Tastes like sadness

As part of their ongoing mission to own all the restaurants, the Rockpool group has recently completed a massive expansion, including opening a branch of The Barvarian at Charlestown, and a branch of the Beerhaus at Kotara.  Their website claims  "The Bavarians is a collection of Australia’s greatest German inspired food, drinking and entertainment venues".  Hmm.  Well they have quite a collection and the restaurants are BIG.  In fact the Beerhaus we visited today was huge.  But it wasn't  so German  - with a mostly American inspired menu and a sports theme complete with pingpong, fussball, and basketball hoops.  Luckily pingpong balls don't actually hurt when they're smashed into you by a gang of 8 year olds. 

It was a pleasant surprise to walk into a beer barn and find they had table service and the wait staff were lovely.  Matt had a hankering for some 'murrican food and we soon ordered drinks and appealing sounding fried things and sat back to wait for delcious things to be brought to us.  And Wait we did.  Not somewhere to go for a quick lunchbreak, you really need to commit your time.  After what felt like 20 minutes our drinks finally appeared.  Domain Chandon for me (a reasonable $13) and a Hofbrau Dunkel Lager ($13 for 500ml) for Matt.  

Our first plates of food soon followed.  Deep fried Pickles ($9) sounded great.  They were quite overcooked though so all you could really taste was the breading.  Our potato skins ($11) came out with them.  They were described as loaded with chorizo, mozzarella, scallions and chipotle aioli.  Good thing they weren't described as "piping hot" because they were sadly only just luke-warm.  Before we were quite finished our starters, our actual lunch came out.  Two for one Tuesday meant we ordered the popcorn shrimp ($18) and the buffalo chicken ($17) po' boys.  And that, ladies and gentlemen is where an ordinary meal desended to one we'll talk about for months.  Like the pickles, the prawns were so massively overcooked all you got was the crunch and no flavour  There were nine bits of prawn on the roll so not an overgenerous number. The (four pieces of) chicken itself wasn't terrible (and it was actually hot!).  But it's a good thing they were half price because I sure don't think they were worth their normal charge.  On both sandwiches the baguette they were served on was so stale we both discarded it and just ate the fillings.

Not a cheap lunch, $64 for some fried stuff and one drink each.  We'd really been looking forward to it - American junk food is just so tasty - but ultimately had to say despite the pleasant wait staff we didn't love it at all.  It was overpriced and not well cooked food, with undergenerous serves (unlike their sister restaurant beer barn, The Barvarian); ultimately an exercise in disapointment not one of gustatory delight.

Just a teensy breakette

It had come to pass that another year had passed and I was getting ever older.  Its well known that sorrows should be drowned (or pickled) and thus, a few days in wine country were in order.  Trusting to google maps we set out for Mudgee.

First things first - checking petrol prices.  We were not surprised to learn that Newcastle had the most expensive fuel in the state! Having HAD to joing the NRMA after breaking down on Pennant Hills Road easter last year (why yes, it was just DAYS after the roadside assist that came with the car expired) we used the NRMA app to get cheaper fuel than we could get by shopping at ColesWorth.  Onwards towards the upper hunter and a round-about way to Denman where we had planned to have lunch.  The ladies in the visitor centre were lovely and suggested a wine tasting and cheese platter at Two Rivers Winery, fortuitously on our way.  Starting our mid week escape as we intended it to continue, we enjoyed our very generous cheese and antipasto plate with a glass of rose for me (and a bottle for later on).  Notice our valiant steed in the background of the photo, she has so far avoided all the kangaroos, foxes, feral cats, feral truckies, numerous wedge tale eagles, and something we couldn't identify from the bird book - possibly a young dragon.

All local products including cheese by Hunter Belle, there was enough for any four normal people but we managed.

We followed the Bylong Way to Mudgee, a drive of outstanding natural beauty.  Matt observes he saw very little as he was concentrating on not skidding on the somewhat rugged surface, not hitting kangaroos alive and dead on the road, and avoiding the terrifying tradies who overtook when ever they felt like it no matter what the conditions (as evidenced by the not insignificant number of wrecks scattered by the side of the road)! We've made note for a future visit to make time to do the Castle Rocks walk after glimpsing some of the amazing rock formations from the road.

We reached Mudgee and our accomodation at Beverly House while it was still daylight and after checking in to our lovely - and large - suite had time for a wander around the centre of town only a few minutes walk away.  

almost needed a ladder to get into bed

complementary port and chocolates.

After a pleasant wander around Mudgee's town centre admiring the many lovely old buildings we ended up at the Orient Hotel for a traditional pub dinner.  It was clearly a very popular spot even so early in the week.  Stabbing the wine menu with a pin we selected a couple of local drops, only $10 for a 250ml glass.  Suffice to say that's two wineries we crossed off our list for tomorrow.  The bright side of buying a glass of wine that isn't quite undrinkable is it cuts down on expenses as you make one glass last all evening.  The meals were very generous (mixed grill for him and rump steak for her since you asked) and the chips were probably the best I've had in years! This sounds like a real whinge - but I swear if there had been decent cutlery provided I would have enjoyed the meat more - the forks were uncomfortable to hold and the steak knives were blunt.  Still, I guess it cuts down on petty theft.

Mudgee's Regent Theatre, a beautiful art deco cinema

After our complementary port and chocolate we were soon sleeping soundly in our four poster bed - our hostess Lesley did offer us padded handcuffs to go with the room, however, a lady never kisses and tells.

