revisiting april in winter (II)

Gembrook was our destiantion in the Yarra Valley, where we arrived in a sunny Saturday afternoon. We met Adrew, who was working on his coming 2011 shiraz, as his hands were showing.

Initially we discovered The Wanderer shiraz, while celebrating my birthday at Tetsuya's a couple of years ago. During this visit we were able to try all his new wines, including a nice pinot noir and a carinyena he makes in Girona, the Catalan province where elBulli or Celler Can Roca also happen to be located. For this Spanish adventure he very appropriately renamed his brand el Wanderer.

A very experimental mix for my standards produced my last meal of the day highlighted by shitake mushrooms, which have been one of my favourites for years, after trying them in Vancouver about ten years ago. Cauliflower, garlic, farfalle pasta, coriander, extra virgin olive oil, blood limes and parmigiano reggiano

The combination of flavours and quite distant textures provided a quite exciting ingestion. I will certainly try this recipe again. Last week, on Wednesday,  Kakawa's flavour du jour was orange and rhubarb, so I brought a few of their majestic bon bons. As always, it was a privileged gift of the gods.