Riverena wineries, it is also about drinking as it turns out!

Christmas this year was a bit strange for me, instead of the cold, wet or snow I usually get in the UK I was in a small town called Leeton, which is a 4 hour drive from Canberra, Australia's capital, having an Italian-Australian Christmas with my fiancées family (there was 14 of us on the big day!)

As a reward for being on Santa's nice list this year I got taken to visit a few of the wineries in the Riverena region of New South Wales while we were there. 65% of the wine produced in New South Wales is produced in this area and it is easy so see why as the drive from Leeton to Griffith reveal kilometre after kilometre of grape vines.

Many of the regions wine making facilities are based around Griffith, there are some impressive facilities including the one pictured where they make Yellowtail wines. Sadly there is no cellar door here so we made the short drive to another large winery which has been established in the region for a long time, the "De Bortoli" winery (http://www.debortoli.com.au) who are famed for their dessert wines (the noble one, which is a botrytis semillion and the black noble, which is a port style fortified wine) as well as doing a lot of wines that are typical for the region, specifically Chardonnay and Shiraz (as well as the semillion they use for the botrytis based dessert wine).

The second vineyard we visited is another of the original Riverena vineyards, McWilliams. This was one of those tasting that you have occasionally when things get a little out of hand. I think this usually seems to happen when there is no-one else in the tasting shop (check), you look like serious buyers (check, my fiancées parents were with us)
and the server knows what they are talking about (check, the girl serving us was 6th generation McWilliams). The final key ingredient is a great selection of wine, and they certainly had that on the cellar door.

We drank a wide variety of the Riverena wines talking about the problems they had in the area for the last couple of years with rain and the related fungal problems.

We worked our way through the whites, the stand out being a very drinkable Reisling from 2011 from the Hanwood Estate range (we left with bottles of the 2011 Chardonnay, Reisling and Pinot Gris) but it was really the 2 reds picture below that were the stars of the afternoon, both are from the McWilliams flagship range. The 2010 Maurice O'shea mount pleasant Shiraz was still a little sharp and needed to be cellared for a few years, but was quite typical of the hunter valley Shiraz wines, being a little less rich that the ones we'd tried earlier in Canberra, with a slightly more earthly taste and a peppery finish. The next bottle was the one we ended up buying, a 2008 McWilliams "1877" Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon, this is a beaut (I am adopting the lingo) of a red, deep, rich and fruity with a smooth texture which will be at its peak in 5 years time. At Around 80 AUD a bottle it is not cheap (you can buy a maximum of 12 and there are unusually not per case discounts!) but I think it will be we'll worth it in a few years time!

I then got to try the full selection of ports, sherries and brandies, the strangest one of the being a cream port, we were reliably informed this was created by accident after someone poured port into the sherry barrel, but they continue to make it after they found it tasted a lot better than you may think. Having tried a glass I would say that although it is drinkable it is something of an acquired taste, very much like you'd imagine port and cream would taste, we bought a bottle to make trifle with! McWilliams do have an excellent brandy, the chairmanship show reserve, which was a really smooth, rich easy drinking brandy.

As you can probably tell I would highly recommend this vineyard if you are in the area, especially if you are not the one driving home!

Wine tasting in Canberra.

Having arrived safely in Australia and spent a week in Sydney we headed to Australia's capital, Canberra, for a few nights.

As well as boasting some of Australia's best restaurants Canberra also sits on the edge of the Murrembatenman wine region, where they claim to grow cool climate wines (I say "claim" because it was about 35 degrees when we turned up) with a lot of the local vineyards having a "cellar door" which means you can go, do a tasting and buy a few cases of wine. This often gives you a chance to talk to the producer and find out a bit about the wines.

There are around 20 wineries in the region although most are not open for the whole week, usually only on Fridays and at weekends (and sometimes during the harvests, not at all). We arrived on a Friday a few days before Christmas and found quite a few we're closed.

We started with Clonakilla which is quite a prestigious vineyard having won several awards for their 2008 and 2009 Shiraz Viognier, they also have a selection of Reisling, Viognier and Semillion .
However like many in the region they have struggled with the weather in the last few years and their more recent reds are a long way from the thick, rich jammy Shiraz which the region is famed for. Having sampled the pretty watery, almost pinot noir like 2011 and 2010 Shiraz (strange that they were the ones available for tasting as these were not really ready to drink) we decided to exit without making a purchase, there is always a bit of pressure to buy at these things but if they are charging 85 AUD (around 60 quid) for a bottle that I can't imagine winning any awards anytime soon then I think a quick exit is always a good plan.

