Destination Mudgee

Botobolar

Botobolar – Australia’s oldest organic vineyards

Botobolar

Botobolar

Logan Wines

Stunning views from Logan Wines

Logan Wines

Tasting at Logan Wines

Over the Christmas break we headed to Mudgee for a few days, figuring the coast in either direction from Sydney would be too crowded. Heading west of the city over the Blue Mountains and beyond, we reached Mudgee and discovered few other tourists around – I’m sure most were at the beach! It meant the wineries were blissfully uncrowded (some empty), the hotel deals abundant, and the vibe very relaxed. The downsides were that a few eateries were closed, and the weather was super hot. Regardless, it was a great three day stay, filled with much eating and drinking, beautiful views and animal spotting for the kids. After experiencing much of what Mudgee has to offer, here’s an edit of the must-dos:

The Wineries

Wineries are Mudgee’s main drawcard, and there are so, so many to visit. Some are clustered together on the main road past the racecourse, but many are sprawled out on the outskirts of town in every direction, with several worth seeking out. Our favourites were:

+ Logan Wines for stunning views from a glass box perched high above the vineyards.

+ Robert Stein for the beautiful setting, the best Shiraz and the most amazing restaurant of our trip, the few months old Pipeclay Pumphouse.

+ Short Sheep Micro-winery for the personal touch provided by the owner couple proud to show us around and explain their wine-making process, as well as the cute breed of short sheep you can feed (especially fun if you have kids in tow).

+ Botobolar for beautiful wine (including some that are preservative-free) at Mudgee’s oldest organic vineyard. We particularly liked this winery’s reds, after first discovering them at Newtown’s Bloodwood.

+ Lowe Wines for the family-friendly feel, with beautifully organised grounds ripe for exploration, complete with farm animals and fruit plantations (the wine was great too!).

Pipeclay Pumphouse

Salmon carpaccio at Pipeclay Pumphouse

 fig mille feuille

Caramelised fig mille feuille with honey marshmallow at Pipeclay Pumphouse

Food + Drink

Like anywhere, there were hits and misses. In a few days we managed to sample quite a lot of Mudgee’s eateries, from cafes to pubs to winery restaurants. We were there just after New Year so a few places that looked and sounded great were closed, like Roth’s Wine Bar, though there were still plenty of places open to choose from. Here’s our pick of the bunch:

Favourite café:

Market Street Café was our favourite breakfast/brunch venue, with nearly everything on the menu sourced in and around Mudgee, from the preserves to the locally raised meat. The ingredients here are of the highest quality and they serve great coffee by Bill’s Beans from nearby Orange.

Pipeclay Pumphouse

Pipeclay Pumphouse at Robert Stein

Entering Pipeclay Pumphouse

Entering Pipeclay Pumphouse

Favourite restaurant:

The afore-mentioned Pipeclay Pumphouse at Robert Stein is the new Mudgee hotspot and by far our favourite experience of the trip. If you venture to Mudgee you MUST eat here! The setting is amazing (another glass box-like structure making the most of the stunning views) perched over a dam, backed by vineyards, backed by rolling green hills. The food is beautifully executed fine dining, with a 3 course menu at $60 and a seven course degustation at $85. It has it all, from genuine, professional service, beautiful Stein’s wines, a stunning setting and decadent, delicious food.

Favourite beer:

There are so, so many pubs in Mudgee, what seems a disproportionate amount for a small town(!), but the best place for beer has to be the Mudgee Brewing Company. The barn-like microbrewery and restaurant is in the middle of town and features a simple menu of typical Oz bar food and live music, along with an extensive array of beers brewed on site. The IPA was a standout, and the Razz Ale my overall pick, a raspberry-infused brew which is not at all sweet or sickly, just oddly refreshing.

The family factor

We travelled to Mudgee with our kids and they managed to find much to enjoy, though the hotel pool was right up there with their favourite things about the trip. Several of the wineries double as farms, so kids can see alpacas, pat sheep or goats or even explore a chicken coop (visit Lowe Wines for that!). Most have extensive grounds so there’s lots of room to run around outside. Many of the wineries also have some kind of ‘kids’ corner’ with colouring books and chalkboards to keep kids entertained. In town, one of the most kid-friendly cafes is Outside the Square, where there are highchairs, kid-sized tables and even colourful crafts for sale similar to what you’d find in an Oxfam or other NGO-run shop. It felt like Mudgee was really welcoming of kids, despite it’s food and wine-focussed adult appeal.

