date of visit: Friday 3 May 2013

For the record, I think Au Pear is up there with daft names for restaurants. It doesn’t beat a restaurant in Leeds that was called @Larocca (it no longer exists – it wasn’t very good in the food department) but it is still a bit confusing. Have they spelled something wrongly? Is it (as someone asked on twitter) a restaurant that will look after your children while you dine? What exactly are they trying to tell you?

Branding aside, I guess a lot of this doesn’t matter very much if your restaurant delivers and restaurants in the McLaren Vale/Willunga region have to do that because there’s a lot of excellent competition. Au Pear is on a tough patch because it’s located on the road from McLaren Vale to Willunga, and in between Fino and The Kitchen Door at Penny’s Hill.

As my parents are our chief babysitters their payment in kind is being taken out to lunch. I’m quite a long way behind with what I owe them but you have to catch up somewhere. We’d been planning on trying out Au Pear a while back but a sick toddler had curtailed that exercise, so it was a relief to actually get there on a lovely sunny day, complete with toddler and at least one Octonaut in tow.

Au Pear is smallish space, with a semi separate area for the bar and a dining area. It sits somewhere between café and restaurant and I’d describe it (ambience wise) as more casual than both Fino and Penny’s Hill.

Both the menu and the wine list are short and sweet. I always rate short when it comes to menus and, unsurprisingly, the wine list has a strongly local focus. We chose a La Curio Sangiovese and dad also had a Goodieson’s beer as apéritif.

The food is all simple and self explanatory, which leaves the kitchen very little room for mistakes, because it’s likely you’ll have quite definite expectations about what you’re going to receive.

For entrée (although this choice came from the ‘starter’ section of the menu, ‘entrées’ were listed separately) I chose the vine leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts and mint and served with labne. This was a generous portion, with two large rolls on the plate. I love the combination of mint and labne and I really enjoyed this dish. The vine leaf rolls were tender, juicy and the mint definitely came through and there was ample labne on the plate.

Dad ordered the polenta, fried and served with anchovies, blistered trussed tomatoes and basil and mum chose some cauliflower fritters.

For a while now we’ve been sensing that sharing our food with the toddler leaves us hungry, so for him I ordered the game terrine with orange and fennel salad which lasted him almost the whole meal but definitely got the thumbs up (apart from the parsley).

For main course I ordered house made gnocchi served with caprino fresco (soft, fresh goats cheese), marinated artichokes and black olive tapenade. While the gnocchi and artichokes were warm, the cheese and tapenade were cool so there was an interesting play of temperature rather than texture. I absolutely loved the fact that the three main components hadn’t been blended to form a sauce (not that that wouldn’t have tasted great): it was a very fun way of serving a very simple dish. And I’m pleased to report that the gnocchi were light too.

Mum ordered a lamb dish (which I didn’t see any of!) and dad ordered the duck: crispy duck leg and duck breast, served with pickled cherries, salted orange, soused cabbage and pistachios. While this is one of the more expensive dishes on the menu it was a HUGE portion and got a very definite thumbs up from the other side of the table. The toddler, who turned his nose up at mum’s lamb, was quite keen on the duck breast part of dad’s dish too …

We wrapped up with coffees and the obligatory babychino. Given that lunch had already lasted a couple of hours we thought that desserts might be pushing it – especially as mum was interested in a soufflé and the toddler was interested in running around the garden …

The service was really friendly and efficient and both the owner and our waitress were really considerate, thoughtful and friendly people who went out of their way to ensure that we were comfortable and well looked after.

I would not hesitate to return to Au Pear, or to recommend it. I think that both its ambience and style of food fit really well, in a complementary way, with its near neighbours. At present it is open every day for lunch and open on weekends for breakfasts.

And one final hint? Make sure you go to the loo while you’re there: it’s a stunning inside out set up!

Disclaimer: I was sent the Masha to review.

So, I think we all know that I love my kitchen gadgets. I blame working in small electrical in a local department store while at university. I’d come home with all manner of toys and I’m adamant that there’s plenty of room in my kitchen for more time saving goodies.

