It’s like a breakfast cocktail…

Now, I know the breakfast cocktail isn’t a new concept, in fact, I’ve been know to imbibe one (or five) on a special occasion myself! Whether its based on a sparkling wine, a white spirit or even a little hair of the dog that bit you… I’ve probably tried most de rigueur breakfast cocktails at some point in time – hey I even remember a long haul flight that ended with some breakfast sangria at a Santa Monica café!

This morning my usual coffee routine got a little shake up – The beautiful Mary (who makes my normal cup of coffee) and I got to talking about how we sweeten coffee. She loves vanilla syrup. Personally, I usually opt for a teaspoon of sugar but asked if she has coconut syrup…turns out they did!!!!

Now, it was an unorthodox request to have some added to my morning brew as they usually use the coconut syrup in their Pina Colada cocktail once the sun sets! But she was happy to oblige me and send one of her minions scurrying to the bar to fetch it so it could be added to my flat white… and now I'm back at my desk, already 4 hours into what is sure to be another epic day at work, contemplating exactly how I'm going to achieve what needs to be done all while quietly sipping on what can only be described as the best breakfast cocktail ever made!

...who would have thought that one cup of coffee could change your outlook on a day!

Way out west

It’s where you think I’ve been, right? With the distinct lack of blog love I’ve given this recently I wouldn’t criticise you all for thinking that I’d chucked it all in and taken on a non-alcoholic - vegan existence… Don’t worry, I haven’t! Without making excuses, I’ve changed jobs and in the process, packed up my life and moved – to a places that often feels like foodie purgatory, but in reality is just central Queensland!

G-Town has your fairly standard regional cuisine on offer – I haven’t eaten out everywhere yet, but I'm fairly confident that every eating establishment up here serves a chicken parmigiana and if they don’t you can always fall back to a steak! I LOVE chicken parmy’s so it hurts me to use them in a critical way… but what I'm trying to illustrate here is that the eating environment up here lacks diversity!

I’ve been itching to cook some of the AMAZING local seafood – but just haven’t had the chance yet, so I'm going to kick the blog into shape and start of with a day that got me truly out of shape!!!

I was in Perth last week for work (I know right? What a life!) but being the savvy traveller that I like to think I am – I went over on my weekend to ferret around a little…

Perth seems to get fairly little love from eastern Australia, and I can honestly see why when it’s cheaper (not to mention quicker) to get to New Zealand and go skiing for a long weekend than it is to go to Perth… However, that was before I actually got to have a look around over there!!!

Sunday saw myself and a colleague “acclimatizing” with a wine tour of the Swan Valley. WOW – that is all! Let me put this into perspective… the region is a 20 minute cab ride from the middle of Perth City and provides some of the tastiest treats you could possibly imagine! We only did a very modest tour (with and would totally recommend them – Abby was fantastic!!!) and visited some great wineries, a brewery and… a chocolate factory!!!

Highlights…

Lancaster Wines – an amazing little vineyard that kicks it old-school with a tasting shed in the paddock! The wine was pretty impressive (and I know this to be true as it was only the second on the tour and the first wines were so terrible that I spat everything!) and it was no surprise this week when the case I had ordered arrived. My picks…the old vines shiraz and the NV Sparkling. I'm not a sticky/ fortified wines kinda girl but their reserve liqueur Muscat was superb!

Edgecombe Brothers – we stoped here for lunch and a small tasting! And left VERY full!!! Highlight of the meal would have been the asparagus – it was picked that morning and you could tell: crisp, sweet and no tell-tale signs of woodiness anywhere. They also plated a pretty mean spicy chorizo… yummy! Their wines were good but were overshadowed by the food (we were running late so we did the tasting with lunch instead of before), however, I really like their sparkling (again!) smooth, crisp and just dry enough to want another glass!

Chesters Restaurant and Heafod Glen Winery - quite and award winning winery this one, and I’m not surprised! Their Viongnier was superb and I was quite taken by their Semillion – their Shiraz also pack a punch… I also bought some French Oaked olive oil that is truly to die for, it has this fantastic smokey quality that has a slow, yet soft burn in the aftertaste…mmmmm

Margaret River Chocolate Factory – Imagine a shed the size of a football field and fill it will every imaginable chocolate product and you are pretty close to the heaven I was in at the end of our day!

There were a few more wineries and a brewery in the mix (that had lovely apple cider) but as far as highlights went it was hard to pick just those few…my rule was that I’ll tell you about it if I liked their wine enough to stock in my (still imaginary) wine boutique! The best part about the Swan Valley would have to be that they are entirely un-pretentious and very laid back about the great wines they are making. They don’t have that big, consumer mass-market focus and it comes through in the quality (and generally low price) of their wine!

I was lucky to catch up with my friend Lisa while I was over there (she and her husband are on an amazing adventure) and she nailed my sentiment in that it’s hard to just pick one or two (wineries) to visit because you want to see and taste them all…luckily we were on a tour and only saw what they wanted us to.

Would I go back? Definitely! When? Once I convince a bus-load of wine quaffing friends that they want to accompany me!