Hen's Weekend

JT and I rocked up to Sydney this weekend for AW's hens party.  I read a newspaper article which likened organising a Hens Party to herding cats.  I can relate!  We had to herd 30 cats/women! 

JT, AW and I began the weekend with a relaxing spa session at Panpuri.  It's a been years since my last dayspa session anywhere and I really enjoyed being pampered.  I can totally understand why Ladies of Leisure remain so!

Once we were buffed and polished, off we went to The Loft for high tea.  

Most of the food was acceptable but they served the worst creme brulee I've ever had.  It was runny - bleah! 

Pop! 

Afterwards we trotted over to the Astral Apartments at the newly revamped Star City casino.  Oh but now it's a bit more fancy pants and is now known as 'The Star'.  

 JT had set up a nice selection of antipasto and finger foods to get us through the night. 

Cupcakes for all the hens to take home. 

The rest of the night is censored because there a lot of NSFW photos out there.  To get an idea of the shenanigans we got up to, just one phrase - man slaves.  

The following day we got our artisan baking hats on at private session at Brasserie Bread.  Yes, instead of the typical scraggy pole dancing and life drawing classes of other hens parties, this was a nice mellow activity.

Making our own caramelised garlic bread.  Seriously THE nicest garlic bread I've ever tasted!  Yum! 

Making our dinner rolls and a fancy looking baguette.

No, not an S&M session.  While our bread was baking we were divided in teams and subject to a sensory challenge.  Winning group won a hamper!  My group lost :(

Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch in the cafe all to ourselves and played a few hen quizzes.

Then we collected our bread!  We were also given free reign to take as much bread as we liked from today's unsold stock.  If I had a good reason for taking more bread, I would have.  

Next weekend - the wedding! 

Missed My Flight...

... so I'm sitting in the airline lounge enjoying some freebies.  I don't normally have lounge access but I had a complimentary pass which I was saving for a most suitable occasion and today was the day.  

The best thing about the lounge?  Free food and alcohol! 

This Hungarian goulash was so-so.  Although I guess I don't know what a good goulash tastes like.   

 Next dish - some antipasto options.  The bonus today was macaroni cheese.  It was surprisingly good! 

More antipasto and cheese.  A glass of shiraz to help all it go down.  

I finally boarded my flight and am now in Canberra.  My employer stupidly booked in a hotel rather than a serviced apartment, so it's going to be a bit of struggle with dinner over the next few nights.  

My home for the next two weeks.  The room is far too big and so much space is wasted.  

Things You Eat When You're Alone Part XII

 As promised with yesterday's post, here are a selection of goodies I've been eating while alone.

Appenzeller cheese and a glass of Grant Burge Hillcot Merlot.  Naice naice.  I am so classy. 

I really should avoid Breadtop but those displays of baked goods.. dammit.. are just so tempting!  The worst part is one is opening up next door to my work soon!  Now that's going to really test my strength. 

I bought a custard bun and tried to even it out by having some anti-oxidant rich green tea. *looks side to side*

The custard was actually quite bland.  At least I'll know not to buy this again! 

Breadtop - you're not winning the war against me just yet!

Understanding Wine - The Final Class

Tonight's class began with blind tasting four wines and a quiz.

The first question was a toughie - is it a red or a white wine?  Super hard question!  Hehehe.  Some other questions included:
- Is it a varietal (one grape type) or a blend?
- Identify the grape.  Chas made it a bit easier by giving us a few grapes to choose from.
- Is it oaked or unoaked?
- Where is it from?  That was one damn hard question.  No one can ever really guess.  But based on chance, we should always guess it is South Australian as they are responsible for 50% of all Australian wine production.
- What vintage is it?  This one did require a bit of analysis of the wine's colour and taste.

Anyway, I fared ok.  17 out of 24!!!  But our table was cheating and discussing answers between us.

The second session was a free for all.  We were meant to bring in any wine we pleased and present them for tasting.  Obviously one bottle of wine can't be tasted by 30 or so people, so we each went up in threes or fours to judge one of the random bottles.

Of the eight bottles up for tasting tonight, three were deemed faulty.  Wow, that's a pretty high strike rate.  It just goes to show that plenty of us are buying and drinking bad wine.  Chas reminds us that you should never be embarrassed about sending a bottle of wine back in a restaurant.  The restaurant doesn't make a loss because the wines are bought on consignment and the winery collects any unsold bottles after a period of time.  But don't make an idiot of yourself, says Chas.  You can't claim a wine to be affected by cork-taint if it had a screw top!

