If you order duck breast well-done, in my opinion you should not complain if it is tough and dry. T sensibly ordered rare duck breast and reported it was tender and succulent. S is squeamish about rare duck so serves her right. The duck (15.95) was served on mashed kumara, which here they call sweet potato.
So pleased to find offal on a menu that I made the agonizing decision to forego the duck in favour of the calf liver (13.95). The waiter asked how I would like it done. Rare of course. Same remarks apply to liver as to duck. What made this dish a 9/10 were the accompanying roast cloves of unpeeled garlic. One extracts the savoury contents by squishing the clove with the tongue up against the roof of the mouth and - ok, gross but delightful.
S ordered a bottle of Seppelts chardonnay. I would never have chosen this wine, but I have now lived and learned. It had a beautiful rich musk rose flavour.
The menu at the Trout is vast. It is a very professionaly run gastropub, and I would say the kitchen can probably do justice to it all.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Pub lunch at Anthill pub, UC Irvine California
Hamburger: beef, cheese, and onion in a bun with large quantites of avocado and refried beans oozing out. Served in a basket with fried corn tortilla chips and a large pickled cucumber sliced lengthwise. Interesting. Not bad. At least I managed to avoid the mayo and thousand island dressing.
I guess the Orange County folks would be astounded by a hamburger Queensland style: beef, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, sliced tinned beetroot, a slice of tinned pineapple, optional bacon, egg, and cheese, and tomato sauce.
I guess the Orange County folks would be astounded by a hamburger Queensland style: beef, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, sliced tinned beetroot, a slice of tinned pineapple, optional bacon, egg, and cheese, and tomato sauce.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Buckley's Crossing Hotel, Dalgety NSW
Sunday 10 July,2011
Take the Monaro highway south from Canberra, at Cooma turn east and drive out to the little (pub-less, almost everything-less) village of Numeralla. (Pause along this road to enjoy some of the complex views to the north.) Take the Carlaminda road to the right. It more or less follows the pretty Numeralla River, through hilly woooded to open country. Then the jaw-dropper - you rise a crest and the great Monaro plain is thrown out before you, big, big sky country, colours and lights and textures you have never seen before, a rising and falling dreamscape. You have to sip it slowly. I crept Odette along in second gear and took the first opportunity to turn around, backtrack to the bend before the crest, and do a rerun. The dramatic appearance of this amazing landscape is just as exhilarating second time round.
The little town of Dalgety is right in the middle of the Monaro on the bank of the Snowy River. Buckley's Crossing Hotel is under new ownership but there is nothing innovative about the counter menu. Veggies are off for Sunday lunch so the compulsory accompaniment was chips and salad. Factory chips, minimal salad. I ordered "Lamb cutlets", which tuned out to be crumbed lamb cutlets ($15.50). In this part of the world there is only one way of doing lamb cutlets so why waste words on the menu? Served were 3 generous and quite succulent ones, although slightly overcooked to my taste. No bread or roll provided.
Elizabeth David, author "French Provincial Cooking", etc, became so exasperated with the failure of English restaurants to provide bread with meals that she took to bringing her own home-made bread to restaurants. If we all emulated her maybe eateries would get the message. If these Aussie country pubs could also lift their game a bit - I am not talking about providing haute cuisine, just good quality, nicely cooked pub-grub with some local specialties - more suburbanites would get out to these lovely little country towns and villages and spend their money there.
Getting back to Dalgety, on the hill overlooking the river and with panoramic views of the Monaro is Our Lady of the Sea Catholic church. The best element of the architecture is the old brick dunny in a corner of the church paddock. It has a wooden bench in which there is an adult bum-sized hole next to a child bum-sized hole, over a six-foot drop.
Would I have built the national capital at Dalgety, as it very nearly was? An ultra high-rise city of skyscrapers rising out of the Monaro plain would look really cool!
