Lunch at the Rose & Crown in Guildford.

It was Kate's birthday today and we were going to this old English hotel/restuarant/bar for lunch, I think it dates back to 1841, which is old for here. It was a lovely little place with a great outside seating/dining area and a really cool and unique cellar that had original furnishings in it. 

Hubby ordered off the Specials, Beef and Guinness Pie and I ordered off the regular one going with prawns.

The pie was lovely, both the pastry and the filling and there was even a real jus (as chef Stu pointed out), though perhaps there could have been some more meat in the pie the men said! The mashed peas were brilliant, I loved it and have never had them before! How simple. Chef Stu said that if you blitz up some thawed frozen peas with a little mint, mayo and lemon it makes a great accompaniment for fish, so now I really want to try that too!

My dish was just what I was looking for, some prawns, with enough nice sauce to go over the rice. You find sprouts as decoration all the time over here and I love munching on them!

We rounded things off with a Devonshire Tea, which is tea with scones with jam and cream, what more could you ask for!?

Tomorrow holds the start of another road trip, up the West coast this time, 10 days in search of some sun and sea creatures! I don't have any expectations of fine dining up there though I am keen to sample some freshly caught fish! I am also, in a weird way, looking forward to being back from that trip and here for a while so that I can cook again! Looking forward to making pork belly at last, and maybe that mushy pea dip for fish.

Dinner at The Meat & Wine Co. in Melbourne.

We had some mixed dining experiences in Melbourne though the ones on the less than fine scale were purely our fault for being in the wrong area or for expecting decent food out of a place that obviously wasn't going to pull through on it. The place we went to on the last night more than made up for anything that was below par!

Having walked along the Yarra River in Southbank checking out the menus outside all the restuarants we decided on dinner here. Luckily for us we were there at 5:30pm and they seated us at a table that they needed back at 7:30pm because by 6pm it was packed to the gunnels and stayed that way ever since! I imagine you generally need a reservation in order to get a table, and this was a Tues night!

There were cow hides on the wall and drum music playing on the system, the menu was leather bound, the drinks menu was one of the biggest I've seen, this place was obviously what it's name suggests. The first few pages detailed the cows they get their meat from, the farms they are reared on, the lifestyle they have, the grain they are fed, for how long, the grade of marbling on the meat, etc etc. I was still on a steak high from Bojangles in Warrnambool and decided I was going to order something else. Hubby found Kangaroo on the menu and was sold, I went with lamb ribs, something I have never had before. We got a side of veg to share because this was mainly a meat and potato menu.

The Kangaroo was marinated in the house marinade which I couldn't quite break down. Definitely sweet, maybe winey? Whatever it was did the trick of tenderising the meat wonderfully and made it less 'gamey' tasting. It was cooked medium rare, maybe even rare and was melt in your mouth. After a less than delightful experience the first time we ate Kangaroo when we cooked it at home a couple of weeks ago I am glad I gave it another shot as this was superb. It came with a pumpkin and sweet potato mash, sweet potato chips and a black cherry and wine jus. I don't like pumpkin so the side did nothing for me though I am sure it was as fine as the rest of it!

This is what half a rack of lamb ribs looks like, I can't imagine what the full rack would have been like! The ribs were marinated in lemon, herbs and mustard and managed to be as tender as if they were slow cooked yet still pink in places with some caramelised areas, what an amazing finish! I was thoroughly impressed with the ribs. This is the place to go if you have any passion for meat or wine, what a great culinary experience. 

Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne.

This was one of he highlights of the trip, my husband and I couldn't wait to get to the market and see all the wonderful foods and try most of them! The food section was very well arranged, all grid like with each kiosk sectioned off and windows into the fridges and displays. My husband loved this because in most markets he says he is afraid of knocking over stuff on open tables!

We did a lap of it to see it all and sampled some smoked salmon stuffed with cream cheese and proscuitto and then went back around when we had decided what we wanted to eat for lunch.

We filled a container with some smoked trout pate, some spicy hummus and some spinach and nut dip then got a couple of stuffed olives with semi dry tomato and blue cheese. Hubby had a cream cheese stuffed mini bell pepper. We had finally decided on some olive bread to go with it. We found an empty table and sat down to enjoy it all! We tried a few other things and then before we knew it after all the wondering around the other sheds of meats and fish and fresh produce and clothes etc the market was closing! Had we been there for a few more days and had those days not been a Mon or a Wed when it is actually closed we would have spent more time here! We also debated whether we should have rented an apartment with a kitchen so that we could have actually bought some of the meat and fish and veggies and cheeses etc and cooked meals with them instead of being in a hotel. That being said, had that been the case we would have then felt a tad guilty going out for dinners instead of cooking and we wanted to try a few places in Melbourne. We both feel we would like to visit Melbourne again and the market will be high up on the list of things to do!

Amazing food at Bojangles in Warrnambool.