We all snacked on cheese and chocolate and we even got a spiffy little certificate at the end.  Here's to more drinking!!  Cheers!

Understanding Wine - Aged Wine and Fortified Wine

Tonight Chas was sick and our substitute teacher was a winemaker from Penfolds.  He looked a good jolly sort and very informative.  The first half of tonight was devoted to aged wines and the changes wines undergo when left to develop characteristics.  As a general rule, wines tend to become less fruity in flavour and take on more 'complex'  nutty, toasty notes.  However that doesn't mean that the longer you age a wine, the better it will taste.  White wines in particular go through a lull where there is a loss in flavour as it changes from the fruity to the more complex.

Teacher tonight (I forgot his name) wisely said 'I would rather open a bottle five years early and enjoy it now than wait another five years for it to potentially get better but has instead been ruined.'  He suggested that if we ever bought wine with the intention of ageing, we should open a bottle every few years and taste it.  Hmmm yes, when I have my wine cellar I will do that.  *looks sideways*.

We were also given tips about ideal wine storage conditions.  We were told of a lady who had $200K worth of 30 year old Penfolds Grange which was ruined because she kept the box sitting upright above her wardrobe for many years.  Eeep.

On to the tastings.  There are white wines which are not designed to be aged e.g sauvignon blanc, pinot gris (drink it quickly!) but there are some which can benefit - riesling, semillion and chardonnay.  Funnily enough, the riesling and semillion take on chardonnay characteristics.  Prior to tonight I had assumed that all white wines were intended for immediate quaffing but now.. yes now I know better :D  The aged white wine served tonight was a 2005 Penfolds Aged Release Riesling.  Rieslings are usually ho-hum with me but this one was really nice and yes, Teacher was right, it was chardonnay-like!

I learnt that aged red wines tend to accumulate sediment in the bottle and so should stand upright for about 24-48 hours before serving.  Teacher talked a bit about decanting but I've largely forgotten what was said.  We then went onto fortified wines and hmmmm well, I liked the less sweet ones.  Some of the others were just like drinking maple syrup.

As a side note, our table felt pretty smug to see that other tables had brought cheese tonight.  Heh!  Next week will be our final lesson and involve blind tasting.  Putting our skills to use!

Understanding Wine - Red Wine

This was the class I was hanging for - red wine.  Our dunce table decided were going to enjoy this to the max and we had brought along three different cheeses to compliment our wines.  All of the other tables watched us with envious eyes.  Hey, our table may be full of wine dumbos but the rest of you were pretty stupid to not bring any cheese for tonight's class.  *nyah nyah!*

Tonight I learnt that pinot noir grapes are difficult to grow in the warm Australian climate.  All 'burgundy' wines from France are pinot noir and decent Australian versions are few and far between.  I shall keep that in mind!  Where Australia and especially the Barossa does excel is the shiraz.  No news to me.

Tonight's tasting began with a rosé.  Chas was a bit 'that's interesting' as he considers rose to be a 'pink white wine'.  They are mainly made from grenache grapes which were historically used for cheap cask wine.  In other words, rosé is a quaffing-style wine.  We were advised that rosés generally tend to be either very dry or very sweet and it's hard to tell until you open the bottle.  I'm not big on dry rosé wines generally but tonight's one was slightly sweet and finished dry.  It was actually quite nice and I would pick up a bottle if the occasion demanded it.

We also tasted a pinot noir (ok), a nebbiolo (Whut?  Never heard of that.) and sangiovese.  The last two are associated with Italian wines with the sangiovese being the main part of Chianti wines.  The nebbiolo I really quite liked!  Aaah yes, wine tasting class has opened up a new world for me.

I (predictably) liked the merlot.  It's the wine you should drink to ease yourself into the whole red wine scene due to it's soft tannins.  I still don't quite understand what tannin is.

The tempranillo wasn't that great.  This is a grape which is abundant in Spain and is usually one of my picks from a wine menu.  However that was when I was in UK and had easy access to many Spanish wines.

We finished off with a shiraz and the king of reds - a cabernet sauvignon.  Both were pleasant.  Chas also ran through why wines are blended e.g merlot blended with cav sauv makes it 'softer' and easier to drink.  *thumbs up I say*.  Our dunce table polished off our cheeses and left the night a happy bunch.

