Mornington Peninsula Trip – Day 3

August 31, 2015

On our last day we slept in til 9am (OMG rebels!  9am?!  Well yes, when you have to wake up at 5:30am for Hangry Piglet, 9am is a pure indulgence).  Feeling very refreshed, we head off to the poshy Sorrento to visit Country Road’s first resort store and cafe.

Oh my goodness the baby section in there evilly tantalise me with their gorgeous cuteness and I had to resist the urge to buy everything in store.

I organised our last lunch in a very special place.  Saving the best till last, I organised for us to go to Ten Minutes By Tractor. Froggy our birthday girl decided to go all out and order the 8 course degustation.

To start off we got olive or multigrain roll with very very awesome olive oil & Murray River pink salt.  We were also given this dollop of butter which taste like toffee.

Monky and Froggy’s amuse included a prawn croquette and a salmon crisp with avocado & jamon, and as I don’t eat prawns, I got a very apetite inducing quince paste with the salmon crisp.

Our first course was the house smoked salmon with quinoa, crisps and horseradish snow.  Froggy laughed as all she could hear from me was “Mmmmm… MMMMmmmmm”.  No words can describe how yumgasmic this dish was.  The different elements, textures, flavours just worked so well with each mouthful.  Eating this we could instantly see that Ten Minutes by Tractor is another level to places like Port Phillip Estate, where we dined the previous night.

Our next course was the very sinful blue cheese souffle with smokey whisky sauce which comes with a pomegrante and witlof salad so you will feel less guilty about the indulgence.  I don’t like blue cheese so I got a beetroot beetroot and more beetroot dish (beetroot gnocchi, heirloom beetroots and veg) which is not too bad (I am not a beetroot fan either… opppss!).  But I did try a little bit of the blue cheese souffle which I found the flavours quite subtle.  I can see if you are a fan of cheese this would be right up your alley, but for me, I was happy to just have a bite.

Our scallops with consomme not only smelt great but it tasted even more awesome.  The perfectly seared plump scallops was so delicious I wish I could get more… just one more… or maybe five more… 😛

Alas (or not really!) we have got more food to consume!  Our next course was the toothfish, which is Froggy’s favourite favourite fish.  I don’t really remember having toothfish ever but this oily fish was perfectly cooked under Chef Stuart Bell’s supervision and simply can’t be faulted.

Pheasant at Port Phillip Estate, eat your heart out!  This quail is magnificent!  Whole roasted quail with quail egg, buckwheat polenta and rhubarb, it was another yumgasmic dish made more yumgasmic by the freshly baked buttery brioche to mop up all the sauce.

This dramatically presented dish was the duck.  Beautifully presented, this is actually my least favourite dish.  The duck skin was slightly rubbery and the duck breast was a little bit tough.  I would probably prefer this to be cooked a different way so it’s rare in the middle and a bit more tender.  Nonetheless the flavours worked well together and I still quite enjoyed the dish.

Beef two ways was next, with more beetroot (arrrghhh!  LOL).  Beef fillet and hidden underneath the fried shallots and chives is the falling off the fork braised short ribs.  I found that after this and Stillwater by Crittenden I really like meat that’s done two ways.  Once again this is amazing and has taken what you may think as a simple dish to the next level.

Photo courtesy of Froggy Instagram: Dorenedo

We had a palette cleanser of quince sorbet, bailey’s foam (which reminded me too much of my uni days with the Cowboys) and chocolate soil, then it was on to the dessert course.

The chocoholic in me screamed for this chocolate & coffee ganache, tiramisu icecream and olive oil cake with chocolate soil.  Every single bite was so yummy but I just couldn’t finish it after all the savoury yumminess!

Froggy and Monky chose the lighter option of mandarin mandarin mandarins.  Mandarins are obviously in season since we also ate a mandarin dessert at Port Phillip Estate as well.  This one is seriously one huge mandarin dish with mandarin parfait, compressed mandarin, mandarin jelly, mandarin marshmellows.  The citrus fan in me seriously loved this dish as well.

And just in case we are still hungry (how?  I have no idea!) we were given a bite of apple financier, opera cake and lemon curd crisp to share with our bill, to sweeten things up perhaps.  I remember there was a time when I did a very expensive degustation and it was so bad that I almost cried when I had to hand over my credit card.  At Ten Minutes by Tractor though, a sweetener is certainly not needed as I would gladly hand over my credit card again and again to dine here.

With happy hearts and full bellies we ended our Mornington Peninsula girls weekend birthday celebration R&R.  Thank you Froggy and Monky for making me feel like me again, for putting up with my dirrty little mind at Cards Against Humanity, for loving me for me and of course my hubby and in laws for taking care of Hangry Piglet while I am away for this much needed getaway.

 

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