Wild Oats Wine Maker's Dinner at Bogart's

On Wednesday the 25th of May I went to a wine maker's dinner. There were 8 courses and 7 wines. Phew, hard work but someone's got to do it!

To start the evening off, we had a glass of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc.

Ok, the first two courses were queen bouche and eggplant caviar, they were served with a Sauvignon Blanc.
The queen bouche comprised a pastry casing filled with capsicum marmalade topped with grilled goat cheese. The rich sweetness of the capsicum marmalade was well combined with the creamy, slightly salty goat cheese. The eggplant caviar was a delicious mix of eggplant, garlic, cumin and olives - it had a lovely smooth texture.

The next two courses were prawn tartare and spanish mushroom. They were served with the Rose and the Pinot Grigio.
The prawn tartare was marinated in lime juice, coconut milk, red onion and green chilli. It was tender and slightly spicy and went very well with the Rose. Corn chips and prawn tartare = winner combination of texture and flavour.
The spanish mushroom was really delicious, there were seared red emperor slices atop a field mushroom with chorizo cream (and a bit of mash!). The flavours in the dish went really well with the pinot grigio. We all agreed that the Pinot Grigio would stand alone as a quaffing wine too!


Courses 5 and 6 were an eye fillet carpaccio served with Temperanillo and cajun lamb cutlet served with a Cabernet Sauvignon.
The carpaccio had black pepper and capers with it and a generous amount of good olive oil. The slices were wafer thin and wonderfully tender. The Temperanillo was a lovely surprise, fruity and light, another very good quaffing wine!
The cajun lamb fillet was absolutely delightful, tender and juicy and lightly coated in a delicious mix of spices. It came with a yoghurt sweet chilli sauce on the side.

Course 7 was dessert! A creme brulee topped with Grand Marnier, served with a Traminer. The brulee was gorgeously silky and the wine had delicious fruit, they went really well together.


The last course was the cheese course, served with Shiraz.

Tim's/Ten Litchfield, whatever it is called!

On Friday night I went to this restaurant, I'm not sure what it's name actually is, as both names are up on signs at the front.
There were five adults and two kids in our party. Kids eat for free if you order before 6:30, so that's what we did.
We ordered chilli prawns, garlic prawns, 2 steaks and a thai beef salad.
The steaks were reported to be really good (as one of our party is a chef, I feel safe in that conclusion!).
The creamy garlic sauce that covered the prawns tasted more like a white sauce :-( but the chill prawns were good.
The flavour of the dressing and the tenderness of the beef in my Thai beef salad were excellent and the portion of meat was generous. The salad part wasn't particularly "Thai" as it consisted of cos lettuce tomato and cucumber with some grated carrot and snow pea sprouts. All of the ingredients were fresh and tasty though, so it was a nice meal.
If you have a young person whose birthday it is, take note that the restaurant owner will sit at your table and do a magic trick which will have them amazed! A great touch and I think that the young girl in question that night will remember it for a long time!

even more April and May!

Okay, two more dining times.

1. More good food from the burbs: I had a beautiful lamb kofta meal (topped with minted yoghurt sauce) with pulao rice at a friend's place recently, preceded by delicious little tomato and feta tarts (with fresh basil from her garden!) - TALENT!


2. I go to Nightcliff markets most Sunday mornings with a bunch of fantastic folk who get together to train at 7am and then we have coffee and a bite. I had a wholemeal crepe with slivered almonds, sliced banana and maple syrup - YUM! There were also BBQ pork ball rice paper rolls and thai fish cakes. What a great start to the day!

more April and May

I went to the Cool Spot for breakfast and got the vego cooked breakfast. It had mushrooms, spinach, tomato and eggs. The mushrooms were really delicious and the tomato was lovely and ripe. They also use real butter on the toast.

Also, on the recommendation of a friend at work, I have been trying their iced milk drinks and they are really good. My favourite is the iced mocha or the iced coffee as they use espresso coffee and a scoop of coffee gelato in it!

April and May

Quite remiss of me, but I have been dining out and not blogging! Time to get back to it.

Most notably, I had what turned out to be an Easter French toast odyssey!

First there was the new menu at Jamaica Blue (at Casuarina) which includes different toppings for toast and french toast that are all very tempting. Some of the toast toppings I'll be going back for include roasted tomatoes and mushrooms or ricotta, banana and honey.

On the day I went with a friend, I ordered french toast with caramelised bananas and caramel sauce - sadly, no bananas (?) so I had to "settle" for bacon and maple syrup. The bacon was beautifully crisped and the slices of toast were thick and fluffy.


The second French toast moment was at Il Lido. A friend flew in from Bali in the early morning and I got a call saying let's go for French toast!
WOW! This French toast is just awesome! It was served with poached pears, King Island vanilla yoghurt and tangy berry sauce. The view of the waterfront area is really lovely and it was a gorgeous dry season day.




The third French toast moment unfortunately has no photo. I visited my parents and was greeted with hug and a plate of French toast! Delicious.