Understanding Wine - Sparkling Wine

I didn't get around to doing my homework (drink some sparkling wine) from last week.  No matter, there was plenty to drink tonight!  *clink clink champagne flutes*  I've kinda avoided sparkling wine for some time now mainly because I've never had a glass which totally blew me away.  Tonight's tasting has changed that and I'm ready to embrace bubbly once more!

Sparkling wine is just that - wine with sparkles.  Sparkles come in the form of bubbles, hence the term 'bubbly'.  However, don't confuse all sparkling wine to be champagne.  That term can only be applied to sparkling wines which come from the Champagne region in France.

This course specialises in Australian wines and nothing foreign will pass our lips.   According to Chas, this is not a bad thing.  He suspects that most of the French champagne sold in Australia is ruined by oxidation during the importation process.  He's never had such an experience when drinking them in France/Europe.

We learnt about production differences, how bubbles are achieved and the differences between champagne (more yeasty) and Australian sparkling wine (more fruity).  Then we got onto the best bit - tasting.  It's not a myth that you get drunk faster on champagne - the bubbles assist alcohol absorption and our dunce table got quite happy indeed, polishing off the leftover bottles.  We even clinked flutes!

The last time I had a sparkling red I was left a bit 'meh' about the whole deal.  Not expecting much, I was pleasantly surprised to actually like all three sparkling reds served tonight.  They would definitely go well with chocolate and chocolate cake.  Num nums.

So suffice to say, I left tonight's lesson a bit drunk.  Wheeeeeeeee!!!!

Understanding Wine - White Wine

Tonight was white wine night.  Our presenter tonight had a pretty cool name - 'Chas' - and he was much more enthusiastic than last week's substitute.  His absence was explained by a bout of bronchitis last week.  The first thing Chas did was make us all wear name tags and forced us to interact.  He reasoned 'What's the point of drinking wine if you can't talk about it with your classmates?'  Hear, hear.

We tasted eight white wines tonight and pretended to be wine judges.  We assessed each wine by their appearance (colour), their nose (smell, bouquet) and it's palate (taste).  By the end of the night my table had decided we were the class rejects.  Could we detect the citrus-y smell?  Err, no it smelled like banana.  How about the meaty, earthy smell?  No, it smelled like a dusty bookshelf.  Despite Chas telling us 'everyone will smell it differently and there is no right or wrong', he still gave one of my table-mates a resounding 'No' when she thought her wine smelled like foie gras.

All that smelling became a bit too confusing for my nose but if I only learned one thing, I am quite confident I can identify the smell of an oaked chardonnay versus 'any other white wine'.  That tuna and melted cheese smell is quite distinctive.  I might be able to pick a riesling and a sauvignon blanc... I might.  I don't know.  One of the whites (a semillon) was actually deemed by Chas to have excess sulphur dioxide and a bit disappointing.  I had no clue!  The girl next to me judged that particular wine to be her favourite!  Hohohohohohohoho..

In regards to taste, again I'm pretty sure I can pick out the chardonnay but the other seven wines just tasted like 'white wine' to me.  My next door neighbour thought that same.  Hehehehehehehehehe.

Yes indeed, we are the table who needs remedial wine tasting lessons.  We've been given some homework in preparation for next week's lesson - drink some sparkling wine!  Will do!

Learning How to Drink - Understanding Wine

Prior to my first visit to the Barossa Valley in 2006 I was a casual wine drinker and certainly not someone who knew the difference between a shiraz or a riesling.  My run-ins with wine were mainly at university balls (where I'm sure we were given crap), random glasses at weddings and the occasional stab-in-the-dark-I'll-drink-that-one in a bar or restaurant.  Cocktails and mixers were my thing.

Well since that first fateful wine tour to the Barossa, I've become much more interested in drinking the fermented grape juice.  Having enjoyed many wines on three separate trips (and counting) to the Barossa, I've learnt to distinguish what I did and didn't like but I was yearning for more.  I was yearning for the ability to tell why I preferred some wines over others - to identify flavours and other characteristics in the wine.  I always thought it was a bit wanky when wine tasters would use terms like marshmallow, tobacco, chocolate to describe wine.  I'm now going to become one of those wankers!  

