A long wait for The Grounds of Alexandria

I've passed the heritage warehouse of The Grounds of Alexandria so often during its refurbishment phase, I could almost note the weekly progress. Originally slated to open in February 2012, The Grounds of Alexandria sold its first coffee in early April after council and construction impediments.

Building No. 7 - The Grounds of Alexandria, Huntley Street, Alexandria

Incorporating a café, coffee roasting facilities, bakery and vegetable garden, The Grounds promised to be like nothing the industrial area -now increasingly populated with home and furniture centres, car dealerships and corporate complexes - had ever seen.

The gardens

Walk into the Huntley Street block any weekend now, and expect more of a wait. Word has clearly gotten around that Alexandria has a new cool-kids' hangout so be prepared for a 45-minute wait for a table for two - otherwise takeaway coffee and pastries are your consolation.

Tea herbs in the gardens

But the wait gives you time to wander around the styled gardens of The Grounds: part outdoor waiting area, part kitchen garden and eventually to be made available for event hire.

Baby eggplants

Indeed, the gardens are is almost as big as the dining area itself; boasting an onsite horticulturalist, kid- and dog-friendly space, and herb and vegetable spotting for keen beans. I think there are even chickens there although the coop was empty when I peered in.

The gardens and waiting area

With the garden full of mismatched tables and chairs, I was surprised that there weren't diners out here too given the waiting masses, but perhaps that's the plan later in the game.

Diners wait in the gardens

In the meantime, the pages of waiting patrons on the clipboard are already keeping the staff busy enough and front-of-house struggling a little, but the hipsters seem happy enough to wait.

Inside the café

Inside, the café dining area is split by the pastries and takeaway counter where blackboard menus are also on display. It is, quite simply, a good-looking place that has the right doses of cool, quirk and function.

Finally seated on the smaller and quieter of the two sides, I plonked down onto the leather banquette to be told we've missed breakfast (up until 11am; lunch starts at 11.30am - not sure what happens in the 30 minutes in between).

Cappuccino

Nonetheless, there's plenty on the lunch menu to keep us interested and of course, the coffee which is roasted on site under the watch of Jack Hanna; a latte art champion, head honcho of The Grounds Roasters and a co-director of The Grounds with Ramzey Choker.

Where I was seated I could see into the roasting area labelled in neon yellow, "Research Facility", where coffee bean testing happens. My skim cappuccino tasted every bit as smooth and creamy as a weekend awakening should, especially if it's been researched, tested and all.

Fresh orange and grapefruit juice

For the caffeine-free, a fresh juice of orange and grapefruit might hit the spot, served in a thick glass drinking jar which also served as water glasses in our case (but not all).

The quirky retro water bottles are fun too, adding to the post-industrial feel of the interiors which is artfully casual with cutlery on the tables.

Hand made pappardelle

With breakfast off the menu, we're informed that the lunch pasta dish has been flying out the kitchen, so we put in an order for the pappardelle with slow braised lamb, peas and extra virgin olive oil.

It was a seriously large serve, especially for breakfast, with rich and comforting flavours and topped off with shavings of parmesan cheese.

I still can't decide what was better: the silky ribbons of pappardelle or the homely combination of lamb and peas. A touch of tomato wouldn't have gone astray but this was a winner that I'll be returning for.

Slow cooked lamb salad with yoghurt, chickpeas, roast  pumpkin

In the rush of ordering we'd doubled up on lamb, which was quite possibly the same slow cooked meat as for the pasta dish.

The shredded lamb was tossed with cubes of roasted pumpkin, Spanish onion, whole chickpeas, radicchio, rocket and parsley - the latter few which may well have come from the outside garden.

I think the sherry vinaigrette dressing may have been missing its vinegar component, but you can't really go wrong with lamb and yoghurt anyway. The brown bread was a little more dense and fluffy than I might have expected, though I'm not sure if the bread is yet made onsite.

Chips

We offset the salad lunch with a side bowl of chips: wide, irresistibly crunchy ones with a chilli salt and spicy mayonnaise.

