It was pitch black when my phone alarm went off. I fumbled for my phone and put it on snooze but before it could chime again I raised my weary, sleep deprived body out of its four hour sleep and got up remembering why I had set it so early. I was on my way to Dunkeld, Victoria today to the Royal Mail hotel to help celebrate the launch of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival!
Dunkeld is a small town in Victoria of less than 500 yet incongruously it boasts what is said to be one of Australia’s best restaurants. Set near the Grampian mountain region, it is best accessed by small charter plane. The flight to Melbourne is smooth and then we board the smaller charter plane to get to Hamilton airport which is near Dunkeld. Boarding the small plane is like being in an episode of Being John Malkovich but its thankfully without event and we take the 20 minute drive to The Royal Mail Restaurant where chef Dan Hunter, the former chef de cuisine of Andoni Luis Aduriz’s Basque Mugaritz restaurant (who only days ago had their kitchens devstatingly destroyed by fire). It is also a place that Anthony Bourdain visited during his Australian leg of filming “No Reservations”.
Anthony Bourdain’s visit to The Royal Mail
Before we try out the 10 course degustation we get a tour of their gardens. Yes The Royal Mail is a restaurant that grows as much fruit, vegetable and herb produce as possible and their plan is eventually to have a completely self sustaining garden or should I say gardens as the gardens are spread out across five different properties. Some of the grounds were established 10-12 years ago with some of the fruit trees being 6-10 years old. They only use organic seeds and organic gardening practices. Some items they grow are very unique and hard to find commercially such as a Japanese white strawberry which has a shelf life of 2 days and needs to be handled very delicately.
We’re introduced to young chef Damian Naylor who is the chef that tends to the garden. Yes you read right, the chefs attend to the gardens here. He’s obviously ambitious taking on this task but he says that he also feels that it’s rewarding. They grow a total of 150 herbs and with this also comes challenges. They need to work 15-16 weeks ahead and to avoid having to buy things in, they simply change the menu to suit what is available. Working like this encourages the kitchen to dehydrate, powder and preserve items as much as possible.
I quickly photograph and step away…
We also get a peek into their 25,000 bottle wine cellar where precious bottles of wines are stored such as a $16,000 bottle of Romani Conti. I grab my camera tightly knowing of my clumsiness and propensity to bump into things. Somehow I know I’d trip straight over that $16,000 bottle as I am literally a Taurean in a china shop. After our tour, we sit down to our 10 course degustation prepared by Head Chef Dan Hunter.
Pork sandwich and Sardine on toast served with Philipponnat Reserve Rose (Champagne, France)
Dear Reader, I must tell you that once upon a time I almost failed year 12 Geography because I refused to go camping. For someone with hand washing O.C.D., the idea of camping is unacceptable to my fragile being. I know it won’t kill me but it would have been a miserable few days and even the threat of failing Geography didn’t stop me from opting out. Mr NQN has tried many times to convince me to go camping to no avail. It was only when I given the option of “Glamping” that I finally relented. And “what is Glamping” you may ask? It’s Glamour Camping!
The Pink Post Office!
We were taking a five day drive down the scenic coast thanks to the nice people at Sydney to Melbourne Touring. On the way we’d be stopping at various places to eat and finding quirky little places. Did I mention we’d be looking for seafood too? Oh yes seafood monster reporting for eating duty!
Kiama view
Our first stop is in Kiama. And yes there’s a pink post Office which is so Elle Woods don’t you think darlings? The blowhole isn’t spouting any water today so we stop by for some lunch at the Sebel Kiama where they’ve kindly prepared some of the items from the 1871 restaurant dinner menu for us to have at lunch.
Lobster and scampi papardelle
Serves for mains are huge as we soon learn and the papardelle ribbons are paired with a generous serve of local lobster and scampi. The sauce is thick and creamy and very rich.
Chicken breast with wild mushroom and chard fricasee and port jus
The chicken breast comes out sitting in a huge pool of creamy sauce. It’s incredibly rich although good but even Mr NQN who seemingly has a bottomless stomach for food barely finishes it. The chicken is nicely tender though and the deep fried leaves are a nice contrast to the creamy sauce. After having a quick tour of the grounds and seeing the lovely heritage listed former school building turned into a conference centre, we set off again for the picturesque area of Jervis Bay.
