Lake Daylesford

We had dinner on the Friday night at the Farmers Arms (1 East Street, Daylesford VIC 3460), a super popular pub and Daylesford institution. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, and the food was delicious!

Swordfish at the Farmers Arms

Jess kindly let me have a taste of her pork belly dish, and it was incredible! The meat was succulent, the crackling was super crispy, the mash was creamy, and the sauce was just divine. It was literally the perfect dish. Would legitimately drive back to Daylesford just for this dish.

Pork Belly at the Farmers Arms

The next day we had an early bird bathing experience at The Mineral Spa at Peppers (124 Main Road, Hepburn Springs, VIC 3461), which was wonderfully relaxing and worth the splurge. (I would definitely recommend The Mineral Spa at Peppers over the larger Hepburn Bathhouse down the road just FYI, as the baths are nicer and they have a better range of facilities like sauna, infrared sauna, steam-room etc).

We had breakfast at Larder Cafe (57A Vincent St, Daylesford VIC, 3460), which had excellent coffee and hearty brunch dishes.

Drinks at Larder Cafe

Huevos La Flamenca - Spanish baked eggs with Istra chorizo, tomato, capsicum, potato braise and toast. (GFO/DF)

After a little walk through the cute shops in town, we stopped in for a little wine tasting at Passing Clouds Winery (30 Roddas Ln, Musk VIC 3461). The tasting was good, and Jess bought a couple of bottles to take home. They also had a very nice looking dining room in there - perhaps a good one to visit next time!

Passing Estate Winery

And on the way back to the cabin, we got supplies: get charcuterie and bread from the supermarket, and cheeeeeese from The Fromagerie (22 Raglan St, Daylesford VIC, 3460). The staff in there were really nice and patiently answered our questions, gave us tastes and helped us choose our cheeses. Love!

The Fromagerie

Yummm....

The Fromagerie

Back at the cabin it was time to relax...

Crab deelie at the cabin

Cheese and charcuterie

There were also these adorable tame kookaburras that often come and hang around the balcony. The cabin provided bird food, and we spent ages feeding them, taking photos and generally cooing over how beautiful they are. They were super friendly and ate right out of our hands!

Kookaburra

Kookaburra

Magpie

That night, dinner was takeaway pasta from Rubens (70 Main Rd, Hepburn VIC, 3461). Comfort food to the max!

Pasta and wine at the cabin

Breakfast the next morning was at Blue Bean Love (115 Main Road, Hepburn Springs, VIC 3461), a chilled out cafe and bar on the main street of Hepburn Springs. Sandra and I had visited back in 2015 when the cafe was called Red Star and enjoyed it, so we were looking forward to brekky here.

Bitters Lime and Soda

We also had local mineral water throughout the evening.  (As I was driving, I just had one glass of champagne to start with, even though the "matching wines" option was very tempting!)

Sparkling mineral water

We were told that you could have a full degustation menu (a vegetarian option was also available), or the option of three courses from their fixed price menu ($105), with an optional cheese course for an $18 supplement.  The vegetarian degustation menu actually looked amazing, and was well priced (approximately $130 from memory), but being big meat eaters, we weren't sure if it would be filling enough, so went for the fixed price menu.  Between us we ordered one three-course, and one four-course option, and shared the cheese course.

First, we were brought a little amuse bouche of nori crisps with bonito aioli.  The crisps were airy and well, crispy, rather like a prawn cracker, and the aioli was creamy with a pleasantly fishy taste. Sandra, however, doesn't like seafood, so I got to have this all to myself - muahaha!

Nori crisps with bonito aioli

We also got bread, which tasted just as good as it looked and, importantly, came with soft butter.  Apart from the white bread that you can see in the picture, there was a brown bread which I thought was wholemeal, but turned out to be mushroom bread!

Bread and butter

Now, first courses.  Sandra had the white asparagus dish, a beautiful composition of different shades of white.    I always think of white asparagus as such a treat!

White asparagus, 64oC egg, potato remoulade, Parmigiano Reggino, white asparagus veloute, parmesan foam

The egg was cooked perfectly: soft and oozy.

White asparagus veloute, parmesan foam

For my starter, I had a wonderful mackerel sashimi with tender pieces of octopus and a smoky paprika tuile.

Sashimi mackerel, slow cooked octopus, orange & fennel seed vinaigrette, fennel aioli, smoky paprika tuile

I loved this dish! It had such delicate, fresh flavours and a nice contrast in textures - a real pleasure to eat.

And now we move on to the mains...

Sandra had wanted to order the "Pastured beef - seared Black Angus Yearling, slow braised shin, sweetbreads, white polenta, parsley, capers", and asked if the meat could be cooked "very well done".  Our waitress explained to us that that particular cut of meat would shrink quite a bit, and suggested that we order something from their "Simpler Fare" menu, which would suit being cooked all the way through - fillet steak with asparagus, red wine jus and tarragon potatoes (see below), which Sandra was happy with.

From the "Simpler Fare" menu: Fillet steak with asparagus and red wine jus

I chose the spring poussin: I just couldn't say no to the combination of "white asparagus, morels, foie gras".

Spring Poussin - breast, ballotine, pancetta, garlic custard, white asparagus, morels, foie gras

The meals came with a gorgeous mixed-leaf salad and buttery tarragon potatoes.

Green salad, Tarragon potatoes

I mentioned above that Sandra requested her steak to be cooked "very well done" - unfortunately it came out closer to medium rare, and was still very pink and juicy in the middle. (It would have been great for me, but, of course, it wasn't my steak).  It was so rare that she couldn't eat it, so we actually sent it back.  The waitstaff were very nice about it, and offered to take my meal and the sides back as well, so that we could both eat together.  Really considerate!