I love weekend jaunts in the Victorian countryside, even if only for a few hours. Sometimes our destination is a complete surprise because we don’t have a set journey in mind. That way we never have to admit to getting lost on our way somewhere else!
With The Sister in town for a couple of weeks, however, we needed set destinations so we could do important things like make lunch bookings.
Autumn is a beautiful time to explore Victoria. The grapes have been harvested and pale yellow leaves were still holding on to the vines, providing splashes of color in the misty rain. Round the small townships, bolder displays of autumn leaves had everyone out with their cameras.
Our Saturday plan was lunch at Alla Wolf-Tasker’s beautiful Lake House restaurant at Daylesford and after a short tour round the township and a little beyond, we settled in at our windowside table with a grandstand view of the tall trees beyond the deck showing off their late autumn colours.
While I have been guilty of photographing the food I eat, this wasn’t the time or place
When presented with a menu full of “pick me!” dishes, we decided the best policy was to by-pass the angst of choosing, and head straight for the tasting menu – eight dishes very representative of the main offerings. Out of sympathy for The Spouse who was our designated driver, instead of going for all the matched wines, we put our trust in the waiter who suggested sampling three wines that would see us happily through the dishes.
While I have been guilty of photographing the food I eat, this wasn’t the time or place. More so, because the Ricoh Caplio camera that has spent at least five years traveling around in my handbag, finally died and my bulky SLR is anything but discreet.
The Sister was keen to have a copy of our little menu so she could return to New Zealand and gloat about the experience so here is what we ate. Readers will just have to imagine the exquisite presentation for each dish.
Sashimi mackerel, slow cooked octopus, fennel, smoky paprika
Scallops, chicken, corn, Bois Boudran
Smoked Skipton eel, Istra pancetta, heirloom beets
Butter poached pheasant, sausage, chestnuts, choucroute
Rabbit – cassoulet, loin and cottechino salad
12 Hour suckling pig, blood pudding, trotter
Quince, honey, hazelnut
Coffee and sweet indulgences from the bon bon trolley
Extras included sunny muffin-shaped cornbread presented in little bowls, luscious warm olives and fried quail’s egg on a slice of brioche.
I was pleased to have an opportunity to study the menu at my leisure because executive chef Alla Wolf-Tasker has gone to great pains to acknowledge the provenance of the locally sourced produce used in her kitchen. In fact, many of the suppliers to this Good Food Guide two-hat restaurant are prize-winners in their own right.
After lunch I had another mission. I recently discovered that my paternal gg-grandfather’s twin brother, Thomas Graham emigrated from Paisley, Scotland in 1855 to nearby Eganstown and in fact ran a pub there, the Glasgow Arms Hotel. After his death in 1907 it appears his daughter Margaret Mayson continued as the hotel and store-keeper. She died in 1914 and her son Arthur later had the hotel pulled down and the materials were auctioned off in 1917. This was war time and building materials were in sort supply.
We decided to head to Eganstown and look for the cemetery as, thanks to research done by a new-found cousin in Melbourne, I had a map of the graveyard.
First time round we missed the broken sign with its faint lettering pointing off the main road down a track into the bush. We found the Catholic cemetery but I was positive my Presbyterian Scottish forebears wouldn’t be found there.
Fortunately, in spite of dubious navigation skills, we persisted. In dimming light and misty rain we eventually came upon the sign that led us to the little burial ground deep inthe bush.
- We visit our great great grand uncle Thomas Graham, laid to rest here in Eganstown more than a century ago. The family’s unmarked graves are in the foreground.
Unfortunately the graves I was seeking mainly had no headstones but at least I now know where my adventuring 3xgreat uncle, lured to Australia by the gold rush, no doubt, is laid to rest.