When it comes to mashed potatoes I am pretty picky. They have to be hot, hot, hot, laden with butter (and cream) and pepper and totally smooth. Now mashed potatoes are not something where there’s too much room for time saving. Despite the fact that you will often see people on cooking shows on tv throw the cooked potatoes into a food processor this is a MASSIVE no no. Cutting the potato messes with the starch and produces a gluey, claggy mess. So any time saving device needs to address this.

Now a good way of ensuring very smooth mashed potato is to use a potato ricer. This is something you should always use for potatoes for gnocchi but when making mash just a single pass through the ricer results in a slightly grainy finished product (no matter how much fat you through at it!). Multiple passes through the ricer obviously take more time, but also require more containers (and hence washing up). Mashing using a traditional masher takes ages, is inconsistent in its results and requires a lot of elbow grease.

So enter the Masha. A kitchen gadget which claims to produce perfectly smooth mash, in seconds, without over processing the starches.  Rather than chopping, it has a blunt blade and a perforated cage.  The blade pushes the potato through the cage, thus extruding (I love that word!) it, rather than chopping it.  In many ways it’s like a turbo charged ricer.

I boiled up about 5 or 6 potatoes (we are, after all, only 2 and the toddler pretty much refuses to eat mash), cut into small cubes to cook quickly. I drained them, returned them to the pan over the heat for a quick dry off and then took them off the heat and plugged in the Masha.

I am not joking when I say that I was gobsmacked by how fast the Masha did the job. For someone who usually spends at least 10 minutes ensuring that every lump is well and truly gone from the mash (yes, I might be a little OCD), the fact that I had a pan full of seriously smooth creamy potatoes in less than 30 seconds was a whole new experience.

Because I was making the mash for the following recipe, I hadn’t added any fat, so I had a bit of a prod, poke and taste and decided that maybe there was just a touch of the slightly elastic about the potatoes. Interestingly, this disappeared as the potatoes cooled and, after I gave them a good beating with a wooden spoon, they were really quite light and fluffy. Might be something worth keeping in mind. Andy felt sure that had I anointed them with a ton of butter and cream I would never have noticed.

The Masha is very easy to clean. The plastic blade is easy to take off and, provided you give it a rinse straight away (cold, dried mashed potato is second only to cold, dried out Weetbix in its concreting properties) the Masha cleans easily. I also loved the fact that the main unit has a green light which stays on while the unit is plugged in and powered. While it was somewhat startling to walk into a dark kitchen and be greeted by a glowing green light it was a brilliant reminder to unplug the Masha and put it away.

Naturally, the Masha can be used to mash anything that needs mashing. I guess where I’d advise caution is if you’re producing something where you want some texture as I imagine it would be very easy to over mash. Naturally, if you are someone who makes mash often, or needs to make it in large quantities, I’d suggest that the investment in a Masha is going to be more than worth it.

As a parent, I note that the one of the Masha’s suggested uses is for baby food. The amount of time that parents are advised to give their babies completely smooth purees is very limited. Lumps are very important for little people as they need to learn to chew, so don’t go crazy over mashing, just because you have a new toy!

To make something a bit more interesting out of our mash, I decided to try my hand at making my own version of batata vada, an Indian street snack. This is basically mashed potato, battered and deep fried. Serve immediately – super hot, with plenty of salt. If you’re organised, some mint chutney on the side would be great. These are much quicker to make than pakoras. And of course, you should use my recipe as a starting point: just use the spices you love in the quantities you love!

Mother’s Day is just around the corner (apparently it’s this coming Sunday here in Australia) and if you’re getting a panic on about what to buy (if buying is necessary) here are some ideas …

A bottle of wine. Well, that’s my solution to every gift giving problem. Head into a local, independent wine merchant, ask some questions and pick out something your mum won’t have seen before.

