An Epicurean Weekend

 How empty the house is
    after the departure of a favored guest......

We had a lovely weekend following Epicurus' principles of eating moderately but well, drinking the local wines, sampling local, handcrafted beers and having interesting conversations.
On Friday night we dined at the Altar Bistro. The food there is always freshly prepared and we sampled the new winter menue. The duck was superb and the slow-cooked beef equally delicious I believe.
On Saturday morning we started at the Shingleback winery as the sparkling shiraz which was tasted the night before, held great appeal.From there, we went to Kays Brothers winery which has stunning views across the hills to Kangarilla almost. They were firing up an outside oven to slow cook pork for the dinner being held there that evening.

In the afternoon we went and investigated a micro-brewery near Middlebrook. It was interesting to see the owners were growing hop plants in wine tubs and we must go back in summer to see what they look like growing up the trellis over the outside tasting area.
In the evening we went to the Barn, that dear old place which was about the first restaurant in the area back in the 70ies.The tasting platter we had was very good but unfortunately we all chose kangaroo and that was not very hot when it arrived.

Sunday we arrived at d'Arenberg to join in with the Bohemian Oasis fantasy which was organized by d'Arry's Verandah restaurant and promised to be full of Persian delights.
The Marquees they have these days are simply amazing, so big and well set up inside with heaters and movable curtains to keep out the wind which can be pretty chilly on that ridge.
The red sash of course was very prominent.
For nibbles we had Sumac pita chips with marinated olives
(nearly as good as mine only much smaller) and Hummus.
They were very good indeed and we were happy nibbling these while waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive.
When mostly everyone was there, the Temple dancing girls started weaving their way slowly around amongst the tables, intending to create a somewhat exotic atmosphere.
The Entree was Harissa prawns with Date &preserved Lemon Cous Cous cake which was delicious.

Everything was served to our table and arrived hot and beautifully presented. The Main course  was Bamieh of d'Arry's Dorper lamb with Spiced yogurt & Eggplant Pickle and a variety of roasted vegetables. The lamb was delicious and cooked to perfection.We had a Footbolt shiraz with this which complimented it very nicely.
Meanwhile the Temple dancers had inveigled some of the diners to join in the dancing and everyone was having a great time. We just watched.... Dessert was nougat Kataifi with Halva and Turkish delight and was a great way to finish the meal.......

To bring us down to earth after this Epicurean
weekend, I have inserted a photo of our miserly pumpkin harvest. Each season for the past five years I have had this wonderful fantasy of Queensland Blue pumpkin vines covering our half acre front garden (well, it used to be a garden till the water restrictions killed most of it)
with dozens of pumpkins of great size ripening in the sun, but ,no, they will not oblige me at all.
They refuse to grow vigorously nor allow themselves to be fertilized by bees ,so I have to go out with a paintbrush and hope there is a female flower amongst the dozens of male flowers, it is all too much......