Brandy Creek Winery

Happy Thursday!

I say this with a big sigh of guilt as I have been so slack lately with this blog! Sorry to all that are interested enough to read my blog. But anyway, Ill push on with a blog that I haven’t stopped thinking about writing since I was in the restaurant!!

Ok, so a few weeks ago, a girlfriend and I found ourselves without our partners at the end of a lazy and casual Saturday. We soon snapped out of our afternoon daze when we realised that we had an opportunity to satisfy our joint love of a food adventure that unfortunately neither of us can fulfil with our respective partners. So our brains started flying with great ideas. We contemplated going to Inverloch to the Japanese restaurant that we had heard so much about, then we jumped to the idea of going to Phillip Island to the Japanese tapas restaurant we had planned to go to the next time we had a chance, then we thought of a few restaurants in Drouin that we liked a fair bit but had been to before.

Then we summoned upon another friend who shares our love for an adventure and a girly night and we all decided fairly quickly to go to the old favourite that all three of us love so much and that none of us had visited for a while, much to all of our disgust, dismay and surprise!

Brandy Creek Winery near Drouin Victoria is the most ……beautiful, sensational, brilliant restaurant In the area. Well this is definitely my opinion, and I think the girls would agree closely behind me but possibly not to the acclaim I have given. I can’t rave enough about the atmosphere, the cuisine and the delicious an tasty food each and every time I go there. I have been for work breakups, small to medium birthdays and quiet family dinners there and each time, we have had a ball.

Ok, so down to the nitty gritty, what we had! We had….Garlic and Chilli Prawns, Potato Bravas, Twice cooked Duck, Anchovies and bread, Slow cooked mini lamb cutlets, Eggplant bake, and some lovely Turkish bread. Ok that sounds like a lot of food, but it is all in Tapas style dining. So small dishes and many of them is the idea here! Each dish has such a unique and delicious flavour that you won’t replicate in another dish. Each dish has a fantastic individuality that makes it feel so exclusive and delicate. You go from one dish to another, to another and back again and swap and change so much that you can’t work out which is the best and one you want to savour the most! The one thing that I learnt very quickly the first time I went is to order lots of bread because the great dishes have lots of sauce that you would not dare to waste, and quite frankly, it feels like a great loss to send a dish away with so much flavour still awaiting inside!

So when we arrived and looked at the menu we were very presently surprised to see there were a few new inclusions to choose from. A menu refresh is as good as a holiday when it comes to restaurants, but we were very glad also to see a few old favourites still there gleaming with pride. We decided that we were all very intrigued by a few items that we wanted to try and we most definitely had the old favourite that we needed on the list of things we would order. We tossed and turned all the items and came up with a semi-solid list of dishes we would order and decided on the seven mentioned.  The anchovies was something that the three of us were very happy with and impressed that we actually enjoyed it. The Eggplant bake had us talking amongst ourselves all night about how it was made and how we could replicate it at home, and the little lamb cutlet things were something of a pleasant surprise. They were topped with a fantastically Mediterranean/Indian type pesto that we couldn’t get enough of. The meat fell off the little bones they were presented on and were tastier than they looked! The Chilli and Garlic Prawns…..enough said. All in all, we couldn’t complain about a thing.

So what is it that makes me so excited about this place? Well it is a glamorous but casual combination of a winery, gleaming atmosphere, envious food and a local location. The style of Tapas is a style of eatery that creates such a casual atmosphere, it creates a mood of conversation and appreciation of such great flavours that is only enhanced by the idyllic setting. Their wine is to die for and they have recently finished extending the inside dining area. During the day, the views are fantastic through the vineyards and across the Gippsland hills. When night falls, the colours come out in beautiful lighting on each table and throughout the rooms.

Well do yourselves a favour and take your friend/partner/family to Brandy Creek Winery for a look or have a look at their website and enjoy all it has to offer.