Looking around, the burger with fries looked to be the most popular lunch order but with the priciest meal coming in at $17, I think it's all going to be very popular with the locals and nearby workers. 

The Grounds signpost

Despite the long wait for a table on Saturday mornings, our orders actually arrived in lightning-quick time with friendly and efficient service.

The other wait is actually that to pay: bills arrive to the table but are paid - by cash only at the moment - back at the counter where you might encounter the takeaway queue and need to join the end. Perhaps it's a ploy to get more takeaway coffee and cake sales, but overall, the wait for The Grounds has been well worth it.

Ayam Goreng 99 - where the chicken comes first

Most students of the University of New South Wales are probably familiar with the broad selection of Asian eateries on Anzac Parade near 'the roundabout' of Kingsford. There are plenty of both Chinese and Indonesian options at affordable prices that even students can't resist.

One such institution is Ayam Goreng 99 which serves up signature Indonesian style grilled and fried chicken and is oddly not located at 99 Anzac Parade.

Ayam goreng kalasan with nasi uduk and ati goreng from Ayam Goreng 99,
Anzac Parade, Kingsford

Most of the menu is quite a mouthful to pronounce for the non-Indonesian, but the great thing is that you don't actually need to utter a word at Ayam Goreng 99. Diners jot down their menu choices onto a notebook, which is then handed to the waitstaff - brilliantly simple.

You come to Ayam Goreng 99 for the ayam goreng - fried chicken. In this instance, it was the paha goreng kalasan deep fried, marinated Javanese style chicken. Most diners knowingly choose the juicy thigh portions although breast pieces are also available at the same price of $6 per piece of chicken.

A rich serve of nasi uduk coconut rice on the side and perhaps a dollop of the restaurant's own chilli sambal makes it a meal, albeit a vegetable free one. A treat of ati goreng deep fried liver turns out to be more dry than livery, and perhaps more appropriate tail-wagging consumers.

Ayam bakar with nasi uduk and sate telor goreng

I've opted for the charcoal-grilled and marinated ayam bakar; a thigh piece, of course, with a serving of coconut rice. The juicy chicken and sweet marinade ensured that I cleaned every miniscule bit of meat off the tasty bones of the thigh and drumstick.

My side treat of sate telor goreng deep fried egg yolk with satay is an unusual skewered offering of three cooked yolks lightly dressed with satay sauce, and is essentially cholesterol on a stick.

Pepes teri

We also have something similar to Malysian otak otak fish mousse wrapped and grilled in banana leaf - the pepes teri anchovies pepes blended with onions, chilli and spices including turmeric. There's some serious charred flavour infused into the banana leaf package in which little white anchovy fish swim amid numerous other ingredients.

With a sour vegetable soup on top of it all, it turned out to be a little too much food for an early lunch for two. But with uni student prices and some of the best chicken in town, Ayam Goreng 99 settles any chicken- or egg-related debate.

All about regionality: De Bortoli Wines Windy Peak launch at Chiswick

It's a fairly recent phenomenon that the masses (including me) have started to consider where the food we eat comes from.

Are my cooked prawns local or do they come from the Mekong? Is my supermarket asparagus grown in Australia or imported via a chilled aeroplane from Peru? What's the 'carbon cost' of drinking beers from local microbreweries versus imported Japanese brands produced in Canada?

Chiswick, Ocean Street, Woollahra

While I'm not sure I want to know the provenance of my Maccas cheeseburger pattie, regionality is also becoming a selling point at the more approachable, affordable end of the wine spectrum.

Family-owned De Bortoli Wines recently relaunched its Windy Peak range with a greater emphasis on various regions of Victoria, aiming to highlight particular varieties that thrive in particular regions. De Bortoli Wines sources fruit from vineyards in the Yarra Valley, King Valley and Heathcote in Victoria.

Council land - Chiswick Gradens

I was more than a little excited to receive an invitation to the De Bortoli Windy Peak relaunch, 'A Taste of the Yarra Valley', at the undeniably posh Chiswick.