Check out some of the daily deals sites and see if they have anything your mum would fancy. For example, Living Social currently features discounted cupcakes (most suitable for southern suburbs mums) and a dessert tasting plate for two in Stepney.

For a very South Australian gift, FruChocs have something to suit all price points … from $4 to $75. You can shop online or visit one of the FruChoc stores in Glynde, McLaren Vale or Hahndorf.

If your mum is anything like mine you cannot go past a good cookbook. Mum recently received Jerusalem by Ottolenghi (not from me, from a house guest) and is as happy as the proverbial pig in mud!

There are, of course, plenty of events on. Onyx in North Adelaide is running a brunch, the National Wine Centre is hosting a lunch and countless wineries will have something special on.

And last but not least, you could do some baking and put together a high tea.  Perhaps these RaspberryChocs Brownies could make an appearance …

Crocodile skewers – beware the chilli sauce!

Disclaimer: I was a guest of The Highway at this sneak peek dinner.

date of visit: Monday 29 April 2013

Last year you may remember that I took my parents to The Highway for my mum’s birthday dinner. It happened to be Game Week, something about which I was quite excited, and then we all promptly ordered from the non-game menu.

This year Game Week is Game Season and The Highway invited along a few Adelaide bloggers, and their guests, to take a look at the menu. My friend, Rob, and I were joined by the guys from The Chopping Board and Xin and his wife, Tina, from Adelaide Foodies. Andy was left at home on baby sitting duties.

We started off in the Lounge Bar with a tasting selection of most of the dishes on the game menu. Nick Finn, the Highway’s head chef, talked us through the dishes and some of the thought processes behind putting the menu together. Nick was not only really friendly but did a great job of both explaining and selling the menu.

Things kicked off with the rabbit cacciatore. The idea behind this was to make part of the dish something with which people are really familiar and comfortable: that’s the cacciatore part. And as rabbit is perhaps one of the less obviously gamey meats, it acts as a good vehicle for carrying the cacciatore’s flavours. As rabbit is lean lots of sauce and slow cooking is a good thing.

Next out of the kitchen was a platter of kangaroo burger sliders. The kangaroo burger actually features as a main course dish, so these were to give us an idea of what the finished dish will be like. The kangaroo meat made a really good burger (I thought): quite dense but absolutely packed with flavour. The buns had bush chutney on one side and an aioli on the other – I thought that we could have done with even more aioli but that was my only criticism!

This was followed by crocodile skewers with shoestring chips. I think crocodile is such a pointless meat. It tastes of nothing. I’ve had it before and thought that, and I still think that. The skewers were served with a fearsomely hot chilli sauce. I am good with spicy food, and I wouldn’t have described it as too hot for me, but I really thought that for most people (including the ‘standard punter’ who the chef has to have in mind with any dish) this would have been too hot. Sing agreed – saying it was too hot for him. Nick acknowledged that everyone in the kitchen at the Highway is a bit of a chilli fiend so they may be slightly out of touch! I’m not sure if they’ll have been able to tone it down, so if you order the skewers, tread carefully with that chilli sauce!

Venison with gnocchi

We wrapped up the bar side tasting with the slow braised Denver venison, served with gnocchi. Super rich and warming, the perfect rib sticking meal for a cold winter’s night. And the gnocchi (which the Highway does buy in) were amazing.

At this point I was pretty full, but we all toddled off into the Bistro for our dinner. I ordered the venison and Rob chose the duck breast with lentils, tomato sugo and witlof. The duck breast was described as crispy skin and, unfortunately, it wasn’t. Also, both Rob and I thought that the duck breast was overcooked. However, on this point I am prepared to accept that it was probably cooked to the exact degree of doneness the kitchen was after, and how I like my duck cooked most people would describe as undercooked. Rob did rave about the lentil and tomato base (I didn’t get to try that, but trust me, Rob knows what he’s talking about).