XO

NJC

www.brandycreekwines.com.au

Steamboat experience

Hi Hi,

Ok, sincerest apologies for not posting for a while. Life and its hassles have gotten the better of me and have taken up all my precious time lately. But anyway, back to the old blog and back in a big way! Goodness me, it all started a couple of months ago when I started my new subscription to all the emails from Ourdeal.com.au, Cudo.com.au and Spreets.com.au. I was getting them on a daily basis by the hundreds and I came across a deal for a Steamboat dinner/lunch in Chinatown. This caught my eye instantly and a couple of dear friends that share my love for Asian cuisine came to mind too ;-)

So we purchased the deal for 4 people for a lovely $69 or something (the details escape me) with the full intention of only the three of us going along and not knowing what we would expect. The offer was a physical piece of paper that I gave to the girls to have a copy. They looked it over and the next conversation we had was their excitement that we were going on a boat a lovely Asian feast! Fantastically and hysterically misunderstood by us, Steamboat is actually a type of cuisine and had nothing to do with being on a boat, having our meal served in a boat shaped bowl or any boat theme whatsoever. This was a very funny realisation for us, because we then decided that we actually had no idea what to expect. This didn’t really bother us because we were keen to try it and knew that if it was terrible and weird, Chinatown in Melbourne has a lot of other options for us to redeem ourselves.

So off we went on Saturday 31st August into Melbourne to have a look around the city and head to Chinatown for the lunch we had been anticipating for a couple of months. 1st Choice Restaurant looked like a reputable place at 11.50am when we arrived at the street-front and decided to go in early. Excited and nervous for our fate we stepped inside to a lovely little authentic Asian diner that was unfortunately but understandably empty at that early lunch time. Bright colours of red and gold were the main themes of décor with what seemed to be purpose built tables for the Steamboat cuisine that we fast realised that they specialised in. The lovely ladies that served us were friendly and very helpful with our Cudo voucher and what it offered and what sections off the menu to choose. We were entitled to 1 x large Steamboat, 2 x cold dishes, 2 x pan-fried dishes, 2 x serves of dumplings and a drink of our choice each. So firstly, we were all stunned at the amount of food we seems to be eligible for with our voucher, so we set to worth through the menu to decide on our meals. We sifted through the Intestines, pork neck, chicken gizzards, beef brisket and tripe on the menu and came to a conclusion that the authentic regulars would have probably called boring. We chose a mixed seafood steamboat with original heat and XO sauce, for the pan-fried dishes we picked one pork belly and one chicken, for the dumplings we chose pork ones and prawn ones, and for the coil dishes we selected an interesting black fungus dish and a broccoli and cauliflower salad. The cold dishes were the hardest to pick from because there was a very small selection of the boring nature. So we went with a daring one that we were intrigued by (black fungus) and one that we decided that sounded the best (broccoli and cauliflower). What we received was actually a pleasing result. The pan-fried and cold dishes were much smaller than expected and were well received because we were worrying about the amount of feed that was going to be landed upon us.

The steam boat arrived and was placed on our table on the hot plate and the concept was explained to us. We were to devour the rest of our dishes while the pot cooked for 15 minutes and they would come back at specific intervals to stir and add the sauce. Some aspects of the meal were weird and strange to us, but we accepted them for what they were and enjoyed it non-the-less. We sat and talked about many things; the meal included, and had a great lunch in the dark little authentic restaurant. It was fantastic and a great experience as none of us had had a steamboat before. We were beginning to worry when we were the only ones in the restaurant until about 1pm, but some locals came in and the place was obviously famous for its steamboat lunches and casual and authentic atmosphere. There was a friendly vibe, we felt comfortable enough to talk amongst ourselves, and confident cooking, which is all you want in an authentic Chinatown restaurant right? To be honest, we were all surprised at the value of the Cudo voucher and meal quality. The side dishes and dumplings weren’t the best we had ever had, but their speciality Steamboat was very good and the experience alone was enough to satisfy. I think it is worthy of a good wrap because of the overall vide, atmosphere, food and location as a whole. Another great day out under the belt 

xoxo

NJC

Hangover Food

Hello hello!

