JUST THE TONIC “THE LOCALS AGREED TO SHARE THEIR BEAUTIFUL STREET TO KICK OFF THE FOOD FESTIVAL.”
It has been well over a year since I have travelled anywhere for work. This time round it feels very different to last year in creating our annual Food, Drink & Travel issue. Having lived vicariously through the pages of MiNDFOOD with our local food and travel pages, traditionally this themed issue features international foodie destinations. Now, with the borders between Australia and New Zealand open, we could plan and create beautiful local stories from across both countries.
For me, my first trip was to Orange, located within the Central Tablelands of New South Wales and just over a three-hour drive from Sydney. Taking off along the Great Western Highway and stopping off along our journey through the Blue Mountains and Bathurst, we had been invited to Orange’s 30th year celebrations of their food festival, Orange F.O.O.D Week. The first ‘official’ event was to attend the most glorious long lunch (see the photo at right), along planetree-lined Sampson Street, a residential street. All the locals had agreed to share their very beautiful street with foodies kicking off the festival. Each dish was created by local chefs and all washed down with cold-climate delicious local wine.
The beauty of sitting at a table with a bunch of strangers where you are sharing the same food and wine experience as everyone else around you, what can often happen is by the end of lunch you have a new bunch of friends with shared stories and hilarious moments. This magical setting was such a perfect environment that with our new friends, both local and from Sydney, we all wanted to keep the magic happening. So we rolled into neighbouring pubs and walked through to the centre of the city to Mr Lim for dinner. The following day, we joined a food and wine tour and learnt more about this region, meeting more passionate local foodies. We discovered the prettiest villages and some of the best regional shopping, along with interesting producers doing amazing things in eco-farming.
As we can now fly direct to the Apple Isle, we dispatched writer Kerry van der Jagt to the Huon Valley in Tasmania (see page 94) to report back on the diverse foodie scene there. We have researched the best new restaurants to visit in Sydney (see page 82), and sent regular MiNDFOOD travel contributor Sue Wallace to regional Victoria, where she unearthed the best spots to wine and dine in Bendigo, Ballarat, Daylesford, Castlemaine and surrounds (see page 106). Nothing like driving away from Melbourne into the beauty of country Victoria.
MiNDFOOD’s Master Sommelier Cameron Douglas has written a wonderful feature about winery restaurants across New Zealand (see page 110). Personally, I think there need to be many more restaurants in our local vineyards, as a winery or cellar door is the perfect environment to let a talented chef loose creating in-season recipes matched to local wines. Many great wine regions around the world have some of the best dining experiences; it would be good to see New Zealand equal those, as we have some of the world’s best ingredients and produce and most talented chefs and producers.
I travelled to Central Otago – where it always feels like coming home, with that fresh, clean air – and discovered so many more new cafés, restaurants and wineries I didn’t know about. It always surprises me when you have a glass of local wine in your hand, how quickly you can become an expert around the variations of flavours, tastes and tannins. To be honest, if it’s smooth and easy to drink it seems to become a favourite pretty quickly. I am looking forward to getting back in September and October for the Eat.Taste.Central events.
One thing is very clear as we all move away from days of lockdown and those long months of COVID-19, we seem to be embracing going out and enjoying ourselves much more than we could then. Whether it’s your favourite local café, or you travel for a weekend away, bringing friends and family together around good food and wine is the best experience of all.