The kitchen provided us with one last treat: a huge dessert tasting platter. Crema catalana served with blood orange sorbet and basil syrup (I loathe things orange but Rob really rated this very very highly), churros with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce (the caramel sauce was my favourite), a chocolate torte, a berry parfait and, probably the star of the platter for me, a beautifully light strawberry and moscato jelly, topped with a very light white chocolate mousse and Persian fairy floss.

Dessert tasting platter … no game!

Now I can tell you right now that if I saw that dish on a menu I would never ever order (I’m not a big fan of strawberries and generally moscato isn’t my thing and I loathe white chocolate) it but I absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately for you, these are all the summer desserts and they won’t be on the menu for much longer …

Drinks wise, I very much enjoyed the Fraser Gallop Chardonnay (available by the glass, and reason enough to go to the Highway!). We also had a bottle of the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir – a very red berry fruit forward approachable Pinot.

I think the menu does a great job of taking some potentially unfamiliar ingredients and making them very accessible. Which is what it’s all about: encouraging people to try something a little out of their comfort zone.

Game Season, an annual event, this year runs until 15 May in the Bistro at the Highway. Bookings recommended.

Disclaimer: I was sent the Table of Plenty Hot or Cold Muesli to review.

I live in a household where our shopping list doesn’t pander to individual tastes. We buy one type of toothpaste, one type of milk and, naturally, one type of cereal.

Once upon a time, I actually used to make my own cereal (much less hassle than you think – although ironically I find these days the problem is sourcing the ingredients, rather than finding the time), but at the moment our cereal choice is dictated by a toddler who eats, in terms of body weight, a good 4-5 times more than I do.

So in many ways I am perhaps not the best person to review a muesli, but then, with no preconceptions or current favourites, perhaps I can be a unbiased.

Table of Plenty is an Australian owned and made product (and we all know how important it is to buy Australian!) and the story behind the brand is both passionate and a little bit heartbreaking. Table of Plenty makes products other than breakfast cereal, and I’ve certainly seen the dukkah on sale at local supermarkets. The new Hot and Cold Muesli is available at Woolworths and has the added bonus (if your diet is that way inclined) both being dairy free and wheat free.

A box contains 8 45g packets of the muesli. My first thought that this was somewhat wasteful in the packaging department, closely followed by “just 45g? who are these people who eat so little?!”. However, I did actually experiment with this and it turns out that left to my own devices I’d eat far too much, as that 45g packet was easily enough to get me through to lunch time. Lesson learned.

For my first try, I went the hot option. The muesli, plus half a cup of milk, plus a burst in the microwave. Hmmm. As someone who won’t buy multiple products, I see the appeal in a dual purpose cereal and, as someone who loves porridge, I certainly understand the appeal of a hot breakfast. But hot this just didn’t work for me at all: I found it a bit heavy and a bit cloying, not so much through sweetness but through the cinnamon.

I was pretty relieved that served “cold and crunchy” I genuinely enjoyed it. The cinnamon which had seemed overpowering when hot was much less pronounced and the muesli was not particularly sweet at all, with just bursts of sweetness from the sultanas, with some extra crunch from pepitas. As sweetness is my main complaint about commercial cereals, this is an absolute plus point for me.

I also liked that it wasn’t loaded up with tons of different dried fruits and bits and bobs: the cereal is relatively simple and straightforward, which leaves you plenty of scope for adding to it yourself.

If you’re a muesli eater – give it a go.  And if not – keep an eye out for Table of Plenty’s other products and support an Australian business.

Yet again I was too hungry to care about photography!

April has been a crazy month. Highs, lows, and flat out the whole way through. While we’ve actually done a fair bit of cooking, I’ve just not got around to writing any of it up. But, May is around the corner, and my calendar is starting to look slightly less scary, so hopefully this means it’s catch up time.

In addition to what seems like a billion recipes, there are also a few product reviews in the pipeline, so buckle your seat belts and bear with me while we try to catch up.

Let’s start with this easy prawn dish. As the mania of April subsides I find myself now enjoying a hefty head cold. I have lost my voice, but the majority of my complaints can be cured with cold and flu tablets. However, being a little poorly is always an excuse to eat as much spicy food as possible (well, it is in our house – in theory all the garlic, ginger and chilli will nuke whatever rogue bug it is).