When Spu and I went to the National Wine Centre, I had picked up a pamphlet which listed several appreciation courses.  I actually had come across these courses in the middle of last year when I had another long stint in Rad-City but was unable to make the cut off date.  I totally forgot about them!  So happy to have collected the pamphlet, I promptly enrolled myself in their 'Understanding Wine' course.  I'll have a weekly two hour session over the next six weeks and even if I don't end up learn anything, I'll at least have sampled many, many wines :D  

Tonight was the first lesson and we were given some purposely doctored wines so we could taste the difference between sweet, acidic, bitter and tannin flavours.  Bitter was seriously gross and like drinking tonic water (or in my case, I also thought it tasted kinda like a bitter grapefruit).

We also got to smell some purposely doctored 'faulty' wines.  I'll be honest, out of the five faulty wines, my inexperienced nose would have accepted three of them fit for consumption.  Eeek.  It kinda reinforces my suspicion that I killed a few olfactory receptors doing chemistry experiments in uni.  I could definitely smell the burnt matchstick smell of excess sulphur dioxide, a commonly used preservative.  It was like someone lit a match, blew it out and immediately threw it into the back of my throat.  I could also smell the 'Bret' spoiled wine.  It smelled like someone's old Band-Aid.  Disgusting.

At the end of the night, we also got to sample two reds and two whites and put our tutorial to good use.  Looking forward to next week's lesson!  

Rocking the Barossa with Spu

A year ago, the Barossa was rocked by me (Poo), Moo and Suboo.  This year the Barossa was going to be rocked by the Spu.  Actually Spu's not that much of a drinker so it was really going to be rocked by me again.  The tour I really, really wanted to book wasn't going ahead due to lack of numbers.  Boo hoo - it had structured wine tastings at Jacobs Creek, Peter Lehmann, Richmond Grove and a cooperage tour at Seppeltsfield.  Sounds good!  Anyway, my second choice was the Taste the Barossa tour and it was chosen on the basis that I hadn't been to 3 of 4 wineries.  Gotta sample everything!

Spuey with our bus.   

The first stop was to check out the acoustic qualities of the Whispering Wall.  Having been here last year, this time I walked all the way over to the other side to listen to our guide chat to us.  The clarity of his voice was unbelievable.  Move over telephones, all we need is a curved wall!

Spu thought it was pretty cool.  Then I forced him to re-create mine and Moo's pose from last year.  

Our first winery was McGuigan at Chateau Yaldara.

Yes, there was a chateau.  

Our group was taken through a tasting and they were all pleasant enough.  The sparkling pinot gris, sauvignon blanc were both ok but I'm not big on whites.  The chardonnay I quite liked.  It smelled like tinned tuna (not as bad as it sounds!) but tasted like toasted cheese.  Those childhood memories of eating tuna on toast with melted cheese came flooding back to me.  (I know it's a weird mix, but you experiment with foods as child).  We also had some moscato which was nice but just a tiny bit too sweet.  The reds began with a shiraz viognier; the viognier making the red a bit lighter and easier to drink.  Their shiraz was nice but not enough for me to pull out my wallet.  Then we finished with a 20 year aged tawny.  The absolute highlight of the bunch!   But at $50 a bottle I decided to hold back.

Next was the Peter Lehmann winery.  He's a fairly well known name in the wine industry and our guide filled us in on the humble beginnings.  Back in the late 1970s, the Barossa was going through a glut whereby winemakers were not buying fruit from grape growers.  Peter was already a renown winemaker and rather than see the grape growers be left in financial ruin, Peter suggested that he take the excess grapes and pay for the fruit after wine was produced and sold.

He churned out some awesome wines and the rest is history.

 Ready for some more wine! 

Spuey with the wine tasting lady in the background.  Our lunch, a platter of cold meats, cheese, spreads and bread.  It was nice especially the german sausage, beetroot chutney and soft cheese but it was not enough food for Supergut!  

We were given quite a treat at Peter Lehmann and tasted eight wines.  I gave the riesling a 'nup' because I don't really like dry whites.  The semillion was ok.  The Layers was definitely a winner and was a mix of pinot gris, muscat, gewurztraminer, chardonnay and semillon.  If any white wine was going to convert me from reds, this was going to be it.  Very easy to drink.   The shiraz and cabernet sauvignon were both ok but when we were given a taste of the 2006 Stonewall shiraz, well it was clear this was a premium drop.  So smooth and naice!  We were then given some of the Black Queen sparkling shiraz which I thought I would like but I ended up thinking it was just ok and not really not my thing.  To finish off we had the Princess moscato which was very yummy!!! Not too sweet and with a hint of fruity fragrance.  At just $18 a bottle I bought a bottle for me to enjoy later.

