Jacques Reymond

For many years, our small group of Uni students, come professionals and now retirees, have joined together on the first weekend in December, to catch up and enjoy each other’s company.  We invariably choose one of the ‘better’ restaurants in Melbourne which have included Attica, Vue de Monde, Stokehouse, Sails on the Bay, Pure South, Circa, The European and Jacques Reymond.  This year it was back to the latter for a re-visit experience and what a great experience it was.

Our group of eight has aged gracefully, has travelled widely, has lived well but fairly wisely and is (individually) quite active and relatively fit and healthy.  But we love our food and we enjoy a great bottle of wine.  So the choice of Jacques Reymond was quite logical.

The venue is still just as wonderful as always and the staff are attentive, knowledgeable and personable.  Jacques invariably visits towards the end of the evening and is a fantastic host and a superb Chef.

Most of us chose the degustation menu because it is such a chore choosing from the extensive ‘carte’ menu and choosing the correct wine for the course is somewhat daunting from such an incredible cellar.  Ocean Trout, Moreton Bay Bugs and John Dory, each in their element  with incredible tastes and textures, were the first three courses followed by the meat courses of Wallaby, Venison, Pekin Duck and Veal fillet with some of the most intense tastes of additions such as lamb dumplings, spanner crab and Tasmanian wasabi and lard potatoes.  And the desserts are something else again!  The whole experience is amazing, which is why we return to places like this.  Most of the wines were perfect matches to the course, although we were less than enthused over one of the NZ offerings, particularly coming immediately after a superb Alsace riesling.

The reasons for ‘Jacques Reymond’ restaurant to remain at or near the top of the list, are many and varied, but the return visits of many people, us included, are a testament to the professionalism, the incredible menu, the extensive cellar and the great ‘vibe’ of the Willams Rd mansion. 

Congratulations to the kitchen staff, Jacques and the front of house staff, for the great experience.

Knitting in the colder months

Knitting season is almost done, although Jules is still working on a couple of pieces.  She invariably has three or four pieces going at a time and regularly works on pieces with her cousin, Michelle.  Michelle makes some fantastic pieces although she works more in quilting, than knitting.
See - http://thequiltedtortoise.blogspot.com.au

During the winter, Jules has knitted socks for grandkids and hubby, jumpers for hubby, step-daughter and daughter-in-law, scarves for the above and a beautiful Colour Affection shawl for a girlfriend in England, for her birthday. 

But the piece de resistance - Christmas Puddings for her students in English classes at Swinburne.  These are little gems and look just like the real thing - quite amazing!

Bistro Thierry

A visit to Bistro Thierry with friends Jessica and Keith was a highlight of an exceptionally busy week.  The two course lunch menu is exceptionally good with quite a few mouth-watering choices and a relatively inexpensive price, although we invariably seem to add sides and extras to come away with a bill somewhat more than expected.  The Caesar Salad and Salad Nicoise which we enjoyed for entree were both excellent and the 'Poisson' - a fillet of rockling - juicy and sweet, on a seared spinach base, was exceptional.  Staff are attentive and the place was buzzing at lunch on Friday.  We enjoyed catching up again with our friends and look forward to many more good times in great company.

Earlier in the week, Wozzy Jnr and Shev moved house and are now settling in to their 'forever house' - the grand-kids are ecstatic with their new enlarged backyard to play in and a court position with lots of other kids to interact with.  Some painting will be required because the previous owners thought that feature walls on every surface was a great idea and a new dishwasher was required on day two as the original was inoperable and smelled as though something had died in it.  However, they have taken a significant step and we wish them much happiness in their new surroundings.

Today (Sunday) saw us with another very early rise and trip into the city for the 'Sussan Classic' 10km run which saw Jules take a couple of minutes off her previous best time and cross the finish line with a smile which could have been mistaken for a grimace!

Tilt head to right to see Jules crossing the line!

Haven't figured out how to tilt photos within the blog - was OK on screen & in the folder.

Happy Birthday, Lynne

Happy Birthday Lynne

She hates surprises, so her husband decided it would be a good idea to organise one for a special “0” birthday!

Last Friday saw 8 of us head to Daylesford to celebrate our friend’s Big 0 birthday.  3 of the couples met before lunch & the girls took the birthday babe for some pampering, then we joined them in the early afternoon for a late lunch at Jimmy’s Bar.  We shared a tasting plate of local sausages, pate & cheese, just perfect.

Our accommodation was within walking distance of everything, so we parked the cars out the front & didn’t move them until it was time to leave.  We stayed at Lake Daylesford Country House,  a French provincial style house with 4 lovely bedrooms & importantly, 4 ensuites!  It was well equipped with everything we needed and plenty of room to lounge around both inside and outside in the beautiful gardens.

