragranced with clove and cinnamon, and cubes of kiwi fruit and spiced jelly.

Matched to the Mas Amiel Granache Noir from Maury in France, the wine too, treading the magical line between savoury and sweet. Possibly the biggest revelation for us for the night in its apparent simplicity, disguising clever thought and skillful technique.

Inside the terrior

Lastly “apple, olive, warm shredded wheat” with Bernandis Muscat Baumes de Venise from the Rhone. Apart from the nice synergy that Elysia and Iain had drunk the same wine nearly exactly a year before while in the Rhone, the wine displayed strong cinnamon and apple flavours which was an obvious perfect match.

A bowl was placed in front of us containing what looked like a single dry raviolo. A waiter clutching a deep and heavy-bottomed glass spooned over hot and fragrant cinnamon and caramelised wheaty/malty and dried olive crumble. Cinnamon filled the air as we broke the pasta-looking skin (made from apple custard) to reveal cold-compressed and shredded celery and apple. Flavours, textures and aromas were used to their full advantage in this dish which was a wonderful end to the meal… or so we thought.

Beautiful and fragrant apple and cinnamon

After everyone had chosen their favourite digestif, two grassy nests appeared on our table, each containing three eggs. We were informed that this was yet another kiwi reference. Pukeko eggs.

Pukeko eggs

Each thin speckled chocolate shell filled with a glassy slated caramel filing.

Internal of the egg

To sum up. Life-changing. Never have we been to a restaurant which uses simple ingredients in such a clever and resourceful way. None of these ingredients were fancy, there was no foie gras, truffle or caviar. In fact many ingredients are so humble that they are simply picked on morning walks from where they are growing. The food is clever and modern, the service is lively, friendly and humble with no rock stars on the floor and the dining room is just that, a room with tables and chairs. No flash or wank is involved at Attica, food takes centre stage and the service is the best we have ever had in Melbourne. Get yourself to Attica as soon as you can.

Leaving the restaurant was sad, we all felt like we would have liked to stay forever but the new upstairs bar at Papa Goose (click Here) was calling.

The staircase at Papa Goose

The cab dropped us in Flinders Lane and we ascended the 5 or so flights of stairs to the long timber-floored and wine-racked bar. The Papa Goose dining room has just opened downstairs to rave reviews and the bar is also fresh and funky. We sat on soft leather couches and lamented eating so much before making the decision to cab home.

Melbourne Epic Part Two

2010-09-09T10:11:00.007+10:00

The next part of the trip was the time for the relaxation to really commence. The idyllic (and very wet!) Phillip Island was going to be our destination for the next three nights.

Phillip Island is famous for its racetrack and its colony of fairy penguins (the Melbourne equivalent of Hobart’s Bruny Island). People travel down from Melbourne for weekends away, family Christmas or just to go to the beach and relax. This time of year boasts the sights of the V8 Supercars.

Our day started by planning and purchasing the food we would need for three nights including a trip to downtown Footscray to get some Asian ingredients.

Upon entering the Universal Grocer I asked for directions to find a few items. The lady stood behind her counter and continued to serve other customers while shouting directions in broken English for us to follow.

We had to collect each item in order as we made our way past the overwhelming range of ingredients, mostly with red labels - none in English!

At one stage Iain picked up the wrong brand of dried shrimp and was shouted at until he returned to the shelf and picked up the brand that our increasingly frustrated host preferred. Finally we had what we needed and handed over what seemed like the wrong amount of money (much too cheap!) and headed back to the car.

We stayed in the car for two hours on the highway as it snaked its way to the suspension bridge that links Phillip Island with mainland Victoria. Then just a short drive to the house we were staying in - only 5 minutes walk to the beach.

We settled in and unpacked the vast amount of food we had bought for the trip before checking out the beach just as the tide started to run back in.

The beach itself lies at the bottom of rocky and heavily-vegetated cliffs and bears due south on to Bass Strait and towards the north coast of Tasmania. Wide sandy sections are broken by black basalt spits that jut out into the surf. A savage storm had blown in from the south just days before so there were vast mountains of seaweed and other marine flotsam.

Desending to Surf Beach

The sun low over the points at Surf Beach

Rockpools

Tepid basalt bottomed pools gleamed with various seaweeds but seemed void of any kind of animal life. No fish, shrimps or even crabs, possibly a legacy of the storm emptying the pools of water.

Warm and weedy rockpools

Basalt tessellations

Strolling back through the Surf Beach community it seemed a strange mix of sleek million dollar holiday houses and 1950s slumping brick shacks, most of which seemed to be uninhabited. Presumably it’s a busy place through the summer when Melbourne’s well-to-do come to occupy their beachside real estate.

The storm over the weekend had also dumped so much rain on the island that it was pretty much flooded, meaning that a large amount of water was still lying inches-deep on people's lawns, footpaths, ditches and gutters making some of the muddy cliff top tracks a challenge to navigate. Our house had an impromptu frog pond in the back yard and a spongy swamp out the front.

Now the food.

Dinner was master stock-poached chicken and salad of beans with a lime-y fish-saucy dressing before a DVD and flopping into a comfy bed. The quiet (occasionally broken by the chirp of an amorous frog) was deafening since we are so used to living in the middle of the city, but we quickly got used to it.

The following day, unfortunately, saw us out of bed early to make a tradesman welcome who had come to look at some water damage in our bedroom. We put a lamb shoulder into the oven at 150 degrees (with 80 and a half cloves of garlic) for dinner and headed back down to see the beach with the tide right in. Where Iain had been sitting just a few hours before now a meter or so under water. Surfers were taking advantage of large swells rolling in.

Lamb shoulder with 80 and a half cloves of garlic

Tide is in

A couple of hours beach time and it was time to head in to Cowes, the biggest town on Phillip Island. Its main street is long and straight and lined with large pine trees. We bought more supplies and checked out a few of the local second-hand shops.

We tried on clothes, hats and shoes and checked out vintage glass and knick knacks. Then back home to eat lunch and light a fire, partly for entertainment and partly to burn off as much of we could of a pine tree that had recently been cut down on the property.

Our friend Chris making kindling

Some hours later the fire was still roaring but it was time to open the oven and see how our lamb shoulder with 80 and a half cloves of garlic was after a lot of hours. The thermostat in the oven was a little bit wonky so the garlic was somewhat burnt but the lamb was tender and juicy. We added duck fat potatoes, roast pumpkin, sweet corn, beans, cheesy cauliflower and tzaziki!

The result of an afternoon's work

Lamb shoulder with 80 and a half cloves of garlic after many hours in the oven

Not pretty presentation but very tasty!

While we were eating it started to rain, ending the fire and giving us a reason to have an early night.

Melbourne Epic Part One

2010-09-07T22:27:00.077+10:00

This chapter begins approximately one year since our trip to Provence – the inspiration for this blog in the first place.

Nothing quite as far away this time but hopefully it will be an equally inspiring (and possibly more relevant) trip to Victoria’s capital city of Melbourne.