The next winery was the ever faithful Langmeil.

It was actually just walking distance to Peter Lehmann and so we followed the signs on over.   

Spuey evoking the blacksmith and cooper within.  

We weren't given the Langmeil tour which I've heard twice before and as a result I felt there was a lack of appreciation for the wine.  I knew the Freedom shiraz vines were 160+ years old but I don't think anyone else on the tour would have any idea!

Spuey and his large wine bottle.  Spuey enjoying the tawny.  Num nums. 

I've tasted all the Langmeil wines at previous visits but I was more than happy to drink them again.  I do have to comment that their signature Freedom shiraz didn't impress me as much as last time!  Maybe the 2008 vintage was a bit of a down year but in all fairness, the wine hasn't matured.  I'm confident it will only get better with age.  I also enjoyed the 20 year tawny port enough to hand over $35 for a bottle.  So warming, so naice!

Our final stop for the day was the Murray Street Vineyards which is run by a descendant of the Seppelt family.  The current generation of Seppelts however are no longer associated with the wines of their namesake.

We first stopped near the Seppeltsfield winery and admired the palm trees which were planted by workers who were thankful for not being sacked during the Depression.  

The Murray Street wines were all a bit ho-hum.  By this time of the day I was pretty jolly and maybe my palate was a bit overwhelmed.

We did meet a doggy named Jasper though.  Here is Spu teaching him to sit.  

We relaxed on the 45 or so minute drive back to Rad City and sobered up a bit before heading out for dinner.  Spuey had mentioned a few weeks ago that he had a hankering for Spanish, so off we went to Mesa Lunga which Moo, Suboo and I thoroughly enjoyed last year.

I was still tipsy but we ordered the clara sangria anyway.  So refreshing and deceptively intoxicating. 

We left the chef do his work and asked for a selection of six tapas dishes.  We started with a plate of jamon, manchego and bread.  Then some meatballs.  I can't remember what meat it was but I think it was chicken.  Mushies.  Must have some veggies somewhere in the mix.  

 Mini hamburgers - yums!  I love hamburgers!  Chorizo.  This was either a bit overcooked or a bit too salty.  Tortilla.  It was nice but generally I am not impressed by tortillas.  It's just egg and potato! 

Eating with Spu makes me feel like a pig.  For a boy, he doesn't really eat much.  Either that or I eat too much? Maybe?  Maybe?

I can resist fried dough so I ordered the churros for dessert.  They were pretty average.  There weren't enough churros sticks!!  

Ok, so I'm a pig.  Mesa Lunga delivered a nice meal again and I definitely recommend going there if you're in Rad City.  But otherwise, we shuffled home without too much swaying and are ready for a well-earned sleep. Drinking and eating is exhausting!

National Wine Centre & Penfolds Magill Estate

I forced Spuey to visit me in Rad-City and this meant that I didn't to do things alone this weekend.  Yay!  Today we checked out the exhibition at the National Wine Centre.

I did actually walk to the National Wine Centre a few weeks ago with the intention of seeing the exhibit alone, but it was really hot that day and when I nearly got there my feet were too blistered to continue.  

Spu admiring the architecture. 

The exhibition was a lot smaller than I expected and for some reason the main room was very dimly lit.  It was like walking into a cave.  Not sure if that was the intention or if they just forgot to turn the lights on.  I suspect the latter.

Spuey didn't like his rosella.  Me and my giant phylloxera bug.

We learned a bit about the history of wine making and the challenges winemakers face when growing grapes.   The phylloxera bug decimated the vineyards in Europe but Australia remained largely unaffected.  This is why Australia can lay claim to having possibly the oldest wine producing grapevines in the world despite (only!) being 160 or so years old.  :D

Dinner was at the Penfolds Magill Estate which is situated about 15 drive from Rad City CBD.  (If you don't want to take a cab, the public bus takes 30 minutes and drops you right at the entrance.)  It's pretty cool.  A proper vineyard within the city limits!  It's not the biggest Penfolds vineyard (that's out in the Barossa) but it is where Dr. Penfolds himself first set up shop.

