Slow food winter weekend in Orange

Finally allowed to drive the new car


Pinot and duck liver parfait by the pinot vines at Borrodell


Sublime Sunday locavore lunch at The School House restaurant at Mayfield vineyard


Gerard heaven: pork belly and black pudding


Double-baked trout soufflé with curried mussels and corn velouté + Icely Road Pinot Noir


Gerard's food stylist technique is coming along nicely


Galantine of poussin with bread sauce, broad beans, lentils, peas and asparagus + 2005 Mayfield Vineyard Chardonnay


Blood orange curd tart and sorbet

Beechworth pics for GG

Friday dinner at Gigi's


Wine: Cow Hill 2006 pinot noir

For him: Double-roasted duck with beetroot and fennel relish and crispy leeks
For her: Kiewa Valley lamb shoulder ragout with potato dumplings, truffled butter and aged ricotta
Brussels sprouts with Milawa honey mustard sauce

Mashed Sebago potato with beurre d'Isigny

Saturday lunch at Pickled Sisters: wild mushroom and Milawa Bianco souffle and quince tarte tatin with chestnut ice-cream and pear puree

Saturday dinner at Wardens


Entree for him: Chargrilled cotechino with lentil puree, poached free-range chicken, apple fondant and walnut agrodolce
Entree for her: Sardinian ravioli of salmon and eel with a cauliflower puree, sultana dressing and candied ginger

Main for him: Ragu of north-east venison, flavoured with clove and cinnamon, swede mash and a beetroot relish
Main for her: Roasted fillet of beef with a red wine and garlic sausage, creamed cavolo nero and a mustard sauce
with broccoli, hazelnut dressing and aged ricotta
Wine: Castagna 'Un Segreto' sangiovese/syrah '05

Cheese: Woodside Edith ashed goats cheese with walnut toast and pickled beetroot
Wine: Pennyweight Tawny Port


Sunday dinner was venison pizza and Amulet pinot grigio at Bridge Road Brewery with the Terese, Kel, Audrey and Will and dessert/coffee/muscat at the Green Shed Bistro.

Back to Beechworth

Coming up: four blissful days in Beechworth (Ned Kelly country) for some seriously good food and wine, colonial heritage buildings in golden stone and alpine country air. We'll be sleeping and breakfasting here, noshing here and here. We'll drive rugged country roads to boutique vineyards, lavender-filled parterre gardens, old back-country pubs, pie shops and the mighty Murray River. We'll sip world-famous Rutherglen muscat, tokay, port and durif by open fires. And we'll be drinking the truly best damn wines imaginable. Don't believe me? Jancis loves Beechworth wines too.

Only 5 more sleeps until we go! Like a kid, I've already packed my weekend bag. Rainey and Graham, we'll tell you if we find the vineyard house... maybe something like this?

Exit Iraq

Here's my latest multimedia project - released to coincide with Australian combat troops pulling out of Iraq, fulfilling an election promise made by our new PM. Take a look at Exit Iraq from The Sydney Morning Herald team. It was a muy intense seven days working day and night to put this together in time once we got word of the top-secret pullout date. Finally feeling human again now that I've caught up on my sleep and am eating real food... no more Fairfax canteen chocolate cookies for this chicken!

My Eurovision pick

An ode to sparkling shiraz

Cherries and strawberries, chocolate and violets. It's my Friday night tradition: sparkling shiraz.