Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Long Weekend Celebrations



To celebrate our 3rd Wedding Anniversary Michael & I went all out this year. Firstly on the actual date we had a scrumptious feast at Rockpool for dinner, this meal was sensational & lived up to all of my expectations, especially the steak. I wont go into any more detail except to say if you want a night out with great food, wine & service – give it a go.

The next event was a long weekend getaway – the first trip with Chloe since our holiday in Noosa back in November. We stayed at Morning Sun Vineyard in Main Ridge which was nice & central to everything, minutes away from wineries & a short drive to the beach. The place was fantastic, a modern 3 bedroom apartment with magnificent views overlooking the terrace & vines. The kitchen was stocked with breakfast provisions for each day, sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn flakes, muesli, fruit, milk, orange juice & of course tea & coffee, all we had to do was cook it up on the brand new cook top – in fact there was so much food that we barely touched the provisions & felt very bad for not eating such gorgeous food, what we did eat was lovely, even the sausages which take a lot to impress me, unfort for Michael I am just not a snag girl, unless of course it’s a nice big kransky – but that is another story.

Being so small, with only 4 wines on offer, the staff were all very friendly & more than helpful with any questions we had & even arranged for the cleaner to come later in the day of our departure so we could hang around a bit longer. Chloe loved the big lassie like dog, Hero running around the garden & he was great with her too. The outdoor restaurant area also had great views & sitting under the shade of the grape vines was very relaxing, our wood fired margarita pizza was simple yet oozing with goodness. A great place to stay & for now the prices at $200.00 a night I thought were quite reasonable compared to most of what I saw when searching the net.

We also had another casual lunch & more pizza at T’Gallant. I love this place & last time I was in the area I dined in the restautant so this time I wanted to try the outdoor casual piazza experience. We had a mushroom & gorgonzola pizza & a garden salad, Michael declared the pizza possibly the best of its kind so top marks there. I also love their wines & as well as tasting great they come in beautiful bottles with romantic names such as Romeo & Juliet, so was very happy doing a fair bit of tasting & spending after my lunch, lucky we had the cheap lunch or I couldn’t have bought the wine! Note that this place is very popular & you may have to share a table or wait for a while, we were lucky we just managed to squeeze onto someone elses table as soon as we arrived.

Our best food experience by far for me was our private picnic at Montalto, I have been wanting to do this for years & finally made it. We thought the idea was perfect for Chloe, ie she could happily play while we ate to our hearts content instead of being stuck inside a restaurant with nothing to do but try & escape & make a lot of embarrassingly loud noise in complaint. You pay $70.00 pp plus whatever wine you select. On arrival you are given a map with clear instructions on how to stroll to your picnic spot which you then leisurely walk to past the vines & taking in the sculptures on display. On arrival there is a table set with white linen, crockery, cutlery & glassware just as if you were dining in the restaurant. There is a portable fridge off to the side which keeps your 3 courses of food cool & ready to eat when you are ready & a picnic blanket is also left out in case you feel the need for a nap or in our case was perfect for Chloe to play on. As you can see from the photos it a fantastic spread, firstly a plate of dips, relishes, bread & olive oil to wet the taste buds, next was a very generous & delicious ‘meat’ plate, rare & tender melt in the mouth roast beef on a green salad, duck breast with potato salad & quail on couscous. By this time as you can imagine we are nearly bursting out of our clothes but one look at the dessert plate & I was in, (I even took home the leftovers with me to enjoy later), the crème brulee was superb & one of the best I have ever eaten, a choc fudge brownie, some almond cake, cheeses, muscatels & a fresh fig to top it all of. All in all a fantastic food experience with a whole lot of romance thrown in for good measure, highly recommended once again.

All that and a bottle of Dom Perignon & I’m one happy girl






2 comments:

Cakelaw said...

Happy anniversary Ange - sounds like you had a great time.

Rosie said...

Hi ange, happy belated anniversary! Pleased to read you had a great time :D

Rosie x