Around Christmas time we are usually able to get hold of some snap frozen prawns, straight off the boat, at a good price. Last year, they arrived on Christmas Eve – provoking a little last minute menu stress. Andy and I are still working our way through our allocation of green prawns. We both love a good prawn curry and now the weather is cooling down, these seem to be making a very regular appearance on our meal plans.

I can’t recall the train of thought that led us to stumble upon this recipe for tom rim prawns. Quite a few tom rim recipes seem to be laced in sugar and almost all have the word “caramelised” in their English names. I’m not so hot on sugar in my savoury foods so when I found this variant, on Australian food blog The Toshes, with less emphasis on sugar and more on pepper and tomato, this was the one we rolled with.

Anyone who has any experience of what a genuine Tom Rim prawn dish looks and tastes like – please leave a comment!

This time round I got the glamour job (peeling the prawns) – complete with assistance from a curious cat. Andy actually did the cooking, and, just like me, made plenty of amendments. The finished product was served simply: on rice. There was enough sauce to go through the rice, the prawns were juicy and the whole thing was deliciously spicy.

As a bonus, it was also very quick to put together – if you forget about the 20 minutes or so peeling the prawns.

Absolutely recommended!

South Australians are, generally, terribly parochial. Best football team? The Crows*. Best iced coffee? Farmers Union (FUIC). Best chocolate? Haighs. Best city? Obviously Adelaide. Although we will spend a fair bit of time denigrating our city, woe betide someone who’s not South Australian for doing the same thing! You get the idea.

A couple of weeks ago, local food producer, Spring Gully, went into voluntary administration. The CEO of this 60 year old, family owned South Australian institution pleaded with customers to get out there and support the company’s product.

And South Australians did so in style. The products promptly disappeared from supermarket shelves and, while the company’s future is far from assured, support, and continued support, such as this is a really good start.

Shortly after, Robern Menz (of FruChocs fame, another South Australian icon) produced a “word cloud” of proudly South Australian producers. This promptly went viral.

And on the back of this, we now have the “shop and swap” campaign. The idea is that when you shop, you swap just one item in your trolley for a locally owned and produced product. Perhaps you are buying cordial: swap for Bickford’s. Perhaps you are buying dried pasta: swap for San Remo. Perhaps you are buying milk: swap supermarket own brand or even big brand milk for locally produced milk such as Paris Creek B-D or Fleurieu Milk Co.

The campaign is realistic: just ONE item per shop, every shop. If you can buy more, then that’s great. If we could all buy entirely local products, that would be brilliant. But that’s often an unrealistic goal: sometimes local is artisan so it’s more expensive, sometimes a local alternative just isn’t available. This is all about doing what you can.

There’s a list of companies on its own page. I don’t pretend it’s comprehensive so please, if you know of a champion South Australian food producer who should be include, leave a comment, or drop me an email.

By supporting South Australian companies you support South Australians. These companies employ South Australians directly but also keep others employed through all the industries that support the supply and distribution of food.

Remember – it’s a lot easier to maintain a company than it is to save it!

* Waiting for the flaming on that one!

Today (25 April) is ANZAC Day. Alongside Australia Day it is easily the most important national holiday here. It commemorates the first military action fought by Australian (and New Zealand troops). Australia was only federated in 1901 so when the First World War broke out the nation was a baby. In 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops were deployed to Turkey and they landed at Gallipoli on this day.

In theory, it was going to be a quick strike, but that single campaign was to last eight months and by the end of the year the allied troops had to be evacuated. Over 8000 Australians had been killed.

Today, ANZAC Day commemorates all Australian servicemen and women, and the national holiday and dawn services give everyone an opportunity to reflect on the commitment that those who serve give to their fellow countrymen.

