Milton Park Summer Getaway

In January we headed back to Milton Park for Vikki's birthday weekend. Leaving a hot sticky Sydney morning behind we were surprised at how much cooler it was in Bowral. After a good drive from Sydney, we checked in to our room, this time a garden view room complete with fireplace (which came in handy later in the day).

 After settling in and freshening up, we headed down to The Orangery for lunch.

The Orangery was quite busy on this occasion with several groups indulging in champagne afternoon teas. We ordered the Testut Petit Chablis that we had on our last visit and settled down to peruse the menu. 

We decided to just have mains so we could save some room of ra three course dinner. I had the Cape Grim Angus eye fillet of beef, spinach, fondant potato, café de Paris butter and jus.

Vikki chose the the chicken stuffed with couscous, wrapped in jamon and served with one of her favourite salads, roquette, pear and parmesan. Very delicious all round!

After lunch we took a stroll through the beautiful gardens. There are many species of trees bought in from Europe and some are not even found in local botanical gardens. It was a nice change to see the garden with its full summer greenery. Made a nice change from the bareness of winter on our last visit.

After our stroll we returned to our room for a quick nap before we headed back down to Hordern’s for dinner. We pre ordered our wine earlier and were able to have our bottle of Petaluma 1998 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, decanted and ready for us at the table when we arrived. We did however start with a glass of champagne. An amuse bouche of brandade was bought out to us while we decided on what we would like for dinner.

For entree I had seared scallops, pea puree black pudding and red wine reduction I enjoyed very much.

Vikki is a sucker for any kind of twice cooked soufflé that involves cheese. The soufflé on this visit was made with goat cheese and gruyere two of her favourite cheeses.

For my main course, I chose the Victorian venison, parsnip puree and cassis jus. While I prefer my meats medium, in this instance I enjoyed it being slightly rarer. And of course a bowl of chunky pommes frites went well with it too.

Confit duck is something Vikki will choose 90% of the time she sees it on a menu,especially when truffles and puy lentils are involved. Her main was confit duck, Puy lentils with some spinach and truffle oil tossed through and a jus made from reduced duck stock.

For dessert I chose the cheese platter which had 3 cheeses, local honey, dried and fresh fruits and house made lavosh.

Vikki said she has gone off chocolate a little, but the four textures of chocolate sounded interesting to her so she decided to have it as her birthday cake.

After another delicious meal we headed back to our room for a nightcap of Saltram No. 1, 2005 vintage which we enjoyed by the fire.