On the wine trail in Orange - Lolli Redini

Making the most of a recent well deserved holiday my wife and I headed embarked on a tour of some of New South Wales wine regions. Having already covered the Hunter, Southern Highlands and Canberra region this time we decided to tour Orange and Mudgee, which are a couple of places a bit more off the beaten track.

Enjoying the view across
 Lake Canobolas

Orange itself is a beautiful location, in the shadow (well,  as much as a mountain of 1400m can cast a shadow) of Mount Canobolas there are a number of cooler climate vineyards which can grow a wide variety of grapes due to the variance in height, as there are vineyards in the surrounding area sitting between 600 and 1200 m in altitude, Orange are very proud of the fact that to be a wine of Orange the grapes have to be from vineyards which are between these heights, nothing from below 600m is allowed to have Orange on the label.

View from the top of
Mount Canobolas

While we were there we booked into a wine tour with Chase, an American (don’t hold it against him) who is now doing minibus tours for small (intimate) groups in the area, I have to admit this was probably one of the better commercial tours I have been on as the low numbers of people (although he can take 11 people he prefers to operate for smaller groups of 6 or 8) get a very personal experience on the cellar door which is a million miles away from the 45 person bus load things that you get in the hunter. As a shameless plug for his new business you can find out more about him here http://www.orangewinestours.com.au, I would definitely recommend it as the best way to get around and still enjoy a drink as cycling around the many hills on narrow roads in Orange seems like a recipe for disaster to me.

As well as some excellent wine (we finished the wine tour slightly merry and with a case of 12 bottles from various vineyards in the back of the bus) there is also a lot of good eating in Orange with a number of their restaurant making the good food guide. On our first night we dropped in to Lolli Redini(http://www.lolliredini.com.au/), which if you mention it to any of the locals will immediately illicit a response of "it’s great, you have to have the soufflé".

The Cheese Souffle

This led to me conquering one of my main fears when it comes to ordering dinner, which is ordering the same thing as someone at my table. This fear grows the fewer people I am dining with, so I pretty much never order the same thing as my wife, however I was glad that, aided by the wonderous nerve calming effects of a glass of local wine, I was able to mutter the words "I’ll have the soufflé too, please".

This turned out to be the best decision I had made in quite some time, the Twice Cooked Gruyere Soufflé was probably one of the most enjoyable things I have eaten since coming to Sydney, it was everything a soufflé should be, light, beautifully textured and incredibly tasty, surrounded by a cheese sauce and topped with spring onions to break through the creaminess. I have to admit that from the picture I took it is no looker, however in real life I thought it was quite attractive. Lolli’s do an interesting pairing of wines with their food, all of which is from the local vineyards and with the soufflé they had put a sparkling wine (interestingly the waitress warned me it was sparkling as if this would somehow put me off ordering it!?! My wife was given no such caution, perhaps the men in country towns think it is not manly to be seen with a glass of bubbles! I think reading that back it may not be manly to call it a glass of bubbles, but I think that drinking it is perfectly masculine..)

Hereford Brisket

After the soufflé (how many times can I mention it) the rest of the meal rather pales by comparison, which is unfortunate as my main of beef brisket was very good, and I am a great believer in their general policy of showing off the best of the regions produce, both with the meat and also the matching wine which they suggest. The food was excellently cooked (My wifes Pork Belly apparently had excellent crackling) and also well presented, they also do a very fine truffle mash which we had as a side, although it could be considered to be slightly unnecessary as the portion sizes were, what could only be described as generous.

Pork Belly

Price wise it is not exactly cheap (certainly for the area) with two courses coming in at 68 dollars, but compared to Sydney I would class it as excellent value (although compared to Sydney I think most places are excellent value but I digress).

We chose to finish with the cheese platter as our dessert and were helpfully informed by the waitress that this was also massive and that a platter each was completely unnecessary, this was great advice as we struggle to finish even one of them between us.

