travel

The next day was a complete change of speed, and most welcome too. Rather than mounting up for another extended drive, we merely travelled half an hour to the southern suburbs to stay with Joel’s parents, Helen and Jim. It was a lovely and very hot day, so after a light lunch and a tiki tour of the area Kristen and I went for a short walk then lay on the beach for a few hours. Brilliant. The evening saw a barbeque in the backyard, followed by slightly more booze than any of us expected… a top night for all!

We hit the road again the next day, with the modest aim of reaching the historic township of Robe on the south-eastern coast of South Australia. Starting late, we took the scenic route through McLaren Vale and the southern Adelaide Hills – both beautiful areas – before heading to the ferry crossing at Wellington. The day started very hot but by this time a change was in the air, and searing winds whipped the surface of the Murray as we crossed.

Within half an hour it was raining, windy and cold, which seemed quite appropriate as we entered the windswept coastal wetland region of the Coorong. Or as we variously called it: the Stinklands, or the Badlands. We couldn’t wait to get out of there. Apparently the foul stench in the air is only a recent phenomenon caused by too little water flowing down the Murray River system, but I noted there are virtually no settlements for almost a hundred kilometres along this coastline. It’s a famous bird sanctuary, and the sturdy shrubs that hugged the ground suggest it’s not hospitable for much else, though it might be much more scenic on a bright sunny day.

We overnighted in Robe, and as the weather was awful we decided to stay in our hotel the whole time. Fortunately the Caledonian Inn is a delightful gem originally built in the 1850s, and our room upstairs was charmingly off-centre yet comfortable. There’s a good restaurant onsite too, and while Kristen’s half lobster turned out to be very disappointing all the other elements of the meal were excellent. After dinner we had some random chats with locals, one of whom had just returned from a gourmet tour of Sydney the week before (Est, Sean’s Panorama, Pier, etc). It was a pleasant surprise to know that others were keen on doing our kind of journey.

The next day’s weather was still crappy, so we ditched our plans to head to Dunkeld via Mount Gambier and headed straight for Penola. This township is the service centre for the Coonawarra wine region, somewhere I have wanted to visit for many years. It is much more scenic than I expected: for some reason I had always presumed it was surrounded by sparse desert or bush, so it was a great surprise to find lush green pasture for kilometres around. The township itself is very pleasant, and we spent quite a bit of time browsing the excellent historical displays in the tourist office.

Naturally I was keen to visit a few vineyards (but only a couple!), and I chose Bowen Estate while Kristen plumped for Hollick. The latter was an inspired choice, because the cellar door host at Bowen told us our desired lunching venue was closed on Tuesdays. However there was a restaurant at Hollicks if we were keen on a bit of fine dining…. Natch. After a run through all their wines (the Wrattonbully shiraz is a great buy) we were taken upstairs to our table for a good meal overlooking the vineyards. Knowing we were going to eat the Meal Of The Trip that night we decided to keep it light, sharing two tapas plates for entrée (salt and pepper tofu; rabbit and pork rillettes; both excellent) and for mains a salmon and chardonnay pie (Kristen) and pan-fried salmon on mash with steamed asparagus (me). Both fine if not superb, but a great way to laze away a couple of hours.

After a suddenly rushed trip to the local pub to put our bets on the Melbourne Cup (we had time zone issues all the way through South Australia!), we then headed east towards our home for the next few days: Dunkeld in western Victoria. The drive was very pleasant and while I pulled over for a rest in Casterton Kristen had a wonderfully random chat with an old guy out walking his cataract-affected dog, Primrose. We arrived at Dunkeld on time for a change, and were able to rest a bit before having the best meal of our lives…

Everything we thought lacking in technique and invention at Stefano’s was more than made up for by the meal enjoyed at The Grange restaurant in the Adelaide Hilton the following night. Head chef Cheong Liew has been a legend in Australian food for decades, and his highly worked and stylised food stuns you with complexity and intrigue. For most of the dishes, I think that even if I had a demonstration DVD and a year to practice I would still struggle to deliver a single morsel anywhere near as good as what Liew and his chefs produce every day.

