Long (Lavish) Lunch @ Loam, Geelong

Loam
650 Anderson Road
Drysdale. Victoria.
Australia
+61 (0) 3 5251 1101
http://loamrestaurant.blogspot.com/
(open for lunch Thursday to Sunday and dinner Friday and Saturday evenings)

Those of you that have been brave enough to journey through a tasting menu will understand what surprises and amazement such a journey can bring. But imagine that journey extending over a period of just under six hours and over ten courses and you begin to appreciate the sumptuous adventure that unfolded at Loam.

An hour from Melbourne nestled amongst the olive trees at Lighthouse Olive Grove in Drysdale, chef Aaron Turner (ex Noma) and the team at Loam serve some of the most enticing and inventive dishes in it's serenely picturesque setting. Recently voted best new restaurant by The Age Good Food Guide and receiving two chef hats, it was sitting at the table with a list of seasonal produce, no menu in sight, and only allowing the choice of a four, seven or ten courses that we knew we were in for something special.

Our six-hour saunter through the gastronomic feast started with an amuse bouche of 'french breakfast': a punchy parmesan sable biscuit, spicy aniseedy salmon jerky, and lightly fruitty lightly poached mussels. Each dish as we continued on also brought with it surprise and amazement; from smokey spicy slightly tart squid with it's ink and unripened tomatoes, the delicate sweetness and savoury of the pan-seared snapper, lardo, anchovy and avocado cream, the melt-in-the-mouth 15 hour braised veal cheek with apple puree, apple strips and quinoa paper, the sweet and gamey squab with liquorice sauce chervil and beetroot and enriched with the cooling squab liver parfait, and finishing off with a wonderful grass parfait with the salty sweetness of the chocolate and balanced with the intensely tart lemon parsley and clover stems.

So as the sun started to set on the olive grove and with our stomachs completely satisfied with some of the best produce in the region, we could only breathe an awe of amazement at the meal we had just had, and tip our hats to one amazing Aussie chef and the wonderful team behind him (and it's well worth the drive out from Melbourne CBD!).

10-Course Tasting Menu (and extras) - 13/Oct/2011:

Amuse Bouche 1: Parmesan Sable Biscuits

Amuse Bouche 2: Salmon Jerky

Amuse Bouche 3: Mussels

Course 1: Guinea fowl egg, flowers, sherry vinegar, oatmeal oil

Course 2: Squid, ink, unripe tomatoes

Course 3: Spanner crab, broad beans, rice starch, sea palm

Course 4: Snapper, anchovy, avocado, pork fat

Course 5: Duck tongues, salsify, chickweed, horseradish

Course 6: Wild hare, caper berry, mustard, bone sauce

Course 7: Veal cheek, apple, yarrow, quinoa

(Extra Course): Squab, liver, beetroot, chervil, pickled onion

Course 7: O'Connor beef, jerusalem artichoke, sea lettuce, thyme

(Extra Course): Mauri Taleggio, fermented cabbage, wild honey

Course 9: Mandarin, almond, coconut, young pine

Course 10: Grass, sorrel, parsley, chocolate, whole salted lemon