Monthly Archives: May 2012

SAFM Winter Mystery Break in Clare

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I got a phone call on Thursday from Sam: did I want to get up really early Friday morning to possibly win a night away to one of the 7 Country Club Hotels and Resorts in South Australia. Of course I said yes, packed a bag, and got ready to leave at 6 the next morning. We were having dinner at the Adelaide Meridien Hotel & Apartment; Hayley, Craig, & Rabbit were broadcasting live, and there were around 20 other couples all hoping to win the night away.

Thankfully, we won! But so did all of the other couples there. After the winner was drawn it was announced that we’d all be going away. We were lucky enough to get a night at the Clare Country Club, and with the weather we had over the weekend it was great to get away somewhere full of plenty of cellar doors and warm fires.

We had a two bedroom spa suite. Right by the pool which I’m sure would be lovely in summer, and sat on a lake that would have been great to picnic by. We weren’t getting the chance to enjoy any of these because it rained, and rained, and rained. Instead we hopped from cellar door to cellar door. We drove up to Burra to Thorogoods Apple Wines & Cider cellar door. Their apple wines were interesting, but I’m not sure if they’re something I’d choose to drink too often. They were quite syrupy, with an oaky, earthy, flavour. We didn’t get to try the cider, they don’t open the bottles because otherwise the bubbles will run out. I still picked up two bottles to take home.

The other cellar doors we popped into were Jim Barry Wines, Knappstein Winery & Brewery, and then Annie’s Lane and Crabtree Watervale Wines on our way home. We also popped into the Sevenhill Produce Market on Saturday morning. There were so many jams and pastries, and everything looked delicious. There wasn’t much fresh produce there, but we reckon it was a combination of the rain and the fact that the Clare Gourmet Weekend was the week before.

For lunch we popped into the Wild Saffron Cafe. It was a gourgeous little cafe on the main street, that doubled as a store selling gourmet foods and cute homewares. I ordered salmon and lime fishcakes with a glass noodle salad. It was really light and refreshing. I was a little worried that the fish cakes would be dry, I didn’t quite know what to expect from this cafe, but they were soft and still quite moist, and broke apart easily. There was probably a bit more lime than you’d expect from a Thai salad, but I think it worked, I always like a bit of tang.

We had a main meal included in our prize so we had dinner at Conners, the restaurant at the Clare Country Club. We’d met another couple at breakfast that morning, and had made plans to join each other at dinner that night. Thankfully we bumped into them during the day so we could touch base and get out dinner reservations scheduled for the same time.


While mains were free, I couldn’t help but get an entree as well. King prawns on a guacamole type salsa. The meal was nice, but the prawns were a little overcooked, so I felt it could have been a bit better. The lamb on the other hand was cooked perfectly, still a bit pink, and it was topped with grilled vegetables and greek yoghurt. We of course ordered dessert, so I got the creme brulee, nice and creamy and with a good crack. We probably wouldn’t have eaten there if our mains weren’t free, the restaurant was pretty expensive, and while we all enjoyed our meals I probably wouldn’t have been happy if I was paying for it all.

We really had a great weekend away, and I’d definitely recommend the Clare Country Club to others. This was the first time I’ve been to Clare since I was little, and now I can’t wait to get back there.

SOMEONE IN NEW MEXICO LOVES ME (a dinner of heart & hand)

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“Just Say Yes”

If someone ever asks if you want to spend $90 on a dinner by the Happy Motel. Just say yes. Tell them you’d happily pay more. Thankfully since I’ve been blogging I’ve managed to gain the ability to convince others to eat with me. So I sent my sister a link to the Adelaide Mag Dinner by the Happy Motel, and she agreed to come with me. Let’s just add this to the file of ‘best ideas Tash has had’.

We turned up just before 6:30, the doors were still closed and there were a handful of people waiting outside. People who obviously knew more than us would turn up and slip inside, but we waited outside on the footpath until invited in. The entire Fourwords Warehouse had been converted for a Mexican Fiesta. After our names were ticked off the list we were given a small paper heart, told to write our best lovemaking tip, and then directed to the next table to have our hands washed for the feast.