Hangovers are terrible. We all know they are but we all pretend to come off from them better than we actually have. I have written about Comfort Food before I know, but I thought that Hangover food deserves its own post. They sometimes come together in glorious harmony, but sometimes there are vast differences that set them distinctively apart. Certain variables come into Hangover food that are non-negotiable and standard across the board; ease of cooking, readily available and not loud or stressful to make. Other things are determinant on the type of hangover and the severity like whether it is a hot or cold dish, whether it is solid or liquid form, whether it is homemade or bought.

So let’s delve into the complicated but oh so serious topic of Hangover food! I want to explain to you that hangover food can be the same each and every time for one person but vary enormously from time to time for others. Some people have set beliefs on what works (eg. Fix the hangover) and others have bursts of hunger all day and they will eat anything in their path.

Hangovers are mysterious beasts when it comes to food because people can be so sporadic, unreasonable and non-negotiable with their choices and desires. I have been known to make Pork Roasts and extravagant things for Hangover cravings, I sometimes crave Hungry jacks, KFC or Pizza, and McDonalds of course is always a sure cure. But I have such a vast repertoire of Hangover cure remedies, that sometimes I find it hard to choose!

Partly my hangover stems from my comfort food, depending on how bad I feel and what is available to cook or buy. I tend to go for the noodles, or Asian if I can. I love getting tucked into some Goyza or dumplings if I can or if I can be bothered driving to get them. I have recently rediscovered the prepacked Roti in the supermarket and oh gosh its good and it takes me back to my childhood growing up in Singapore. When we were kids, Dad would take us down to the food courts at the bottom of the hill that we lived on in Singapore on a Sunday and we sat and ate beautiful, flaky oily Roti with a brilliantly vibrant Indian/Malaysian curry sauce. So this is where I took myself the Sunday just gone. I also have fond memories of the Satay man coming around to our block and serving up his cart stall food of satay sticks with a homemade peanut sauce.

So trying to combine these two memories of food together I whipped up a peanut curry sauce to have with my pre-packed Roti. I only had some Massaman Curry paste in the fridge so that had to do. It was a brilliant substitute for the memories I had and it definitely hit the Hangover food craving that I was having.

So here is the recipe to my Curry Peanut Dipping Sauce:
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon of curry paste of choice 1 splash of fish sauce
1 splash of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
(Little bit of water to thin it out)
Method: Mix all together in a small saucepan and mix until combined and slightly toasted.
-Add a little water as you go to thin it out to the desired consistency.
-Mix and Mix and Mix.
Note: Some lime juice would have been a great addition thinking back now. But I’m sure that I will make this again and I will add something to the sort to add a bit of acidity and extra flavour. It was a bit gluggy and the lime juice would have helped with this, but I probably could have added more water.

Anyway, the point is that I succeeded in getting my Hangover food and it was delightful! The end…until next weekend….. xoxo NJC

Lovely Local Yum Cha - The Golden Orient

Well Well,

What a great Saturday I had yesterday.The thought for our Saturday advtneure was a spare of the moment decision between a friend and I to have a day out. We had heard that there was Yum Cha in Narree Warren a few weeks ago from another friend, and admitiandly, i havent stopped thinking about it since. So i mentioned that we should go to Savers and Yum Cha in Naree Warren as they were next to ch other in Narree Warren. So from Tuesday when we made the plans, through to Saturday, i was thrilled with excitement that we were going to Yum Cha locally! (well more local than Springvale where we had gone previously).