I’m always one for a meal in an unusual location. So when I heard that the food at the Old Convent in Orange was good, it didn’t take much to convince me we had to go. Initially told that it was a weekend cafe, we found out the hard way (i.e. visiting it) that it is actually a Sunday only cafe. Open Sunday only? It’s an unusual strategy but we ring ahead to check whether they are open and they are indeed and we ask if we need to make a reservation which they recommend.
Nestled in the hills of Orange in the area of Borenore we take the short drive there and we park in the driveway. We are the only car there at this time so we walk through the sandstone buildings and peer into a doorway into what looks like a private dining room. Facing it there’s what looks more like to be the restaurant area. We’re greeted warmly and as we are the only guests thus far, we can choose where we’d like to sit either inside or outside, As it’s such a beautiful day choose the sun dappled side area outside which has a cool breeze running through it.
There’s no menu to read here. The waitress simply reads off what is available today which happens to be three dishes, a panzanella salad with rack of lamb, a salmon and potato pie and a pea soup. As we both love rack of lamb we choose this and I am partial to fish pie too (and if I could have fit it in we would have ordered the pea soup too!). As it was we had to cancel our lunch at another restaurant as we couldn’t fit in two courses (many places have a two course minimum).
Mr NQN takes a walk around the grounds to take some pictures while I flick through magazines. We start to hear the sizzle of food and some delicious aromas waft out. In the meanwhile a table for four arrives and sits outside. After about 25 minutes our food arrives. It’s impressive looking certainly and after the obligatory photo taking we dig in.
I have been friends with my dear friend Queen Viv for almost 20 years. And in that time we’ve had some wonderful adventures most of them to do with the fact that she truly attracts some unusual circumstances. So when she asked me if I’d like to come on a road trip to Wollongong I answered an enthusiastic “Yes” and then thought “Oh dear: we’ve both got no road sense and no GPS. Would we end up in Perth?” Then the image of Thelma and Louise flashed through my worried mind.
Wollongong is one of those areas which is great for a day trip as it’s only an hour and twenty minutes away from Sydney by car but the beach side atmosphere and laid back lifestyle means that you actually feel like you’ve gotten away from the “big smoke”. We drive through the Royal National park to take the scenic drive down to Wollongong. It’s full of flowers this spring and Queen Viv, a keen gardener points out the native flannel flowers and huge Gymea Lilies. The drive is scenic and she also points out a nice place to stop and have an ice cream on the way.
Driving south we emerge out of the National Park to see one of the most breathtaking views. It pure Californian beauty with sweeping cliffs and blue water and little cottages on the cliff’s edge below. There are cars that have also stopped just to look at the view. There are also gliders a plenty here suspended in mid air only metres away.
We stop at Ruby’s Kitchen in Stanwell Park on the way. Queen Viv points out that this is near where Jane Campion wrote Sweetie in a blue fibro house. Ruby’s Kitchen Cafe used to be called Ruby’s on the Dust which was a popular surfers hangout where they’d buy lentil burgers after a surf. Indeed there’s a group of surfers with surfboards standing outside as we pull up.
We order a Mezze plate to share as it’s lunchtime but when it comes out we’re a little floored at the size. It’s rather enormous (I guess surfer size) and there are two large wedges of vegetable frittata, three types of dip (beetroot, hummous and olive tapenade), some toasted Turkish bread and a rocket, pumpkin and feta salad.
On our way to Jenolan Caves, a place I hadn’t visited in over 20 years, we stopped by the Whisk & Pin cafe and shop for a little sustenance on our drive. OK technically we didn’t need to as we could have eaten breakfast before we left but I will take any opportunity to stop for a meal. I had heard that the cafe version of the boutique muesli and cookie brand was cute. If a cafe has a shop attached to it, it’s a source of excitement for me and a source of frustration for Mr NQN.
Formerly a post office, it’s a cute white building with seating outside but as it’s lightly drizzling we take a seat inside. To the right there is the kitchen with a range of their cookies, slices and chocolates and further in there’s some more seating with a big comfy leather couch and more things to shop. It’s 11:15am when we arrive and the breakfast menu finishes at 11:30am so they ask us whether we’d prefer the breakfast or lunch menu. We take a look at both and decide on some blueberry pancakes from the breakfast menu and a Reuben sandwich from the lunch menu. Our waitress returns a few minutes later to let us know that one cannot order from separate menus which we find quite arbitrary so we order breakfast of housemade baked beans with speck on sourdough with a fried egg and the blueberry pancakes with blueberry sauce.
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