The second vineyard, Helm, was a lot better, down a gravel road about 5km from the main town in a quaint old school house from 1888. They had a much better selection of reds available from 2008 and 2009 as well as some of the more recent whites. Talking to the owner (who drove to meet us when she saw our arrival) we found that during the wet years in 2011 and 2010 they hadn't been able to make a red. The red we eventually purchased was a 25 AUD 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, which (at the risk of sounding like a wine blogger) was smooth, full bodied with hints of cherries and was an excellent wine to accompany steak or cheese.

After a hard morning drinking we headed to Shaw vineyard estate for some food in their "Flint in the Vines" cafe where they serve a selection of food and wine.

We had 2 really nice pizza's (although we avoided the adventurous sounding blue cheese and pear topping) while sampling the 2010 premium reisling, which was a dry floral, crisp wine with a touch of green apple. After a very satisfying lunch (note: that one pizza per couple would have been plenty of food) we tasted some of the other wines they had to offer and found ourselves leaving with a few bottles of a very easy drinking sparkling white wine made from semillion called "Cielo", ideal for hot afternoons it had a light citrus taste and was available for 20AUD a bottle.

Sadly that bought an end to the tasting but I am keen to return on a weekend when more of the vineyards are open (although I have a feeling it will have a serious effect on my bank balance so I will probably need a job first). Next stop will be the Riverena region (which makes 65%
of New South Wales wines, including the yellow tail Chardonnay) followed by the Hunter valley.

Kuala Lumpur, it's all about shopping!

For my first trip to Asia we went for a gentle introduction, Kuala Lumpur formerly part of the British empire (complete with cricket pitch in the centre of the old town) is a common stopping off point on the flight to Australia.

The city is, at first glance, very modern, with the Petronas towers dominating the skyline on clear days (sometimes it can be smoggy). It also has 3 massive upmarket shopping centres which are linked by kilometres of overground walkways for pedestrians (air conditioned of course!)

Food wise there was a huge array to choose from, for tourists most hotels have 2 or 3 restaurants in them, also all of the major shopping centres have a floor of restaurants with cuisines from all around the world. Our hotel, the Royal Chulane, had an excellent Malaysian restaurant which, although more expensive (at 40 ringgit, or 8 pounds for a main) than some options served an excellent curry.

The best place to grab lunch is probably in the food courts of the shopping centres, these are usually on the ground floor and are not to be confused with the sit in restaurants which are usually on the higher floors and charge closer to 30 ringgit for a main. The food courts have a central sit in area (at busy times it can be tough to get a seat) and a Cosmopolitan feel with noodles, curry, Mexican, sushi and McDonalds all jostling for your attention. Meals here usually cost around 10 Ringgit (2 pounds) for a main dish and are usually pretty tasty (I tried a Malay chicken hot pot which was really good and a burrito which was ok).

The hotel we were staying in was a 5 star hotel, complete with pool, gym and 3 restaurants all available for a very reasonable 60 pounds a night, including an interesting "international" breakfast. If you have never seen one of these then you are missing out, food from waffles to curry, not forgetting noodles and croissants! The only thing missing was bacon.

Rather than spend all of our time in the hotel and shopping centres we also ventured out (initially via taxi but after 30 minutes in a bank holiday traffic jam where we moved 200 meters we got out and walked) to try the highly recommended Bijan restaurant which also serves traditional Malay cuisine (most of which seem to be curries and seafood dishes)

Although the food was pretty good and had a very traditional feel I think the excellent meal in the hotel (at approximately the same price) was more of a fine dining experience. If you have time I would do both!

Eating in Rome

As the first stop on our crazy round the world adventure my fiancée and I spent a few nights staying with friends in Rome before embarking on a marathon 14 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur.

The best way to experience the culture in any city is to do it with a native, avoiding all the tourist traps and pitfalls (also speaking the lingo helps smooth the way somewhat).

The first thing I noticed about Italy is that it is cheaper to eat standing up, most Romans do this for breakfast, they stand and drink espresso while eating their cornetto (Italian for croissant!) before making way for the next person to get their caffeine fix. The moment you sit down at the table then you'll pretty much end up paying double! If the coffee shop you have chosen doesn't appear to have a group of locals huddled around a bar type area near an espresso machine then leave as you are in a tourist trap and the coffee will be awful (and expensive)!

Lunch can also be got on the cheap in this way, from either one of the take away pizza shops (which usually have square trays of different pizza varieties on display and charge by toppings and weight) or somewhere that does apperitivos. These are small bites (like Spanish pixos) which are available for a small cost, you can buy a beer and get a plate and if you stand or perhaps sit on a high stool next to a shelf you can keep getting more (in most places) at no extra cost!

If you want a more sit down affair then there are loads of options, I would probably say it is best to steer clear of anything but Italian and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety even in the Italian restaurants.

I had some amazing meals in Rome, the pasta degustation at Isidor (about 500 meters east of the collesium) is a must and a bargain with 5 courses of pasta available at around 18 euros (most of these came with seafood). We also had breakfast at a crazily busy coffee shop called Parnella most days. The is a little way south of Termini station and is out of the way for most hotels but as I said before, you'll find good breakfast places near you, just make sure some Italians are eating there.