Take the Monaro highway south from Canberra, at Cooma turn east and drive out to the little (pub-less, almost everything-less) village of Numeralla. (Pause along this road to enjoy some of the complex views to the north.) Take the Carlaminda road to the right. It more or less follows the pretty Numeralla River, through hilly woooded to open country. Then the jaw-dropper - you rise a crest and the great Monaro plain is thrown out before you, big, big sky country, colours and lights and textures you have never seen before, a rising and falling dreamscape. You have to sip it slowly. I crept Odette along in second gear and took the first opportunity to turn around, backtrack to the bend before the crest, and do a rerun. The dramatic appearance of this amazing landscape is just as exhilarating second time round.
The little town of Dalgety is right in the middle of the Monaro on the bank of the Snowy River. Buckley's Crossing Hotel is under new ownership but there is nothing innovative about the counter menu. Veggies are off for Sunday lunch so the compulsory accompaniment was chips and salad. Factory chips, minimal salad. I ordered "Lamb cutlets", which tuned out to be crumbed lamb cutlets ($15.50). In this part of the world there is only one way of doing lamb cutlets so why waste words on the menu? Served were 3 generous and quite succulent ones, although slightly overcooked to my taste. No bread or roll provided.
Elizabeth David, author "French Provincial Cooking", etc, became so exasperated with the failure of English restaurants to provide bread with meals that she took to bringing her own home-made bread to restaurants. If we all emulated her maybe eateries would get the message. If these Aussie country pubs could also lift their game a bit - I am not talking about providing haute cuisine, just good quality, nicely cooked pub-grub with some local specialties - more suburbanites would get out to these lovely little country towns and villages and spend their money there.
Getting back to Dalgety, on the hill overlooking the river and with panoramic views of the Monaro is Our Lady of the Sea Catholic church. The best element of the architecture is the old brick dunny in a corner of the church paddock. It has a wooden bench in which there is an adult bum-sized hole next to a child bum-sized hole, over a six-foot drop.
Would I have built the national capital at Dalgety, as it very nearly was? An ultra high-rise city of skyscrapers rising out of the Monaro plain would look really cool!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Boorowa pubs
There are three pubs in Boorowa, NSW: The Ram and Stallion, which offered a $9 special called "half-rump with chips & salad", The Courthouse Hotel, where the $10 special was T-bone steak with chips & salad, and the Boorowa Hotel where the $10 special was the Sunday Roast.
I chose the $10 Roast. Lamb and pork were offered but at 12:45 when I arrived the lamb was already gone. The roast pork wasn't bad value. It came with potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, peas, corn, carrots, and kumara. Meat smothered in gravox gravy. No crackling.
You can't expect too much more for $10, but there are ways of improving such a dish without making it more expensive. Try replacing some of the vegetables with an apple puree. Use the meat juices in the gravy instead of gravox.
Boorowa is gorgeous. It gently decays in sunshiny shabbiness. Along Trucking Yard Lane are relics of the long-closed branch line: a timber trestle railway bridge over a weedy gully, a beautiful signal - intact - and a turn-table.
Decided to drive on to the pretty village of Murringo for coffee. No pub there but on a previous visit I had a decent cappucino at the cafe. Too bad. The cafe had closed down. Get out there you wanky Canberrans and support these little places!
Zigzagged through the countryside past St Clements (now there's a story for another post) to Galong - no coffee there, and the pub was not open - then Binalong where a Glassblower made me a superb long black with milk on the side.
I chose the $10 Roast. Lamb and pork were offered but at 12:45 when I arrived the lamb was already gone. The roast pork wasn't bad value. It came with potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, peas, corn, carrots, and kumara. Meat smothered in gravox gravy. No crackling.
You can't expect too much more for $10, but there are ways of improving such a dish without making it more expensive. Try replacing some of the vegetables with an apple puree. Use the meat juices in the gravy instead of gravox.
Boorowa is gorgeous. It gently decays in sunshiny shabbiness. Along Trucking Yard Lane are relics of the long-closed branch line: a timber trestle railway bridge over a weedy gully, a beautiful signal - intact - and a turn-table.
Decided to drive on to the pretty village of Murringo for coffee. No pub there but on a previous visit I had a decent cappucino at the cafe. Too bad. The cafe had closed down. Get out there you wanky Canberrans and support these little places!
Zigzagged through the countryside past St Clements (now there's a story for another post) to Galong - no coffee there, and the pub was not open - then Binalong where a Glassblower made me a superb long black with milk on the side.
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