The birthday dinner on the first night was at Lake House.  All agreed that the quality & presentation of the food was fantastic, although there was some wincing when we got the bill – those good wines don’t come cheap! Anyway, it was certainly a delicious & worthwhile experience.

After a slow start the next morning, we went to Cliffy’s for breakfast, a rather eclectic place, with a small menu and limited coffee options (no skinny!) but the food was good, so we were happy.  We wandered back into town, and the boys took off to sample a joint called Breakfast & Beer, whilst the girls gave the local shops a thorough going-over.  We finally met up back at the house mid afternoon, where newspapers were perused, snoozes were enjoyed and some even took more exercise!

As we had all taken quite a few bottles of wine to share, it was decided that we would stay home & eat fish & chips on Saturday night, and it helped the bank balances too.  The local chippery served up great fish & chips & hamburgers, and we had another enjoyable evening of “shooting the breeze”.

All good things must come to an end, and Sunday morning saw us packing up, before an excellent farewell breakfast at Bad Habits Cafe in The Convent.  Again, great food and coffee saw everyone satisfied for the journey home.

I think the birthday girl enjoyed her surprise, and we definitely enjoyed celebrating with her and the rest of the bunch.

Birthday girl Lynne with Phil

Lake Daylesford Country House

Birthday party at Lake House.

Melbourne Marathon

Whilst it's not in our usual line of posts, I wanted to share a little of the pleasure (?) generated by Jules' participation in the 10km section of the Melbourne Marathon, completed last Sunday.  I have been extremely proud of her dedication in the lead-up to the event, suffering many difficult training runs, particularly in the early days and regularly coming home exhausted.  Some of the runs have been in quite hilly areas, including Metung, and have really tested her.  A couple of nasty falls didn't help either.  However, she is nothing if not determined and last Sunday morning, we set off at 6am for a 7.30 start at the MCG.  I dropped her and friend Rosemary off in Swan St and tried to find somewhere to park the car, eventually settling for a parking station in Flinders Lane.

A little after 8am, the first of the 10k runners started to trickle into the 'G and the trickle became a flood.  There were some 9000 runners in the 10k event with a total of 30,000 runners in all sections including a half marathon and a full marathon.  Eventually, after just over 1 hour and six minutes the Princess crossed the line and whilst she didn't have a big smile on her face, she was certainly pleased with her run and her time.  And so she should be!  Then, to top it all off, The Age on Monday published a photo of runners returning to the 'G precinct with Jules right in the middle, pounding the pavement.  Go Jules!

Crossing the Finish Line

After the run.

Enzo a disappointment!

Having dined at Enzo (local restaurant in Mt. Waverley) many times in the last 20 years, we considered it a safe bet for a local birthday dinner for a friend.  Last time we were there, there were a couple of new faces amongst the staff, but the food has always been great and the wine list quite good and not over-priced.  The same Italian family has run the restaurant for many years and the staff have always been friendly and attentive if a little eccentric at times, with a dress-code of waistcoats and black pants.

Not any more!  The dining room was almost empty, with only 4 other tables occupied and the staff of only 2 were unfamiliar and not as attentive as we were accustomed to - not slack, but given the lack of numbers, certainly not readily available.  Drinks service was sporadic, the initial pre-dinner drinks for the males delivered before the ladies even got to order their wines.  Then, the food!  The entree pork belly was under-cooked with the rind floppy and not-at-all crisp. The fatty sub-skin layer was almost cold, so the meat appeared to have been pre-cooked and instead of being put under the griller to heat and crisp, it may have been microwaved, but barely.  Five small pieces on a bed of rocket!!!  The scallops were watery and tasteless and didn't even show any hint of the sea, so have been frozen, washed and  probably microwaved - very poor.

The eye fillet was a lovely piece of meat so the butcher had certainly performed, but it was poorly presented with the bacon barely cooked and the fennel it was served with was again watery and tasteless - I love fennel so was looking forward to this aniseed taste hit.  The lamb shanks were described as satisfying.  The girls both ordered veal scallopini and described it as ordinary, with too much mashed potato.  Desserts ordered were Creme Brulee and Tiramisu and both were less than satisfying - "can do better than that at home"!

So, apart from the company, which was most enjoyable, the dinner at Enzo's was a major disappointment and we won't be bothering again.  The chef has a lot to learn and the (apparently new) management need to address the slide into oblivion.  It will be only the less discerning who will enjoy an evening there.

Whilst We've Been Away

We've been pleased with our display of orchids this year, even though we've been away a bit.  Jules spent much time and effort in feeding and caring for the plants and we have several pots with 2 or 3 spikes and one still to come with 5 spikes, so all the TLC has been well worthwhile.

