Birthday lunch @ the Currant Shed

 On Saturday, 20th of July, we went to the Currant Shed to celebrate Brian's birthday.
It was a very cold and wet day and what better to do than to lunch at a pleasant restaurant in a lovely setting. We first went to this location many years ago when it was just a picnic ground and you could get a great bottle of merlot to go with the food you brought yourself. The then owners, started the Currant Shed and were serving great lunches. We loved the lovely lime trees all looking like little umbrellas against the backdrop of vines.

For a while it seemed to drop off and we didn't go back for some time. At the beginning of the year we ventured forth again  and found things much improved. So Brian requested to go there for his birthday this time.
We were greeted by a personable young lass who looked after us very well.
We chose "filtered water" ( a nice way of saying tap water which is fine!) and a good bottle of red.
Then we decided to have one of the share platters and thought the pork cubes on a quince aioli sounded interesting and ordered that. It arrived promptly and we ate the first bits before realizing I wanted to take photos. So as you see above there

four bits left. They had a very interesting crispy fried herb as garnish which no one seemed to be able to name, but it was peppery and very very nice and went well with the delicious tender pork belly cubes.I can't say that the quince aioli tasted much of quince but it was lovely and creamy all the same.
So that was a good start to the meal.
The wine was great too, although we had not come across it before. There seem to be a lot of small private wineries in our area, but I must admit we seem to stay with the wines from the wineries  we know and enjoy at home with our evening meal. So it is good to try something different when we eat out.

For the main course Brian choose the snapper fillet on a bed of Jerusalem artichokes with greens. It looked delicious and Brian certainly enjoyed it. As I know what Jerusalem artichokes do to me, I declined that dish and chose the pork instead.
It was beautifully presented and a joy to eat.
The pork skin was so fine I wonder how the chef achieved the fineness and delicate structure of it.
The pork was succulent and the rolls of sour red cabbage nicely countered  the overall richness of  the dish. The mashed potato was scrumptious.
We never spoke a word while we were concentrating on our food!!                                    We managed to finish the bottle of red and then had a coffee, as dessert would have been overkill!        It was a lovely way to celebrate another birthday as each year now is a precious thing!!