Royal Mail Hotel (Dunkeld)

Parker Street, Dunkeld
Phone 03 5577 2241

Wow wow wow and wow.

It’s not often you have one of those extraordinary dining experiences that firmly imprints on your mind as being just so darn goooood, and that jockeys for a spot in your “top 10 meals of all time”.  This one is most definitely up there – I was so delightfully surprised by the delicateness of the dishes, the absolute honour and respect paid to the individual ingredients and the flavour and essence that had been extracted. Dan Hunter is a maestro – more so because he understands the importance of paddock to plate, of freshness and seasonality.

The Royal Mail itself is about three and a half hours from Melbourne, so it is worth staying the night when making the journey up.  Dunkeld is a small little town at the base of Southern Grampians, and from the hotel, the imposing Mt Sturgeon offers an impressive backdrop.  The hotel itself is retro cool in it’s art deco-ness, and I absolutely fell in love with the native gardens that surround it.

When we arrived, we were given a glass of of N.V Philipponnat Reserve Rose Champagne from France, a lovely pale salmon drop that was crisp, dry and beautifully aromatic. It had a nice little hit of yeast as well.  We were also offered some house made bread – small sourdough or rye sourdough rolls, served with an amazing smoked butter.

Then the first dish arrived – SARDINE, jamon, radish, smoked tuna.  Wow…what a stunner.  Three small tiles of sardine sat on top of crispy fried granules of jamon and toasted rye grains (which you can’t see in this photo), which crunched delectably with each bite.  The broth was overtly smoked tuna (like a super-charged bonito broth), which was also infused with flavour of jamon. To garnish, thin slices of radish and a sweet little flowers and leaves.

It was interestingly partnered with a N.V Sanchez Romate Palo Cortado, from Jerez in Spain. This amontillado style sherry was darker than most (in both flavour and colour), but pow, what a great combination!

This dish invoked in me a similar response to one I had with a shot glasss of tomato essence at Vue de Monde a few years back. This was the HEIRLOOM TOMATOES with basil and aged muscatel, an absolutely flawless example of how fucking fantastic a good seasonal tomato can taste. Each of the petals and small cherry globes had been skinned (…I bet that was a bit of work!), and dressed ever so sweetly in an aged muscatel.

It was served with a 2008 Charles Melton “Rose of Virginia”, from the Barossa Valley, a grenache and cabernet sauvignon blend with a refreshing ripe fruit flavours like maraschino cherry and strawberries.

Okay…pants down…this would have to be the best looking dish of the year.  AUTUMN VEGETABLES, shoots, leaves and flowers was like a garden meadow cascading across my plate.  I didn’t know where to start, but when I did, dang, I just didn’t want to stop.  Each vegetable (like the heirloom tomatoes above), was the essence and prime example of their namesake – asparagus, eggplant, spring onion, green bean, minature pepper and zucchini, flowers, wild rocket and herbs.  Further elements brought the dish together – a green vegetably paste (d’oh..I forgot what it was!), mushroom sand, small hazelnutty splogdes (how eloquent) and white crumbs (oh, I forgot what that was as well!).

A 2007 Henty Estate Chardonnay fom Victoria continued the green theme with limey/melony characteristics.

What impressed me about many of the dishes at the Royal Mail was that it wasn’t just a visual or taste fest, but a textural one as well.  None more so than the EGG YOLK, toasted rye, legumes and yeast.  Crunchy toasted rye grains and sprouts sat in the bottom of the bowl, gently doused with a light yeasty broth (dare I say subtly vegemitey?!).  On top, the most perfectly cooked googy yolk, seasoned with flakes of sea salt and just waiting to be released.  I don’ think I need describe how good each egg yolk coated mouthful of crunchy salty yeasty grains were.

This was perhaps my least favourite dish of the night, which is not to say it wasn’t great, it just didn’t excite or tantalise me like the others.  HIRAMASA KING FISH, cucumber, wild rice and saffron was superbly done – the kingfish had been cooked sous-vide, under vacuum and at low temperature to retain a delectable tenderness. The saffron sauce was almost yolky in consistency, with that subtle peppery taste.  The toasted wild rice on the tender cucumber baton was again, a great textural compliment.

It was matched with a 2008 Crawford River ‘Young Vines’ Riesling from Henty in Victoria, an easy drinking, crisp and acidic drop with minerally/chalky overtones.  Noice.

Okay…now onto the deeper, darker dishes of the night (and sorry, the light here wasn’t so good so pictures really don’t do it justice).  This is the PIGEON, beetroot, white chocolate, rose, which was again, fucking magnificent.  The succulent medium-rare crispy skinned breast sat sliced on the plate, on a scatter of white chocolate crumbs.  The two opposing tastes were brought together by the tart and sweet roasted beetroot, and the most amazing rose/berry flavoured paste. This was truly an imaginative and wicked dish.

It was very well complimented by a 2004 Best’s Great Western Pinot Meunier, an absolute corker of a drop.

The last of the main dishes for the night was LAMB, green shallot, sheep’s milk, licorice. To be perfectly honest, we were both rather drunk by this stage (the wine pours were tres generous), but we both remember it being sensational.  The sheep’s milk was a cream smeared across the plate,  the luscious roasted lamb fillet sitting smack bang in the middle of it.  The crumbs were licorice scented, and two pancetta-like crisps sat on either side. Long thin roasted green shallots were served to the side, sweet and delicious.

It was matched with a local full-bodied purply drop of 2005 Norton Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from the Grampians. It was spicy and had good oak.

Now to the first of THREE desserts. Whoop!  APPLE, triple cream, chamomile, caramel was a simple and stunning homage to Autumn.  The apple had been sliced through the centre and braised/caramalised in the pan. It sat on a smear of triple cream (which tasted very camemberty), with really thin rye grissini.  The caramel sauce was scented with chamomile, which made for a warm, comforting dish.

A N.V. Primitivo Quiles Moscatel from Alicante in Spain was the perfect compliment with its flavours of citrus, raisins and tea.

FIG LEAF MILK, fresh fig, dried berry, pinenut was again a sensational seasonal dessert.  If sex were a fruit then it would surely be a fig – it is just the most sensual of all fruits.  It sat on a disc of set fig leaf infused milk, which had been sprinkled with dried berry powder (tart).  A pine nut brittle added the crunch.

To finish was PISTACHIO, hazelnut, honeycomb, chocolate.  Oh yeah…this was a naughty and wicked dessert.  Smears of pistachio paste, a pistachio/hazelnut meal cake, honeycomb shards, hazelnut ice-cream, curls of chocolate and chocolate/pistachio crumbs.

Served with an interestingly titled N.V. Seppelts DP63 Show Muscat from the Rutherglen, which was absolutely luscious with toffee and caramel flavours.

We finished with some fine petits fours and coffee, and even got a take-home baggy of little chocolates!  As mentioned at the start, an absolutely perfect meal with a perfect end.  I must also pass on my compliments to the wait staff, who were exemplary in service and in knowledge (they answered all my obtuse questions!). Top points to them.

I must pass on my sincerest thanks to Ed from Tomato for making this amazing dining experience possible through the Menu for Hope.  I seriously can’t believe I was lucky enough to score such a fabulous prize! Thanks Ed!