Food

Yarra Valley goodness – Train Trak

| GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

A spare Sunday afternoon, some magnifent Spring sunshine, a new car to take for a drive, and volunteers to try out the passenger seats.  Destination: Yarra Valley.  After a zoom through green vineyard-covered hills, stopping at a few favourites for some tasting including Balgownie Estate (the sparkling Shiraz should not be missed) we pulled up at Train Trak for some lunch. Having not been back there since a 40 degree February day some years back for Grape Grazing, where the ground was brown and dusty and we sat on picnic rugs under the shade of a tree, it was a delightful discovery indeed to step into ZONZO, the restaurant, festooned with paper lanterns and flowers, and to be met with an aroma of wood-fired pizza and other Italian fare.  A quick glass of  Train Trak Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay to wet the whistle, and we moved outside into the sunshine, a vista of vines and daisy-dotted grass laid out before us.

The menu was packed full of Mediterranean goodness, and we wasted no time ordering up a storm of pizzas, including the alla salsiccia (tomato, mozzarella, pork and fennel sausage, spanish onion and rosemary), the con carciofi (tomato, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, proscuitto, rocket, gorgonzola) and the con marscapone (tomato, mozzarella, walnuts, speck and marscapone).  We also ordered a salad of buffalo mozzarella, mini roma tomatoes, basil, and baby spinach.

These pizzas were an absolute delight – light crispy base, fresh produce, just the right amount of cheese and toppings, and we followed up with the tiramisu, which for my money was bang on – and as Paolo Vino always maintains, it’s about the ratio of the marscapone/whipped cream to sponge biscuit and coffee.  Zonzo clearly understands this important point. 

Bellisimo!

http://traintrak.com.au

http://zonzo.com.au

Dinner with Gaz – Rhodes W1

| GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Once we knew we’d be in London town, the first thing to do was to decide on where to go for  dinner.  Whilst London is full to the brim of fabulous eateries,  flashy bars and even a combination of both complete with burlesque fire-eaters,  we only had 1 night to dine out,  so we had to make it count. 

Having long been a fan of Mr Gary Rhodes and his seasonal cooking approach, and especially his book ‘The Cookery Way’  which allows the budding home-chef to impress the pants off  dinner guests without getting a migraine trying to follow the recipes, we felt it was time to pay homage and visit the very grown-up Rhodes W1 at the Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch.

We arrived in posh frocks for dinner at 7pm and were shown straight into the Patron bar for a quick pre-dinner cocktail.  The service was slick and efficient, the cocktails were icy cold, strong and well-presented, with some interesting flavour combinations on offer including Cointreau and maple syrup, Sloe gin with apple and rosemary, and Chivas Regal with thyme and honey, amongst other delights.

Slurping the last of our drinks, we were led into the beige, carpeted restaurant adorned with chandeliers.   

After being greeted by the impossibly polite and attentive waiting staff, we were presented with a delightful plate of salmon croque-monsiuer and croquettes, to nibble whilst we perused the menu. This was the first of many intriguing, welcome little extras that made the evening extra-special.  Other surprises included small glasses of comsomme, as well as palate cleansing refreshers in between courses, not to mention 3 different types of butter to go with your 3 types of bread .

We finally managed to decide on our meals, and between us ordered for entree the salt-cured fois gras with peach, ginger parkin puree and spiced bread, the roast Scottish scallops with braised oxtail carpaccio and blood orange, and  crisp pork belly with steamed langoustine, sweetcorn, beurre noisette and spiced popcorn.

Our mains included the blackened sirloin of beef, with watercress risotto, wild mushrooms, and peppered red wine jus, the tapenade glazed monkfish with lobster, aubergine puree, fennel and shellfish emulsion, and the slow-cooked fillet of seabass with king prawn tortellini, coconut and coriander.

You could have heard a pin drop whilst we ate, save for the appreciative murmurs as each mouthful was savoured.

I would have to rate this as one of my tastebuds’ most enjoyable outings to date, and I was in seventh heaven for pretty much our entire meal.

By dessert I delirious with happiness, and buoyed with champagne confidence,  I foolishly ordered a magnificent chocolate extravaganza that blew my mind, and that I was devastatingly unable to finish.  My dear old dad refers to that as  ‘eyes bigger than your stomach’.

 http://garyrhodes.com/main.html

A Tuscan Table

| GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

So, what to do when you don’t want to go out for dinner, but you don’t want to cook? The answer is simple – Emily! Emily is a lovely lass from Leicester, who set up a catering business called ‘A Tuscan Table’ after visiting the region from the UK some years ago, where she fell in love with the rolling hills (and probably the weather) and never left.

We discovered Emily one afternoon, cooking for the family in the villa adjoining ours, and immediately registered our interest in her delicious services, which meant we could plan a day trip (or indeed a day doing nothing) and dinner would be taken care of, including kind consideration of any dietary requirements, likes and dislikes.

You choose what you’d like to eat from her extensive seasonal menu which centers around fresh local produce, she then comes to your villa, brings all the food and wine, sets the table, fills your kitchen with magnificent cooking aromas, serves, clears up, puts the dishwasher on and leaves you feeling ridiculously pampered and well fed, at very reasonable rates. And she caters very nicely for kids!

http://atuscantable.com

We booked Emily on 2 separate occasions, including our last night at the Villa, so that we could pack, get the kids organized, and still have plenty of pool time and enjoy our last balmy day in Toscana. It also meant we didn’t have to buy groceries for our last meal at the house which was one less thing to worry about!

