New for Domaine Chandon

While in Melbourne recently, I was happy to hear that Domaine Chandon in the Yarra Valley will re-open its revamped tour route around the winery on November 1, taking visitors on a journey through the history and production processes of this famous brand.

Panoramic story panels, audio visual displays and an aerial view of the winery at work will greet visitors to the revitalised centre, where some of Australia’s best sparkling and still wines (under the Green Point label) are made.

Tours will start with a history of Domaine Chandon, which was established in the Yarra Valley in 1986 by France’s Moet & Chandon - and moves into the fruit processing area, where the best action can be viewed during the harvest season each February to May.

The new barrel room exhibit focuses on the still wine process, including the vital role of quality French oak in Green Point wines, while the fabulous Riddling Hall houses thousands of bottles in cave-like conditions.

You can end your tour by ordering a glass of sparkling or still wine in the Green Point Room overlooking the vines and rolling hills. Complimentary tasting plates of cheese, bread and relish are provided with drink orders.

Guided tours run three times daily, or visitors can guide themselves around the exhibits, with notes available in German, French, Cantonese and Japanese.

On the Chutney trail in Perth

In Perth? Fancy a curry? Head for the trendy suburb of Subiaco, where Chutney Mary’s has just been joined by Little Chutney's: it's next door and on the corner of Hay Street and Rokeby Road.

And if it’s a night out you are looking for, duck down the small nearby alley and check out the Bhudda Bar (no relation to the popular bars of the same name in New York and Paris).

The Buddha Bar seems to attract some of the best young DJ’s in Western Australia – and they set the scene from Tuesday to Friday. The Buddha Bar’s butter chicken is not bad either.

Back to Little Chutney's, which is by far the classiest of Subiaco’s Indian restaurants: the management have taken the humble curry into the classy realm of leather banquettes and perspex seats.

Despite its name, Little Chutney's is not so little. With seating for a hundred and a gigantic bar around which much of the action takes place, the owners have had to stress in Little Chutney's publicity blurb that “it can also work well for a romantic dinner for two”, with the banquettes providing intimacy.

Little Chutney's caters for robust tastes with a large number of tandoori dishes, seared to a crisp finish in the oven.

We started off with fish tikka -- ling fillets marinated in a yoghurt-based marinade with traditional spices and baked in the tandoori oven. Not badly priced at AUD 7 (per person, of course).

Trying to stay relatively health conscious, we followed up with a tandoori seared red emperor (AUD 26) served in a Malabar curry of coconut cream, tomato, onion and ginger.

The service was spot on, and Little Chutney's has a huge wine list, with a choice of more than 160 local and international labels.

Alas, the wines are a little overpriced – and there is no BYO. I am all for restaurants earning a living, but I baulk at the idea of paying AUD 33 for a 2006 MadFish, which I could have picked up in a nearby bottle shop for only AUD 11.

Noosa tour for foodies

For foodies visiting Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Sir Lunchalot recommends the Noosa Food and Wine Trail day tour, which is a popular item in the Noosa Hinterland Tours programme.

This off-the-tourist-trail tour also showcases some of the most picturesque yet lesser travelled parts of the Noosa Hinterland.

The tour includes Noosa Reds, a state-of-the-art tomato farm dedicated to producing old-fashioned flavours; an organic tropical fruit farm, where an excellent morning tea is served; a vast freshwater crayfish farm; plus two wineries that offer tastings of some interesting Queensland wines.

...back to those Aussie meat pies

If you have been waiting impatiently for the results of this year’s Great Aussie Meat Pie contest held in Sydney this week with pie-makers from around Australia taking part (see Sir Lunchalot’s last posting), then here it comes: the winner was the Village Hot Bake Bakery Café, in Dubbo, New South Wales.

Dubbo is a popular tourist destination and home to one of the world's finest open range zoos. Meat pies? Zoos? No, don’t worry, we’ve done a head count and there are no missing animals.

The Village Hot Bake Bakery Café first opened back in 1918 when Aussie Stevenson became a baker. Since those early days of delivering bakery products by horse and cart to Dubbo residents, including the army camp where the Western Plains Zoo is now situated, the Stevenson's have passed down three generations of baking tradition and secret recipes.