We also had a meal out in Trastevere, which is a small, bohemian area near the Vatican at a nice little bistro style restaurant called cafe la Scala, where I sampled some of the more traditional Roman fayre, this included saltimbocca (veal wrapped in Palma ham, served is a creamy, salty sauce) which I would say you should definitely try at some point if you are in Rome.

The final recommendation, of Marenega in Campo de' Fiori, comes with a bit of a caveat, one of the people we stayed with works there, but regardless of this it was my favourite meal of the holiday. I should also point out we didn't eat off the menu throughout, see the lobster surprise below, which was a surprisingly amazing calzone style pizza filled with lobster linguine, but we did for most of the meal. We had a wide selection of starters and i have to say the meat there was stunning (well cooked and tender) but everything we tried I would recommend, including pasta inside a pizza, which was one of the most surprising meals I have ever had.

Just a quick note on the wine, house wine is usually the best way to drink on a budget, in the better restaurants these are usually pretty good local types, i would suggest getting a 250ml taster on the cheap to try before you go for the full litro. Alternatively I would go for some of the regional Italian wines, my personal preference being a Montepulciano, I know some Italian wines have developed a bad reputation in the uk but I think that is because most of the good stuff stays in Italy!

All sweetness and night at The Duck and Waffle

For my final London fine dining experience for a while (I am going travelling for the next 6 months so this blog will be taking on a more international flavour) me, my partner (now fiancée) and my best friend headed to the top of heron tower in an express glass elevator which covers the 40 floors in under 30 seconds!

As the London skyline at night burst into view I thought that perhaps the journey up would be the most impressive thing of the evening, however the view from the restaurant at the top is even more impressive and the food itself manages to still be the highlight of the night.

The food on offer is a series of strange, well presented tapas, most of which has a sweet tang, which is also mirrored in the wine list with many options being off dry.

We started with pigs ears, which I would recommend to anyone who, like me, loves pork scratchings. Then between 3 of us we shared 4 of the smaller plates, the excellent rabbit rilette, a really interesting fois gras all day breakfast, the octopus and ox cheek donuts with apricot jam. All the food made a good sharing and talking point and set us up for the signature duck and waffle, which is one of their large plate options.

The duck and waffle itself was a really nice flavour combination, it is served with maple syrup (who needs gravy?) and although while eating it you occasionally find yourself thinking you are having a dessert, I would still definitely recommend it.

As you'd expect from a restaurant with such an obvious sweet tooth the desserts were also stunning, both in looks, taste and the amount of sugar they managed to get into them, we tried one each (a pear, a chocolate fondant and a chocolate raspberry one) and they were diabetes good, although my partner found hers too sweet (which was great as I got more of it!)

The only slight downside would be the cost of most of the wines, there isn't a lot of choice at the 20-40 pound price point although the bottle we plumped for in the end did go really well with the food.

Obviously, as with most fine dining experiences, you would be well advised to book a long way in advance, with tables for more than 2 people often requiring over 6 weeks notice, even on quieter week nights. Price wise expect to spend 45 per head on food and as much as you feel like on drinks.

I have to say that it was an excellent way to leave London on a high (not least from the sugar)

A tale of two curries

I love a good curry, so when, as part of London restaurant week, I got chance to try a michelin starred version I naturally jumped at the opportunity.

I should first say that I have eaten at a lot of London's more well regarded curry establishments, including Tayyabs, Mirch Masala and any number of the random places you find all the way down Brick Lane and popping up all over the city.

What I have found is that although quite a lot of finding a good curry house is a lucky dip, once you have got lucky you should be able to get a decent meal for around 20 quid (without cobra), although having said that I have had a very decent meal for less than that on many happy occasions

Sadly Benares, on Berkley Square did not fall into the category for great value, the deal they offered as part of London restaurant week was 3 courses for 25 pounds, which sounded reasonable enough for a michelin starred place but rather than do a selection from their tasting menu (which is the approach taken by many restaurants who take part) they used the event to promote their new(ish) Thali menu.

Now personally I think this was quite a large mistake, mainly because, to keep costs down, the menu they chose was almost identical to one you could find in most curry houses all over London, but while you were eating you were sat next to people eating a selection of amazing looking dishes from the real menu, putting into stark relief the very normal fayre we were presented with. Food envy is bad enough when it is your partners meal (because if you are lucky/quick you can get to try some) however when it is a neighbouring table you quickly feel like a poor relation. The thali platters were well laid out with a good selection of dishes, but to be honest both of the main curries (chicken thighs and sea bass) were pretty dull.

