Arrival in Queenstown (Day 1)

Yay! My Gorgeous Girls Safari to Queenstown has finally arrived and I am actually in Queenstown. I cannot believe it but it is true. The time has arrived for me to throw away all the stresses from the past 9 months and focus only on relaxing and enjoying myself on this ladies only trip.

View from Queenstown airport

It will be a week of pampering, shopping, wine tasting, good food dining and relaxation, relaxation, and relaxation! All that on top of enjoying the beautiful surrounds of Queenstown,

I also get to hang out with dear Maeve, who was such a joy to have during the Sardinia and Corsica trip last year. She has personality plus, that one! Oh dear, I hope she doesn't take it the wrong way when I say that. :)

We are staying at the Hilton Queenstown for the whole week. Thank goodness I don't have to unpack until I actually leave for home. What a lovely hotel, only less than 2 years old but located in a very beautiful part of the town. It is located right next to Lake Wakatipu and when you sit at the Pinot Pit, you actually see a portion of the Remarkables.

Kate, Mandy and Maeve

Kate Kennedy, a local Kiwi who actually lives in Sydney, but has known Maeve for years welcomed the group together with Maeve at the airport. And when we arrived at the Hilton, Mandy Kennedy (related to Kate by the way) who is the Marketing Manager of the Hilton greeted us personally and gave us a quick tour of the facilities. We all had a chance to have some pinot noir, pinot gris or sauvignon blanc and hang out at the Pinot Pit to introduce ourselves and just really chill out.

Biota Dining in Bowral

Biota Dining is located in the town of Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The only time I have been to Bowral was to have a quick walk around the town centre and that was many years ago.

This time around, we walked up and down the main street, and browsed through some of the shops. The Gumnut Patisserie was very busy and I could see the numerous awards the patisserie had won over the years, there was a lovely organic store in town and numerous cafes. Bowral has certainly thrived over the years.

Biota Dining is located only a few minutes out of the town centre. There was so much green around the restaurant, with lovely ducks and geese hanging around the pond, a herb garden and a vegetable garden right next to the restaurant.

I was excited to get the chance to dine here. I have heard so much about the restaurant and their emphasis on supporting local farmers and growers. It was great to have a table close to the kitchen so we could see what was happening in the epicentre of any restaurant. I didn't realise until then there was a lounge area off the main restaurant which serves tapas style dishes. Will try that next time as the dishes being served for the lounge diners looked really interesting.

Back to my dining experience. There was a choice of 3 course menu, 5 course menu or 7 course menu. I wanted to try everything so I voted for the 7 course and DD went along. How could he not!

First up was Salmon jerky - yummy! It was salty, absolutely addictive! It definitely got the taste buds going.

Then there was in-house churned butter with sourdough bread. Then a very fascinating and truly delicious was served. It was Bottleneck squid with ink and blackened cucumber.

The second dish was Sheep milk curds, with asparagus, hen yolk, smoked rye with fresh pasta. There were slivers of bottarga in the dish too. OMG, this dish was the dish of the day as far as I am concerned. The textures and flavours were just delightful.

Then we had Trout, with squash, samphire, truffle sand and mussels. The truffle sand was quite salty which in turn lifted up the subtle flavours of the gently poached trout.

The next dish was the Duck with cauliflower, white raisins, pear and pine needles. Visually quite pleasing and a lovely dish to boot.

Salt Meats Cheese

I wondered to myself what kind of store would be named Salt Meats Cheese??? On top of that, the store signage was very large and very hard to miss.

It caught my eye as I was parking to have lunch at the Grounds of Alexandria and we made a note to check it out a little later on.

In between our lunch and dessert, we strolled into this large warehouse store. The first thing to catch my eye is a little tasting corner for Jamon, prosciutto and cheese!!!! Wowweee!!! One of my many weaknesses!!! I instantly fell in love with this place.

It was too bad that I had just had lunch. Otherwise I would have sat down and ordered some nice looking Jamon, my very very favourite Prosicutto di San Daniele and some tasty looking cheese. Sigh! Restrain my girl, restrain!

They call this tasting corner the "Gallery of Ham" - yummy smelling, yummy looking delicacies.... :-) It brings back memories of my time in Rome and Sardinia in June last year.

The Grounds of Alexandria

It was a relatively wet Saturday but we were determined to still trek to Alexandria to check out this very 'happening' cafe. It is another one on my hit list and I am glad to say that I have now managed to tick it off my list.

It has been a while since I hung out in Alexandria and I can clearly see what I have missed. The Grounds is located right smack in the middle of wholesalers and distribution centres. And conveniently located close by to the airports (both domestic and international).

When I step into the inner haven, it feels so much like stepping into an English garden, with beds of herbs surrounding the garden and a rather rustic looking covered sitting/dining area for chilling out. There is even an area for kids to play and a chook pen.

I love the atmosphere. It was so relaxing and so as they say 'chilling'!!!!! We then headed to the main cafe and there was a queue to get a table and another queue to order take away. When we got there, it was already 2.00 pm and I was so surprised to see a queue. Apparently there is a queue at whatever time you get there.

We were told it would be a 50 minute wait to get a table in the cafe, so we decided to order take away and sit outside in the garden area. Fortunately, it stopped raining at that point in time and it was just lovely to have our lunch in the gardens.

We ordered the Mozarella Toastie and The Lunch Box. The toast consisted of mozzarella with merlot vinegar, basil and tomato toasted in a freshly baked bread roll.

The lunch box consisted of falafel, hummus, chicken and a lovely summer salad, served with some pita bread.

Mexico Food and Liquor (DD's 30th celebrations)

Finally, I get some breathing space to blog this post! It's been another rather hectic week at work and I have been champing at the bits trying to find some time to post about my recent fun time at Mexico Food and Liquor (or better known to me as just Mexico).

My good friend DD was kind enough to invite me to join his 30th birthday party celebrations and he chose Mexico, which is a stone's throw away from Central Station.

Warren Turnbull has done it again! What was previously District Dining has become the hot spot now known as Mexico. As you enter the premises, there are murals reflective of Frida Kahlo and many iconic artefacts reflecting the Mexican theme.

If I didn't know any better, I really could imagine being in Mexico. I won't describe the artefacts, I think the pictures speak a thousand words!

There were 16 of us attending the event. Lovely to meet so many of DD's old school mates who were seated at my end of the long communal table, quite an interesting bunch actually.

So what did we have for dinner? Well, as there were so many of us, we had the banquet menu. Wow! What a spread, there were so many dishes and all in all, we paid a very, very reasonable price. It was the alcoholic beverages that kept the price up, not the actual food.

So here goes:
Snacks - house made corn chips with pickled vegetables, Pumpkin, white bean and agave dip served with tortillas, and Crispy potatoes tossed in celery lime salt with tomatillo dressing.

Corn chips 

Pumpkin dip with tortillas

Pickled vegetables

Potatoes with tomatillo dressing