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Dine-Out Post Meeting
The next General Meeting of the Club will be on June 11. 2024. The after-meeting luncheon will be held at Don’s Kitchen at the Midland Golf Club located at 330 Heinz Lane, Ballarat Vic 3350. Please include your name on the listing at the Meeting so you can be included in the numbers.
Don’s Kitchen specialises in Malaysia and Chinese food and on our previous visits the meals have been excellent.
Christmas Dine-Out – Rubens @ Hepburn
For our December Dine-Out we had 24 members go along to Rubens @ Hepburn. A beautiful sunny day set the scene, and with our extended table on the balcony, how could you go wrong? With not a single complaint, this place was definitely a winner. The meals were beautiful, and of generous size. If I were to pick a negative, it would be that the meals were a little slow. The volume of the laughter and chatter continues to remind me of a wonderful group of people enjoying themselves. Thank you to everyone who continues to come along to Dine-Out, regardless of my choice of venue!
Vesta & Jiggs, Hotel Canberra
Our Fine Dining night was held on Saturday 23rd, with ten of our members attending Vesta & Jiggs at Hotel Canberra, Ballarat. The meals served, as part of their degustation menu, were quite different, with the Aussie theme for the night taking on a whole new aspect. Ranging from BBQ shapes, BBQ Sausage in a Roll, Vegemite & Cheese, Chicken Parma, Prawns on the BBQ, Kangaroo Fillet, and finishing off with a Golden Gaytime.
All produce at Hotel Canberra is sourced from Victoria, keeping produce all local. Three diners also paired the meals with wines, with a generous glass of Victorian wine accompanying each dish.
Whilst there is still some room for improvement, (read Kangaroo Fillet was a bit tough, and our Coeliac diner was mistakenly given the incorrect dessert 🤢), it was still a very enjoyable evening.
The Shared Table
We had 15 members go along to The Shared Table in Buninyong on Saturday 25th March, for our 1st Fine Dining evening. There was much chatter, with everyone enjoying the company, and eager to try the delights on offer.
There were 3 “Snacks” starting with a Beetroot base, topped with ricotta, local walnuts and blackberries. This was followed by Charred wagyu rump sticks, soy tare, and crispy shallots. The last was a Zucchini and prawn flower, stuffed with tomato and strawberry, and a yuzu kosho dressing. The dishes were very well presented, with plenty of flavour.
Mains followed, with a dish of Quince glazed, spiced, pressed Pork shoulder, Kohlrabi and Cashew puree, pickled Mushroom, Cavolo Nero, topped with honeyed, roasted Carrots. Another lovely dish, with the Pork just melting in your mouth.
Dessert was Black sesame semifreddo, with end of summer berries, and a wafer of sesame brittle.
Our main disappointment was the size of the dishes. They were all much smaller than on our previous visits, and while you don’t expect a “pub meal” sized serving when dining at an à la carte restaurant, they were simply, too small. The service was also on the ordinary side. Whether this is a result of Covid staff shortages, who knows?
Let’s hope our next venue performs better.
Dine Out – Brown Hill Hotel
After receiving some very mixed reports recently regarding The Brown Hill Hotel, with the changing of the Chef and his wife recently being the cause for concern, 16 members attended on Wednesday 15th March. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and the chatter volume increased as everyone relaxed.
Meals delivered, and while not quite as good as we have enjoyed here in the past, the majority gave it the thumbs up. There were a couple of meals that were overdone, 1 x very, so a bit disappointed with the result. The chatter continued at an elevated level, so it just goes to show that our wonderful group enjoys each others company, no matter what.
Beeac Luncheon & Car Exhibit
What a surprise package this day turned out to be. We had 38 members travel approx 1hr south to the small township of Beeac, with the goal of having lunch at The Farmers Arms Hotel, and the promise of viewing some older cars from the hotel owner’s personal collection.
Dorothy & Ean McDowell purchased this hotel 11 years ago and have built the business from serving 30 meals / week, to now consistently over 700, with 5 international chefs on their books.
Under Dorothy’s direction, lunches were ordered from a reduced selection menu, with all meals delivered within the hour from first order. All meals looked delicious, with not a single, negative remark on them. (And it didn’t look like there were many scraps for the dog either, which is a pretty good sign!!)
On to the cars, where we were introduced to Ean McDowell, who gave us quite a detailed background on the cars that he had on display. Ian has approximately 75 cars in his collection, and whilst he is a very passionate Lancia collector, there are many others just as impressive. After suffering a stroke 4 years ago, he relies on his 2 full time employees to complete the work on his “special projects” in Castlemaine. The Singer, pictured below with the polished bonnet, was just a chassis when he purchased it, so it is quite impressive when you realise that they have made every other part in his workshop.
There was quite a story behind each vehicle, origins etc., but for me it was the Bugatti, (pictured with reg 5-278), that I was most impressed with. Look at the width of those tyres and imagine driving this vehicle at well over 200 kph.
Then there was another surprise for us – A private viewing of their family home, Rosebank Homestead, a bluestone building built in 1868. The homes interior had been fully renovated prior to their purchase, with the bluestone outbuildings still in place. Another talk from Ean, this time on the history of this residence, had everyone’s attention. There was also a Rolls Royce in one of the outbuildings, picked up from a garage sale in Colac of all places.
Back to the Lolly / Ice Cream shop, and or the pub, for some afternoon refreshments, before returning home. A wonderful day indeed, with 2 very special hosts.