Anyway, history lesson over. Let’s get to the biscuits (note, biscuits, NOT cookies). The story goes that these egg free biscuits were sent to troops by loved ones back in Australia. Food historians may wish to argue this point, and while I am normally a really tedious stickler for facts, in this instance I think we should let accuracy slide and just go with the collective wisdom.

This is my recipe for ANZAC biscuits. It’s not a tried and tested family recipe but one I created back in 2006. It is egg free but not dairy or gluten free. Apologies in advance for the imperial measurements and the mix of volume and weight measurements!

It’s a really simple recipe – so simple in fact that I made these biscuits this afternoon with my toddler.

Just remember – these are ALWAYS biscuits!

disclaimer: I was Nepenthe’s guest at the tasting

date: Friday 5 April 2013

I think we all know I am something of a wine geek (or bore, depending on your point of view, I guess). So when an email arrived inviting me to a special twilight tasting at Nepenthe Wines, in the beautiful Adelaide Hills I was always going to make the effort to attend.

Most wineries can lay claim to some pretty stunning scenery but Nepenthe is especially pretty, with the cellar door sitting on top of a hill overlooking vineyards, the view punctuated by a massive gum tree. But don’t believe me: my guest, who had not been to Nepenthe before, admitted the location had her second guessing her own wedding venue!

This tasting was a one off event by Nepenthe to launch the Autumn “club pack”. Six wines were paired with six different canapés which sounds quite formal. But that wasn’t really the case at all. As guests arrived they were greeted with the Altitude Sauvignon Blanc and, as it was such a beautiful evening, people soon spread themselves out across the cellar door’s verandah and onto the lawn. This meant that I, at least, ended up tasting everything in what was probably the wrong order. The staff ended up pouring quite a few different wines that weren’t on the main list, so it ended up being a great opportunity to try a range of the Nepenthe wines.

The absolute stand out wine of the evening for me was the Altitude Pinot Gris. I do not say this lightly. If you know me, you know that I will avoid Pinot Grigio at pretty much all costs. Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape: one is the French name and one the Italian. However, using the different names on labels is not mere pretension on the part of the winemaker or the marketer. The Italians and the French make the grape into wines of very different styles and here in Australia, the use of the Italian or French name is trying to communicate something of the style to the consumer.

The Italian Pinot Grigio tends to be a light bodied, easy drinking quaffer of a wine. It’s inoffensive, light and refreshing. Understandably, it has many fans and it’s increasingly popular as a by the glass option in pubs and restaurants here in Australia. The French Pinot Gris (most commonly from the Alsace region in eastern France) is a little different: it has a bit of weight, oomph and spice.

The Nepenthe Altitude Pinot Gris delivers on that promise. It has that bit of weight, it certainly has spice, but it retains the acidity that makes it refreshing to drink. It’s interesting and, because we always need a bit of wine jargon – it’s textural. I actually went to a bottle shop the next day and bought a bottle (I was going to buy one on the night but by the I made that decision so had everyone else and there was a queue!).

The warm evening meant that I wasn’t really in a red wine mood, but I didn’t pass up the opportunity to try the 2009 Good Doctor Pinot Noir, and my red wine drinking friend gave a thumbs up to the two Shirazes (Altitude and Gate Block).

I have to mention the food. The catering was by Two Brothers and while I won’t pretend that absolutely every canapé was on song there were a few dishes that were amazing.

The sweet potato and avocado salsa on rye was amazing. I don’t like sweet potato particularly but this was so creamy and zingy: the balance between sweet potato, avocado and lime was absolutely spot on. They looked perfect and tasted even better. Absolutely the highlight of the canapés for me – testified by the fact that there is no photo because I was too busy eating it!

The Kerala prawn fritters, served on what looked to be some kind of prawn cracker, were lovely too and the pastry on the kingfish and beetroot tarts was beautifully short and thin (though I did think the quark needed a bit more oomph to it to stand up to, and cut through, the beetroot).

