Rad & Caroline arrive safely from Canberra
Published Thursday, May 17, 2007 by Carolyne | E-mail this post
Monday was a pleasant, fairly gentle day. I was so excited to see Rad, concerned about him arriving safely and well after a mammoth journey, difficult for anyone, but especially concerning for a 79 year old with a heavy cold.
Bob and I had found increasingly good food over the course of our journey - the meal on the first night next to the theatre was made from frozen food and vegetables, some still with the icy crunch.
A Spanish - style restaurant nearby on Saturday was quirky, however our dishes of paella de la casa (with chorizo and ham) and a platter of the house - a huge chunk of grilled pork, vegetables and a strange uncooked taco shell with Hungarian style salad filling (sweet creamy dressing drowning melange of cucumber dominated vegetables) was surprisingly good. A salad bar at the terrace in the back provided a welcome selection of fresh and pickled vegies that we so needed.
One surprise was the 20% surcharge for the music - hopefully only on Saturday night, as a small band of guitar playing singers serenaded the diners. Although the music was cheesey "Spanish style" standards, I thought that they were pretty good, and didn't mind in the circumstances in paying the premium. We thought that we would certainly go there again to escape the heavily cream and fat dominated dishes elsewhere in town.
By Sunday we were both tired and too buggered to go to far. A pizza in the room would have done us - Aki certainly understands the significance of that! We ate in the hotel restaurant, finding a couple of vegetarian pasta dishes on the menu worth trying. As usual the service was exceptional, although we had some difficulty in communicating - resorting to 'Bitte' and 'Danke' for most things. After an 'amuse de chef' dish of a chicken (poultry anyway) terrine and some leaf salad, Bob's main pasta course arrived of handmade ropes of pasta in a thick, heavy cream sauce with porcini mushrooms. He thought that it tasted good, although was pretty light on the carbs and heavy on the fat. A Vitamin Salad (mixed green) helped a little.
I had ordered 'potato ravioli' and half expected a gnocchi type dish. Instead, on a bed of mixed greens were half a dozen handmade parcels of what must have been potato pastry, folded over a finely cut mixture of mushrooms, and then fried. It was very reminiscent of a russian polish style of piroschi - pastry rather than pasta. Again very light on the carbs but quite tasty. We were still searching for somewhere for the guys to have a decent feed the night before the race.
We struck pay dirt the next night, dining with a couple of guys from Mildura. Bob and I had had coffee and water here twice and were struck by the fantastic service and pleasant setting on a l island in the local river the Raba, next to the thermal baths.The extensive menu (around 100 items) included a range of pasta and that international dish, pizza. Bob and I ordered a simple dish of spagetti with olive olil, garlic and chilli, a plate of tuscan grilled vegetables and fusilli with tomato sauce to try. Millsy opeted for the lasagne with salmon and spinach, whilst Wellsy went for a pizza.
Another surprise was that the pizza actually looked pretty good and almoost healthy - certainly, more healthy than most of the food available locally. Very light on the cheese, Chris had inadvertantly ordered something of an "Aussie" pizza with eggs and cured meat, but it looked rather good.
Millsy's lasagne dish was not drowned in a thick cream or cheese sauce, but instad had a ring of light bechamel around the outside, and a chunk of real salmon steak inside. The prices were reasonable, the setting spectacular and the service unknown in Australia. We quickly decided to book for an arbitary twelve people on Saturday night.
Back at the hotel, Rad had just arrived, neither looking too tired nor ill after his long journey. I was so pleased to see him, and he suggested a day trip to Vienna the next day. I was pleased to accept and we met for a short run first around the precincts of the town for them to get their bearings first.
0 Responses to “Rad & Caroline arrive safely from Canberra”
Leave a Reply