Emily was a dream to deal with, cheerful, accommodating and friendly, and nothing was too much trouble. There were lovely decorating touches on the table, and fresh bread and Prosecco waiting for us as we sat down, and when she left, the kitchen was cleaner than when she arrived!

Our first meal included:
Spelt with homemade almond and basil pesto
Ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta with butter and sage
Roast Loin of pork with fennel seeds
Lamb cutlets with mint pesto
Tiramisu

Our second meal included:
Stuffed zucchini flowers
Gnocchi with pancetta and zucchini
Veal saltimbocca
Fried fish skewers
Baked pears with marscapone

If you’re ever in Tuscany make sure to give Emily a call to work her magic in your holiday kitchen, and tell her we said hi!

Ristorante recommendo!

| GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

There are countless restaurants to cater to the visitor in Chianti, and we did our best to try a good number of them simply by following our noses. However, when booking our wine tour to Castello Verrazzano with the very hospitable Roberta, who offered a glass of Vin Santo with biscotti whilst she checked the reservations, it occurred to us that she probably knew a thing or two about local cuisine, so we asked her to recommend a couple of restaurants that were ‘non-touristo’, and she gave us two cards, with directions, and told us to ask for Vincenzo and Stefano, respectively.

After a hot, but delightful day in Firenze, visiting Palazzo Pitti for some beautiful Renaissance art, a saunter across the Ponte Vecchio to gaze at the bling, a horse and carriage ride with the bambini, and an excellent lunch at Ristorante Paoli, a converted monastery with frescoed interior, and an excellent spaghetti alle vongole with enough garlic to kill the entire cast of Twilight, we headed home, and after a dip in the pool, to the first of Roberta’s recommendations, La Cantinetta.

Set high on a bend in the road, overlooking sloping hills covered in grape vines, with a huge terrace facing the view, we arrived just as the sun was starting to slide downwards. A glass of Prosecco to welcome us, and menus and a waitress with no English, and our evening began.

Given that wild boar is the local specialty of the Chianti region, the crostini with a rustic chunky paste made of the same was a must, as was the wild boar pasta. Also magnifico was the homemade gnocchi, one served with fresh pomodoro and basil, the other with gorgonzola, a personal favorite.

Vincenzo had arrived whilst we were trying to order and was told someone was asking for him (as we had mentioned his name on arrival) and so he swooped on us like an old friend, making sure we had food in abundance, and constantly checking we were enjoying ourselves and our meals.

Grazie, Vincenzo, and si!

Recommendation number two was one of the top 2 dining experiences for us in Tuscany (the first for me being the degustation and wine matching at Castello Verrazzano). Set in the tiny but gorgeous village of Passignano, which is dominated by a huge, ancient bell tower and surrounded by rows of vines, Ristoro L’antica Scuderia was simple, elegant, outdoor dining at its best.
www.ristorolanticascuderia.com
The man to know was Stefano, and his daughter was our waitress for the evening. Having eaten plenty of excellent pasta during our stay, we unanimously opted for steak, as it seemed to feature heavily on the menu. Our sides included some zucchini, and roasted potatoes, as well as insalata verde, but the star of the meal was the steak alle balsamico.

With delight we realized that the structure a little way in front of us in the garden perched above a vineyard, was a huge BBQ grill and that Stefano was in fact, the meat-master and was going to cook our steaks as we watched, plucking fresh herbs from a basket next to the grill, and driving us crazy with the sound and aroma as he worked at it.

The steaks were out of this world, cooked to perfection with a strong balsamic tang. From where we sat, with the BBQ lit up in the dusk, Stefano looked more like a DJ than a chef, and certainly after each ‘performance’ he walked amongst the diners like a rock star, shaking hands, and checking on his fans.

The desserts were no less than fabulous, with tiramisu, chocolate pizza, and a lemon sorbet that will stay with me as the best I have ever had.

Notes from a Tuscan kitchen

| GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Market day transforms the Piazza Matteotto in Greve into a sea of umbrellas, sheltering trestle tables laden with wicker baskets overflowing with locally grown fruit and vegetables, plus the freshest eggs, goat’s cheese, rye bread, and most importantly, ridiculously inexpensive truffles!

Faced with such an abundance of riches, we boycotted the local trattorias for a few days to instead take turns pottering in our rustic kitchen, and serving up on the terrace, in no particular order;

Baby green beens with garlic and toasted pine nuts

Proscuitto tortellini with fresh parsley and truffle sauce

Bruschetta with garlic, tomato, red onion and basil

Spinach and ricotta ravioli with burnt butter, sage and lemon

Insalata caprese with buffalo mozzarella, basil, tomato and aged balsamic

Scrambled eggs with truffles and parsley

Angel hair pasta with truffle cream sauce

A particularly lovely find too were the fresh figs we discovered growing in the garden by the pool, huge, juicy, dark purple fruit, warmed by the afternoon sun. We wasted no time getting them onto a plate with some proscuitto, a perfect partner for a glass of Prosecco whilst we watched the men lovingly tend their new favorite passion, the charcoal BBQ, this time for a mixed grill.

We may never leave!