Tamar Valley Wandering

This past weekend, with friends Phil and Lynne, we decided to wander through the Tamar Valley near Launceston in Tasmania.  The idea was to visit as many of the wineries in the area as possible in the couple of days at our disposal and enjoy the ‘fruit of the vine’.

Jules and I landed first in order to take a quick trip up to Burnie to visit the rellies and we greatly enjoyed seeing Auntie Lorna (92) in such rude good health and fine form and a couple of glasses of the old amber fluid only added to her sparkle.  We were hosted by Helen and Chris and dined with Christine and Peter, along with the others and loved our couple of hours together at the Beach Hotel and again afterwards at the Sturzaker ranch.  The weather was fine, if very cold and the drive up to Burnie and back again was punctuated by stops at the Ashgrove Cheese Company and in Devonport on the return journey for a good lunch.  Our Thanks to Helen and Chris for our B & B experience and to Christine for baking some of her special mango fruit cake for morning tea.

Returning to Launceston in time to pick up Lynne and Phil from the airport, we wasted no time and headed straight to Josef Chromy’s cellar door to enjoy some fine examples of their produce.  Our very knowledgeable and welcoming hostess introduced us to some rather lovely chardonnay and pinot noir and we came away somewhat lighter in the pocket but keener than ever to sample more of the produce of the Tamar.  Our B&B accommodation wasn’t far away and we arrived to a warm welcome from Janie, who along with Brett, has been running Trevallyn House for some years.  This was our third visit to Trevallyn, which is perched on the hill on the north-west part of Launceston overlooking the Tamar Valley and river.  The house is an art-deco style home which has been in Janie’s family for many years and is beautifully kept and stylishly furnished.  It was originally part of a much larger estate which was a horse stud, many years ago.  In fact, in pride of place in the guest lounge, is a silver cup – the Launceston Cup, won by one of their horses, some years ago.

Friday evening, we’d booked into Navaro’s, one of the finest restaurants in Launceston and we thoroughly enjoyed this, our second visit.  The food is exceptional and the service, extremely good.  It is labelled as Italian, but it is more European in food style, but be warned, the serves are generous so three courses is only for the more ravenous.  On our return to Trevallyn we realised that we’d forgotten our door key and calls to both mobile and house phones of our hosts, went un-answered.  Eventually, after a half hour or so standing in the VERY cold breeze outside the house, we found a window around the back of the house which was unlocked and I crawled through, only to finish up head first onto the bed in the back room.  Problem solved!  We then lit the fire in the lounge and enjoyed a late-night tipple whilst we thawed out.  We found out at breakfast the following morning that Jane and Brett were asleep and didn’t hear the phone – lucky I didn’t finish up at an unlocked window at their bedroom!

Saturday morning we headed off to the City Farmers’ Market and enjoyed a walk around the central city market with a very good cross-section of stalls with everything from organic vegetables, wines, beers, and meat to rabbits, honey and numerous other produce types.  We then headed out along the eastern side of the Tamar towards Scottsdale with our first stop at Piper’s Brook Winery, with the Jansz winery next door.  Over the rest of the day we visited Bay of Fires and Tamar Ridge Estate vineyards, gathering a fine collection of wines in the boot of the car.

We’d had quite a day and decided on an easy evening, dining at the local Legana Tavern where the food was basic, but quite good.  We were back at Trevallyn in time to watch the Magpies match against the Bombers and finish off another bottle of fine red.  Sunday morning we again enjoyed one of Brett’s fantastic breakfasts.  Think of fresh asparagus wrapped with fine prosciutto and served with hollandaise sauce on a potato roesti with poached egg!  Incredible!  We packed our gear and said our goodbyes to Janie and Brett and headed off to the Evandale Market, Evandale being a tiny town just south of the airport.  After wandering the market for a while (girls buying hand-made jewellery) we travelled back up into the Tamar to complete our vin trip with a visit to Rosevears which is on the western side of the river, again high on the hill overlooking the river.  Our hostess at Rosevears managed to squeeze a little more from our credit cards, served a lovely cheese platter for our lunch and organised our full complement of purchases from all of our visits, to be shipped home.  This is one of the great tips about this region – the last winery visited will pack up all purchases and ship them home together.  This is called the Tamar Valley Vineyards Dozen and the wineries all work together to promote the region – a fantastic initiative.

Recommendations – visit the Tamar Valley for the lovely wines and stay at Trevallyn House for a great hospitality experience.

 http://www.trevallynhouse.com.au/

 

http://www.tamarvalleywineroute.com.au/