Today it’s a modern, country-style Bakery Café that has won many an award for its meat pies, and is run by Aussie’s grandsons, Bill, Robert and John, who are all master bakers and pastry cooks. The bakery’s dining area caters for up to 120 people.

Apart from its 19 different varieties of award-winning meat pies and sausage rolls, the Village Hot Bake Bakery Café also has a great reputation (apart from with WeightWatchers), for its fresh cream tortes, continental cheesecakes and an array of other, cakes – all ready to serve up as soon as the bakery opens at 06:00.

You might not want to go to Dubbo just for the meat pies, but there is a fair amount to see and do in the city, which is a five-hour drive from Sydney on the way to the spectacular New South Wales Outback.

Dubbo boasts long summers, fine food and wine and its famous zoo, as well as one or two interesting festivals during the course of the year. And it’s not so far from Mudgee, a wine region with a vast array of boutique wines to explore at close to 40 individual cellar door outlets.

If you do find yourself in the area, drop in for a pie at the Village Hot Bake Bakery Café, if only to satisfy your curiosity as to what makes an award-winning Aussie meat pie, and also visit one of the local wineries.

One of Sir Lunchalot’s favourites is the Red Earth Estate Vineyard, some eight kilometres south of Dubbo, a 8.4 hectare property set up some seven years ago by Ken and Christine Borchardt.

Ken tells me that as a winemaker he was attracted to Dubbo for a number of reasons – mainly the clean environment, the hot dry air and soil types that are ideal for grape growing. The property is also located within the Western Plains Tourist Circuit offering easy access for visitors to the region.

Only fruit from the Red Earth Estate Vineyard goes into wine sold under the Red Earth Estate label – which is probably the only wine label in the world that has a couple of colourful giraffes pictured on its bottles. All Red Earth Estate wine is estate grown and made.

As well as a free wine tasting at Red Earth Estate Vineyard, the Borchardts offer a platter tasting that features some delicious cheeses, dried fruits and regional produce - the perfect complement to their wines!

So it's Aussie meat pies, great wines and a world famous zoo -- sounds to me like three good reasons to head for Dubbo while touring New South Wales.

In search of the perfect pie

Less than a week from now, the Australian public will know who the big winner is. No, it has nothing to do with sport, or a state lottery – on August 1, the nation will know who makes the best Aussie meat pie.

Organised by the popular That's Life magazine, which has a readership of more than a million around the country, there are ten finalists; voted by pie lovers from all around Australia.

If you’re shrugging your shoulders at all this, don’t forget that Australians eat more meat pies per head than any other nationality. Move over Tetsuya's in Sydney, stand back Vue de Monde in Melbourne -- when it comes to the finishing line, the Great Aussie Meat Pie is the country's signature dish, a cultural identity with a squirt of tomato sauce.

A popular variation is the pie floater, a meal served at pie carts in Adelaide and elsewhere in South Australia. It was once more widely available in other parts of Australia but its popularity has dipped over the years.

A true pie floater consists of the traditional Australian meat pie covered with tomato sauce (similar to ketchup), sitting, usually inverted, in a plate of thick green pea soup .

Believe it or not the pie floater was recognised as a South Australian Heritage icon by the National Trust of Australia in 2003.

Visitors to Sydney can tuck into a late night pie floater at Harry's Cafe de Wheels pie cart situated in Woolloomooloo, which is located not too far from Otto's, one of Sydney's leading celebrity eateries.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels is also listed on the National Trust Register as an historic icon, having started selling meat pies back in 1938. Although it was shut during the war years, it was re-opened in 1945 and has been serving pie floaters ever since.

As the years passed, Harry's Cafe de Wheels gained new fame as a tourist attraction. Indeed, at one stage in its history a visit to the Harry's became a 'must' for visiting celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich.

In 1974, Colonel Sanders stopped at Harry's and found the food so finger-licking good that he got through three 'pies and peas' – which, in Sir Lunchalot's humble opinion, should have gained him honorary Australian citizenship.

In 1976 the Federation of Australian Pie Connoisseurs was formed, or so Sir Lunchalot has been informed, and it evidently adopted the following federation song (to be sung to the tune of Australia’s national anthem Advance Australia Fair:

When Englishmen go out to dine
Roast beef’s their staple dish
The Russians all eat caviar
And Eskimos chew fish.

