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Congratulations to Joey at 80 Breakfasts . You voted her terrine tops in the latest Hay Hay Its Donna Day Thanks Tami at Running With Tweezers for the great theme and hosting. We are taking a short break over Christmas and Joey will announce the next Hay Hay Its Donna Day in January.
I made Joey's terrine this week. Mine doesn't look as nice as Joeys but it did taste good.
Sadly I missed last months Daring Baker event hosted by Mary of Alpineberry . Those Bostini Cream Pies did look good. This month Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups is hosting and has chosen Tender Potato Bread.
Nigel over at the NZ blog Curios Kai has documented his making of a traditional Maori Potato Bread known as Rewena Bread . Potato is used as the leavening agent.
I've been trying to find the time to make my bread since we got back from Australia on 12th November. An invite from Arfi to go whitebaiting on the Waikato River and instructions to bring something for a shared lunch gave me the excuse.
I started the process about 5PM Tuesday night by boiling the potatoes. By 10 PM I had two loaves of focaccia sitting on the bench. This was my first time using potato in bread dough. All went well with the dough and the baking. I used 16 ounces of potato and did not need to add all of the flour. The dough was soft as I expected. Personally I prefer my regular plain old flour dough. But it was fun to try this dough. Thanks for the challenge Tanna.
Here are a few photos of the white baiting trip. That's Arfi in the pink top. You can tell she's a blogger - she's wearing a camera. Click on any photo to enlarge.
We had lots of fun and the white bait fritters were delicious.
....so much so we are returning there to live. Very soon actually. Like in just 4 weeks time. Originally we thought we would come home and have Christmas in New Zealand and move in 2008. Then we thought,why wait, so we made some calls and we are leaving New Zealand for ever on 20th December and making a new home on the Gold Coast. After 32 years on this side of the Tasman I'm heading home.
Here are a few things I love about Queensland.
People watching at Palazzo Versace
Crab sandwiches at the The Spit Kiosk
Prawns from Pete's Fish Market - perfect with a bottle of semillon.
Dinner a Shirl's
The best morning coffee/ afternoon beer view.
We don't want it being over run by tourists. If you visit I'll blindfold you and take you there.
We spent our last night in Melbourne at Movida , the best Spanish Restaurant in the country according to Australian Gourmet magazine. It requires a bit of booking ahead but we were lucky and got a table within a couple of days. It was much too dark to take any photos but I have a photo from opposite the front entrance. Melbourne is full of lots of little lanes where we discovered interesting little bars and cafés to stop for coffee or wine. The lanes also have some interesting graffiti art and this was one of my favourites outside Movida.
We chose to share a selection of different dishes. My Mother had flown over from Perth to spend the week with us and it seemed a good way to introduce her to the many tastes of Spain. Check out the menu here. Naturally we had the Iberico Jamon , Morcilla and Pulpo. I have one complaint - the Churros . They were great but the dipping sauce was not up to standard. The chocolate taste was over shadowed by the cornflour used as a thickener. A couple of days earlier we had shared a plate of churros with some friends in Ackland Street at an ordinary little Mexican restaurant - the dipping sauce was pure melted chocolate.
Our other memorable meal was at Hako . It took us a little while to find this place. Stephanie had recommended the restaurant to me but it has moved since then. I sensed my mother and Bryan getting a bit cross as I insisted I had come this far and today I wasn't going to lunch anywhere else but Hako. We eventually found it at its new address 310 Flinders Lane. Look out for a review in the Melbourne Age in December - they were taking photos for the article when we arrived. The only decent photo I have taken here is of my mother having her first taste of Sake. Not a pretty sight. All the more for me Mother.
I love Tempura and as soon as I saw it on the menu my decision was made. It was served as part of a Bento Box with the usual rice and miso. Excellent.
Plum had suggested a couple of her favourites. The first being Di Stasio where we had a quick pasta on our first night after arriving late in Melbourne. It was a busy Thursday night and we walked in off the street around 9 PM. Service was slow and the portions, although tasty, were small. Bryan's pasta main was the same size as my pasta entrée although very different in price. So I did something I have never done before. When they made a mistake on the bill and didn't charge for one glass of wine I didn't point it out. I'm of the opinion if you are going to complain about being over charged you should be prepared to point out when you have been under changed. But not tonight. We paid the bill and made off into the night. Almost crashing into Ben Lee in our rush to disappear before they noticed.
Plum's other recommendation Cacoa Café was more successful. Gorgeous chocolates and cakes. I had my eye on a particular bright lime green cake but on the day we visited the cake was gone and no more due in for a couple of days. If I couldn't have bright green I'd have something red - this pretty strawberry and chocolate and vanilla mousse. Ohh YUM.
We visited Prahran Markets several times to pick up supplies for picnics when the weather was nice. I'd shop here if we lived in Melbourne. Here are a photos taken on our visits.
...and cupcakes from the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery
Next post : eating in Queensland
After a busy week in Melbourne we felt like taking it easy for a couple of days. Daylesford was on our route north and the perfect spot for some quiet time. An added bonus, it was the home of the award winning Lake House hotel and restaurant.
Despite the fabulous a lá carte menu and even better wine list we decided to have the well priced menu special of a main and entrée with a glass of wine and finish with something from the dessert menu. The staff were excellent . It wasn't a busy lunch service so we enjoyed chatting with them and gleaning some local knowledge.
We shared the entree platter for two.
You can only eat trout in New Zealand if you catch it yourself or you happen to know someone who fishes for trout and they are happy to give you their catch. Here was my chance to eat trout. The last time I ate it was in France in 2004. At the Lake House it was served pan fired with a crisp skin and meltingly soft inside.
Bryan said his chicken was sensational.
We were to full to face dessert so set off for a walk around the lake in the hope we would be hungry on our return.
Sadly we still couldn't face dessert. We did get to see the private dining room which had been prepared for a photo shoot on the day we were there.
The table is in the cellar and opens out onto a private balcony over looking the lake where you can enjoy pre dinner drinks before moving inside for dinner at the beautifully set tables using native bush flowers. This would be the perfect venue to celebrate a special birthday.
On our walk around the lake we spotted this lone little duckling paddling furiously towards his mother and siblings.
Next post: Some Melbourne food experiences.
I love a sun burnt country, a land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror- the wide brown land for me!
From MY COUNTRY by Dorothea McKellar.
Every Australian child at some point in their school years learns this piece of Australian Bush poetry. Driving the inland route between Melbourne and Brisbane I suddenly found myself reciting the second stanza of this well known poem. I've always understood the poem but it wasn't until I experienced the wide horizons I saw before us I really began to appreciate the words.
My Country was written by Dorothea McKellar in 1904 while in England and homesick for the country of her birth, Australia.
And then after two days heading north we find the rugged mountain ranges.
.......and finally after all that driving we arrived at my favourite piece of Australia.
...the Gold Coast, Queensland.
I heart Australia. Come back in a day or two for some foodie adventures. I had many.
