Milawa

We had to leave town last weekend. We hadn't been chased out of town due to our political views or fancy north shore duds, but rather because we were invited to a very boganical baptism and whilst it would have made great blog fodder, we just couldn't face it. We thought the best thing to do would be to leave town and so I blamed S for being a romantic and booking us a getaway for our anniversary (never mind that our anniversary was in March and we were taking Jack along). On Saturday morning we set off for our overnight jaunt with 1 suitcase and many entertainments and edibles for Jack.We timed our departure so that we would arrive at the very civilised Brown Brothers epicurean centre at lunchtime. And we did get there just at the right time to score an outside table where we (I) could watch Jack playing in the playground as I sipped my wine and ate some rather good olives. We watched in delight as people strolled in and were turned away gasping, "this is an outrage we've driven up from Melbourne!" I guess they should've booked. It did seem odd though that some people were still being allowed in and surely not coincidental that they were not the outraged (rude aand pompous) ones.
Over the years we've had some great meals at the BBEC and whilst this one was okay, it's hard to top the one with S and my brother Z where we were given a glass of 20 year old sticky to have with our dessert and compare with our other glass of sticky. The first time that S and I went there was on the way home from our honeymoon and we had a lovely meal. It almost (almost) made up for the fishing trip earlier on in the honeymoon where I got really seasick.
Sometimes eating with a toddler can be a challenge. Gone are the days of luxuriating over a meal any longer than 1 course. I had a goat ragu with green olives and strezzoprede (which are small savoury dumplings that literally translate as priest chokers - due to them being served in a monastery to priests who found them so delicious that they gulped them down so quickly they choked - what a happy little tale) and S ordered the Beef Spiedini, which he later admitted to ordering because it came with a glass of the very delicious Patricia Shiraz. For anyone interested mine came with a glass of D'Avola Nero and Jack's pasta came with apple juice.
After lunch and another play in the playground, we checked into our accommodation across the road at Lindenwarrah, which is so very civilised. We decided that it was time for a sleep (one glass of wine at lunchtime) but Jack wasn't up for it so we went for a drive to the King Valley instead. It's a nice area but not a patch on nearby Bright, but Jack did eventually fall asleep and peace reigned. On our return Jack and I explored the garden and courtyard (with fountain) briefly till a grumpy old man in a too short robe scared us back into our room.
The reason we were so keen for Jack to sleep was that we wanted him to be in a good mood for dinner. And he was. We managed two delicious courses and he was well behaved. Nothing at all to do with the wonderful waitress who fussed over him or me with the song and dance act with the dinosaur hand puppet. My back was to the restaurant so I have no idea what the other diners thought.
The next day we did a small amount of wine tasting (what a way to start the day, Jack was highly amused by S spitting the wine into the spittoon), I purchased some mustard from Milawa Mustards and some verjuice and we went to the Milawa Cheese Company where I purchased some very good bread (sigh) and we also saw some lovely jersey cows (for all that delicious cheese). And then we headed home. A minibreak indeed but our mission to avoid the christening was a success and we had also had a romantic trip away...just the three of us.