Not only was it lunch at one of the most in-demand restaurants in Sydney at the moment, the invitation was attached to four bottles from the Windy Peak range.

Guests and glasses for the De Bortoli Wines Windy Peak relaunch

Lunch was a classy but casual shared affair that was much suited to the "gluggable" Windy Peak wines, as put by Leanne De Bortoli, manager of the De Bortoli winery and restaurant in the Yarra Valley.

Two long, glass-laden tables were set up in the enclosed private room of Matt Moran and Peter Sullivan's new restaurant in Woollahra. The space surely had to be a sunroom in another life as the gorgeous glassed doors looked out onto the pristine green Chiswick Gardens.

As we surveyed our luxe surrounds, we started with the Windy Peak Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2011 from the King Vally and Yarra Valley which Leanne says have similarities that work together. "Tropical fruit, gooseberry and grassy flavours" appear in the tasting notes.

Chiswick's kitchen garden

Out the side view was the much-publicised kitchen garden; 150 square metres of garden directly linked to the kitchen. A dedicated gardener tends to the garden several times a week, while it's currently producing lots of leafy greens, rosa radishes, heirloom carrots, purple basil, dill, lavender and French tarragon.

Chiswick's seasonal menu aims to put the best produce from the kitchen garden on the menu every month, which must be both an exciting and challenging prospect for the kitchen and regular customers.

Olives, roma beans, tomato, mustard seeds

Once seated with a glass of the Windy Peak King Valley Pinot Grigio 2011 ("gentle floral and herbaceous fruit flavours"), our 'nibbles' arrived in a flurry of glass and share plate shuffling. The green and black olives were in an unexpected braise of tomatoes and roma beans; and a little difficult to manage with a knife and fork.

Rosemary flat bread

The warm rosemary and salt flake topped flat bread was devoured almost instantly, with a great crispness and wood-fired aroma to the pre-cut wedges. I'm pretty sure I could have scoffed the entire serve, but there was much yet to come.

Pickled garden vegetables

The striking colours of the pickled garden vegetables were almost too pretty to eat, though it was impossible for several people to all get a bite of the purple heirloom carrot. The light pickling of the vegetables didn't much interfere with the wine.

Leanne De Bortoli of De Bortoli Wines

Leanne spoke a little about the family heritage of De Bortoli Wines and the Windy Peak range, which are described as "not expensive wines" but wines that belong with food, over a relaxed meal, and to be shared with your favourite people.

The 2010 and 2011 vintages are those post the Victorian bushfires that ravaged the state, and Yarra Valley, in February 2009. Leanne noted that 2010 was a particularly good year for their pinot noir, which we later confirmed.

Sliced kingfish, breakfast radish, chive aioli, parsley

The Windy Peak Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2011 ("soft, creamy brioche-like flavours") accompanied our next lot of shared plates, which are simply listed on the menu under 'small plates'.

The presentation of the kingfish was seriously pushing the prettiness-scale and it was the sheer freshness of the fish slices that forced us to ruin the pretty picture.

The pink kingfish slices were topped with a delicate dice of radish, chives, possibly apple and/or cucumber, alongside well-balanced spots of chive aioli. The presentation with herb tendrils and baby shiso leaves was the on-tune finishing touch for a great sharing dish to start.

Pulled veal ravioli, broad beans, cornichons, shiso

There was a lot going on with the veal ravioli dish, but it was equally beautifully presented. With all the greenery atop - baby shiso leaves, nasturtium leaves, whole broad beans, finely diced cornichons, capers and parsley - the huge whack of gorgeously meaty flavours from the ravioli was a complete surprise, but a very satisfying one.

While the pasta would make any nonna happy, it was the incredibly intense flavour and melt-in-the-mouth texture of the pulled veal that shone. I would definitely consider order this stunning ravioli as a meal of its own.

