As well as being a theatre week, it’s also been a week for eating out. Oddly enough, it’s been Crown Street all the way this week, revisiting two of my favourite restaurants, as well as enjoying a new one.
RQ: Paul and I met with Colin (and two of his friends) for dinner at RQ, still one of my favourite restaurants. The entrees included, the usual, but still great tasting Betel Leaf Salad with Duck, while the mains included the Roast duck stir fry with Chilli Jam and the Pork Braised in Coconut Juice. Both the meal and the conversation were sublime.
Pazzo: Damien and I enjoyed revisiting one of our “old haunts, even if there was a large table of people I work closely with sitting at the next table. In hindsight, we probably ordered a little “too rich”. Like the duck breast stuffed with liver and mushrooms that Damien ordered for a main, we also found ourselves a little stuffed. Mind you, we decided we could definitely find space for the deserts which included a terrific trifle which was “to die for”. And we couldn’t believe our luck in that the desert wine which Damien brought along, a Martinborough Vineyards late harvest Riesling 2004, matched the desert so incredibly well.
As an aside, before dinner, we’d met at Dome, the upstairs bar at the Crown Hotel, located on the corner of Crown & Cleveland Streets, which had some good wine and an exotic kind of ambience to the place.
Bentley Bar: Damien and I also caught up for some wine and tapas at this reasonably new Crown Street venue. It opened up twelve months ago (or thereabouts) and has settled in very well. Amongst the most enjoyable tapas meals we had were the air-dried beef (my favourite) and the gazpacho. Damo, if you’re reading this, I’ll leave it to you to describe the wine, but suffice it to say, the wine was noice too.
So all in a all, a great week of great food and conversation, as well as theatre. I guess now, in the words of Edna Crabapple from “The Simpsons”, it’s back to my regular habit of “soup for one, salad for one, and wine for three”.
The most interesting and tasty wines we tried were the whites. Particularly refreshing was the Tscharke “Valley Girl Talk” albarino 2005, a little-known variety from the Barossa: lean, minerally and very dry, and perfect for the stinking hot weather.
Next up a sensational chardonnay from Burgundy, a 2001 from Domaine Cordier. I’ve never had a chardonnay like this from Australia or NZ: struck match and grapefruit flavours married with mouthfilling lushness, great complexity, balance and length. I googled the producer and was not surprised to read this:
“In the past five years, Christophe Cordier has sky-rocketed Domaine Cordier Pere et Fils to the forefront of Burgundy’s white wine producers …. his wines have personality, intense aromatics and flavors, as well as impeccable balance. Additionally, Cordiers wines admirably reflect the character and potential of their terroirs.”
The wine guy at Bentley (Nick Hildebrandt) really knows his stuff – I can’t recommend the place highly enough.
As for the Crabbappel motto, after a decadent week it’s going to be “soup for three, salad for three and wine for none” for me the next few months. Thank god I got my new training program today!