Melbourne has an amazing dining culture and its own unique style of dining rooms. You can find million dollar fit-outs with buttoned-up waiters gliding past stiffly starched tablecloths. Battalions of chefs working silently behind gleaming copper pans. But the reason Melbourne dining is so exciting is because of the underground area of the market. Walk down a poorly-lit city laneway with masked and hooded people openly painting on walls with rattling aerosol cans.

You might find a dining room where you sit on recycled cable spools or vintage chairs that have been rescued from landfill. Packed to the rafters with people excited to see and taste the food that emerges from a tiny and hectic kitchen on funky plates carried by a waiter who wouldn’t look out of place in a rock band or on a haute-couture runway.

Melbourne has fewer hatted and highly rated restaurants than Sydney, but the Melbournian sense of adventure and independent style makes the dining scene (in our opinion) much more exciting and accessible.

We arrived in Melbourne where we were picked up by friends and taken to drop off our bags at their place before catching the train in to the city for a bite to eat.

It was Father’s Day so we were expecting to have to wait for a table but we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Little Press & Cellar, the funky bar attached to The Press Club (click here). The Press Club is the flagship restaurant for the group owned by chef George Colombaris and (due to lack of planning ahead and booking a table in the restaurant) we decided to stay in the bar and eat there. The style of food that Colombaris is creating at Press Club is modern Greek, He utilises the flavours that he tasted in his youth and, using his skills as a modern chef, has re-invented classic Greek dishes.

Outside The Press Club

Inside Little Press

Little Press has its own kitchen and menu mostly comprising small dishes (which we obviously like) and just a few larger dishes, including a Colombaris favourite “goat cooked with 40 cloves of garlic”

The Little Press kitchen

The dining room is long with dark timber paneling and rafters. The gleaming bar proudly displays and impressive range of spirits, liquors, digestives and wines but front and center is a brightly-illuminated coffee machine with in-built, brilliant blue LED lights.

We ordered from the small-plates menu and food quickly started to arrive from the basement kitchen that runs underneath the long bar. Firstly, olive bread with olive oil and gleaming black salt crystals, then octopus with lemon and pea shoots. The octopus impossibly tender and very briefly flashed on a hot char grill to give it a hint of smoky barbecued flavour.

Little Press olive bread and black salt

Octopus

Next was a mixture of wild olives topped with salty pannrgrata. These olives ranged from large kalamatas to tiny ones about the size of a baby caper.

Mixed olives

Next up was the winner of the day – chicken liver parfait with cinnamon toast. The parfait was silky smooth with a rich layer of whipped butter coating its outside edges, and with darkly toasted and thinly-sliced cinnamon brioche to give it texture. A truly wonderful and memorable dish, the cinnamon being a perfect flavour match for the richness of the chicken livers and butter.

Absolutely wonderful parfait!

The parfait was followed by sticky, tomato-y pork ribs with cinnamon pickled Granny Smith apples. The ribs had been cut across the bone instead of long-ways so they were much easier to eat with cutlery instead of cave-man style.

Little Press ribs

Then it was large, plump prawns wrapped in shatteringly crunchy kataifi pastry and standing in a blob of avocado puree and scattered with pine nuts. Although the pastry was crunchy, the prawns inside were cooked perfectly and the avocado was soft, creamy and smooth.

Our three salads arrived in little elevated glass bowls, they looked very top-heavy and unstable, however suprisingly it wasn’t a problem to dig around with the cutlery without them tipping over. Beautiful presentation!

These salads were: beetroot, yoghurt and celery leaf; green beans with mint and fetta; and grains with charred sweetcorn and haloumi.

The grains were superb – nutty and great textures with super soft haloumi.

Beetroot and celery leaves

Beans, feta and mint

Grains salad

That saw the end of our lunch and by this stage Iain and Elysia were feeling starting to feel the 3am finish at work and the early flight so decided to head home and prepare to cook dinner at a friend’s house.

Dinner was the first time Iain had made potato gnocchi since he was a first year apprentice at Box Hill trade school and it was just a little bit soft but not a bad second try with a classical carbonara garnish.

Day two was quite a long one. After an early start we headed in to the city on the train and made a beeline to MoVida (click here)

MoVida has been high on our hit list for a long time, however whenever we are in Melbourne it is always closed for a function or renovation, or it is simply too full to seat us. We have heard nothing but rave reports on it for the last few years so we were very excited.

MoVida has been at the forefront of the Australian tapas boom for years and it is quintessentially Melbourne. Located in the city on a lane that runs between Little Collins and Flinders streets its windows look out on the ever-changing and increasingly famous street art that adorns the walls of most of the lanes in Melbourne. A community of artists who live and work around Hosier Lane make this city canvas the most exciting in the inner city.

On the way to MoVida in Hosier Lane

The friends we dined with had been to MoVida a few times before so we left the ordering in their capable hands.

Bread arrived first, on a pot black earthenware plate with a built-in well to house a pool of greenish and rich olive oil - Spanish of course! This gave us a chance to gaze around the tiny dining room. A long timber bar, a small and busy kitchen teaming with tired-looking chefs and a terracotta brick floor make it a simple affair relying on the food rather than the fit-out to take centre stage.

MoVida bread

The first couple of tapas were placed on the table. A pearly pink prism of prawn meat that had been bashed and set into a slab then cut in to perfect squares and garnished with a blob of romesco sauce and a watercress leaf with a futuristic transparent red perspex toothpick to spear it with. We also enjoyed wonderfully rich potato house-made chorizo croquettes set in a rich, spicy tomato sauce.

Yummy prawn terrine

Croquettes

A special of pig’s trotter, skillfully de-boned and stuffed with black pudding scattered with raw garlic and shallots arrived and, like its preceding dishes, was gone all too quickly.

Pigs trotter

Tender lamb cutlets with parsley puree came next. Lamb sinews had been used to bind a spicy and chorizo-like mousse onto the lamb, which was pink, juicy and cooked to perfection.

Cutlets of lamb

A shallow white bowl lined with paper thin slices of lightly cured wagyu beef formed the frame for a blob of truffled potato foam and a slow-poached egg. Our companions (who had enjoyed this dish before knew what to do next ) showed us how to fold the beef in on top of the eggy concoction to form a parcel before chopping it up into portions to enjoy.

Step one of the wagyu beef dish

step two: folding it up

Step three: chop it all up

Soft textures and simply beautiful flavours, the dish is justifiably famous.

Next to hit the table was duck liver parfait with Pedro Ximenez foam. The parfait was cut into a cube and was not quite as light as the previous day’s version, but that suits the style that is MoVida. The foam, cut to mirror the parfait was more like a marshmallow and provided sweetness to offset the richness of the duck livers. Symmetrical stacks of little square croutons completed the presentation. It was a lesson in negative space on its little green plate.

Duck liver parfait

The last of our savoury dishes was incredibly soft beef cheeks with cauliflower puree and sticky Pedro Ximenez sauce. Slow cooked and very rich!

Cheeks

Sweets arrived all at once. Sheep’s milk cheesecake with lemon sorbet, a scoop of ginger ice-cream that we coerced our waiter into allowing us to taste (tempting as it was we couldn’t accommodate its sticky date pudding companion), and the Spanish classic of churros with hot chocolate to dip them in.