Overall, I thought this was a really lovely event. It was free for Nepenthe’s VIP club members and a really great way of making people feel a bit special and showcasing both the winery and the wines. The numbers were kept low so everything felt very intimate and there was always an opportunity to chat to staff.

date of visit: Friday 12 April 2013

A few years ago, a group of us headed to Mantra for a friend’s birthday. It was my sole outing to the restaurant and when I heard last year that it was changing hands and closing in one fell swoop I was disappointed that I had managed just the one visit.

But, fortunately, as Mantra closed, Faraja opened and the quiet, city end of King William Road remains host to some interesting dining. It’s taken me a while to get there but I’ve finally managed it in my own roundabout way. A friend owed me lunch as a result of wedding present buying. No sooner was lunch scheduled than it was unscheduled by someone kindly writing off my car. Before I knew it, I owed said friend lunch (yes, I need to have cheaper taste in wine) and three months later, he took a day off work and we managed to wander into Faraja at 1pm on a Friday.

Because I am that type of person I had booked. Unsurprisingly unnecessary but it was gratifying to see that a few tables were occupied and, as we ate, a few more customers wandered through the door.

We settled ourselves in and had a look over the menu. Unfortunately, Faraja sports only a Facebook page, and not a proper website, so I was hoping that the menu on Facebook was up to date (it’s not) because my toddler had been on and on about sausage as soon as I told him we were going out for lunch.

The menu is focussed on sharing, so there are “pots and plates” and “small” sections, with a brief regular main course section. We ordered whitebait (mainly for the toddler’s benefit), the pork and fennel sausages with a tomato, onion and capsicum sauce, roasted pumpkin with goats curd and crispy prosciutto, pork belly with a mustard glaze and orange and fennel salad, and duck fat roasted potatoes. We asked that the food come out as it was ready, which meant we were able to graze our way through lunch.

While we waited, we nibbled on some very good bread and olive oil. It’s always a good sign when a venue has paid some attention to the bread: this was lovely, chewy, sour, textural stuff – just how I like it!

The whitebait were a massive hit with the toddler. I thought they could have been a bit hotter (thermally, not spice wise) but they weren’t at all greasy. The pork and fennel sausage was delicious and I’m sure that’s quite a crowd pleaser. The roast pumpkin with goat curd and crispy prosciutto was a great mix of flavours but I thought its presentation a little clumsy. The two large pieces of roast pumpkin, skin on (which I don’t like, so that’s just personal preference) seemed a bit like they’d been plonked on the plate, with the (delicious) goat curd and prosciutto added to pretty it up.

In contrast to the pumpkin’s presentation, the pork belly was very pretty: two neat squares of pork belly, with a mustard glaze and delicate orange and fennel salad. Perhaps a very safe dish but one that works deliciously: the anise and acidity of the salad working as a foil for the richness and unctuousness of the pork. Somewhat miraculously, I didn’t even have to share my piece of pork belly with the two year old eating machine.

All this was wrapped up with, or mopped up by, the duck fat potatoes, which did exactly what they said on the tin – especially once I’d given mine a good sprinkling of salt!

Drinks wise, the wine list was quite short. As it was lunch, I only looked at the by the glass selection which wasn’t particularly exciting: I settled on a Kilikanoon Riesling (which, to be honest, rather tasted like it had been open just a little too long). My lunch partner chose a Prancing Pony Pale Ale.

By the time we finished our spread, we were full enough to not need dessert, so we just wrapped up with coffee and tea.

While we ate, we were able to do some good spotting of other dishes, which all looked good. One of the main courses (from the grill) looked so impressive my dining companion suggest I ask the recipient if I could photograph it (rest assured, I did not do that!). And later in the meal a huge dessert appeared too.

Faraja has a spacious dining room, an area that can be used for private dining, a massive bar and a courtyard area. For a midweek lunch, the vibe is suitably relaxed, with very friendly service but I daresay that come Friday beer o’clock the ambience at Faraja picks up a notch.

The bottom line: lunch for two (& a bit), with drinks $85. A few small niggles but somewhere I’ll definitely head again.