We also opted for the accompanying wines to see if the restaurant sommellier was up to standard, sadly for him he let himself down badly with one of my wines, a pinot noir, which was badly corked, completely opaque and dull. Even in the dim lights provided by the restaurant I could tell something was wrong when he set it down on the table. A quick sniff and sip confirmed it was as bad as I expected.

Having summoned the waiter the mistake was quickly rectified but to be honest it should never have been made in the first place, and even a complimentary glass of champagne with dessert couldn't really shake the feeling of disappointment. I think had it not been for the wine I would have been tempted to go back to try the main menu at some point but it put the tin hat on a really down experience for me.

Talking of dessert this was the best part of the meal, with a cooked yoghurt and fruit dessert which I would recommend to anyone, although I would have to say it didn't make the costs worth while.

To make up for this disappointment and also to satisfy my need for a proper curry I decided to go to one of my favourite curry houses in London this weekend, Gurkha's Diner in Balham. Technically this is Nepalese (rather than Indian) which usually means no coconut and also less ghee and cream, with more tomato and vegetable based curries.

The reason I love Gurkha is because it is an Indian that suits my tastes, the food is lovingly laid out  and the service is always keen and attentive. The food itself tastes great and is always well spiced (packing a pretty decent punch).

The best starter (pictured left) are the Momo Cha (spicy pork dumplings) which are so good I have tried to recreate them myself, with some success, although the Choyola lamb is also highly recommended.

The mains are less pretty to look at (arriving in standard serving bowls) but they are also incredibly tasty. The fact that the whole meal (including drinks and service) was 22 pounds each for me and my partner was also impressive. The best bit is that they also do take-away with free delivery giving even the laziest Balham resident no excuse for not giving it a go!

Personally I would recommend the Sherpa hot (which is the lamb and potato dish on the right of the image. My girlfriend swears by the prawn raja rani but to be honest I have tried quite  a bit from the menu and haven't found anything disagreeable yet.

What makes a good restaurant experience: Oxo Tower and 99 Station Street

Recently I have been to a couple of restaurants at either end of the fine dining spectrum, which appear to have a very different outlook on fine food and what makes a good restaurant.

The first of these was a restaurant I have been meaning to go for for quite some time, the Oxo tower. With its panoramic views of the Thames and the city of London it has long been a favourite of business groups and people visiting the city. The problem is that because of this many people would go regardless of the quality of the food and sadly this showed in what we were served and the prices they are able to charge. Food wise we were on a lastminute.com set menu which cost 28 pounds for 2 courses, this seemed like a reasonable deal, but this failed to include the side dishes (which were necessary for several of the main courses)  and would also ignore the biggest expense which was the drinks. Even the cheapest bottle of wine came in at around 30 pounds and to be honest this was not necessarily a wine that should be complimenting a decent meal, in the end we settled on a lower end wine (in terms of their wine list) which was a Chilean pinot noir which cost us just over 50 pounds.

The service, as you would expect was very efficient but the food itself was nothing out of the ordinary, either in terms of quality, taste or presentation,my duck was a touch on the dry side and I got to try my girlfriends starter and main, a sure sign that all was not well. Having looked at the prices on the a la carte menu where a main is 20-30 pounds if this was representative of the quality you could expect we won't be going back to sample it any time soon.

The other slightly weird thing about the oxo tower is the lighting, to make sure you get a good view out over London they seem to have lit the dining area with a blue light, which was very much like one of those toilets in a night club, designed to stop drug addicts form being able to find the vein in their arm to shoot up. It didn't really add a great deal to the way the food looked either.

As a counter point to this we then headed to a completely different area of the country, to a restaurant that didn't rely on its views and high honed professional levels of service, but instead has built up a great reputation based on the quality of its food. 99 Station Street in Burton on Trent is not somewhere you would expect to find an award wining restaurant focusing on local produce, I was certainly surprised when my brother who lives in the area suggested it, but I am glad he did.

In stark contrast to the cold iron feel of the Oxo, which is full of chrome and glass the restaurant itself has a nice wooden feel, the tables aren't crammed in despite the fact it isn't blessed with a massive amount of floor space. I am not going to pretend that the service was anywhere near as professional, but to be honest that added to the home run feel of the place and also made us feel less frowned upon as we exchanged food during the courses. This was not because we didn't like our main courses but because the food we had was so nice we felt that everyone should try it.

I started my meal with the salmon, which was brilliant, beautifully cured and served with an excellent dressing, this was complimented by an excellent Chapel Down wine from the small but beautifully formed wine list. Unlike the Oxo the wine was not stupidly expensive with most bottles coming between the 12 and 35 pound mark. I followed the salmon with the Packington Pork, which was also very good, I also sampled the steak and the lamb shank, both of which would usually have made me jealous but my main was excellent. The desserts were also very good, I had the orange posit which tested great with the chocolate topping.

I have to highly recommend it if you are in the area as an excellent place to eat at very reasonable prices.