Sydney Day 5: Thursday 1 November
Up to the Blue Mountains for dinner at Darley's Restaurant!
We took the train out to Alex's place, first having breakfast at Circa Espresso, where they apologised for running out of asparagus and gave me brocolini instead. Works for me, love brocolini.
We're the table with the suitcases surrounding it.
We squeeeezed four people and three suitcases into Alex's car, dumped half the stuff at her place and put the rest in duffel bags that would fit in the boot, and we were off into the Blue Mountains!
First stop was Victory Theatre, a converted old theatre which is now home to a few hundred antiques dealers. Alex particularly loves vintage jewellery, so antiques shops were a big part of the Blue Mountains leg of the trip. I think she got a ring here? I know there were earrings at the other place. Anyway yes, stunning piece.
Feeling peckish we got some hot chips and a milkshake, then headed off to Lithgow.
We were staying at a lovely little Airbnb just out of town. Alex and I went on a wander around town while Linda and Hanh dozed back at the house, and we came across their local church, which was jolly quaint and beautiful.
Lithgow is such a cute little town.
This is the main street, which felt like any beachside town down on the SA south coast. It felt like any moment you'd turn the corner and there would be the jetty out to sea, only of course we couldn't smell the sea being several hundred kilometres inland. It felt more like a sea town than a Hills town, is my point.
Darley's Restaurant, the only dégustation we could find up in the Blue Mountains and hence, dinner!
We were over almost in the left corner with a view over the garden.
There's the garden!
Got Linda that time!
Introductory nibbly thing, once again not on the menu, but Alex got something non-seafood so seafood was involved. I'm going to guess with the colour that salmon roe was involved somewhere. Every dish that came out was just a work of art, though. I almost typed 'piece' there instead of 'dish'.
Scallop Sashimi, Lemon Myrtle Cream, Cucumber, Seaweed Salt. HOW is that scallop? How? And it's sashimi so it's not even cooked. That's just. Straight up sashimi. It was the kind of thing where you just taste a little bit on the ed of your knofe of every different element and then go into it. Complete contrast to last night, everything was so delicate and, as I said, works of art.
Hay Cooked Carrots, Candied Violet, Grapefruit Curd. You could smell the hay, and with the carrots, it just worked, sort of that same musty sweetness. I guess they smoked it with hay? Or something? And I'm pretty sure that red sauce on the left was carrot, too. All about the carrots. Also, super interesting bowl and I want a set of them.
Steamed Murray Cod, Textures of Pumpkin, Pink Onion, Red Verjuice. Perfectly delicate and flaky fish and the pumpkin chips were just the best.
Brined Duck Breast, Cumquat, Onion Cream, Turnips, Madeira Sauce. This was the one, when we were looking up the menu online, that got me excited to go there. It was SO GOOD. Very ducky duck, amazing rich sauce, loved it.
Salt Grass Lamb Rack, Sweet Bread, Eggplant, Glazed Watermelon Rind, Miso. And then the lamb came out, which was my favourite for the evening. The little lump between the lamb and the top bit of watermelon rind is the sweetbread. It was just, JUST like Grandpa did sheep's brains back when I was a kiddie--crispy and crunchy outside and gooey unctuous awesome in the middle--though I'm told the sweetbread is a different gland in the throat, I think? Idk. It was like sheep's brains to me and ooh I was happy.
The sorbet, between savoury and dessert, not on the menu and hence I forget what it was. Pretty sure the chips were sweet potato? Another fabulous bowl, though.
Pause here to also talk of the wine list, which were all pretty much perfect. This is the one thing I really end up comparing with Automata, though, is the adventurousness. Everything Automata brought out was okay, until you put it with the food and it became AMAZING and of course this works. At Darley's, the wines were all just straight up great, though I didn't have any what I like to call 'sit and sniff' wines, wines you can just cup in your hands and sniff for half the evening because they smell that good. It was also a relatively local list, with everything but the sticky to go with dessert being Australian and one even from the Blue Mountains. This is noteworthy because we didn't see a single vineyard the whole trip. Every dégustation I've had has been wildly different in their wine list approach--this one was very Australian, Automata was wildly adventurous and perfectly food-matched, Hentley Farm was a winery so they were matching the food to their own wine rather than the other way around, and Quay was from all over the world with none from Australia. Really interesting how that happens, I think.
Roast Peach, Olive Oil Pastry Cream, Peach Leaf Gelato, Walnut Crumbs. A beautiful, fresh finish to the evening.