So Saturday came along and another Yum Cha loving friend joined is which was fantastic, and off we trotted to Narree Warren. We had arrived at about 10.45am and this was a little early for lunch so we went to Savers first (after dicovering there is a Bingo Centre next door and we made plans to make sure we come back to that one day!) We did drive past The Golden Orient just to make sure it was open and there were some people floating around. There were so we squealed with excitement about our pending lunch.
We shopped and shopepd in Savers and decided that it was too risky to play a game of Bingo at the Bingo Centre before lunch in case we missed out on Yum Cha. So off we went accross the way to The Golden Orient. The car park was full of cars and there were many tables filled inside. I had done a little bit of research before the Saturday online about The Golden Orient and there were some mixed reviews, Some said that the place was often empty but most of the people said that food was fantastic. And that it was! I was glad that it was busing with traditional Asian Yum Cha excitement and enthusiasum, so we joined the brilliant casual atmosphere with very high expectiations. When i say high expectations, they are Yum Cha expectiations. We didnt have any expectations of a 5 star resuarant, we wanted good authentic food and good authentic people. They are the main criteria. Oh and Steamed Prawn Dumplings!

All of us were brilliantly satisfied with our dishes and Green Tea. We chose Pork Dumplings that were like Pot Stickers, Steamed Seafod Dim Sum, Pork Spare Ribs, Steamed Prawn and Ginger dumplings, Prawn Dumplings Pot Stickers and Calamari att various stages of them bringing them out. Our favourites of the lunch were the Pork Pot Stickers and the Steamed Prawn Dumplings. We have of course vowed to go there more often now that we can be confiedent that it meets our Yum Cha expectiations! It is so great to know that something so great is so close! We all would highly recommend The Golden Orient! For those that have never expereienced Yum Cha, you sit and get a plate and spoon and a complementary bottle of Soy on the table. They then come and various intervals with a trolley around the room to every table and ask if you would like anything off the trolley. The little bamboo steamers that the trolley is carrying houses various things from Beef or Chicken Dim Sum to the more exotic Chickens feet at some more authentic places. All dishes are serviced as you request them and they fill out the sheet that is left at your table that you take to to pay when you are all done. You can send trolleys away politely if there is nothing that takes your fancy , or get as much as you like of the dishes that you like! The pricing is aranged in a way that depends on the sevirity of the dish. They are categorised from Standars through to Super special and the prices are determined accordingly. The brilliant thing about it is there is no menu, no price list and very little english to decifer the sheet that is on your table. But the dishes are generally very cheap. The whole lunch with 8 dishes and Green Tea was only $58 or so dollars for all three of us. This was more than enough to fill us for lunch!

So as we were sitting there at the end of our meal, Louise found out that Kate had never been to Robert Gordon Pottery in Pakenham. Oh gosh. So off we went. It was a brilliant idea, because they were having a sale (as they always do, but this time is was more extensive I think). So I managed to pick up a whole dinner set of 6 dinner plates, 6 mugs and 6 side plates for $18 because all the pieces were $1 each!!! That will hold the title of the best bargain find for a while in my mind! Along with some great Kris Kringle pressies for X'Mas, we had a great time there. We pushed out little trolleys out of there with great pride at the day that we had achieved! Finished off with a treat and a pot of tea at a cafe, it put the most perfect end to another great day out for us girls!

All in all, we had some great bargains at Savers and Robert Gordon, broken up by a fantastic relaxed Yum Cha lunch. Oh Gosh, thats the top of the chain for me, Yum Cha, Op-Shopping and Pottery. Im not sure that a day can have that much good in it?! .... Give some of these local places a go if you are into that sort of thing. You will be most plesantly surprised.

XOXO

NJC

The Noojee Hotel

Hello Friday!

Here is the weekend, and the time to go out and have our fun for the week is upon us. Trying to cram as much as we all can into two days that seem to be shorter than weekdays is a hard task! Everyone is trying to find the best place to have their fun, and I have actually come across a new gem recently.

Well technically speaking is not a new gem, rather an old gem reenergised with new management. The Noojee Hotel in Noojee is a pub that we are very familiar with as our four wheel driving adventures take us fairly regular in the area. But in the recent months it has been taken over by new owners and we discovered this only a couple of weeks ago, so what did we all do? We went to investigate of course!

