A piece in defence of things Australian....

No, not a title for a blog I thought I'd ever write. However, having just been in Australia immediately after the Baggy Greens had lost the Ashes and the Wobblies lost at home to the All Blacks, I was in a more charitable mood than usual. Well, what gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair was witnessed - it was wonderful.



However, nothwithstanding the current tarnish on the Aussie's international sporting efforts, what good realm of their endeavour shall we find to comment on?



The food and wine if you could not guess! I'll cut directly to the highlight of several exceptional meals - that a colleague and I enjoyed at Sepia, a new restaurant in the Darling Park complex in Sydney. I had read about it in Gourmet Traveller (in my humble view the best wine and food magazine in the world) and was caught by the fact that the chef, Martin Benn, used to head the kitchen at Tetsuya's.



I began with the Tuna Tartare with avocado cream, soy and wasabi Jelly and was reduced to licking the inside of the beautiful glass bowl it was served in. I had only been able to decide on this entree at the direction of our fine waiter, simply because of my complete inability to choose from the list of 8 choices. Then to the main; so often in fantastic new restaurants, for whatever reason, the mains don't live up to the strength of the entrees. Not here, I can assure you. Once again, a difficult choice but I opted for the Butter-poached West Australian Marrons. I was presented with 4 plump sweet tails, with the meat of the claws sauteed with enokitake mushrooms. Divine. The only slight blemish on the evening was that my colleague had chosen her main even better than I did: Roast Loin of Gippsland Lamb, Crisp Lamb Belly, Braised Daikon, Jerusalem Artichoke and mushroom infusion. I confess I have never eaten sweeter, more tender or better cooked lamb anywhere (and this from a Kiwi!). The mushroom infusion came in a separate glass beaker and was poured over the lamb at the table. It was exquiste. How do I know, because I ate half my colleague's meal of course.



Got lost in the impressive wine list, was hugely impressed to find a good selection by the half bottle (wish all restaurants did this) and we were over the moon with our '06 Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay and the '04 Faively Gevrey Chambertin.



We skipped the deserts - a travesty - but will venture there next time, soon!!!!

Nice day for a heli flight

En route by Helicopter from Paradise, after the Dart River Jet experience, to Walter Peak. Need I say more....

More from the North American Incentive Buyers Famil.....

As promised, fellow gastronomes, more culinary highlights from this July trip when we hosted 10 incentive buyers from the US and Canada....

Day three had us arrive into Queenstown, where cloud and snow (it is winter after all!) saw us postpone our Milford flight and head for the Kawarau Bungy Centre. Of course your fearless correspondent stepped up to the plate to "take one for the team" and blaze a trail for the Bungy virgins...

An impressive 50% of our guests took up the challenge and even more impressively there was a 0% "baulk" rate.

Of course near death experiences tend to stimulate atavistic urges but lacking the appropriate facilities we had to settle for eating rather than sating other pressing urges...

Henry Van Asch, in addition to running the Bungy operation, also owns and operates the Winehouse & Kitchen, a lovely restored farmhouse adjacent to and overlooking the bungy bridge. Henry, as is his wont, has established a very talented team around him, and gave us a very memorable experience.

There is a very tempting a la carte menu, but take my advice, choose the platters. Themed for wine varieties there are three to choose from - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We of course chose all three. All were fabulous but I have to say, given the wintry day, the Pinot Platter with its Confit Lamb Shoulder on paparadelle, Seared Lamb Shank Terrine and Sweet Briar Merino Lamb Pie (with swede and mint jelly) was the standout. Washed down with some wonderful Van Asch pinot, our North American friends were left well-satisfied.

NZ Sporting News (in advance)

Sydney, Saturday 22 August - Bledisloe Cup

McAlister to wave Giteau through inside the first five minutes…

McAlister to throw an intercept to Barnes around the 20 minute mark….

McAlister to suffer a recurrence of his back spasms and leave the field after 25 minutes. Donald comes on at first five, Carter to 2nd and Donald promptly kicks out on the full. Wallabies drive the lineout ball for their third try.

AB’s stage second half revival but only convert one (by Carter) of their many breaks. Carter kicks 6 penalties and no conversions from 10 attempts.

Final Score: Wobblies 25 Carter 23.

Crossing now to Sri Lanka, where the home team declares at 600 – 6. Unbelievably NZ batsmen fail to pick the doosra out of the hand and are forced to follow on. Black Caps lose by an innings and 320 runs.

Hawke's Bay is very tasty indeed - Saturday teatime

I am writing this from my mum's house in Spain looking forward to a Sunday lunch of pulpo a la gallega (boiled octopus garnished with paprika, olive oil and salt) followed by a great big paella. All this thought of food inspired me to finish off the second chapter in my Hawke's Bay wine and food odyssey.

We left Clearview with a half bottle of the noble Chardonnay each and I also grabbed a dessert wine called Sea Red which is a fortified blend of Merlot and Malbec. This is a great wine to finish a meal and is initially sweet but then has a lovely dry finish. The excellent winery restaurant (Jeremy has eaten there of course) looked and smelled very inviting but I couldn't really justify a snack just an hour after lunch. Anyway, we were late for our accommodation for the night.

There was no rush to get to my bed but a pressing concern was that the cellar door at Craggy Range closed at 5. We made it by ten to and were still treated to a full tour of this beautifully designed and situated winery followed by a tasting of some sensational wines. Amongst them was a really surprising Sauvignon Blanc. Neither Jeremy nor I get the Sav thing - it is just dry, dry acid with no fruit and does weird and unpleasant things to the back of my tongue. This one was different though being more aromatic and fruity but I'd still go for Chardonnay most of the time.

Our berth for the night was a really well appointed cottage set amongst the vines and looking up at Te Mata Peak. They have the smaller Vineyard Cottage with one bedroom and we were in the Cellar Master's Cottage with two ensuite bedrooms and an open plan living area. I eventually got the wood burner going which was a painful struggle (although this cannot be seen as any reflection on my masculinity as the wood was damp, honestly) and we waited for the highlight of the day.

Terroir is Craggy Range's restaurant and is rustic in style and has a nice relaxed atmosphere. We looked at the menu with another cleansing ale and the starter was obvious - crispy pig’s cheek, quince, black pudding Charlotte & sage. The main was a challenge and I was tempted by the sous vide lamb but in the end had to go with the more rustic confit stuffed rabbit leg with pancetta, pearl barley risotto, sautéed liver & chestnuts. We went to our table with a glass of superb “Les Beaux Cailloux” Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay and ordered a bottle Craggy Range's world class Syrah "Le Sol".

The pig's cheek was delicious and was followed by an amuse-bouche of a seared scallop on a puree of red pepper. My main was brilliant and although Jeremy enjoyed his trio plate of guinea fowl, duck confit ravioli and braised lamb shoulder, he had at least two good mouthfuls of my rabbit leg and kicked himself that he didn't have a full plate.

That was it for me. Too much food and alcohol and too little sleep in the last 48 hours meant that I was just about ready to crash and burn.