I've been wanting to eat here for aaaaaaggggeees.  Partly because none of my previous wine tours included their Barossa outpost and partly because I wanted to eat the degustation menu.  Nothing could be more depressing than me having degustation alone :(  Hence, Spuey's here to help me out!

Our work on the 'The Price is Right' paid off. 

Spuey and his vineyard.  

We arrived a bit too early for our dinner reservation and so explored the grounds.  It was pretty empty.  I was surprised.  The cellar door being closed at 5pm was a reasonable explanation.  

Spu and I were the first people in the restaurant.  I've gotten used to walking into bustling eateries and fighting for reservations so this was quite a change.  It was a little awkward to consider the possibility that Spu and I might be on the ONLY people to dine tonight... errrrrr.  Luckily, a few more people started dripping in.

The welcoming plate. 

Spuey and the empty restaurant.  Me and the empty restaurant.

I told Spu that it was ok to wear shorts and when we got there, he said 'This is a pants restaurant.'  I told him, 'It's ok, I'm not wearing pants either' and to that he retorted 'That's cos you are wearing a dress.'  I still stand by my shorts-are-ok stance.  It wasn't anywhere near as formal as other restaurants and it was quite a balmy evening.  

Ok, now for the food.  The degustation menu on the website wasn't what we had tonight because it presumably varies according to the season.  We were told to allow three hours for the degustation.  *shocked face*  Wtf?  Is that normal?  The Matteo's degustation didn't take that long!  Oh well, when in Rome.

Spu opted to only have one glass of wine but I decided to enjoy myself tonight and ordered the 'premium' matching wines.  My only other choice was the 'super premium' wines and they didn't give the option of 'average' matching wines.  This would be my first opportunity of tasting a good range of the Penfolds wines.  Yay!

The amuse bouche resembled a fluffy white marshmallow with a sprinkling of rusty flakes.  Did they really serve us a marshmallow as a palate cleanser?  No, it was a white tomato foam.  Such light foam, yet so concentrated in flavour.  It tasted just like tomato paste or in my case, it also reminded me of a mouthful of the salad sandwiches I used to eat from the primary school canteen.  Not sure how they managed to create the flavours of white bread, butter, lettuce tomato, beetroot and carrot in my mouth but it was pretty impressive!  I had mini tomato loaf and Spu had the chive and parmesan bread.  Yes, packed full of flavour.

(L-R) Yellowtail kingfish, truffle, baby herbs - matched with a pinot noir chardonnay.  Scallops, iberico jamon, tomato olive oil mousse, basil and lemon crunch - matched with a riesling.  Kangaroo, pumpkin, wattle seed, barbecue essence - matched with an ale.  That surprised me.  A beer!

I could now understand why we had to allow three hours for the degustation.  I was definitely getting a bit woo-whee.  The food portions weren't large enough to offset my alcohol consumption!

(L-R) Marron, samphire, young shoots, peas, organic honey - matched with a chardonnay.  Wagyu, sweet corn, legumes, sprout leaves - matched with a cabernet shiraz.  The first of two desserts; an apricot souffle - matched with a tawny.  Very light but full of apricot-y goodness.

The second dessert, bread and butter pudding.  When I saw a $20 bread and butter pudding on the a la carte menu, I wondered how would they fancy up such a humble dessert.  But, as you can see from the above picture, it looked nothing like a typical B'n'B pudding.  I was quite drunk by this time of night but I do recall that the cylindrical piece consisted of light custard-y mousse encased in a thin, crispy, bread shell.  On the left was some ice cream.  I'm sure it was more than just plain old 'ice cream' but I just can't remember the gastronomic details.

Overall a very nice meal and appropriately paced for the alcohol consumption.  However, I was still hungry by the end of the night.  Spuey and I discussed getting a cheese bao but it didn't happen - I was too tipsy to be bothered. I admit I can be quite the pig (I didn't earn the moniker 'Supergut' for nothing) but I really do think that an extra one or two mains would have rounded out the meal more nicely.  My stomach would have been more satisfied and my brain less intoxicated.

Excluding the amuse bouche, there were five main dishes and two desserts.  Compare that to the seven mains and two desserts at Matteo's.  I was definitely full after Matteo's, whose richer dishes help pad out the stomach.  Anyway, it may sound like that I'm nit-picking but I'm more or less warning those with large appetites to just be prepared for a post-dinner Macca's run.  I did enjoy my dinner and I did enjoy my booze and I would happily accompany anyone else who needed a eating-buddy.