Nothing is more exciting to me that an old country pub that is filled with so much potential being taken over by a new person. Especially if you hear that they are from the country, not the city. The pub itself has so much potential with a huge decking area that would be fantastic in the summer, that the last owners must have built and with a “bistro” that functions more like a bar area/bistro arrangement. The atmosphere has the potential to be so great in a place like that, so I was pretty darn excited to go for a look. The bf and some friends had stopped by there on their way home from a trip last weekend and said that the place was full of people, music was pumping, and the owner was friendly, approachable and down-to-earth and that they rated the place! So off we went last Sunday night with some friends to check it out.

The guy that now runs the pub has run the Dargo pub in the past which is at the base of the high country. It is a great place with a fantastic pub of its own. But it was comforting to know and see that the new owner of the pub has a great country attitude to things, talking to us about where we had been and where we were from. Doing his market research of course! The Parmas were raved about by the boys from their trip there earlier in the week, but unfortunately on that Sunday they had such a busy day due to the snow fields being so fruitful, they had run out of Chicken and Beef Schnitzels. Which was not a deal breaker for me and all the other boys were that keen on the place, they didn’t care either!

I had the Porterhouse Steak which was cooked perfectly Medium with mushroom sauce. Medium steak is a fine art that I have found hard to come across properly in a lot of pubs. I have discovered though, that ordering steak is so worrying for some people that they don’t order it when they go out in case it is ruined by over cooking! Well not to fear, this should not be a cause for concern when visiting the Noojee Pub! There was some orders of Spag bol, Mixed Grills (which has been deemed a fair challenge for the boys because it is so big) and Wedges amongst out table, and raving reviews came from it all which was fantastic. It was so inspiring to hear that a pub with a new owner is doing well in all departments, food, atmosphere, location, drinks, pool table and publican personality! Is this possible??!!

We are planning to make it a regular thing to head to the Noojee Pub, it has all sorts of good things going for it and seems to have everyone covered. Band nights, hot jam doughnuts, pizza, local ciders, happy hours, pool comps, juke box, rustic décor, hot pies to go and more! Give it a go, it’s not that far from Warragul and Drouin, only a beautiful scenic 30min drive to the greatest new thing around at the moment 

XOXO

NJC

Girls day out

Hi ho!

What a weekend last weekend was! A best friend visited from interstate and a great day out was  planned to celebrate!
We had a huge day planned which included a trip to Spotlight and also Savers which we were all very excited about. So off we went. Out first foodie stop was quite impromptu but well guided. Wandering around Fountain Gate was suggested to be the perfect opportunity to have a morning tea break at San Churro, which is a chocolate lovers dream dedicated to the the grande Spanish Churros! To be honest with you, i didn't realise that they served anything other than Churro, but how was i to know otherwise? I haven't ever been there before, but i have a great love for Churros and i had been hearing about this mystifying  place for a while. So i was excited and very, very intrigued.

So need i say anymore.....REAL chocolate hot chocolates, with all sorts of fantastic flavourings like Mint, Hazelnut and Peanut Butter! We kept out hot chocolates company with some authentic and delicious Chorros with some caramel and chocolate dipping sauces, and a not so authenticity Spanish, New York cheesecake. All was great and tasty, although it was far too rich for us all to finish unfortunately.

But off we went to Spotlight and got some supplies to teach ourselves how to Crochet, which was both so exciting but so confusing at the same time. But we got through that with some therapeutic fabric shopping for projects that we hope we keep as motivated for as when we were filling through the fabrics!