The dining environment is luxurious and relaxed. Though not entirely closed off from the hotel lobby, the buzz of action from the foyer is masked by a loud trickle from the central water feature and conversation was never difficult. We were led to our enormous table and seated in voluptuous armchairs for the whole experience – it’s amazing how useful arms on chairs can be when you’re dining for nearly four hours! Service from our principal waiter was exemplary, the others were always good but sometimes a little hard to understand when they were explaining a dish. However questions were answered clearly and succinctly.

Entitled “A Migration of Ideas”, the 8-course degustation led us through a progression of flavours and textures with a sometimes dizzying number of ingredients in each mouthful. To be honest some dishes weren’t to my liking, but taken as a whole the meal was astounding and always interesting. The menu descriptions detailed below offer only the general theme of each dish and the principal components, and in fact there were lots of other unmentioned elements throughout. It is impossible to state them all, so I’ll comment only on the general impact of each plate. Naturally we also chose the matched wine option, and the selections included several well-regarded wines:

Boned chicken wing filled with scallop, Iberico ham, in game consomme – intentionally somewhat bland, this soft starter sharpened our palates for the dishes to come well. Also featuring fennel and fined shredded strands of egg, it was gently savoury and salt-free. Served with 2008 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling.

Drunken prawns, marinated Kingfish, mussel jelly, potato salmon roe salad – also known as “The Four Dances of the Sea”, Liew’s signature dish. Each of the four sections above is presented in it’s own pile and we are instructed to begin at 6 o’clock and work clockwise around the dish to properly appreciate the progression. Some dishes were a challenge to me (the drunken prawns also included a drunken oyster, and the mussels were also hard for me swallow), but there was so much happening in each mouthful my tongue was literally dancing with flavours. Served with 2008 Redbank ‘Sunday Morning’ pinot gris.

Kangaroo Island marron with duck neck sausage, fisherman’s rice – The Fisherman’s rice dish could stand alone, and as our waiter explained it contained miniscule portions of numerous different seafoods cooked with the rich but not leaden rice. But next to the marron and duck neck sausage it was a poor cousin: we both thought the richness and intensity of flavour in this combination almost orgasmic. It was the highlight dish of the night for me (and Kristen), without doubt, though the beef dish to follow was a good second. Served with 2007 Yalumba FDW7c chardonnay.

Cedar smoked magret duck breast on caramelised turnip and truffled sauce – the waiter explained this dish’s unusual texture is due to the duck meat being cured then poached, the result chewy without being tough. Overall a rich and sweet dish, the matching wine (2005 Robert Johnson merlot) a slightly heavy mis-match though it is a good wine.

Grilled wagyu beef with braised beef cheek, tomato, green olives, orange zest – neither of us are huge beef eaters, so the relatively small portions of this dish were perfectly sized. And oh-so-perfect in taste: a rectangle of pepper-seared Wagyu fillet was divine, and the small mound of braised beef cheek also suitably rich. An unmentioned but valuable element on the plate was eggplant, its sweetness offsetting the peppery spice. By the end of this fifth course Kristen was getting rather full, but I gamely soldiered on. Served with a superb 2005 Greenock Creek ’Alices’ shiraz.

Braised shark lip, sea cucumber in carrot oil, aromatic broth – so you want to know what braised shark lip is like? Done this way it is a milky-translucent flat rectangle of gelatinous gooey softness, very rich and quite spicy. I was a fan. The sea cucumber? Like chewing a hockey puck. Hard and dense, this resisted the teeth strongly and had a tangy edge from its seasonings but no discernible taste of itself. I had to put this aside, but the rest was fine. A very interesting dish in the context of the entire meal, its spicyness and focus on texture well-placed just before the sweeter final two courses. Served with Lustau ‘rare amontillado’ sherry, a good match.

Delice de Cremier, Tomme de Chevre, Beaufort D’Alpage, Gres de Vosges – four different French cheeses, three of sheep’s milk and one of goat. During the break before this course we’d resolved to skip the cheeses entirely but on arrival they were too tempting to dismiss, so we nibbled at them while quaffing 2008 Stefano Lubiana ‘Primavera’ pinot noir.