Dinner at Horoki & Drinkies at 1806

The last time I ate at Horoki was in 2006.  Time sure flies.  Well, my main excuse was that I was living overseas.  I think that's a pretty decent excuse.  Moo made me crave Horoki like no tomorrow after her recent eating adventure, so to continue my celebrations of no longer having to eat alone (and also to compensate for my food sins in Rad-City), Moo, Sem and I went there tonight.

Our teapot party.  

Moo, the wise one, suggested that as three little women we should order at least six dishes.  That might sound excessive but the dishes are small and no one should underestimate the eating prowess of three little Asian girls.  

Beef tataki, tuna carpaccio with parmesan shavings and daikon salad.  Nom, nom, noms! 

Seared salmon nigiri, spicy butter cod roe pasta and duck breast with eggplant.  Num, num, nums!!!  I'm not eating alone anymore!! 

We decided we could fit in a another dish and so we ordered the salmon croquettes.

These croquettes were shaped like takoyaki balls and served with the typical okonomiyaki sauce and Jap mayo.  It was like I was eating takoyaki (I *heart* takoyaki), but no, I was really eating a croquette!!  It was messing with my mind!

Dessert was a bit uninspiring, but SEM being a SEM ordered a green tea ice cream and we all stabbed a spoon into it.  Having started dinner quite early, there was now plenty of time for Monday night drinks.  Aaaaah, not having to work sure has it's perks.

Moo had told me about her mulled wine experience at 1806 and well, I do love my mulled wine.  For the past few weeks, I have been in Rad-City fantasising about my night with Mr. Mulled Wine and now.....my date with him had finally arrived.

Our drinkies.  Me and SEM who wasn't much of a SDM (Sneaky Drinking Machine).  

Moo had told me that Mr. Mulled Wine was a bit buttery which I thought was a bit weird.  That's not anything like the mulled wine I've had in Europe, but hey, I'll drink anything once.  The bartender brought us our drinkies and I have to say, the buttery-ness did go down a treat.  It was so much of a treat, that I requested another one.  Hehehehehehe.  Cheers to not having to eat and drink alone!

Mooey Submission Pic-a-nic

Mooey had her post submission pic-a-nic today and needless to say, after 6 hours of solid alcohol consumption (in the classy form of Langmeil red wine and Pimms of course!), Mooey and I were hammered.  I shouldn't also forget that our sipping of the juice was accompanied by nummy cheeses, pates, antipasto and dips.

Hooray for food and drinkies!  Hooray for Moo! 

Lazy Sunday Lunch

Yesterday's indulgence carried over into today as we all slept in until noon :D Our plans to check out the Rundle Street market were pulled from under our feet as we strolled down the street hoping to see a street market only to find that.... there was no visible market. Ok, where the fark was it? We had 3 pairs of eyes and none of which could see this so-called Sunday market.

We stopped inside a cafe to find out what's the deal and was told that the market was canceled because it was too hot. Too hot? I mean, we're in Australia! We three walked had down and neither of us thought it was too hot. It was just hot, normal hot.

The starving little bunnies that we were, we made our way to Mesa Lunga for tapas.

It well past lunch time and the restaurant was empty except for one party of four. We asked for a table and the waiter insisted on seating us right next to the party already present. Wtf. The restaurant is freaking empty, why can't I sit on any of the other tables? Why do we have to sit right next to the only other patrons in the restaurant? My brow furrowed and I was a bit miffed at that. Gimme a break. Bad first impressions of restaurant being too snooty for it's own good.

The waiter was (kinda) forgiven once the carafe of Clara sangria was brought to the table.

Aren't you pretty, you drinkable thing you.. mmm mmmm mmmm

We asked for a selection of tapas to share and I do have to say I've had a fair amount of mediocre Spanish food (mainly in London), but this is has to be one of the nicest tapas places I've eaten in. Of course this came at a premium price for Adelaide standards.

Mushies, tortilla de patatas and croquettes.

Seared scallops, chorizo, paella and pork/veal meatballs which along with a serving of bread tipped us over to the stuffing point.

It didn't really look like much, but when you graze slowly and keep drinking the sangria, you get quite full. Yes I definitely could come here again based on the food, but if they again insist we sit next to other diners in an otherwise empty restaurant, I might just have to have a word with the waiter!