Sheep's milk cheese cake

Churros

Naturally sweet and milky, the sheep’s milk cheesecake was soft and wonderfully cut by the sharp lemon sorbet; and the churros, lightly spiced with cinnamon were as authentic as you will find anywhere in Spain. The ginger ice-cream retained the natural heat of fresh ginger and was the stand-out.

We finished our Paco and Lola Albarino before braving the cold to wander slowly past the fresco of artworks on the laneway walls before deciding what we were going to do to kill time before dinner.

Leish examining som paint in Hosier Lane

As usually happens with people who work in Hospitality, the popular choice was a few drinks so we walked to the top of Bourke Street to the trendy Madame Brussels (click here)

Ascending many flights of stairs (reminiscent of high school 80’s décor) we finally reached the top floor and were greeted by Astroturf, white furnishings and wrought-iron lawn furniture. A small lattice shed housed various hoses, garden tools and a lawn mower. The bar itself was a gazebo-like structure complete with plastic ivy.

Inside Mme Brussels

Pimms!

Cool floor covering

We moved out to the large outdoor area that overlooks Bourke Street and were approached by a waiter clad in white tennis trousers and tennis shoes, the look completed by a neatly buttoned polo shirt. We enjoyed a jug of Pimms and browsed the menu. Worded very poetically with some very quirky (and occasionally blue) cocktail descriptions.

Various long-socked, garden-party-clothed staff moved around the bar before we decided to move down the road to The Carlton Club.

The Carlton Club (click here) is lit with a kind of opium-den glow and outside on the covered balcony wide-leaved plants could give the impression that you were in another age many worlds away from downtown Melbourne.

Half a giraffe at The Carlton Club

Finally it was time to head to dinner and in true “Hobartian” style we walked outside and ran in to Fabian and Narelle from Restaurant 373, also on their spring break. Mumasita was where we were heading (click here)

The long room with two large windows out to the street has a short bar down one side and a tiny kitchen (and we mean TINY!) with six or so chefs working feverishly and with every spare space taken up with diners.

Inside Mumasita

The volume in the dining room is at a maximum but this just adds to the atmosphere - one hundred or so happy people eating small plates of tasty, authentic Mexican food. Unfortunately, the room is too dark and broody for our photos to work so you will have to use your imagination.

Because we were a party of eight we were given a set menu, which suited us fine. The first of the courses arrived at table on thin bamboo skewers. Half cobs of grilled sweet corn coated in chipotle mayonnaise and finely-grated cheese. The chillies were dried and smoked which provided another taste dimension and, with the corn, it was an excellent start to the meal.

Next up was crisp corn chips cut into little disks and topped with spicy, shredded slow-cooked pork; or avocado puree with cold spicy chicken. Canapés Mexican style.

Next thin and delicate tortillas wrapped around black beans, sweet jalapenos and long strands of pickled cactus. The natural richness of the beans cut through the sharpness of the pickle. We had never seen tortillas so delicate.

Then the largest dish of the night, about 3 chickens roasted and chopped, then coated in another chipotle based sauce with a hint of chocolate. Rice, greens and charred corn salsa came on the side, way too much for us to finish, even though we did try our best!

Lastly, sweet Mexican-style chocolate sorbet. Rich and mostly made from cocoa solids with enough sugar to balance its natural bitterness.

Not done with our day and not ready to go home we walked the short distance to The Melbourne Supper Club (click here) for a nightcap. The Supper Club is a Melbourne institution, packed with finely upholstered leather chesterfield couches and wine list that will make your eyes water from its vast selection (and on occasions dizzying price tags up to $11,000). We all enjoyed our favourite drinks before braving the night-time cold for the final time to catch the train home and fall into bed. Feeling contented and inspired by the 20 or so great dishes we had eaten throughout this epic day!

Sunny Sydney

2010-08-10T13:29:00.001+10:00

A solo trip to Sydney for Iain has inspired this post, so for the first time this blog will be written in the first-person.

The purpose of the trip was to attend the awards ceremony for the Electrolux Appetite for Excellence for which I was highly commended in the Young Restaurateur of the Year Awards for 2010. I could not, however, fly all the way to Sydney without eating at a wonderful restaurant so I will start there.

A mid-morning start at the airport, two hours on the plane and a short walk to the Formule1 hotel just next to the airport preceded a cab ride to The Rocks, adjacent to Circular Quay, for a lunch at Sake Restaurant & Bar. I have wanted to eat at Sake for a while but last time we were in Sydney the call of Quay was too strong.

Formule 1 on a beautiful Sydney day.

Walking up to Sake in the historic Argyle district it looks very understated, a simple sign above a stone and glass doorway is all that indicates that you have arrived. Walking through the door I was greeted by the elegant hostess and shown to the raised bar that fronts on to the very open kitchen.

Subtle Sake

I had a quick look at the large menu before asking my waitress to keep bringing out her choices of food with matched sake until I said stop.

This gave me a chance to have a look around the room. It’s all housed in an old stone building with a very modern and minimal fit out. Timber floors and tables with simple art work, the centre piece is the LED illuminated open kitchen with its glassy-topped stone pass, where white jacketed chefs move around with urgency but control.

Where I was sitting I had full view of the chef's station where the sashimi was being prepared - fish being filleted and sliced with ultimate precision. The dining room behind me was around 80% full and creating a good buzzy feel without being deafeningly loud.

Food started to arrive quickly as I watched the skilled chef prepare my first nigiri course. A scallop, some kingfish and salmon were sliced raw and set on top of little bricks of rice, along with cooked scampi and super soft calamari. As I watched, the chef very lightly warmed the top of the fish with a kitchen blowtorch. The torch gave the fish a smokey, toasty flavour.

The scallop that was larger than a 50 cent piece had been sliced horizontally but not all the way through then butterflied onto the top of the rice. It was dressed with a little soy sauce.

Next was the scampi removed from its shell but with its tail still attached. It was topped with a little dollop of tobbiko bound with red capsicum puree. The fish eggs snapped and crackled as the flame of the blowtorch passed over them.

Squid, simply topped with chives was soft and delicate.

Yellowtail kingfish belly topped with a tiny spot of jalapeno puree that added a vinegary heat to the fatty fish.

Lastly salmon belly with a little sprinkle of something black (that I think might have been dried miso) but the language barrier prevented me from finding out exactly what it was.

Nigiri, scallop towards the front

Next on the list was the most beautiful, transparent slices of snapper with white sesame, yuzu and shredded daikon. It was presented on a sky blue earthenware plate and fanned out like a flower with the daikon piled in the center. It was delicate, subtle and fresh. A great example of Japanese food.

Snapper!

The acid of the yuzu and the nuttiness of the sesame seeds, while not a new combination, were sensational.

Next up, prawn dumplings in a little bamboo steamer and a chilli dipping sauce on the side. Unlike the prawn dumplings you would expect to see at a Japanese restaurant, the dumpling wrappers were shredded very finely and pressed on to the outside of a tiny sphere of finely textured prawn mousse to give them the appearance of little knots of string. The sauce I think was made with chipotle chillis due to its smoky taste. The dumplings looked and tasted great.