  

Adjusting to life Sydneyside: first impressions of eating in Sydney

So after 6 months, unemployed, homeless and travelling around the world eating and drinking in some of the best restaurants we have finally arrived in Australia to settle down for a bit.

This is the main reason that this blog has taken a bit of a hiatus, because since we left China life has been a bit of a whirlwind. We've gotten married (again), found jobs, found a place to live and started settling into life in Sydney. 

Now we have bought everything we need to complete our new place, including an amazing fridge which at some point I may write an ode to on this blog because, in terms of my ideal kitchen, it is definitely close to being everything I have ever dreamed of (sad or what!!). I am hoping that from now on my weekends are going to be less taken up wandering aimlessly around Ikea remembering the words of Tyler Durden in fight club, so I am hoping to have a bit of time to write a few pieces for the blog again.

Shanghai Surprise: Mr and Mrs Bund

Our final stop on the world tour was the excellent city of Shanghai. This was a lot more like we imagined China would be like, it is a far cry from the more historical feel of Bejing and Xian and a lot more like Blade Runner with smog frequently hiding the tops of the many high rise buildings, most of which are covered with neon lights, although there are currently no flying cars circling them.

Shanghai at first glace looks like any other big city in the world, with fancy new buildings and high rises springing up all over the city. Apparently at one point around 10 years ago there where more large cranes in Shanghai than in the rest of the world put together.

Bejing - great chinese food, but Maccy D's is the recommended breakfast.

Welcome to Bejing ... hold on, where are all the tall buildings? For some reason I was expecting a high rise or two, I am stood in the centre of Bejing and there is nothing taller than 4 or 5 stories. Part of this may be the smog which is circling overhead, obscuring my view and meaning that taking photographs is a little tricky, but I am fairly certain that most of the reason is apparently nothing in the centre of Bejing can overlook the forbidden city, which is where the Emperors used to reside.

The second thing I noticed is that although the hotel has wifi it does not have access to facebook or instagram, the Great Firewall of China appears to have seen to that. Now don't get me wrong, this is not a total disaster, I am not addicted to facebook (honest) but I do like to be able to boast to all my friends about how nice the places I have been are and how great all of the food I have been eating is.

Viajante, great food in unlikely places

A dark corner of the east end of London is a strange place to find one of London's most interesting  restaurants. Claiming to serve a (very) modern take on Portuguese cuisine Viajante, fittingly for us after our recent excursions, meaning "the traveller", is based in the old Tower Hamlets town hall. The frontage is very impressive and the dining room is quite grand although the chairs do look like they may be ex council stock. The main menu choices you have are whether you want 6 or 9 courses (we obviously went for the more is better plan) however you have no real indication of what the courses are. Once that is sorted the only thing that remains is to decide if you want a matching wine (much better value than buying it by the bottle) then you should sit back relax and enjoy a crazy culinary adventure.

Dinner by Heston? I bet he'll serve snails again!

There is no such thing as a sure thing in life, but you can usually bank on a couple of things at a Heston Blumenthal restaurant, 1) there are going to be snails 2) there is probably going to be a lot of dry ice and 3) I am going to really enjoy my meal there.

Our trip to Dinner by Heston (which shortly after my trip appeared at number 7 on the world's top 50 restaurant list) was a lunch time visit to celebrate our return to London and also the arrival of my soon to be in-laws in London. We booked in on one of the very reasonable lunchtime set menu deals which includes 3 courses for 36 pounds.

The rise and rise of the great British Gastropub

If you're British and you've not been down to your local pub  for a few years chances are it has changed a bit. Since the tightening of drink driving laws pubs have been starting to die out in smaller villages where people used to drive for the beer and the roadside pubs who in there heyday were a stopping point for a refresher on an afternoon jaunt are now all extinct.

The villages near the place where I grew up, on the edge of the Peak District, near Alton Towers are no exception, pubs that used to serve walkers a couple of beers as they trekked through the peaks or Alton Towers guests a swift half while the traffic died down are pretty much gone. In many places the locals were also staying staying at home and drinking cheap booze from the supermarket rather than walking to the pub to get a pint.