One thing I love about my current job is the travel – I’ve been to places I’d have never made it to (for FREE!) thanks to the generosity of my bosses, and last weekend was another great trip to a pretty cool little country town. Orange is in NSW and is about 5 1/2 hrs drive from Newcastle (that part SUCKED). One thing I would like to comment on, in regards to the little town in the middle of nowhere (in my opinion!), is how INCREDIBLE their food culture is. As much as possible, the food is local (or at the very least regional – they love the ‘100 Mile’ thing in Orange), organic, handmade and REAL – and it’s not unusual, it’s just a given. I wish more towns/cities in Australia would take up this challenge, because it’s such a great way of eating.
We arrived pretty late on Friday and headed to the amazing Racine’s for a really incredible dinner. Chef Shaun Arantz of The School House fame (a once-hatted restaurant in Orange’s ‘CBD’ and previously at the Mayfield Vineyard) and team moved the restaurant to the new digs overlooking the La Colline vineyard; these digs could rather ungraciously be described as a big shed, though it’s much nicer than it sounds!
But really, it was about the food. I wish I’d taken photos, as the presentation was fantastic – I was too hungry to even think about it at the time! I ordered goats’ cheese puree with tomato sorbet – it was so light and fresh and delicate, I wish I was less tired so I could describe it better. The little cherry tomatoes that accompanied the dish were fresh from the Racine’s garden, and were so ripe and juicy, and the non-GF members of our dining party commented on how yummy the little bread sticks that accompanied their meal were – they reminded me of enoki mushrooms, and looked very crunchy, which would’ve been a great contrast to the soft textures of the puree and sorbet. We washed this course down with some lovely champagne.
My next course was the ocean trout, and I can’t even work out what they did to my trout, but by golly it was good! I can’t even remember the accompaniments, and as it’s not listed on the current website’s menu, I guess I’ll never know, but safe to say it was delicious. This meal was rather poorly paired with a gorgeous 2006 shiraz voignier from a local Orange vineyard, but I got over it and drank the wine anyway! 
I had to skip dessert, but the darling waiter brought out little treats anyway to end our meal – macaroons with lemon butter and mini-cones of sorbet. Both were DELICIOUS, and I have a new benchmark for excellence in desserts! I am going to desperately try and recreate these treats at my next dinner party.
It was such a great meal, and if you get the chance, GO THERE!!
A quick drive to our B&B (Black Sheep Inn) and we were greeted with a fridge full of delicious food for the next morning’s breakfast and a lovely handwritten note from our hosts (such a nice touch!).
After breakfast and a meeting (and a snoop around the property!) we headed into downtown Orange, and bought a few treats. Lunch at the Union Bank restaurant was excellent, very fresh and yummy, and matched with a lovely local chardonnay.
We then headed out to Bloodwood Wines, and this visit quickly became a highlight of the trip for me! We met the winemaker, Steve, and got to help crush the pinot graps that had been hand-picked the day before, and then taste the wines at all their varying stages.
You would not BELIEVE how delicious the ‘wine juice’ from the various varietals is! I was adamant Steve bottle and sell the juice, my boyf and I even went so far as to say it’s better than ACTUAL wine…that is, until we tasted Steve’s wines. They were soooo good. We brought home a bottle of chardonnay and a sticky (we sound like retirees, with our weird taste in wine!), and I was impressed with Steve’s shiraz and reisling – if I’d had more money I would’ve bought a couple of each. I would say they’re real food wines – they had strong, interesting flavours and Steve and his wife seem to be very keen cooks, so I would imagine they have many a great recipe to pair with their yummy wines. They also had a GORGEOUS Australian kelpie called Biff, who lived in a cognac barrel, which I thought was SUPER charming!
After our arvo of drinking we headed home to take a nap (doing nothing to dispel the ‘retiree-ness’ you’re seeing in this post) and then headed out to a gorgeous little Italian restaurant. I think I ate FAR too much, as I got to the point of not even enjoying my wine I was so full, but the meal of smoked mozzarella, creamy garlic prawns and garden salad was delicious.
We polished off a few bottles of plonk back at the B&B and again hit the hay, seeing as we had another 5/6 hour drive ahead of us. Ugh.
The drive back was pretty fun, actually, we visiting some very kooky towns (rural Australian towns are SO BIZARRE) – this one called Gulgong was like stepping back into an episode of Deadwood! We also spotted some huge mines, which are so devastating to see up close – they’re terrible blights on the landscape, and such unsustainable behemoths.
We arrived home tired, well-fed and ready for a huge nap. It was a great trip, and if you get the chance, head on out to Orange, it’s a cool place to see and there’s an increbile amount of great food and wine waiting for you to eat it!
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