We found this little place in Warrnambool and couldn't wait to try it out! It is only open after 5pm as we found out when we tried to go in for a drink to check the place out a bit earlier. The kitchen was already busy with preparation and the guy back there said to come after 5 and that we wouldn't be disappointed, that was a promise he kept!

The menu is funky, fresh, uses local ingredients and they offer a special. It was this special that had me convinced of what I was going to order before we were even seated! The pork belly! Yum!

Now can you imagine my horror when they told us they were out of the special, boo! When I went to the kitchen and chatted with the chef on our way out and he explained the process I understood how they could run out of it. It can be a couple day procedure and very time consuming, I only wish we were around longer so we could have gone back when there was some ready. 

Sorrow over the special aside, we dove into the menu and decided on some arancini balls to start - deep fried risotto balls filled with taleggio cheese and mushroom served with parmesan aioli and rocket. How wonderful! They were so delightfully arranged as well with rocket and red pepper and dressing drizzled around the plate. I did take a pic but it wasn't in focus but at least you get the idea.

My husband ordered the lamb rump with seasonal veg, it came with a roasted tomato and a burnt honey and rosemary red wine jus. The lamb was perfectly medium rare and the jus was amazing. However, I was so besotted with my dish and he with his that we didn't entirely share meals like we normally do. I think we did a meat swop twice but the rest of the time we were very defensive of our food. 

I ordered the aged yearling eye fillet with seafood, garlic and cream and the seasonal veg. It was one of the best pieces of meat I have ever had. They tell you to expect a 30-40min wait if you order the steak and this is because they want to let it rest so long after cooking it in order to serve it right. The seafood was local mussles, clams, scallops, prawns, octopus and squid in onion and garlic cream sauce. I loved the local veg - mushrooms, green beans and roasted spring/green onion (which was a first for me). The sauce was rich but I was in heaven with having the best of both worlds! I had to restrain myself from running my finger on the plate to get some more of the sauce up, and I mashed my potatoes into it too to soak it up!

Dessert left a bit to be desired but I don't want to tarnish the experience because of that. The rest of the food was some of the best we have ever had. It was an all round fantastic experience, and I was really pleased that the chef took the time to walk me through the pork belly cooking process when I stopped by the kitchen on the way out. It is an open concept kitchen that you walk through to get to the seating area and that people wait in (and can order drinks in) when they wait for take out pizzas, so it was easy to find someone to question. I am now extremely anxious to make some myself and can't wait to try it when we are back from our next road trip.

Cheese and breads in Warrnambool.

One of the things we loved about being on the road was finding local products to eat. On our way into Warrnambool we went to Cheese World, which isn't huge on a global scale of cheese places but it had local, out of the ordinary, you won't find in a grocery store, cheese. And they did tastings every half hour with some local wine samplings. The shop also sold these locals wines along with jams, honey, relishes, dips, other type stuff. 

We left with a lovely smoked gouda, some cream cheese stuffed mini bell peppers and a local jam and honey. We made up a tray of these goodies along with some fresh local bread, country grain, caraway, seedy ones and some aged cheddar we already had. It was a wonderful way to sample some local produce. We even took smoked cheese and honey sandwiches with us on the road one day to The Grampians, very classy!

Room Six in Port Campbell - The Big Burger and Affogato.

We are back in Perth for a couple of days before we set off on the next mini trip so not much time to cram in a few entries about the food we ate on the last 2 week road trip, but enough to get some of it out anyway! I have to say there were some mediocre meals, some down right awful ones and some phenomenal ones too to balance it out!

Along the Great Ocean Road where we were eating lots of picnic lunches in the car and cooking in little kichenettes etc, we came into a small town called Port Campbell and decided we were going to eat for lunch. We wandered the street, as that is all there is really, and decided on this place because they had cheap specials on the board outside. It was nothing inside that we were expecting, in fact it had a great appearance, wooden half walls, nice art and while I ordered off the special menu that had gotten us there in the first place, hubby ordered the burger off the regular menu and didn't need to eat for a day after! It was enormous!

It came with seasoned wedges and sour cream/sweet chilli dip. Every part of the burger was top quality, the meat patty filled the entire bun rather than the small island you sometimes get in a sea of bun. At one point he took his knife and fork to cut off and eat the bacon and egg that was hanging out the side and it took several bites to get through the cross section of it! I was hugely impressed with the appearance and when I tried it the patty was very good. For a generally non burger fan I can see why someone would love them when I saw this, and I would highly, highly recommend going there if only for this burger! The great value specials menu is a great reason to go and the regular menu offers a great selection and if it is anything like the food we sampled you won't be disappointed.

To round things off we ordered an Affogato, the vanilla bean ice cream and the Espresso were great quality too!

Fried rice with bbq pork tenderloin, topped with an egg.