That led us into lunch where the inner gourmet came out in us, without even trying! A little cafe in Beaconsfield called 'Ask' with a bright red sign, flags and overall decor absolutely hit the spot. We were in a accidental hurry that we didn't r realise we were in until we noticed the time after we ordered, found a table and were waiting for our meals. But the meals came out in a satisfying fast manner, which made us pretty happy. But the meals that we ordered were the more fantastic part! Two of us had the Salmon Benedict and my best friend had the Baked Potato, all of which was advertised on the chalk board out the front. But i was tossing up between a couple of options, but i was darn glad i went with the choice i made because it was fantastic! Smoked salmon on grilled Turkish bread with poached eggs, sauteed spinach, all topped with an absolutely beautifully fattening hollandaise sauce! Goodness me, can't say that I've been the top advocator of smoked salmon, but I'm sure that this lunch has turned me. So all that being said, i will be going back to the 'Ask' cafe the next time i am wanting a meal in or near Beaconsfield!

After that, the two others got daring sand brave matching tattoos, of which i was too shy, whimpy and afraid of what the other half would say to participate in unfortunately. We then went back for an early birthday  party for my bestie filled with great modern inspired party food, and then called it an end to a brilliant day together.

The day was great, crammed full of fun, sun, shopping and of course food. Food is such a huge part of the everyday life, that it needs to be included in a way that sees you enjoy it, not just as a part of the mundane day, but as a defining part of your day.

Xox

NJC

Italian inspration

Hello lovelies,

Thank gosh Monday is over, it’s Tuesday now at least, which doesn’t seem much better in the daily grind, but at least it is marginally better than Monday! So after a wonderful weekend, my spirits were very high and motivation to cook something fantastic for dinner was sky high too. So last night I made a pasta from a few ideas I had seen in passing on my RSS feeds and through magazines articles. I had a few ideas that I wanted to mash together. One of which was using sausage mince as the meat in a pasta dish. This is done by taking the meat out of some gourmet sausages and frying that up into reasonably small freeform meatball sizes. Little morsels of seasons meat intrigued me because I love gourmet sausages and the pictures that I had seen always looks so decadent and truly italian (sucker for pictures!). To be honestly I loved the idea of making something that was a little complicated and that seemed more authentically Italian (unsure why). The other idea was a simple tomato sauce that I had tried many times before, but in this case, I went for the jar bolognaise sauce.

So off I started defrosting some Pork and Fennel sausages that I had bought with the intention to make something along these lines. Once defrosted, I cut the ends and removed the mince from inside the casings. This would have been a bit gross to an innocent bystander, but there were none of them so I just keep plodding along at it. I sort of mashed up the mince a little so that it wasn’t in deformed sausage shapes. To go along with my sausage mince, I cut up some green beans and boiled them up to partly cook them and also cut up some mushrooms.

So I started cooking the sausage mince and roughly chopping it up with the wooden spoon, but not to the extent I would have been chopping it up if I was making spaghetti bolognaise with proper mince. Added the mushrooms once the meat was browned and cooked a little more to start the mushrooms off. Then I added the beans and a little of the water I cooked them in along with a jar of Basil and Red Wine bolognaise sauce along with done dried oregano, salt and pepper to compliment the flavoured sausages. While this was all happening I put the pasta on and cooked that while all this was happening in the frypan (I wanted a great big tubular type of pasta, but only had fettuccini so that had to do). So it simmered away for the time it took the pasta to cook and then I served it up! It was delicious, well I thought so anyway.

There was too much sauce I think for the execution. One of the smaller pasta Stir-through sauces would have been better, but the idea was there, and it satisfied my craving to cook and to eat this mystical dish I had been thinking about for so long. I will adapt and change it a little and it will be fixed and improved! I think in the recipe I read on my RSS feed used plain Passatta sauce, but that might have been a bit too rich as well, maybe a simple fresh tomato sauce would have been better. Anyway, I will implement these changes and see how I go, I think the concept was there and the potential is very high for great success. But it was great as it was, but in true Nancy style, I will never cook it the same way again, I will change it up and do it different every time I cook it from now on. Always room for improvement! Life is too short to have the same thing all the time ;-)

XO

NJC