Where to stay

We stayed at Parklands Resort & Conference Centre, which I highly recommend. We got a great last minute deal so stayed for less than half the usual rate – so do that if you can! It’s located across from the racecourse on sprawling grounds on the edge of town, and is just at the start of the main road to the wineries. It has an oversized indoor pool (which was a godsend on one 42 degree day!) along with a Jacuzzi and sauna, and the rooms are really spacious. Ours had a double bed, a single bed and a foldout couch that could sleep two, so it was great for our family of four but could have really comfortably slept five! For a boutique hotel option if sans-kids, De Russie Suites looks gorgeous.

{Delhi eats} Veda Restaurant

Veda – a taste of decadent Delhi

Veda – a taste of decadent Delhi

One of the most amazing meals on our recent India trip was at the gorgeous Veda Restaurant in downtown New Delhi. Located on busy Connaught Place, it features a North Indian menu with lots of familiar dishes and some with interesting twists. It inhabits an opulent looking space (think ornate mirrors and chandeliers, a shimmery, glittery ceiling and lots of red), like Moulin Rouge meets fine Indian diner.

Veda Restaurant, New Delhi

Veda Restaurant, New Delhi

We went with a local friend who ordered an amazing spread of curries but insisted we try one thing – a whole leg of lamb on the bone, cooked in the tandoor. If you find yourself Delhi-bound, you must must must eat at Veda and order this dish! After a waiter dramatically set it alight as it was served, we tucked into succulent, slow cooked, charcoal-imbued spicy meat. The best lamb of my life.

Tandoori lamb leg at Veda

Tandoori lamb leg at Veda

The other standout must-order and a Veda signature dish is their crispy okra. We ate alot of okra in India but it was usually stewed or sauteed, however in this dish it was finely sliced, tossed with spices and a liberal amount of salt, and deep fried into crispy more-ish discs.

Veda is the perfect place to experience decadent, date night Delhi, or a world far removed from sightseeing in the heat. For more Delhi restaurant ideas (and there’s many – I needed more nights for Dum Pukht and Gunpowder!) see these round-ups by The Culture Trip and Travel + Leisure.

Veda Restaurant, 27 Outer Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi, +91 11 4151 3535, (website currently down).

{Sydney} Weekend wanderings 10.11.13

Armchair Collective

Image credit: Armchair Collective

Sydney weekends mean wandering to me – from exploring new places in our ‘hood to venturing far and wide, often in search of good eats. Here’s a little round-up of some food, finds and fun from recent weeks, which will hopefully inspire you to set out and explore your city.

The last few weekends have been a blur of kids parties (sooo many kids parties), beach walks and cafe hits and misses. We recently ventured to the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month’s night noodle markets in the city (twice) and now have a full blown Mamak crush (best roti this side of KL). We’ve dragged our kids out for Mexican, Vietnamese, and too many places for babycinos.

Armchair Collective

Image credit: Armchair Collective

One of my favourite cafe jaunts has been to Armchair Collective in Mona Vale. We were in the area anyway for a birthday so took a beach detour afterwards. The cafe looks kind of 70s from the outside, but inside is like a colourful beach shack. It’s a combined cafe and homewares store, and I fell a little bit in love with the ikat cushions, Moroccan ceramics and hippy luxe by the beach vibe of it all. The menu offers a great mix of typical cafe fare, not particularly experimental but hearty, wholesome and with high quality ingredients. The salad of beetroot, pumpkin, spinach and quinoa with goats cheese was light on the quinoa, but vegetable heavy and featured a tangy dressing – virtuous and delicious. There’s also a great BRT (with rocket substituting lettuce). If you’re stopping by for a post-beach takeaway Single Origin, you can also pick up a bunch of hydrangeas to go from the onsite florist, which adds to Armchair’s already colourful and inspiring aesthetics. And yes, the beach is a short walk away at the end of the street, so it’s an excursion-worthy combo.

On last weekend’s agenda: a school fete where I scored big time at the book stall (a wine box worth of books for the grand total of $15, including four cookbooks, some kids books, travel anthologies and novels, including one by my favourite travel writer, Pico Iyer. Score!), and a girls’ night to Icebergs Dining Room and Bar in Bondi with two of my food loving friends. Sipping cocktails on the glass-panelled balcony perched over the iconic Icebergs pool and a sprawl of surfer-studded ocean was not a bad way to kick off a Saturday evening. Dinner was a fishy affair, with shared oysters, school prawns and crab, with cod and delicious sides including my favourite, the lemon drenched kale. Icebergs had a kind of special occasion, date night vibe, but was nevertheless a beautiful setting for a catchup.