I treated our friends to some of  my fried rice tonight, you never know how it will turn out really, just go with what is around. There should be an extensive entry on fried rice a while back so I won't go over it again. We had it with a bbq pork tenderloin that hubby cooked on the Q for 20mins and let rest for 10mins, it was perfectly done with a little pale pink and full of moisture. Chef Stu said that you have to have an egg on top of your fried rice so we threw a couple on the griddle on the Q and tried it, very nice indeed! Break the yolk over the rice and dig in. 

This will be my last cooked meal in a proper kitchen for 2 weeks because we are off to see south Australia and Ayers Rock! We will stay in places with kitchens so no doubt there will be some interesting creations on the road, and as we have been told by lots of people, Melbourne is the food capital of Oz, can't wait to go! So I will have to do some major catching up on food entries when we get back here.

Freshly caught squid off the jetty in Bussleton, Western Australia.

I had to write about this as so often there is a huge disassociation with food or perhaps even just a lack of knowledge of where 'food' really comes from. 

There is a jetty in Bussleton in Western Australia, that is 1.8km long, the longest wooden one in the Southern Hemisphere. We visited it on our way back from the Margaret River area and walked to the end and back. Half way back we got caught in a huge rain storm but that is by the by! When we go to the end we found a couple of fishermen with this bucket, I had no idea what they were until I asked and they offered up that they were squid, larger than normal! One of them was a chef or a cook, because he said that they were bigger than he was used to working with and that he was going to take these into work that night and cook them up. As we continued on the rest of the walk back to land all I could think of was where he might work and how he would cook them and how wonderful they would taste having only been caught that morning! 

Half way back, shortly before the storm broke, we came across a family who were also fishing for squid.  This was one that one of the sons had caught, they were waiting for it to squirt it's ink apparently and then the Dad was going to pull the head off. 

I asked if they were going to eat it and then how they were going to cook it, because I can't help myself! The Dad said yes and that they would pan fry it. At this point the youngest son piped up, in quite a disturbed voice, "Are we really going to eat it?". His Mum told him yes they were and that it is the same as what he gets at the Fish & Chip place only they didn't have to pay for this one! Awesome!

On an aside note, aren't they amazing creatures for the way they change their colour?! Creative as well as tasty!

Sea Garden Cafe in Prevelly, Western Australia.

This was a great little find after watching the sunset at Surfer's Point we drove literally around the corner into Prevelly and here it was. The location is perfect, you can sit outside and watch the sunset and listen to the ocean below, how good is that!? We had a lovely little wooden table with benches and a lantern with a tea light in and there are lights strung through the trees. 

The food was good. I don't want to come down hard on them and be critical because it was a nice place and the staff were good and the kitchen was obviously trying really hard to step it up a notch for such a small town. The menu is on a chalk board which the waitress brings round and props against a tree near you. Hubby had lamb cutlets with garlic mash and green beans, I had beer battered fish and chips.

The lamb was a little over done, the beans were very over done and the mash seemed to have raw garlic in it instead of roasted. However, hubby was pleased with it and I enjoyed my share of the lamb.

My meal was very good, the fish was very well done, crispy, not dripping with oil, the chips were perfectly seasoned, I didn't even ask for ketchup! I could taste the beer in the batter. It was also a nicer side salad than I was expecting too! I am not a fan of the tartare sauce over this way though, for some reason it is really sweet, I am wondering if it is made with salad cream instead of mayo? Or it is just me who is odd, who likes it really tart, with lots of lemon in it and dill!

Unfortunately they were out of ice cream so we couldn't have the affogato we were craving (ice cream with a shot of espresso over it).

The Sea Garden also serves lunch and breakfast and there was quite an extensive menu. I read some reviews and it seems that it is very popular with the locals as well as the tourists. I would definitely recommend this place, the location is half the experience and hopefully the food will please as well.

BushShack Brewery, Yallingup, Western Australia.

We are fresh back from 4 days down in the Margaret River area, which is prime wine country! Few days of heaven in a chalet by the beach with the ocean crashing below and the birds and 'roos all around us! We had been told about this tiny little place called the BushShack Brewery and headed there for a look-see. As well as teeming with wineries, Margaret River is full of breweries and art galleries, cheese farms, venison farms, olive oil, the list goes on. 

The BushShack Brewery is just that, a shack, in the middle of some forest, but it had such a feel about it! They brew all their own beer there and some other drinks, I tried the Mango Madness which was very tasty.

Hubby had a stout type of beer and was sad that he had to drive after as he could have stayed and tried more of them. They actually do a sampler which has 6 lots of beer at 100ml size for $14 which would be really fun.

The menu is modest, a few snack type items. Hubby had a toasted chicken, cheese and avocado (the Aussie's love avo!) on Turkish bread and I had some potatoes with salsa, beans, cheese, sour cream and chives with a side of jalapenos. Yum!

Fully refreshed and full we set off down the coast to visit Augusta, Margaret River, watch the sunset at Surfer's Point in Prevelly and have dinner in the Sea Garden, which is another entry on it's own.