Y’know… when you get to a certain age and when you’ve known someone for a certain period of time, coming up with a fabulous gift for that person can be rather challenging. Gifts that are affordable, yet desirable, become more and more rare… cos really, if they wanted something that much, they would’ve bought it themselves already. That’s why ‘experience’ gifts are so good – if chosen correctly, they’re entertaining, enjoyable and don’t end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
For M’s birthday recently, we went to see ‘Love Never Dies‘ (the not-quite sequel to The Phantom of the Opera) and then headed off to Daylesford for a long weekend. Spa treatment? Yep. Dinner at Lake House? Yep. What else? How ’bout a short trip to Kyneton to visit Annie Smithers?
Annie Smithers is located among the main strip of shops in Kyneton and on the ground floor of what appears to be an old property that has been gutted and completely refitted. The decor is casual chic, with lots of light wood, exposed brick walls and a high ceiling. The menu is relatively straight-forward – 4 entrees, 6 mains and 4 desserts, priced at $19.50, $36 and $16.50, respectively.
Sugar cured yellow fin tuna, pickled garden cauliflower, radish, aioli, toast.
M ordered the tuna entree to start. The tuna was super fresh and had a wonderful, slightly sweet flavour from the curing process. We weren’t big fans of the pickled cauliflower, but the other flavours and the textural differences worked very nicely together.
Chargrilled eye fillet, celeriac, swede, mache, green peppercorns.
Pan roasted kingfish fillet, garden leeks, beetroot, broccolini, romanesco, orange.
M’s main of eye fillet was expertly cooked to a medium pink and beautifully juicy and tender. My kingfish fillet was pan seared to perfection, leaving one side delightfully crispy and the rest of the fish moist. And what pretty colours on the plate – the colour of the beetroot puree reminds me of pinot noir!
Garden lime curd, shortcrust pastry, Italian meringue.
Thank goodness we saved room for dessert. We had seen quite a few other diners order the lime tart, which looked good, but not spectacular. After mulling over the list of desserts, we decided to follow the masses and ordered the tart. Uh, hello? Could this be the best lime tart ever? Super thin shortcrust pastry, silky Italian meringue and smooth, tangy lime curd. Best of all, it was warm. Ahhhhhhhhh… the perfect winter dessert that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve just gained 2 pounds.
Annie Smithers was definitely worth the side trip to Kyneton – you could really taste the freshness of the ingredients and is a great place for delicious, comfort food with that little something extra.