The final plate is your choice of two, depending on the degree of “stuffed” you think you are after the sixth course. Either “Imperial Rice and sago square, anglaise sauce with cinnamon ice cream and fruit compote” or “chocolate bonnet, prune Armagnac ice cream, and almond brittle”. We had one of each and both were brilliant, neither surviving intact for long. The wines were either 2006 Tilbrook Estate botrytis pinot gris or Campbell’s ‘Classic’ Rutherglen tokay (superb).

The only real negative about this meal is that there was more food in it than your average person could comfortably eat. We intended to walk through the city for a while afterwards to aid digestion, but somehow all we could manage was a short stagger back to our hotel and a long rest. Eating here was not on the original plan, but I’m very happy we had the chance to do so while Cheong Liew is still directly involved in the kitchen. A recent review panned The Grange for, amongst other things, its poor location in the foyer and Cheong Liew’s frequent absences from the kitchen. I found the setting rather special, and I specifically asked our waiter as we were leaving whether Liew was in the kitchen that day. I was told he had left at 7.30pm, after overseeing prep all afternoon. His under-chefs are well-schooled in the food and clearly didn’t need direct oversight in my opinion. A memorable, masterful meal.

Despite the very long day of driving from Gundaroo to Mildura, we have both thoroughly enjoyed the journey as we’ve travelled westwards. The transitions of landscape have been fascinating and beautiful….

From the rolling green lushness around Canberra, very European and bucolic with rows of trees framing paddocks. Towards Temora colours turn to brown with sparser trees and scrub, though it is still surprisingly green. The spectacularly flat yellow/brown moonscape of the Hay Plains around Balranald, where for kilometres you can see to the horizon in every direction and you feel the enormity of the sky. The earth turns reddish approaching Mildura, and as you leave that river town low yellow fields roll to the edge of vision, dotted only occasionally by a clutter of trees. Near Renmark we stopped for spectacular views of a bend in the Murray River, looking more like the African savannah than the Australian bush. Over the hill to the Barossa Valley, once more into lush greenness and rolling vines.

We stopped in the Barossa for a couple of tastings, of course, picking up a superb 2000 old vine grenache at Kaesler ($35). Then through the suburbs to Adelaide city for the next stop on our food odyssey: Cheong Liew’s The Grange.

Expectations can be cruel masters. When a restaurant has received, consistently over ten or more years, accolades at the highest level you expect something truly special, something you don’t think you’ll find anywhere else. Stefano’s is a very good restaurant that delivers everything it promises when you arrive, which is rustic Italian cooking (indeed the subtitle of the restaurant’s sign says Cucina Rustica). But it doesn’t deserve the two-hat rating it’s enjoyed for years.

Stefano di Pieri launched into the wider Australian food consciousness through his Gondola on the Murray television cooking series that premiered in the late 1990s. Championing the great produce and lifestyle of the Murray River region around his adopted home town of Mildura, his highly engaging style and love of his Italian cooking were very popular. I was a fan, and I have the cookbooks from both series and have tried a few of the recipes.

The Grand Hotel in Mildura has housed his signature restaurant for a long time, and over the years it has won numerous awards including The Age Good Food Guide’s Country Restaurant of the Year award in 2001. It is currently ranked No. 89 in this country’s Top 100 Restaurants as decided by Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine, and it has held two-hat status for years. It’s natural to expect dining here would be an exceptional experience.

First impressions are certainly grand: located underneath the hotel in a converted cellar, the long and narrow space is warmly lit and very inviting. I was seated in what I consider the best seat in the house, with a clear view of the kitchen only a few metres away. Stefano himself was at the pass personally finishing nearly every plate before it was served, and the vibe of the kitchen was quietly efficient but not in any way sombre. Service was superb, a match for any top-level restaurant. Warm without being over-friendly or too deferential, and thoroughly accommodating to the chronically late as we were – again! The drive from Gundaroo took longer than expected, and even though we floored it for the last 400 kms from Griffith we still arrived 45 minutes late. I immediately went to the restaurant and asked for another 20 minutes or so while we washed and changed for dinner, and that was not a problem. When we finally were seated we wanted to slow things down for a while to get over the travel stress, and they were only too happy to hold off on the first courses until we were ready. Top shelf stuff.