Marinated cucumber, rosa radish, mint, goat's curd and Yarra Valley Persian Feta salad

For the Windy Peak launch, the kitchen had included some ingredients from the Yarra Valley, to further our experience of the wines' regionality. Hence, the very lightly marinated cucumber salad featured goat's curd as well as Persian feta cheese from the Yarra Valley.

It was a very light and subtle dish that contrasted almost a little too harshly with the big-hitting flavours of the prior ravioli, while I thought the deep-fried bread bits were a little out of place.

At the kitchen pass

For mains, we were going to sample three of the shared main menu items, which seems to be a current trend that I rather like.

Matt Moran was spotted pottering about during lunch but not in the kitchen, which was bright and bustling as an impressive line-up of pies hit the pass with bright red pie birds perched on golden pastry tops.

Fish and prawn pie

Patterned to appear like fish scales, the perfect colouring and flakiness of the pie pastry was truly something to behold. The puffy pastry lid hid a white-sauced and dill-laced filling of blue-eye trevalla and snapper in quite large chunks, and large, whole, peeled prawns that were like jackpot when you got one.

The pastry was a little difficult to break up with the serving spoon and the white sauce was a touch floury but these were minor quibbles for what seems to be Sydney's new favourite fish pie.

Chicken, wood roasted in spiced hay with lemon, stuffing

I was looking forward to the roast chicken, which hovers around the top of my list for comfirt food. This whole bird roasted in "spiced hay" arrived jointed in several pieces with a neat pile of stuffing and grilled wedges of lemon on the side.

Moist although a bit pale, this was not so much about a marinade, sauce or skin even but rather remembering how real chicken should really be and all very 'Sunday roast' really.

Wood roasted Moran family lamb, chickpeas, mint

For me the piece de resistance of the mains was undoubtedly the roasted shoulder of lamb, sourced from the Moran Family Farm on the Central Tablelands of Rockley, NSW.

Served on a bed of chickpea puree with a bright green mint sauce, this huge hunk of meat needed little more than gravity and a few nudges for the succulent meat to fall off the bone. For lamb lovers, this is as close to perfection as I can imagine.

De Bortoli Wines Windy Peak Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

Red wines were served with our mains: the Windy Peak Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2010 which filled the nostrils with a spectacularly fruity perfume ("full, plump, red and dark fruit flavours") and the Windy Peak Yarra Valley Cabernet Merlot 2010 ("rich, full fruit palate and subtle oak") which was lovely with the lamb.

Time was flying as we had much fun serving and passing food around, which is the idea behind shared mains - with lots of wine, of course.

Baked meringue, yuzy, Granny Smith apples

Dessert was a little more difficult to share around although after nine shared savoury dishes, I think most people were more than content without a full dessert.

The scarily perfect baked meringue of snowman-like stature was the lighter of the two desserts, featuring a tart, citrusy yuzu curd within the meringue and smeared on the plate and a very appropriate partner of Granny Smith apple sorbet.

Caramelia éclair, almonds, sugar plums

Richer and sweeter was the eclair served alongside poached sugar plum cheeks and almonds. I adore sable pastry as it is, but surrounding a creamy caramel chocolate filling in a choux pastry tube, well, I'm excited about Peter Sullivan's prediction that eclairs are going to be the new cupcakes.

Chiswick amid the gardens

As lunch ended, it was beginning to get to hard to leave Chiswick: the beautiful garden surrounds and all that food and wine were building a pretty convincing case to stay put - until dinner at least.

But with goodie bags of regional treats to boot (featuring Crumbs Gourmet Biscuits passionfruit yoyos, Chapman Hill extra virgin olive oil, King Valley Fine Foods rocket and pistachio pesto, and more wine), we managed to leave Chiswick with a little, delicious piece of the Yarra Valley and King Valley.

The Windy Peak range of wines retails for about $15 a bottle, which makes it a great choice at the affordable end of the spectrum. See more photos from the Windy Peak launch at my Facebook page.

Food, booze and shoes attended the De Bortoli Wines Windy Peak launch as a media guest, with thanks to De Bortoli Wines and The Cru Media.