Prawn dumplings

7 score wagyu seared very rare with grated daikon, lemon and a soy dressing that was reminiscent of ponzu sauce. Lots of beef, lots and lots of beef so much that I didn't think I could finish it, but I did. The beef being wagyu was rich, but balanced by the salty daikon and the acid of the lemon and ponzu.

Rare wagyu

Lastly for the savoury things (I was struggling by this stage) miso with scampi. The scampi had been cut in half and poached in the miso soup. It was finished with very finely-sliced spring onions, daikon and little red beads of red chilli oil.

Scampi miso

Even though I didn't need it, I asked them to send me a dessert. Russian cream with roasted coconut, raspberry coulis and raspberry jelly. Russian cream is a lot like a panna cotta but with the addition of sour cream to lighten it. Perfectly set and cut by the un-sweetened raspberry elements. The coconut was toasted until it was crispy in texture with a rich oiliness.

Russian cream and raspberry

The kitchen team bustled around now prepping for dinner, while I finished my sake and the dining room started to empty of the city corporates. I took that as my cue to leave too.

Summing up Sake Restaurant & Bar. The food was everything I wanted and expected it to be. Subtle, delicate and modern, served with flair and style. Beautiful plates, great friendly service that was very educated and professional. Tied all together with an awesome Sydney-style dining room.

I headed back across Circular Quay and into the city to buy a jumper and back to the hotel to get ready for the awards announcement. The rail workers in Sydney were on strike for the day so all rail travel was free which was a nice surprise.

The function was at the Electrolux Centre a short walk from the hotel, and it was packed. Every chef worth his or her salt was in attendance from Peter Gilmore to Lindy Milan. There were red-carpet, glasses of Bollinger and countless camera flashes. I felt a bit out of my league, it was a far-cry from when chefs get together in Hobart over a barbecue or yum cha. There were food writers, food stylists and professional foodies everywhere I looked.

The young waiters and chefs were on hand in the various satellite kitchens preparing canapes, shucking oysters and slicing joints of roasted pork. I was shown the Electrolux commercial range (all of which i want) before the official part of the evening started.

The Electrolux showroom looking like a nightclub

Brett Graham from The Ledbury in London was on hand to present the awards. Brett is an Australian who has recently been awarded his second Michelin Star.

Sadly only two Tasmanians made to through to the national finals in the competition, Josh Smith from Black Cow Bistro and Jayde Hanley from Launceston Country Club. None of our chefs or restaurateurs made it through this time.

The winners were announced with Josh Smith clinching the runner-up position! I stayed and chatted to some of the chefs who were finalists in the 2006 Young Chef of the Year when I was lucky enough to get through to the national finals.

It was then out into the quiet and the short walk back to the hotel to prepare for an early flight home to quiet Hobart. Just the way I like it!

Jealous?

2010-06-01T18:05:00.003+10:00

As we have written before, one of the perks of being a high-end restaurant owner is that you sometimes get free wine from producers trying to sell their products. If you are very lucky you sometimes get invited by companies to a special lunch or dinner or a vineyard to see the wine in its intended environment.

This Monday, Elysia and Iain were lucky enough to be invited along to Moorilla for a tour of their half-built winery and to taste the range of Muse and Praxis wines. The deal was sweetened (as if it they needed to give us anything else) - we would be treated to lunch in their restaurant hosted by wine maker Connor van der Reest.

We have been itching to dine at Moorilla since chef Philippe Leban took over the kitchens. We had held off until this point to allow Philippe to settle in. Chef Leban's pedigree is impressive to say the least. Many accolades and Michelin Stars... but, we will get to the food later...

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last couple of years you will know about all the developments and building works happening at the soon to open MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). They have hollowed out underneath the spit on which the Moorilla vineyard sits. The museum is said to rival the world's best - a vast undertaking and a very exciting development for Tasmania.

Along with the museum they are constructing a brand new state-of-the-art winery and a larger off-site brewery. The winery is to be on three levels with the lowest being subterranean. We were escorted, along with the management team from Grape in Salamanca and the Prossors, across the top of the museum and through the construction site. The concrete bunker that will be the barrel room, and a small function space are already looking impressive with interesting ceilings and huge open spaces.

We decided that we should not take photographs of the building site to keep its privacy, but it's impressive.

Connor talked us through his vision for the coming years of his vineyard and his wines. It was then to the tasting bar where he talked us through his favourite drops from the current releases on both the Mews and Praxis labels. And then the exciting part - lunch!

We were greeted on arrival to the restaurant by the impossibly bubbly Shelly who's good nature and lively outlook seems unwavering. The table was set with a lot of glassware and cutlery for the coming five courses with matching Moorilla wines.

Iain was excited!

We don't make a point of writing about restaurants in the Hobart area for fear of a conflict of interest but if you read on you will get the gist of why we have broken our own rule.

We don't feel that we need to wax lyrical about the Moorilla restaurant building or the multi-million dollar vista of the Derwent River, we could not hope to add anything to what has been written in the past. So to the food it is!

First course. "Scallops, herb and zest couscous, almond milk, perfumed tomato" with the 2009 Muse pinot gris. To put it simply, stunning. A single plump scallop halved horizontally and warmed in a pan to give the slightest amount of colour; a lightly frothed almond milk spooned over the top of the scallops; and the herby, lemony and couscous spiked with white raisins and pistachios. The peeled tomato was "perfumed" with something we could not pinpoint. Simple and beautifully presented.

Next, "boudin blanc, pistou, tomato fondu" with the 2009 Praxis chardonnay. Boudin blanc is a classical French skinless sausage made from rabbit or chicken mousse. It should be soft, moist and very smooth. It was perfectly-white and resting on a fresh tomato passata and herb paste.

Dish three, the best wine match of the meal, 2008 Muse pinot noir and "roasted duck, Belgian endive, salted caramalised apple, coffee sauce". Iain was so excited he forgot to photograph this one before he stared eating but, again, pretty. Sous vide duck with the skin crisped in a hot pan. Soft and slightly bitter endive and a silken apple puree from the Thermomix. The sauce was the highlight, sesame oil, a hint of coffee and something like oyster sauce. Superb with the wine!

Sorry about this one, Iain started eating before remembering to take the photo. Before it was destroyed it did look wonderful.

"Wagyu beef cheek, orange and carrot mousseline, olive, fried shallot, tarragon" and the 2008 Muse merlot cabernet. The cheek was soft, very soft. Pink in the middle due to its slow and low cooking time. The olives and shallots were combined into a kind of compote that served to cut the richness of the cheek. The star of the plate was a simple blanched silverbeet dressed with a butter emulsion, fresh and green.

Dessert: Very modern and very adult. "chocolate, olive oil, salt" paired with Romante, Cadenal Cisneros' Pedro Ximenz. A black, glossy and terribly rich bitter chocolate ganache with plenty of sea salt flakes. The blob of chocolate was surrounded by a golden moat of ripe style olive oil with a simple crouton. An amazing dessert, it was savoury and sweet and interesting, a great dish.