But the main reason you visit a restaurant like this is for the food, and while it was very good we were frankly underwhelmed by what was delivered over six courses. At the top end of dining I expect a level of invention and technique that makes you grin like an idiot as you marvel at the food and wonder how they can come up with such ideas. At Stefano’s on this night every dish – with the possible exception of the desserts – could attempted by any reasonably competent home cook. You probably won’t do it as good as Stefano, but you might get close. And that is the essence of our sense of disappointment: though the food was delicious and perfectly cooked, it lacked any wow factor. It was high quality country Italian cooking in it’s very original sense, but we expected a lot more.

For example, Frank Camorra of MoVida in Melbourne takes as his starting point rustic Spanish cuisine but turns it inside out. He reinvents dishes, respecting the original idea but delivering something entirely new and special, individual masterpieces of technique and flavour. I thought Stefano’s would be the same, hence our ultimate dissatisfaction with this meal. In their defence all the information given out by the restaurant makes it clear that what they offer is authentic Italian food, in fact that is precisely what we are told by our waiter at the beginning of the meal. I guess I’m really disappointed with the reputation this restaurant has, that is what caused our misplaced expectations. Stefano’s thoroughly deserves a single hat, but not two or more…

However none of the above should be interpreted as meaning this restaurant can’t give good food. Every dish was very tasty and Stefano’s is certainly worth visiting if you’re in the area. But I wouldn’t make a pilgrimage to Mildura solely to do so… There are no menus here, each meal is a degustation based on the chef’s whim and what’s in season and available at the time. I like that idea. On this night we took the matched wine option (they also have a fine wine list with a strong selection of Italian stars), and had:

Onion tart – an off-menu starter, this wedge of pastry contained a delicious light brown custard of rich onion flavour. Very smooth and light texture, slightly savoury and not at all salty. A great appetiser.

Baby calamari fritti – dusted calamari, cut into a range of shapes and sizes and deep fried. Simple but delicious, and though it is served with a piece of lemon on the side the waiter suggests you try it without lemon first so as not to smother the natural flavours.

Crab and tomato minestroni – rich and flavourful with small pieces of ridged circular pasta throughout. Almost immediately after it was served Kristen and I talked about how we both prefer pasta slightly over-cooked, and I said that perfectly cooked pasta is meant to be slightly chewy (al dente, or “to teeth”). We were far enough from the kitchen that I didn’t expect our conversation to be overheard, but clearly it was: a minute or two later a waiter came over and said that chef (Stefano) wanted to know how we were enjoying the dish “and be honest!”. We said it was very good, and soon after I noted Stefano emphatically saying (privately) that the pasta was “perfect”. I realised he must have half-heard our conversation, so I called the waiter over and explained what we were talking about in full. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and in fact by the end of it I realised that pasta is in fact better that way. The dish was tasty, but both of us found little fragments of crab shell in it which did detract from the enjoyment.

Hand-made ravioli with ricotta, spinach and sage butter – exactly like it sounds, and once again a fine dish. But also very simple and roughly cut: it could easily be made by anyone with a pasta maker.

Suckling piglet with potato and greens – extremely good, rich and pure flavours and the pig fork-meltingly soft. Also simple: the potatoes enhanced with rosemary and the greens were sauted silverbeet. Perfect execution.

Dessert – a choice of vanilla egg white panna cotta or chocolate mousse. We had them both separately, and were thoroughly satisfied (and stuffed) afterwards.

The matched wine selections were mostly good, however some of them were house-branded which was a disappointment. The standout wine was a Montepulciano served with the suckling pig.

Near the end Stefano left, and as he passed near our table he somewhat hesitantly asked how we enjoyed the meal. He seemed almost shy, very different from his larger-than-life television persona, but perhaps he was simply tired after a long day and night in the kitchen.

A short note about the Grand Hotel itself: we stayed there in a very large room, slightly older in style but with a large modern bathroom, flat screen TV and large bed. I’d booked online via wotif.com and saved 20% off the usual rate, and they still gave us a room with a large private balcony overlooking the Murray River. It’s well worth staying here if you do intend to visit Stefano’s.

stefano.com.au

Our road trip didn’t start well. The first big name restaurant we have on our schedule, Stefano’s in Mildura, could not move our booking from the Friday to the Saturday. Kristen had to work on Thursday, so initially we were facing no option but to attempt the 1000km drive from Sydney to Mildura in one exhausting day. Then a brainwave: Kristen could finish work in Bankstown at 3pm on Thursday, allowing us to leave early and avoid peak hour traffic. Every kilometre we could knock off on Thursday was one less to do on Friday, and suddenly the longest drive didn’t seem so tough anymore.

