wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Post by wheelspinner on Dec 18, 2009 18:02:10 GMT -5
Today is our Anniversary (28th) and we are off for a quiet getaway in country Victoria. We'll be having a romantic dinner at the fabulous Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, probably the best restaurant in rural Vic. www.royalmail.com.au/Sunday we will knock around the Southern Grampians admiring the nature and the serenity and the outdoorsness. Hopefully I will get at least one or two photos worth posting alongside Bob's efforts. We will then come back to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road (like Big Sur only better). By the time we get back, it will just about be Christmas. Where did this year go?
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Post by MacBeth on Dec 18, 2009 18:15:31 GMT -5
Sounds wonderful....have a lovely time !
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Post by Georgina on Dec 19, 2009 9:57:31 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary, and I hope you two have a lovely time.
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Post by wheelspinner on Dec 22, 2009 1:23:30 GMT -5
The Royal Mail Hotel was exceedingly swank food-wise, although quite a casual place.
The restaurant serves a fixed ten-course menu. Their approach is that they only name the ingredients for the courses on the menu, and then surprise you with what they turn them into. Here is what I had:
1. Sardine, jamon, radish, smoked bonito A little puck of grilled sardine and jamon floating in a bonito broth
2. Sugar snap pea, soured milk, spearmint, "sashimi" Tiny peas taken from the pods and served as mini-salad with sour milk dressing. The "sashimi" was a mystery. It turned out to be freeze-dried watermelon, dressed with a tiny amount of fish sauce, compacted into blocks and then sliced exactly like a piece of sashimi. It sure looked realistic.
3. Egg yolk, toasted rye, asparagus, yeast More like a hot muesli, with a single egg yolk perched on top of warm grains covering a sprig of fresh asparagus
4. Pork and prawn, fennel, wild and cultivated rocket Otway pork (local speciality) crackling served with plump grilled prawns, including the shells which had been fried to a crisp in the Japanese style
5. Yellowfin tuna, onions, nori, garlic Tiny little caramelised onions with a small piece of grilled tuna in a pool of miso soup
6. Eel, beef tendon, kohl rabi, potato Tender slow-cooked beef, fried eel strip, with slices of fried kohl rabi and a potato gnocchi. Not a success, IMO
7. Pigeon, beetroot, white chocolate, rose Roast pigeon breast with whole roasted baby beets, in a sauce of rose petals and grated white chocolate. The sauce was excessively sweet for a game bird, I thought
8. Apple, triple cream, chamomile, caramel Whole baked apples (little ones) sitting on a drizzled of cream with caramel. A twist on toffee apples.
9. Rhubarb, licorice, almond, citrus. A strip of quite firm rhubarb with flaked almonds and a citrus sauce. Call me a trad, but rhubarb should not be firm and chewy. Beth sent hers back.
10. Pistachio, hazelnut, honeycomb, chocolate A block of pistachio nougat, with some hazelnut and chocolate icecream, served with some crushed pistachios and pieces of honeycomb.
To go with all this, I had "several" wines by the glass, including a dry-as-flint Spanish sherry, a local riesling, a Spanish tempranillo and an Italian sticky.
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Post by Georgina on Dec 22, 2009 2:31:56 GMT -5
Okay, now I'm hungry.
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Post by MacBeth on Dec 22, 2009 8:42:04 GMT -5
Hungry, and jealous !
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