A dinner of heart and hand.

We chose our table based on the decorative fruits, it was a toss up between feijoas or persimmons, but feijoas won in the end. Wine was poured, others joined our table and the tables around us, and then the food began.

Honestly the food just kept coming. I couldn’t quite tell you what the food was, there was no menu and no explanation, just good, delicious food. 2m long trays brought the first course, and people crowded around to grab one of the hard taco-like chips with tuna, avocado, red onion, and coriander.

A soft shell taco-like dish with beans and mushroom, (pork?) burger with cabbage, and super amazingly delicious quail. 

When a new dish came out we’d all be on the edge of our seat, making sure it came our way. It’s one of those unfortunate times when good food is joined by good wine, so instead of details all I can remember is how good it all tasted. Everything was fresh, nothing was greasy, and the flavours jumped around on your tongue.

At one point in the name they came and told us our table was in an odd spot, and they had to move it. Something about a security. Really, it was a sneaky ploy to merge the tables in the room, making people mix and mingle more. More Wine, including the S.C. Pannell Pronto Tinto, probably our favourite wine of the night which had an interesting hint of caramel.

They read out our lovemaking tips, served dessert on top of a car, and we chatted to a man whose name I thought was Chief, my sister thought was Jeff, and could possibly have been Keith. I danced with a stranger, ate feijoas and persimmons off of the tables, and we tried to stop our papier mache hearts from setting on fire.

One of the amazing things about the dinner, is that everything was created for this night. The space was completely transformed, and in a few days it might be something different. We met some interesting people, ate some delicious food, and had great wine.

What I’ve Been Eating

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Well I’ve been busy, busy, busy, but I”ve also been out doing a lot of eating. I just haven’t been sharing. So I’ll give myself a quick rap on the knuckles and continue with the last few weeks in pictures.

A weekend with dinner at Concubine & Star of Siam. Dinner at Star of Siam with some of dad’s old workmates who I’ve known forever, plus one of their daughters who I haven’t seen since I was tiny. The Sea-Star dumplings are incredible, I’ve been trying to find out if they go by any other name, I’d love to recreate them.

The following night was Concubine with my trio of friends from school (which includes Sam my regular food buddy). The food was good, but the company was better.

I managed to take a break from my crazy week baking 1000 cake pops for the H by Felici launch, and went to Saldechin for tapas and cocktails with Roxy. The food was a little underwhelming, it was easy to eat but not the flavour explosion that I’ve come to expect from tapas. We had the best service from the best waiter, such a contrast to my last trip here.

Then there was the launch. My cake pops went off, it was so incredibly thrilling seeing so many people with one of my pops in their hand. Check out more pictures here, and here.

I also tried out Dumplings R Us on Rundle Street, and felt I’d had better, and had the great food blogger meet-up at Devour. As always the desserts at Devour were very intriguing. The deconstructed lemon meringue pie was probably the winner, but I adored the peanut butter and jelly panna cotta and the green tea ice cream with chocolate coated pop rocks.


Then the Tasting Australia festival, where I didn’t get to do half of what I would have liked. Next time I’ll be more prepared. Oysters from the native food stall, so fresh, even my sister who doesn’t like raw oysters thought these were great. Then the Korean bun from Grace the Establishment, reminds me of being back at school when the Korean kids always had the best lunches. I loved the kim chi. We also had the ‘small’ cheese tasting plate from Paris Creek. It was HUGE, but delicious.

We’ve got our brochure for the Festival of Food, and we went to Urban Bistro for out first stop. The pork belly was pint sized, but delicious. We were given petit fours at the end, but the macaron was just not right, it was more like a hard biscuit than chewy meringue. Instead I took mum and dad, and my sister, along to Eggless for their first time. There 7 Deadly Sins (+ their 8th addition) has some interesting options. I think I’m going to wait till I go back again this month to pick my favourite from the menu.

So now that I’ve done a recap of the last few weeks, I can really get down to the important things, my dinner on Friday night. Stay tuned.