'narti originally stuck this at Dreamwidth cos she had to use it for something.
We took the train out to Alex's place, first having breakfast at Circa Espresso, where they apologised for running out of asparagus and gave me brocolini instead. Works for me, love brocolini.
We're the table with the suitcases surrounding it.
We squeeeezed four people and three suitcases into Alex's car, dumped half the stuff at her place and put the rest in duffel bags that would fit in the boot, and we were off into the Blue Mountains!
First stop was Victory Theatre, a converted old theatre which is now home to a few hundred antiques dealers. Alex particularly loves vintage jewellery, so antiques shops were a big part of the Blue Mountains leg of the trip. I think she got a ring here? I know there were earrings at the other place. Anyway yes, stunning piece.
Feeling peckish we got some hot chips and a milkshake, then headed off to Lithgow.
We were staying at a lovely little Airbnb just out of town. Alex and I went on a wander around town while Linda and Hanh dozed back at the house, and we came across their local church, which was jolly quaint and beautiful.
Lithgow is such a cute little town.
This is the main street, which felt like any beachside town down on the SA south coast. It felt like any moment you'd turn the corner and there would be the jetty out to sea, only of course we couldn't smell the sea being several hundred kilometres inland. It felt more like a sea town than a Hills town, is my point.
Darley's Restaurant, the only dégustation we could find up in the Blue Mountains and hence, dinner!
We were over almost in the left corner with a view over the garden.
There's the garden!
Got Linda that time!
Introductory nibbly thing, once again not on the menu, but Alex got something non-seafood so seafood was involved. I'm going to guess with the colour that salmon roe was involved somewhere. Every dish that came out was just a work of art, though. I almost typed 'piece' there instead of 'dish'.
Scallop Sashimi, Lemon Myrtle Cream, Cucumber, Seaweed Salt. HOW is that scallop? How? And it's sashimi so it's not even cooked. That's just. Straight up sashimi. It was the kind of thing where you just taste a little bit on the ed of your knofe of every different element and then go into it. Complete contrast to last night, everything was so delicate and, as I said, works of art.
Hay Cooked Carrots, Candied Violet, Grapefruit Curd. You could smell the hay, and with the carrots, it just worked, sort of that same musty sweetness. I guess they smoked it with hay? Or something? And I'm pretty sure that red sauce on the left was carrot, too. All about the carrots. Also, super interesting bowl and I want a set of them.
Steamed Murray Cod, Textures of Pumpkin, Pink Onion, Red Verjuice. Perfectly delicate and flaky fish and the pumpkin chips were just the best.
Brined Duck Breast, Cumquat, Onion Cream, Turnips, Madeira Sauce. This was the one, when we were looking up the menu online, that got me excited to go there. It was SO GOOD. Very ducky duck, amazing rich sauce, loved it.
Salt Grass Lamb Rack, Sweet Bread, Eggplant, Glazed Watermelon Rind, Miso. And then the lamb came out, which was my favourite for the evening. The little lump between the lamb and the top bit of watermelon rind is the sweetbread. It was just, JUST like Grandpa did sheep's brains back when I was a kiddie--crispy and crunchy outside and gooey unctuous awesome in the middle--though I'm told the sweetbread is a different gland in the throat, I think? Idk. It was like sheep's brains to me and ooh I was happy.
The sorbet, between savoury and dessert, not on the menu and hence I forget what it was. Pretty sure the chips were sweet potato? Another fabulous bowl, though.
Pause here to also talk of the wine list, which were all pretty much perfect. This is the one thing I really end up comparing with Automata, though, is the adventurousness. Everything Automata brought out was okay, until you put it with the food and it became AMAZING and of course this works. At Darley's, the wines were all just straight up great, though I didn't have any what I like to call 'sit and sniff' wines, wines you can just cup in your hands and sniff for half the evening because they smell that good. It was also a relatively local list, with everything but the sticky to go with dessert being Australian and one even from the Blue Mountains. This is noteworthy because we didn't see a single vineyard the whole trip. Every dégustation I've had has been wildly different in their wine list approach--this one was very Australian, Automata was wildly adventurous and perfectly food-matched, Hentley Farm was a winery so they were matching the food to their own wine rather than the other way around, and Quay was from all over the world with none from Australia. Really interesting how that happens, I think.
Roast Peach, Olive Oil Pastry Cream, Peach Leaf Gelato, Walnut Crumbs. A beautiful, fresh finish to the evening.
'narti originally stuck this at Dreamwidth cos she had to use it for something.