The French, they say, are fond of frogs;
The Yanks - Kentucky fries.
But dinkum Aussies, one and all
Shout: 'Give us hot meat pies'
Yes, dinkum Aussies, one and all
Shout: 'Give us hot meat pies'

With that in mind, maybe the Aussie anthem should be renamed Advance Australia Fare.

Of the ten finalists in this year’s Australia’s Best Meat Pie competition, three contenders come from New South Wales, two each from Victoria and Western Australia, and one from Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) and South Australia.

Watch this space for news of the winner – if you can bear the suspense.

Melbourne for chocoholics

Having dinner with a rather rotund Belgian gourmet friend of mine not so long ago while in Brussels, the discussion somehow came around to chocolate. Yes, the Australians produced better seafood than Belgium, and Australian wines were often better than those from neighbouring France, he conceded. But when it comes to chocolate, Belgium wins hands down, or so he claimed.

I decided to put it to the test in Melbourne recently, and while that food-focussed city may not produce such diet-busting delights as Brussels, it does have some great addresses for those chocoholics amongst us.

Head for the historic Royal Arcade where Koko Black has been hand crafting exquisite chocolates for the past four years. It’s fascinating to watch as Koko Black chocolatiers work couverture into an incredible array of truffles, moulded pralines and bars, just as they did back in the ‘old country’.

While there, be tempted by a Koko Black Hot Chocolate, freshly brewed with dark Belgian chocolate - no powder. Other Koko Black stores can be found in the Melbourbe suburbs of Carlton, Camberwell and Chadstone and they have recently opened a second city store on Collins Street – so they must be getting it right.

Langham Hotel’s Aria Lounge on Southbank is another mecca for chocolate lovers. Enjoy a scandalous chocolate afternoon tea experience that includes a chocolate fountain, freshly made chocolates, and unlimited visits to the Chocolate Bar. This dark and decadent experience can be enjoyed every Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

On Little Collins Street, cocoa-le-art offers hand-made delicacies by Swiss chocolatier Silvano Widmer, who uses Belgian dark chocolate, made in a Swiss style with soft centre ganache fillings, and a decorative French presentation – now how European is that!

Monsieur Truffle is a stall in Prahran Market, where Thibault Fregoni, a softly spoken Frenchman who has a background as a pastry cook, offers chocolate creations that combine passionfruit, raspberry, native pepper, marzipan or orange truffle in intensely flavoured yet well balanced chocolates.

You will probably have to join a queue of faithful local customers to taste Thibault's selection of the week. Call it slow chocolate, but it's worth the wait.

If you have chocoholic clients looking for a chocoholic experience while in Melbourne, you might want to recommend Chocoholic Tours, who will help them discover the hidden chocolate charms of the city's streets, lanes and arcades, all in one tour.

Founder Suzie Wharton and her team have been running tours for the past 12 years, with one Friday afternoon departure and up to five different tours on Saturdays; they take place throughout the year, in all weather conditions.

New for Coonawarra

Sir Lunchalot has always enjoyed his trips to Coonawarra in South Australia, an area that produces some of Australia's finest wines.

With its terra rossa soil and passionate winemakers, the Coonawarra region can't help but make fine wine. With Cabernet Sauvignon the undoubted star, the region is renowned for the production of some of Australia's greatest red wines.

A 'must do' on any Melbourne-Adelaide self-drive trip (and that's the one that takes in the spectacular Great Ocean Road and the Coorong National Park), Coonawarra always reminds me of the Las Vegas strip back in the 60s -- with wineries lined up along both sides of the road rather than casinos.

Now a new attraction is on its way: Foster's (who have a burgeoning wine interest these days) is about to introduce a classic collection at the Coonawarra Wine Gallery, which is set to open in November.

Some of Coonawarra's best known wine names will come together to offer visitors who enjoy the good life some excellent wine tasting opportunities at the new gallery, which will be located on the main highway just north of Penola.

Wine lovers' favourites such as Rouge Homme, Jamieson's Run, Robertson's Well and Mildara, along with the Coonawarra wines of Lindemans, Penfolds and Rosemount Estate will all be there.

The Cellar Door will be situated in beautiful open grounds that include a barbecue area and picnic grounds -- an ideal reason for self-drive visitors to stop by,