I spent an absolutely gorgeous and relaxing weekend in the Blue Mountains, with my very good friend Anne and her wonderfully welcoming family. Anne had invited me to stay with her for the weekend a long time ago, but neither of us had the time or the mind for a very long time. In fact I do believe this was supposed to be a 'birthday celebration' of some sort, and both our birthdays are at the end of the year! Very long delay indeed....
We spent some time at a cafe with a serene surrounding for lunch. SOLITARY Cafe/kiosk between Leura and Katoomba, overlooking Mt Solitary (hence the name), and has a rather impressive reputation for its food. After examining their short but sweet menu we'd opted for the specials of the day. Anne had a lentil and bacon soup, while I was lured by their bruschetta with chicken liver pate with caramelised onion. I didn't try Anne's soup, but it looked and smelled tantalising (not to mention it was one of the dishes I contemplated on ordering). Anne gave it her thumbs up and just scoffed it down with her usual ladylike manner. My bruschetta was simply delightful, the pate tasted of brandy and was light and smooth, but the onions! On visual inspection we thought it was simply caramelised. When I tasted it I thought, hm, acid... probably vinegar... wait, did I get a whiff of red wine? Ah I think it was red wine vinegar! And I think there was also honey!
Next course please - can we have the (lengthy) dessert list now thanks... Madeleines, a rarely seen cake shaped like little shells, was on the menu, so I couldn't resist but order it for a taste. And a slice of hazelnut and raspberry cake please. Oh and also a slice of orange-cardamon cake too.... we were struggling with the decisions but we ended up abandoning the chocolate brandy and walnut cake with mascapone chocolate dressing....... in hind sight maybe I should have swapped the hazelnut cake with the chocolate brandy walnut cake, because the hazelnut cake had a delicate subtle flavour I ended up craving rich chocolate! Anne's orange cardamon cake was surprisingly delicious too - I don't often come across spices in my desserts but it certainly worked well here. And the madeleines? They were little bite-sized freshly baked cakes that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, served warm.
With the warm winter sun on our back and Mt Solitary view in front of us, we were satisfied with the view, the food, and each other's company. What a gem this little place is... Highly recommended for visitors of the Blue Mountains!
Later that evening Anne's family opened a bottle of 1998 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz Merlot. Apparently 1998 was a good vintage in terms of harvest and the weather in the Coonawarra region, combined with medium/long term cellaring, the wine had developed into a smooth rounded delicious wine! Iknow little about wine, but have always liked the cab-shiraz-merlot blend for its dry, rounded and aromatic flavours, and have a few bottles of it at home, but this one was certainly more enjoyable than most - truly the cellaring had taken away the overpowering tang and really mellowed out the wine... time to stock up!!
A lovely weekend had to come to an end... I lingered as long as I could, then waved my hands and boarded my coach. Back to the city smogs and stamp-print cafe franchises until next time.....