Philippe joined the table and stayed for a coffee and a chat, he's a very humble and down-to-earth. We wish him all the best at Moorilla and hope he stays in Tasmania for a long time. The lunch we ate was without doubt the best meal we have had in Tasmania, absolutely wonderful. We will be back soon to taste the whole menu.

Lets hope that the status quo are prepared to brave the $60 cab ride and the not-cheap menu to be rewarded with a truly great dining experience at Moorilla.

We guess that if you have read this far through this Blog you are interested enough to get out there.

Do yourselves a favour and get to Moorilla.

http://moorilla.com.au/moorilla/

Late Autumn Early Winter Menu

2010-05-30T11:58:00.001+10:00

Our latest menu photos are finally back from development after having been tweaked by the eagle-eye of Travis.

These dishes are the next evolution at Piccalilly after we have refined and tweaked things that we like, diners like and just things we wanted to try on the unsuspecting! We have kept a few old favourites on the menu too.

Oysters.

These, as they always do, come from Shellfish On Bruny and the delightful Hedley. The oyster farm is located on the northern shore of Great Bay on Bruny Island. Hedley is a very small producer and has an amazing attention to detail. We think his oysters are the best in Tasmania, and at this time of year they are at their best. The water is very cold at the moment (so Hedley tells us when a wave washes over the top of his waders) and cold water is capable of holding a lot more dissolved oxygen. The more oxygen in the water the more micro-organisms are able to flourish, thereby creating more food for the oysters and causing them to put on fat and condition. We know you know what oysters look like, but we thought Hedley might like to see them on the web and professionally photographed. One oyster is topped with the old favourite – shallot and red wine vinaigrette. We use South Australian Pendleton merlot vinegar; it’s an agro-dulce style and has the most intense deep colour.

The other oyster topping is a honey emulsion. Hedley sources a spikey box honey that the Bruny bees make from flowers that skirt Great Bay overlooking the oysters. We think it’s a nice synergy and the honey tastes beautiful. We emulsify it with lots of black pepper, Ashbolt olive oil and lemon juice.

Kingfish.

This has been a staple on the Piccalilly menu for a couple of years. This incarnation, a ceviche, uses some flavours we have paired with kingfish before - yuzu and pickled white radish. This time however we have replaced the soy sauce with white miso. We’ve filtered it to make it clear and gelled it to form a skin. The fish and radish are tangled together, and (here’s the ceviche part) we added a pipette filled with yuzu, chardonnay vinegar and olive oil. The pipette is aimed at the center of the kingfish tangle and when it is squeezed, the acid begins curing the fish. Green chilli oil rounds out the dish.

Fish & Onions.

Local white fish in this case flathead with onions and red onion essence.

The onions:

Brown onions - caramelized and pureed

Spring onions - glazed

Red onions – raw

Shallots – sous vide, raw and crispy

Chives

White onions – pickled

Garlic – confit.

The red onion essence is simple but effective. Red onions are roasted in their skins at 250 degrees for 40 minutes, peeled and frozen into a Pacojet canister, frozen and ‘pacotized’. The essence is then simply allowed to defrost in a fine paper filter. The syrupy and sweet liquid that drips through, away from the solids is what we use.

It sounds complicated because there are so many bits, but it’s simply fish with an onion salad and onion sauce.

Beef Tongue.

The tongue is first brined and sous vide for 24 hours at 70 degrees. It’s then cooled and sliced by hand. It is then garnished with lemon panagrata; mustard seed vinaigrette; dry sherry jelly; English mustard butter; parsley emulsion; roast carrot oil; shallot; and currant chutney.

Tongue is a very fatty and rich meat so it needs something to cut it. The flavours all match tongue well and we have just played with textures. Crunchy, soft, oily, meaty etc.

Goat.

The goat is the evolution of our last Mediterranean-inspired dish. We have kept the chickpea and garlic puree and cucumber, but have added a kind of tabbouleh. Black rice, pearl barley, burghul, faro, and black, red and white quinoa are combined and mixed with parsley oil. Also labneh, mint and a little brown chicken reduction. (Labneh is a Middle-Eastern yoghurt cheese)

The cucumber is a simple foam of juiced cucumber and salt. Cucumber contains a lot of natural lectin, a natural emulsifier that holds a frothy foam - in fact all melons do (yes, cucumber is a melon). Watermelon works very well like this. Egg yolks also have high levels of lectin hence they hold a foam – for example in a sabayon for the start of a sponge cake.

The goat shoulder is cooked sous vide on the bone for around 30 hours (depending on size) at 68 degrees. It’s then torn up by hand and flashed in a very hot pan to crisp it slightly.

Goat and tebbouleh, simple!

Daube.

Daube of beef isn’t an evolution from the last menu, as such. More a devolution. The last version was comprised of the same items minus the potatoes but we gelled the horseradish custard. This time its back to its bare form. The beef is Nicholls Rivulet Organic spare rib and cooked sous vide for around 40 hours. The red wine and shallot sauce is probably the richest we have ever served at Piccalilly and it is paired with confit potatoes and baked shallots.

Banana Smoothie.

Kind of a combination of a smoothie and a banana split - we have malt powder, toasted walnuts and banana milk froth; and banana mousse made from whipped cream and confit bananas and caramalised milk ice cream. The lactose in the milk, along with a little bit of sugar caramalises over a long period of time (12-14 hours) on a very low heat. The sweetness is balanced by naturally occurring fatty acid and lactic acid that reduce during cooking and add a slight tartness.

Thai-spiced Sago with Rhubarb.

To start this one we infuse milk with chilli, lemongrass, star anise, clove, ginger and kaffir lime leaves for a couple of hours. We then soak and cook the sago in the infused milk once the aromatics are sieved out.

Nicholls Rivulet Organic Rhubarb (yes they produce beef and rhubarb) is poached very gently at 85 degrees for about 5 minutes with some ginger and vanilla.

The dish is finished with vanilla crème anglaise.

Yoghurt Pannacotta with Various Textures of Yoghurt.

We use both cow and sheep milk yoghurt in this dish. The star of the show, the pannacotta is made from sheep’s milk. We use the Meredith’s pot-set variety, which comes in very thick - reminiscent of good buffalo mozzarella. It is very fatty and much sweeter than cow’s milk yoghurt, but still sour enough. We infuse it with tonka bean and vanilla and add a tiny amount of gelatin. It barely requires gelatin because it’s so thick to start with.

Very thick sheep's milk yoghurt. They usually stock this at Salamanca Fruit Market

Textures:

Yoghurt and honey sorbet - sheep

labneh - cow

marshmallows - cow

granita - sheep

There is also a drop of elderberry syrup for colour.

And a little extra one.
This dish isn't on the menu but it was one of the specials on the day the photos were taken so we thought we should get a record of it.

Wagyu beef brisket with chlorophyll vinaigrette and jerusalem artichoke puree.

The wagyu, 9+ marble score, was sous vide for around 50 hours at 62 degrees so it is still a little bit pink but soft. Chlorophyll is extracted from spinach (it takes about a kilo of spinach to produce 20 grams of chlorophyll) and emulsified with red wine vinegar and a little bit of olive oil. It is brilliant green and provides acid to cut through the richness of the beef.

