A quick trip to the Philipines

 We travelled to Davao in the very South of the country for a good friends wedding. We stayed at the Marco Polo which is in central Davao and availed ourselves of a "club" room. Great views over Davao from our room and the club facility. More than enough food and drink was supplied for breakfast, afternoon tea and canapes. The variety and quality was second to none! The only real complaints that I have heard about the hotel were from guests not staying in club. The hotel is aging but just in line with everthing else in the Philipines. I certainly recommend it for an easy stay.

The lovely clean lit pool!

Robertson getaway!

We travelled to the Southern Highlands and stayed in Robertson. 

Robertson has an interesting climate being quite high (around 800 metres) and yet on the edge of the coastal escarpment which ensures that warm wet coastal air, mixes with dry cool inland air causing fog or mist for many mornings and sometimes throughout the day.

Robertson itself is not particularly a foodies destination however both the Princess and I enjoy gardens!

 Many very high quality, private gardens are available to view at regular intervals. We stayed at a privately rented holiday house in Burrawang called "Long acre". The home was extremely well appointed and our friends agreed with us that everything was easy at "Long acre".

Information on Robertson open gardens can be found at robertsonopengardens.weebly.com. The little green stars on the photo of the map show where the gardens are, mostly within a very short drive of town. We visited four on our first day and covered 12km's. These gardens are of a very high calibre with most if not all of them being private gardens opened only for short windows.

Each of the gardens is evolving but showing beutiful aspects

This herb garden has many structural aspects and a "calling" arch in the hedge asking you to come forward and experience the view is paramount to the experience.

For our culinary experience in the area see our next post.

Moose Drool and tongue at Jole

In the beautiful Napa valley in California we wanted a meal that might go a little away from the fare we have "enjoyed" until now. This place was recommended by the people at our accomodation chatue de vie.

We were a little slow on the draw to get photos of our meals. That was a little unfortunate as they were delicious.

This restaurant works on either an a la carte basis or will serve any dish off the menu as a tasing plate. You can choose either a four or five course menu and the price is more than reasonable at either $55 or $70 respectively. See the menu here, http://www.jolerestaurant.com/Menu/Dinner/

We chose four courses and the individual dishes were hard to pick as they are quite numerous. We had Scallops first up, they were served on a bed of culiflour cous cous and cauliflour puree, the scallops were plump and tender cooked to perfection.

We both then had duck breast which was the most succulent duck breast I have had in a long while, the slices of breast were served with poached pear and parsnip puree and in a jus which was mild but uplifting.

I then had "Tongue in Cheek", a fantastic dish with perfectly cooked beef cheeks that fell apart at touch and some exceptionally well seasoned pickled beef tongue which was in its' own delicate salad. I am not usually a tongue man but this has converted me.

The Princess had pumpkin dumplings which was more like a raviolli and came with a chestnut cream sauce. They were delicious, silky smooth and showed off the pumpkin as it should have been.

In general the service here was poor.  A little unfortunate as everything else was fantastic.

And now to the Moose Drool. 

There was a good selection of boutique beers on the menu and it was the name of this one that made me do it! Not a bad beer, very malty and thick, I couldnt help thinking of that moose drooling into the bottle and that ruined it for me. I then turned to a local drop "Dales pale ale" a very nice drop which seemed a little weak after the drool but typical hoppy long palated perfection I am becoming used too in US beers.

Centennial Vinyard I had been awaiting this for a long time

Circumstances had the Princess and I missing many opportunities to dine at Centennial, we had even dropped in, on the off chance of grabbing lunch on more than one Sunday. Imagine my surprise when early one Sunday morning I suggested to Proncess that we try Centennial for lunch and Bingo! There was room. The booking was made and expectantly we travelled to the highlands.

We arrived and were eventually seated to a lovely view.

The service for drinks was slow, 20 Minutes before a drink arrived, the staff were not in any way concerned at this. My beer was a local brew that I have tried before and it eventually arrived cold.