Wednesday saw us avoiding getting up early; I somehow had blocked out just how cold inland mornings are while Matt just avoids getting up before the crack of noon whenever possible.  A breakfast of coffee and toast as well as home made (by Lesley) spiced poached pears and yoghurt saw us on our way to the Pioneer Museum at Gulgong which was fascinating in the way all volunteer run museums are (we could have done without the fire alarm testing going off at intervals without warning to the poor clients standing underneath said alarms).  We did wonder exactly how 11  passengers got on the Cobb and Co. Coach (possibly sitting in each others laps) as space was not lavish but figured three on each bench inside, one on either side of the driver, and three on a very makeshift looking rear-facing bench (the fore-runner of the dicky seat?)  Hope those last three passengers had something firm to hold on to.

How can this fridge be in a museum when I remember us having one very similar?!

image from https://mgnsw.org.au/organisations/gulgong-pioneer-museum-historical-society/

Our next stop was Lowe Winers, a certified organic and bio-dynamic winery where the attendant Clare was so enthusiastic and knowledgable about their products we tasted our way through nearly their entire offering with great enjoyment.  And came away with a bottle or two to try again at home. Having tried some better known organic offerings neither of us were actually expecting much, however, we were pleasantly surprised with the delicate rose and the preservative free shiraz.  Extremely promising, we look forward to tasting again at home in an uncontrolled environment.  We've saved our free postage voucher in case we need to get a case to do a propper tasting.

I had promised Matt our time away wouldn't end without a beer tasting so our next stop was a beer flight/tasting paddle at the Mudgee Brewing Co., only a few minutes walk from our accomodation but open limited hours midweek. Damn, midweeks away, great for fewer people doing the same tourist trail, but a bit of a bugger when businesses decide they don't get enough passing trade for long hours. We tried the seven beers which were available on tap (plus a coffee for me, hey, it was a COLD day!) as well as the pork crackling, guarenteed to get to you still crackling.  It was, it was huge, we devoured it all!  Oh and the beers...please remember these were tiny tasting glasses and shared between two... 

pork crackling. One piece.  Bigger than my head!

What to choose today?

Why yes, I think we shall have it all!

Of the beers we both prefered the porter and the stout, however Matt was VERY sorry the Belgian style triple wasn't available. So far we've managed to fit quite a few bottles to bring home to try under different conditions in our tiny boot without having to put our clothes on the external luggage rack.

A friend had recommended a visit to the local distillery (thanks Scott, glad we did make it there) and Baker-Williams was a high point of the day;  we enjoyed their gins very much.  I also liked their Orangecello, needless to say, Matt the Orange Food Phobiac didn't try it.  It was fascinating to try the spirits neat and see how the flavours changed and developed as mixers were added.  We're both firmly in the "tonic on the side" camp when buying a mixed drink just so you can try both ways and then dilute/infuse to taste - an interesting discussion was had on different brands of tonics and how these themselves change the taste of your drink.  

picture stolen from https://bakerwilliams.com.au/.  One of these bottles fitted in the car too.

We had planned to have dinner at a modern Asian restaurant, however, we were a bit early and stopped for a drink at another local pub, drawn in by the ambience, great local wine selection,  and the open fire, thus, we decided another pub meal was in order, this time at Kelly's, the local Irish pub since 1886 (or thereabouts).  I loved the traditional veggies served with my roast chook, unfortunatley the chook (being breast not the yummy thigh) was a bit dry.  Matt's 400gm (that's one lb, y'all) (ed.  what the hell is a lb?) rump with prawns and garlic sauce (local "surf and turf") was probably the pick of the menu and did come out pretty rare!  We also enjoyed tasting several reasonably priced local wines by the glass.  Matt rather liked a local white port served as an aperetif.

Our final day away saw us visiting nearby Rylstone en route back to Newcastle.  The local op shop provided a couple of new to me girlsown books while we kept our hands FIRMLY in pockets at the record shop.  What a great selection they had! 

For Rockwiz affecionados, they had in stock both the first album Matt bought with his own money and the album associated with the tour of the first band I saw live. 

Our final destination was 29 nine 99, a restaurant well known for its excellent yum cha.  Not quite the furthest I've travelled for dumplings.  As we're both rather fond of yum cha we picked the big serving that gave us 12 pieces each plus one (sticky rice for Matt and a red bean bun for me); we were happy to let the kitchen decide what to give us but you do have the option to pick from the more than 30 types of dumplings.  A FANTASTIC way to do yum cha in a beautiful location, I've often complained that we can never order enough different things, this, with just one piece each of each variety was perfect.  My favourite was the duck.

Replete, we left Rylstone for our last leg, through the beautiful Bylong Valley and back to the coast and home.  What a contrast to the Hunter which has been systematically raped by mining.  

The steep dry sclerophyll forests of Wollemi National Park gave way to the fertile floodplains

Many farms had large signs protesting the intrustion of coal mining and fracking on their property

image from https://www.lockthegate.org.au/new_south_wales_hunter_valley_coal_mines

Image from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-07/bylong-valley-coal-mine-divides-locals/10472766

If only Mudgee wasn't so far from the coast we'd be tempted to move to the area, the friendly and enthusiastic people we met everywhere made our visit an absolute pleasure.

Two Rivers

At Lowe's