Despatch # 9 Tim and Cheryle and Food

Tim and Cheryle live in Bathurst. It is a country town west of Sydney and over the Blue Mountains. In the winter there are frosts that last for days and therefore they can grow tulips. There aren't many places in Oz you can do that. The three of us have been friends since the early 70s in Auckland and Melbourne.

Here we are having dinner on my last evening. Dinner was simple really, a warm salad of salmon, egg, garden fresh tomatoes, leaf lettuces and a basil vinaigrette. Tim served a delicious wine from a friend's vinyard - a Gartelmann Chardonnay. If you see this wine in a boutique outlet of the SAQ snap it up. The label is distinctive, it has a picture of a black and white magpie on it. Jorg and Jan Gartelmann make other wines all equally delicious.

T & C picked me up from Sydney airport on Saturday March 19th and we drove through the mountains stopping for lunch in Bilpin. Here the chef cooked lunch over a wood fire and baked my tandoori Yellowtail Kingfish in a wood-fired pizza oven. He served the Kingfish in a pappadum with a cherry tomato salsa, raita and chips.

With lunch we had a Redman Shiraz. Australians love Shiraz. We know this wine as a Syrrah.

On Sunday we had lunch in the next town, Orange, at a restaurant called Lolli Redini. Take a look at the pass.

Elegant, no?

For lunch I started with rotolo filled with pumpkin, feta and toasted pine nuts, a beurre noisette and sage leaves; my main was a ballontine of rabbit with blistered tomatoes and celeriac puree; and for dessert I had Afogato - vanilla ice cream, a shot of espresso, a shot of frangellico and a honey wafer. The sommelier paired the wines with the starter and main and the dessert wine was a Beerenauslese - delicious!!

Both in Bathurst and Orange there are many fine examples of heritage Federation (circa 1901) houses.

Tim and Cheryle live in a 1950 double brick home. Notice the sunny sky in March.

Thank you so very much, you are most gracious hosts. I love you both.

I'm off this afternoon on the train back to Sydney through the Blue Mountains and then on to Melbourne.