Pigs fly was a nice pale ale, I am very partial to a pale ale however this one was possibly a little less flavoursome than I would prefer. There was no other craft beer on offer so I stuck to it.

Princess had the Centennial platter as an entree. Very nice! I luckily was given a taste of each little morsel.

I had a duck entree which the waitstaff were completely confused about, saying to me "you understand that the confit duck will come rare", Interesting. Huge entree nicely done. The sauerkraut was an interesting zingy offset to the fattiness of the duck.

Princess had the sage souffle with pumpkin "it was lovely". The shot below shows the souffle as served, deflated. When quizzing the waiter if this was how it is normally served, he simply quizzed Princess as to whether it tasted ok or not, to which she replied "very nice" well there is nothing to worry about then is there? He said.

I had a very interesting beef dish for main, "gingerbread angus fillet". Again a large meal, with beautiful flavours. The reason I picked this dish was because I had never seen ginger bread matched with steak before. It worked quite well. I think that there were way to many other flavours on the plate however and it all became so rich and sweet by the end that I was regretting ordoring it.

The food was very good, if a little confused. The overall atmosphere however had us leaving quite flat, I am sure we will not go back unless invited to an event there. Quite a pity really as the potential is there. As is often the case, the staff can make or break a restaurant.

Wow The old St Thomas chapel in Narellan

What a venue and what a nice feeling. I have spent many years around Narellan and the Macarthur but had never had the opportunity to enjoy this rather amazing venue which is available for events and non denominational weddings. The "Secret Supper Club" for June was held at The Old St Thomas Chapel in Narellan. Once again catered for by "The Chef and I" who did a fantastic job. Drinks and lovely Hors d'oeuvres outside around specially manufactured wood burning heaters which more than compensated for the cool evening breeze. Pity the mains were a little on the arctic side but nice all the same. dessert came along in the form of individual sticky date puddings which were wonderfully warming. A great event for those who like to experience something a little different in their dining. Thanks Pretty Picnics!

Braised Beef Cheeks with Pedro Ximinez

Wow! This recipe came to us courtesy of MoVida Restaurant Sydney and Melbourne www.movida.com.au

I happened across some beef cheeks when in the butchers late last week. We looked around for a recipe knowing that the key with these things is the long cooking time so thought we better pick a Sunday or as it turned out a long weekend Monday. At about 12.30 I said "I better go and get the cheeks on for dinner" seemed like a good excuse to get out of some weeding at the time.

Prep time was around 45 mins, cooking time was a good four hours and then say half an hour for reducing the sauce. Pretty much a six hour project in all. Must be some of the better invested time I have spent in the kitchen. These cheeks were so tender it knocked our socks off. The Pedro Ximenz sauce was amazing, I have included a photo of the brand and style of Pedro as there are a multitude of them. We scored this bottle at Dan Murphy's for $18.

The cheeks just fell apart and were full of flavour and the sauce added a rich, almost sultana type of sweetish flavour. We prepared some cauliflower cream and steamed beans which were a great match.

We drank a French Bordeaux with this dish. Whilst not a perfect match it was more than acceptable. I have included a photo of this one as well, not sure where we found it. We have another bottle so I guess there will be some more cheeks soon. 

This dish is highly recommended for a winters evening!

Sierra Nevada. A very nice drop!

The entire range of Sierra Nevada beers have been a fantastic find for me. Not one for the mass produced watery beers that are generally swilled, I prefer to swill something with a little more body and complexity. The Sierra Nevada range certainly delivers to this end.

A word of warning regarding the SN Torpedo. This is not for the faint hearted! Torpedo comes in at 7.2% alcohol, rocket fuel!

I love the complex hop flavours in this beer, it is quite creamy and somewhat top of palate with citrus tones and herbal accents. I tried it in a Reidel IPA glass after trying it in a standard pilsener glass first off, interestingly I found it seemed to mellow and become a little softer in this glass, but then maybe thats what a 7.2% alcohol content does to you!

Fantastic with a blue cheese!