Jerusalem artichokes grown by Elysia's father were perfect and so fresh that they were still white on the skin, they are simply sous vide to protect their white colour and pureed with a little bit of salt.

Finally ribbons of soy sauce, yuzu and ginger set with agar-agar so they won't melt.

These photographs were taken by Travis Hutchins. Travis is a graphic designer and is currently working at Saunders Signs http://www.saunderssigns.com.au/ in Margate specialising in large scale signage. They also handle other branding including logo production. If you need signage we highly recommend speaking to Travis at Saunders however if you would like to speak to him in a freelance capacity for photography and design, feel free to contact us for his details.

The Sunny North

2010-05-20T00:35:00.002+10:00

The weekend just gone saw Elysia and Iain head north to Launceston for a weekend away. As usual with these things we awoke early after a late finishing Saturday night's service and hit the road at about 9:00 to try and make the most of our time.

We assumed that the roads would be dead quiet due to it being a Sunday, and they were - however most of the roads near our house were blocked off due to the City To Casino fun-run. We were unable to get into Battery Point to drop the clean linen back at work and were forced to join the Midlands Highway via Old Beach.

Once we had cleared the vast road works at Brighton it was smooth sailing with barely any traffic and not a cloud in the sky. We pulled in to Perth, south of Launceston just in time for the breakfast menu at Ut Si, a cafe located in a lovely old church and owned/operated by fellow-blogger Colette. The church is pearly white both inside and out and filled with the most stunning timber furniture constructed from recycled bits of railway bridge. The only disappointing thing was that the long shared table was so packed with gossiping, latte-swilling ladies that we could not see the polished top in its full glory.

The outside of Ut Si

The wonderful dining room

Ut Si's pride and joy is their little wood-fired oven located just outside the back door in the middle of their kitchen garden. We ordered juice and coffee while we waited for our food to come out of the tiny open kitchen tucked into a corner of the building.

The menu is comprised of eight or so creative café-style dishes ranging from three-grain porridge to a duck-egg omelet. We, however, opted to try the sardines on toast and the baked eggs with Black Forrest Smallgoods venison chorizo. We also couldn't go past the Pyengana Real Milk and vanilla ice cream milkshake.

Food arrived, it was beautifully presented - the eggs just set and crispy edged in a heavy cast iron ramekin with some of their hand-made and wood-fired grainy bread on the side. The sardines were also stylish, served still in their tin with the lid peeled half way back and most of the oil drained off, with spoonfuls of black olive tapenade and a sweet/sour green tomato relish.

Eggs, baked with chorizo and chick peas

The sardines presentation

The eggs half eaten

Soft and lovely sardines

And the tastes? Wonderful! The whites were soft and glassy, yolks heated just enough to thicken them but not to cook them, the chorizo added a meatiness and chewiness and ‘tomatoey’ chick peas rounded out and moistened the dish, which stayed hot for a very long time due to its thickly-walled cast iron home. The sardines were of course fantastic - fishy and oily, cut perfectly by the accompaniments and smeared onto slices of grainy buttered toast.

We lingered over the food for far too long enjoying every little bit and finishing our milkshakes before catching up with Colette and getting a tour of the wood oven from her noisy motorcycle-riding leather jacket-wearing father, who told us it was him who lights the logs each morning to allow the stones to heat up enough for the bread to bake. Even though the coals had been swept from the oven hours ago, it was still holding a temperature of around 160 degrees. Walking back to the car we realised that milkshakes are probably a bit much for our grown up tummys but thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast and were looking forward to the remainder of the weekend.

Next we headed to Josef Chromy to taste some of their current vintage wines. We were surprised to see that the only available parking was now out on the road alongside a friendly brown horse because of the number of cars already packing the little car park. The building is a special one, an old colonial farmhouse with very well-kept gardens. The place was packed! We approached the tasting bar, which doubles as the reservations area for the restaurant where we could see a glimpse of the gleaming new kitchen amidst bustling waiters.

Joseph Chromy and its garden

Realising that it probably wasn’t the best time to do a wine tasting we wandered out determined to come back at a quieter time and see for ourselves what draws so many people there.

As usually happens to us on these trips the next thing we did was to get lost. No technology to blame this time, as we did not bring the GPS, but we decided to try and skirt around the side of Launceston and effortlessly join up to the East Tamar Highway to the City's north and then visit some more vineyards. And lost we got, -but after over an hour and 10km of dirt roads later we joined the elusive highway just south of Lilydale.

The experience wasn't a total loss however, with no appointments or deadlines to meet it was a lovely opportunity to see some of Tasmania’s lesser-used roads that are fun to drive on one of the most beautiful Autumn days in the history of the world. Not a breath of wind, or a cloud to be seen. it became very obvious to us how different the northern Tasmanian summer had been to the one we enjoyed in the south.

Pastures were glossy and green, cattle and sheep were plump, birds and insects filled the air and many, many brown furry critters had met an untimely demise along the roadsides - in comparison to the south where pasture is yellow, stock are boney and there is rarely a critter to be seen.

Gleaming threads of spiders’ web drifted through the still air illuminated by the lowering sun as we pulled up to the first of our cellar door stops at Delamere just near the Batman Bridge on the eastern side of the Tamar. They are one of our favourites for their sparklings. We tasted the range and particularly enjoyed the 2007 Pinot Noir and 2008 chardonnay. We talked at length to the cellar hand who was busily hand labeling bottles and admired the flock of around 20 or so tasty-looking guinea fowl who were expectantly looking through the door of the cellar apparently asking to be fed for the third time that day.

The path in to Delamere

Guinea fowl!

Heading south again the next stop was Dalrymple vineyard. Its new owners have installed lovely heavy timber gates and re-routed the winding driveway to now slice through the vineyard itsself rather than the straight gravel road as it once was. Only two wines to taste here but both were lovely - a young and zippysavignon blanc and a toasty pinot noir.

The driveway at Dalrymple

Further south to the imposing building of Pipers Brook where we again tasted the full range but without any real stand-outs from the current releases, but a couple of impressive back-vintages of the Cabenet/merlot blend that they no longer make after grafting the old rootstock. Pipers Brook has just completed their first organic vintage, signifying what will hopefully be a positive new direction for the winery.

Pipers Brook avenue driveway

A couple of hundred metres down the driveway is Jansz. The sparkling-only producer simply makes a non-vintage brut and a non-vintage rose. They then do some more serious vintage and late-disgorged versions. We tend to steer away from Jansz at restaurants and bottle shops because it's always so consistent and we tend to favour more interesting bottles. The simple non -intage though, was an absolute knock-out it was dry, fruity and spicy, well-balanced and simply stunning. Well done Jansz, we will give it a second look in future.

Iain doing his "Jansz dance"

The flock of plump geese at Janz

This is the subtle sign that marks the entrance to Pipers and Jansz on the highway

The sun was setting rapidly as we drove up to our final stop for the day Brook Eden Vineyard. One of our favourites, this very small vineyard is run by a couple who live on site and produce some lovely wines. A cracking rich, dry-style rose and a nicely balanced chardonnay that was treated with wood but in a very restrained way.