And as it happens, there is a rather nice restaurant in the tiny town of Gundaroo, about half an hour north of Canberra and only a short detour from the Hume Highway. Grazing has been established here for several years and has become a key drawcard for the town, attracting hungry diners from miles around seeking classy food made from quality ingredients. They make a virtue of using local products, and even have a chef’s garden to provide the kitchen with its own source of heirloom vegetables, eggs, herbs and salad ingredients. Grazing at Grazing was a natural fit into the road trip’s theme of top quality country restaurants, so we booked dinner and accommodation at a nearby pub for the Thursday night.

What’s that they say about best-laid plans? On Thursday morning Kristen was advised that she would have to stay later to finish an urgent project. Even worse, she had to work in Glebe rather than Bankstown. Instead of quickly slipping on the M5 mid-afternoon we now had to leave from the centre of Sydney. Crap. In peak hour. Double crap.

We left just on 5pm and made surprisingly good time through the suburbs. Even the M5 – which is usually a parking lot at this time – was gentle to us and we made it to Liverpool in an hour. But there was still no chance we’d make it to Gundaroo in time for our 8pm reservation. I rang Grazing and Explained The Situation. The hostess was very understanding and offered to check with the chefs, but they were reluctant to stay back late on a quiet Thursday evening. Could we come for lunch the next day instead? I gently played the trump card, truthfully saying we were only coming to Gundaroo because of Grazing, and that we were hitting the road early the next day. She was surprised (and pleased, I expect) at this, re-checked with the chefs, and then said come along. They’d still be there doing prep anyway, and they’d fit us in.

A promise they delivered on, for which we are grateful! We didn’t show up until 8.50pm but were cheerfully shown to our table on arrival, and we didn’t slip out until 10pm. The service was exceptional, their willingness to accommodate us extremely welcome. And the food? Definitely worth the journey. From a modest selection of entrees and mains (and a whole page of vegetarian entrees, which I didn’t notice until later) each titled after the principal ingredient we grazed upon:

Entrées:

“Charcuterie” – handmade sopresa, locally-produced Poacher’s Pantry proscuitto, duck liver parfait, and truffled rabbit rillettes, served with crackers and guerkins. Every part was excellent, with Kristen preferring the proscuitto and me the rabbit rillettes. Though we both the loved the parfait. A very generous serve too for just $16.

“Scallops” – five sautéed scallops marinated in Szechuan pepper with cold green tea noodles, baby summer herbs and fois gras dressing. Seriously good, the scallops well-cooked and the noodles delicate. This was the top dish of the night for me.

Mains:

“Kangaroo” – kangaroo marinated with garlic and herbs on caramelised beetroot and onion tart, lemon yoghurt and chilli jam. I didn’t try this but the moans from across the table suggested it was very good.

“Cod” – oven roasted cod with chorizo sausage, poached green garlic sprouts, tomato broth and green olive aioli. Meaty texture yet moist and flavoursome, the garlic sprouts like small asparagus spears. Served on a rich mash, a very generous dish.

We didn’t want desserts – too late and too stuffed – and we had time to enjoy the atmosphere of the heritage-listed 1865 hotel building we dined in. Food was washed down with a local merlot by the glass (Kristen) and a local pinot gris (me). Grazing does not currently wear any Good Food Guide hats, but I would not be at all surprised if that changes in future editions.

A quick note about accommodation: The Gundaroo Colonial Inn, almost across the road from Grazing, had just closed when we arrived at 10pm. A great shame, as it had a good vibe when we dropped in for directions earlier and we were both looking forward to a post-dinner drink there. The manager knew we’d be late so was quietly waiting for us while sipping a beer, and he was happy to get us a few drinks even though they’d shut up for the night. More country friendliness. The rooms here, though expensive for the area, are new and very comfortable with flat-screen digital TV and an enormous king-size bed. I wish we could stay and enjoy it more, but it’s time to hit the road for the longest leg of the trip to Mildura!

www.grazing.com.au