One of the signature dishes by Dan Hunter at his restaurant called the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, about 250km west of Melbourne. It’s called egg yolk, toasted rye, legumes and yeast. It’s an interesting dish with lots of texture and flavours. The yolk looks raw but the waitress assured as that it was cooked enough that she’d serve it to a pregnant woman.

We had 10 courses, and the selection of wine was from 1996 to 2002. A bottle from that far back would cost quite a bit these days and I don’t think I have the perseverance to keep it unopened for that long either. They have a large temperature controlled cellar opposite the restaurant that is twice its size. The vegetables and herbs are grown locally in their own garden, so the food is definitely fresh.

Our last entourage was to Tetsuya’s in Sydney last May. The food was hit and miss with some of the dishes being wow, and a few of them just plain bland. The food we had at the Royal Mail Hotel was subtle, with interesting flavours. Overall the quality of the food was great and matched the degustation style with the small portions. Ended the meal feeling contented but not overly stuffed as I normally am at these types of meals. This was also probably because they didn’t stuff us with bread every couple of courses.

Heh, will not go through all the courses we had, but will leave you with one of the desserts. rhubarb, licorice, almond, citrus. I liked the flavours a lot but it seems that not everyone was a fan of the licorice.

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It was a good getaway weekend, taking the drive to Dunkeld, visiting neighbouring Hamilton. Stayed at a nice cottage overlooking Mount Sturgeon. Without the weather driving me insane with numbing cold, I’m back to planning and doing stuff again. I put little notes in the iPhone and it keeps me reminded of things I have to do.

Alfie is learning tricks, but when it comes to food, he’s too impatient that I can’t even get it in his food bowl before he puts his snout in. Toilet training is still a terrible mess, but he gets the sense that I have a hawkeye over him after his dinner so I hope he gets the idea on where he’s supposed to do his business and anywhere else will result in a big ‘NO’.

Time’s flying. Seems like there’s not enough of it. August is almost ended, and I’m slowly reading through my notes for the exams in October. Never expected to be this busy, heh.