As for this weekend – we made a round two visit to Chi and Co. and it was just as good, if not better, as we had an extra person this time hence more dishes! If you go, the XO pork belly is a decadent, spicy, rich must-have. We also gorged on cannolis, jam doughnuts and lemon tarts at the Italian sweet-fest Pasticceria Tamborrino in Five Dock (they have everything from arancini to gelato, and all the cakes, biscuits and Italian desserty things you can think of – heaven).

How do you like to spend your weekends? And how was yours?

Is this Saigon’s best value meal?

Ok, it’s not a 12,000 dong bowl of noodle soup at Tan Dinh market (my local – and yes, that is a bargain!), or any other cheap Vietnamese treat, but a 195,000 dong set menu at French restaurant Ty Coz. Specifically, an authentic and delicious 3-course French meal of substantial serving size for around US$12!

Ty Coz is homely and quaint with a French seaside cottage feel – well, as much as you can imagine in a skinny, multi-storey, concrete Vietnamese building. Tucked down an alley off Pasteur (behind Au Parc Cafe) it’s the kind of place you can have a raucous group dinner with screaming baby in tow and no-one seems to mind (perfect!). The owners are really friendly and happy to explain the specials in both French and English.

The specialty is mussels (moules) and there are lots of flavours to choose from, with variations on the cream and white wine theme plus others like curry or blue cheese. I couldn’t resist the great value set menu and opted for a tuna pancake (galette), followed by mussels with a garlic/white wine/cream sauce and a lemon tart for dessert. The pancake was a thin, wholemeal crepe filled with chunks of tender tuna and vegetables – a healthy, wholesome choice. The mussels were accompanied by a bowl of delicious frites and were beautifully cooked, while the lemon tart was the best I’ve ever eaten – light, fresh and equally sweet and sour.

For real, hearty French cuisine, value for money, great service and an unpretentious, fun atmosphere, Ty Coz is the perfect dinner destination.

Ty Coz, 178/4 Pasteur Street, D1, Saigon

A new place for a dim sum fix

On the weekend I tried out the dim sum at the newly opened Yi Sang restaurant at Almond Hotel, another Luu Meng venture (the guy behind Malis, Topaz, Cafe Sentiment and more). Compared to the city’s only other dim sum restaurant (that I know of, and not counting the InterCon) – Sam Doo – the restaurant looked more like a ‘real’ dim sum place yet sadly, minus the trolleys.

The dishes were really cheap (between US$2 and US$3 a basket) and the barbeque pork buns and prawn dumplings definitely hit the spot. Unfortunately though a few things we tried to order (like the barbeque pork in rice noodle rolls) were greeted with the dreaded ‘no have’. We also ordered some sesame balls which strangely didn’t appear though the waitress kept saying they were five minutes away. In the end we just cancelled them.

With the bill for seven of us working out at less than US$6 a head for a dim sum feast and copious amounts of Chinese green tea in a clean, spanking new setting, it now makes me question why we spend so much more in some of Phnom Penh’s grottier old Chinese diners!

Image via Almond H0tel

Siem Reap’s Hotel de la Paix

Our room – complete with bed for baby

This was all ours – so relaxing!

Earlier in the week we paid a flying visit to Siem Reap and were fortunate enough to stay at the ultra chic Hotel de la Paix. What can I say but…wow! And no, they’re not paying me to say this!

Designed by the brains behind Bangkok’s Bed Supperclub, the hotel combines art deco style with Khmer touches, creating a unique and highly stylish look and feel. Our room was a two-level loft with a spiral staircase leading up to two massage tables for in-room spa treatments, with doors leading out to a private terrace complete with outdoor bathtub. The room itself had a rainforrest shower, iPod and speakers, WiFi, the most comfortable pillows ever and a spacious lounge area.

Beyond the room was an amazing pool with art-deco inspired columns and so many nooks and crannies to swim around and into. It was surrounded by lush tropical foliage like frangipani trees and traveller’s palms, with loungey day beds to chill out on. So blissful, even if our baby had to sit in a stroller poolside while we had a quick swim (things aren’t as simple as they once were!).

We also decided to finally dine at Meric, the hotel’s chic restaurant, after hearing good things about it for ages but for some reason never quite making it. It was worth the wait. While there is a set menu of innovative takes on Khmer food, we opted for the gourmet European menu and indulged in spice crusted beef tenderloin and sea scallops with cauliflower puree and citrus and licorice sauces. For dessert we shared a flourless chocolate cake with a runny centre (delicious) and bitter chocolate sorbet.The lighting, the decor and the atmosphere created a sophisticated vibe, and the food was excellent. Meric is a true culinary gem in Siem Reap and I highly recommend it!