Now nearly dark as we approached Launceston we had been driving for 7 hours and now looking forward to lighting a fire and opening the bottle of 2002 late disgorged Jansz we had bought. Thyme Cottage, just past the park was where we had booked to stay. A very sweet little terrace house with lovely old furniture, a claw-footed bathtub and thick downy doonas on the bed where we had stayed a few years previously. We lit the fire and got it roaring while we enjoyed the sparkles and relaxed for half an hour before we had to get ready and embark on the 10 minute walk to Black Cow Bistro for dinner.

The courtyard at Thyme Cottage

Some of the brekky stuff

Black Cow, run by the team responsible for the famous Stillwater plus some vigorous new blood, was the main reason for our trip north because we had heard so many good things about it. It did not disappoint.

We started with a dozen oysters prepared in four ways. Natural; with a shallot and red wine vinaigrette; pickled ginger and yellow rock sugar; and a cheese gratinated - cheddar and hollandaise. We don't normally like cooked oysters so were a bit reluctant to try the gratin, however on tasting it, the oyster was not cooked but warmed, the fatty layer of cheese insulating it from the heat of the grill. It was beautiful - fatty, cheesey, salty and interesting a real stand-out.

Black Cow oysters

Next we shared jamon serano with wild olives and crisp chibatta. The ham was good, unfortunately a couple of slices still had chewy rind but this was of little concern. Tangled up with the ham were small. good-quality cherry tomatoes that had been pickled during tomato season to preserve them. The tomatoes and olives served to cut the richness of the dried ham and contributed some different textures. We lingered over this dish (served on a plank that had been removed from a Penfold's Grange crate), while we finished our pinot in preparation for zinfandel with the beef course.

Jamon

We should pause here and tell those who haven't been to Black Cow what it's all about. Located in Lucks Corner in the CBD of Launceston, this little restaurant has been laid out just as you would expect a Bistro to be. Bench seating the length of one wall and small tables clothed with the obligatory paper laid over the top. The chairs are timber and the floor is also bare with a shiny finish. The walls are pasted with commissioned artworks, featuring (you guessed it) black cows in the style you might normally associate with ancient French cave paintings. The floor staff are in black bibbed aprons that cross at the back over a startling white shirt - classic style. The menu is comprised, as you also might expect, mainly of beef in varying sizes, cuts and styles from different producers and butchers with little else (plus a couple of entree options). You get beef... cooked perfectly and a modern version of pommes duchesse. Everything else you are free to add as you choose.

Our beef arrived, A vast rib-eye and a not so vast but superb scotch fillet. we supplemented these with horseradish, demi glase, truffled bernaise, baked mushrooms, cauliflower gratin, and shredded iceberg lettuce with pickled shallots. A bit piggy you are thinking... yes... yes it was but we were so keen to see as much of the menu as we could. We tried valiantly to finish it all but it could simply not be done. Both pieces of beef were pink, juicy and tasty, with charred bar markings on their exteriors -simply perfect. The sides were interesting and also cooked with skill.

Big rib-eye

Black Cow sides

All in all, taking the unobtrusive well-informed and helpful service, Black Cow is a force to be reckoned with. Far beyond anything we would call a steak house here in Hobart. The Stillwater team have executed the concept with style and ease.

The walk back to Thyme Cottage was a lot colder and somewhat slower and less directed, but we were pleased to find the fire still glowing so we loaded it up and flopped onto the soft bed.

Day two again started early with a brisk and very cold walk up to the top of Charles Street to Tant Pour Tant. A must-visit when in Launceston, this tiny patisserie serves up good European-style bread and pastries, and a big selection of slick-looking cakes and gateaux.

Unassuming exterior

We looked over the breakfast menu that has moved beyond the old eggs of your choice with your choice of accompaniments. We chose soft polenta with truffle and poached eggs and Black Forest Smallgoods streaky bacon with gruyere in a soft panini. Again Launceston delivered interesting, tasty food. We left the shop with a box of treats and headed up the Tamar again, but this time on the western bank.

Panini with bacon and silky scrambled eggs

Polenta - yum yum

Our treats, pain au chocolat, brioche with jam and creme patisserie, chocolate eclair, and "le Framboise" which just picked up top gold at the 2010 Dairy Industry Awards

First stop was Velo. We love these wines and were looking forward to seeing their origins. The best part of visiting cellar doors at this time of year, after the tourists have disappeared, is that most of the time, its the wine maker who is pouring the tastes. You get all the inside information on each wine and we were privileged to hear the ins-and-outs of the 2010 vintage that was fermenting just behind us at several of the sheds we visited.

Velo

At Velo we were very impressed, as we have been with past vintages, with the shiraz. We know what you're thinking, "Tasmanian shiraz, no thanks" but this is consistently ripe, rich and big so we suggest giving it a go if you see it on a list somewhere.

Next stop was the spectacularly-vistaed Goaty Hill. Looking out over the valley and the Tamar Ridge factory, this is one of the largest privately-owned vineyards in Tasmania. Its well worth looking out for chardonnay and Riesling, and if you are up that way a sit on the balcony looking at that view would make the drive worthwhile.

Moores Hill, famous for their riesling was to be our final stop before lunch. The riesling is a lovely one and the cabernet blend is also worth a look.

Moores Hill cellar door

Moores Hill winery dog - very friendly

The one thing we have gathered from the many wine makers and owners we spoke to was that the 2010 vintage was a difficult one. Unlike the southern vineyards that remained hot and dry, the north was devastated by a week of rain just before picking. Rot and mildew combined with wasps (this year in plague proportions) made everyone remember that wine-making and vineyards is simply glorified farming and that the un-controllable elements can be very damaging. We hope the 2010 vintage while low-yielding is a cracker.

Lunch, back towards Launceston, was at Daniel Alps's Strathlyn. A very small and simple menu offered pork belly with peppery roquette and a classic osso bucco with mashed potatoes. The dining room was quiet so we had barely tucked into crusty bread rolls when the food arrived: rustic, simple, and cooked skillfully. Great ingredients combine to produce something that should be available everywhere but, sadly, is not, was a real treat. It’s not modern by any stretch but it doesn’t claim to be, Great comfort food, superb ingredients and a view to die for.

Strathlyn's oaky entrance

The pork belly with organic roquette

Osso bucco

Now full of rich food and good wine from this great Tasmanian region we were ready to head home via the newly opened Red Bridge Cafe and Providore in Campbell Town. The building, a huge sandstone warehouse, used to be an antique shop until quite recently and Red Bridge has only been open for about 12 weeks. The interior of the building is decked out with a lot of old furniture, and vegies are displayed in vintage apple crates and copper pans of all shapes, sizes and ages that hang from the ceiling. The triumph however is an ancient chemists' chest of drawers mounted height on the wall behind the counter. 72 individually labeled drawers with a golden patina and cut glass knobs. Very beautiful.

The shop itself stocks locally-grown fruit and vegies as well as wine and deli type nibbles. Around the corner in another wing of the barn is a cafe. Again decked out with old tables and chairs, including both polished oak and scrubbed Huon Pine, to pick out just a couple. It is warm from the fire crackling in one corner and still displays the whitewashed timber rafters and braces that support the high roof.

Well worth a look - Red Bridge and their copper pans

Still full from lunch we didn't stop for anything to eat, but did raid the shop for ingredients to cook dinner. We will be back for lunch though. Well worth a look next time you head through Campbell Town - lets hope the locals support it!

Despite the loss of Fee & Me and Don Cameron's departure form Stillwater Launceston's food/wine seems to be moving long just fine with great things happening and still worth the drive.

Vines, Wines and Automobiles

2010-04-15T11:00:00.001+10:00

Over the weekend we were lucky enough to be invited by Pooley Wines http://www.pooleywines.com.au just outside of Richmond and their Tasmanian distributor Domaine Wine Shippers to go out and see their set-up and do a couple of vertical tastings.

It was quite an early start (by hospitality standards) after a late-finishing dinner party, when we met the bus down in Salamanca Place and got chatting to the others who would be joining us. There were about 20 other restaurant owners, managers and chefs from lots of other restaurants in town.

A bit of background on Pooley, they are a very small family-run company that is broken into three parts:
They have a vast shed in Cambridge where they offer help to other small vineyards from the Coal Valley; store, bottle and label wines for those producers who cannot afford the outlay for the bottling and labelling infrastructure; and store wine in stable conditions for those who would otherwise be holding wine in their farm sheds. This was our first stop and where we met Matthew Pooley (the third generation Pooley to work the vineyard) who gave us a tour of their operation and how it all works, They had the labeling machine working and wine from floor to ceiling at all stages of production from fermentation to labelled and packed bottles.

The second part of the business is a bit more conventional. They grow grapes and make wine. They have a two sites, the largest is past Campania and was all under nets with Riesling and Pinot Noir still on the vines, a testament to the long and warm summer we have just had. Matthew, who runs the vineyards, is firmly rooted in the science of growing good grapes. He ran us through the ins-and-outs of the site and the coming 2010 vintage without bamboozeling us with scientific jargon. It remains very hands on as Pooley only produces about 1500 cases of wine each vintage.

It was then time to see the third part of Pooley, the cellar door located behind the grand sandstone house. We hopped off the bus and were ushered into the old hay shed on the homestead past an original model Volkswagen Beetle and an early 1950s Porsche. The shed with its bowing floorboards, whitewashed sandstone walls and friendly vineyard dog was going to be the impossibly-pretty setting for our vertical tasting and lunch.

The view from where we sat in the barn

We were introduced to John Pooley and sat at our own little tasting station where a Pooley Riesling from each vintage going back to 1999 was poured and we set about tasting them and taking notes. The wines were superb and a very interesting comparison. Colour ranged from a deep golden straw colour in the 1999 to almost clear in the 2009.

Riesling (oldest to the left)

Chef and Richmond local Anton Kunz was tucked away in one corner of the barn with a giant paella pan over a big gas burner busily stirring away at a risotto for our lunch - it smelled great but did make it a bit difficult to focus on the wine. We discussed the Rieslings among the whole group before we moved on to Pinot Noir.

Chef Kunz with his massive pan

The Pinot was poured in a similar fashion to the Riesling but this time we started with a 1998. The oldest two wines were still under the original Pooley label designed by the most senior and original Pooley wine maker. It is a bit dated by todays standards with its pink and ornate family crest, but it did suit the museum-feel of the wines. The first to show was almost the colour of tea but showed no negative effects of the 12 years since it was plucked form its vine. We noted and talked about the wines before lunch was served. The food changed the palate of all the wines so it was interesting to have another look back through them with this in mind.

As a little surprise John brought out a red sparkling Pinot Noir, Not many of the group had tasted a sparkling Pinot before and it really divided the room into those who liked it and those who didn't (as sparkling red tends to do).

Lunch

The original Pooley label

Sadly that was the end of the wine but we sat and chatted over a cheese plate and had another good look at the cars before it was back to the bus and return to Hobart. It was a real treat to see the older wines that you simply cannot buy anymore and, particularly, the older Tasmanian Rieslings. Thanks to DWS and the Pooley family for their hospitality.

Vicrorian Adventure part three

2010-04-05T16:13:00.000+10:00

Early start number three saw us waking up to pack up our things. We had to vacate the spare room because more friends were coming to Melbourne from London and were going to be jetlagged.

We made for the city on the train with the intention of doing a little bit of shopping, and to see a few sites for the English addition to our party. We also intended to go to the original Movida for lunch, however when we arrived we were dismayed to find that it was closed for renovations! “Plan B” we thought would be to head to Chinatown and check out the hatted Hu Tong Dumpling Bar in Market Lane opposite The Flower Drum. Hatted dumplings we had to see!

Walking in we were greeted by a man with a large walkie-talkie who asked us to wait for a table, (there were 7 of us) the message came through the walkie and we were permitted upstairs to a large round table with a lazy susan in the centre.

The kitchen window

Walking through the restaurant you get a great view into the kitchen through a big window onto the dumpling station where they are all rolled and filled to order. Four chefs were working very hard due to the full dining room. We looked through the menu and Elysia took charge ordering a bunch of stuff for us all to share. We ordered six Tsingtao beers that were promptly brought to the table still in the six-pack holder - this was left nearby on the waiters’ station and later used to clear the bottles.

Xiao Long Bao! We had 5 of these baskets...

Food started to arrive as it was ready, and soon we had, xiao long, pork, prawn and vegetable dumplings, red pork, steamed bok choy, crispy whitebait, chicken and sweet corn soup and spring rolls spinning around in the centre of the table! Everything was excellent, however we do have to add that the xiao long bao at humble little Written On Tea in Sandy Bay are even better.

Vegetable dumplings in spinach skins

Pork with buk choi

More xiao long

Prawn dumplings in chilli

White bait with onions

Spring rolls with red sauce

Prawns in bean curd skin

Chicken and sweet corn soup

Far-too-much-food-for-everyone-later we staggered out and walked back through Chinatown to Koko Black in Royal Arcade for some chocolates!

The fabulous Koko Black. You aren't allowed to take pictures in side, but it is one of the most magical places in Melbourne.

We were staying at another friend’s house for the evening and went via the supermarket to pick up ingredients to cook dinner to say thanks for the bed. We decided to do a cauliflower soup with Parmesan croutons, roast chicken and a Streets Vinetta. There was a Parmesan company giving out samples at Flinders Street Station so we had to incorporate that somehow! Everything turned out pretty well; we ate so much chicken and crispy potatoes we didn’t even get to the ice cream. There were a couple of quick games of darts before an early night before a 5:30 start to catch a plane back home and straight in to work.

It was a great trip, although we can no longer look the credit card in the eye, and we can highly recommend any of the places we visited, however our favourites were Port Phillip Estate for food and the wonderful Campaspe House in Woodend for accommodation, particularly in winter!

Big thanks to the Piccalilly crew for being so relyable and letting us have the Saturday night off. Thanks to Morgan and Rachel, Chris and Andrea, Leigh and Angela, for the good times and accomodation. And Chris and Julie for feeding the starter while we were away and the constant updates reassuring Iain that the place hadn't burnt down.