Serving Sydney rock oysters, freshly plucked and shucked from the lapping waters of Merimbula Lake lower than a stone’s throw from its floor-to-ceiling home windows, Valentina Restaurant embodies the Sapphire Coast Oyster Trail with a degustation to showcase the area’s 5 estuaries.
You’d count on a restaurant with views over one of many figureheads of the Australian oyster heartland to have fairly good seafood, wouldn’t you.
But Valentina in Merimbula takes it an entire lot additional than simply ‘pretty good’.
On a traditional day, you’ll discover right here the sort of dishes you’d count on from a fine-dining restaurant in a capital metropolis—not a little bit city that’s a six-hour drive alongside the coast from each Sydney and Melbourne.
But when Valentina desires to, it might actually flip it on.
We have been fortunate to be right here for the inaugural Eau de Terroir particular oyster and wine degustation dinner, the place the good minds within the kitchen and the wine cellar be part of to create a meal revelation.
Check out our video from the Eau de Terroir night right here:
The function of this five-course meal is to indicate not solely how oysters can go together with all types of various wine or be served in numerous alternative ways, however extra to indicate how totally different they will style simply due to the place they reside.
Oysters from every of the 5 estuaries of the Sapphire Coast—Wonboyn, Pambula, Merimbula, Nelson, Wapengo—present how every lake imparts on its oysters particular qualities.
This is rather like the idea of terroir, when the identical wine selection will style fully totally different relying on the soil the grapes develop in. Those within the know name the oyster model of this ‘merroir’.
Eau de Terroir oyster and wine degustation—Valentina Merimbula
First, let me set the scene.
The solar’s simply setting, leaving shards of golden mild to fleck from the floor of Merimbula Lake, one of the prestigious Sydney rock oyster habitats on this planet.
From the primary ground, searching of this stunning physique of water by its wall-of-glass home windows is Valentina. As you stroll in, you’re instantly conscious of the relaxed but refined atmosphere of the venue, and the employees welcome you with real smiles.
The tables, though completely spaced for intimacy and romance, are tonight prepared for the occasion of the yr.
Replete with menus and explanatory notes on the decadent feast you’re about to get pleasure from, every desk is ready for the Eau de Terroir degustation.
It’s a easy but delicate idea: the pairing of wine and oysters.
The run of play is a mess of dishes; programs with names like Natural, Cold, Warm, Pasta and Sweet offer you an concept of what’s coming, however you realise there’s a lot extra happening as every dish arrives.
To begin with although, we’re provided a gin martini or G&T. This won’t appear related till we be taught the gin is North of Eden Distillery’s unimaginable Oysters Shell Gin. This is a neighborhood distillery that makes superb gins anyway, however the Oyster Shell, which makes use of precise shell in its distillation, is great.
Buy your bottle of North of Eden Oyster Shell Gin right here.
Natural course
First out is the Natural dish. We’re served a plate of two totally different Sydney rock oysters with lemon and lime wedges. One half of the dozen is from proper right here at Merimbula Lake. They have a strong assertive flavour and are fairly salty and minerally.
The different half are from Pamubula Lake. You can be taught extra about Pambula oysters in addition to our oyster shucking masterclass right here. But these oysters are creamier and sweeter.
On a separate plate, a 3rd sort of oyster arrives although. These are the Merimbula Angasi mud oysters and are monumental, although not missing flavour or texture.
This course is paired with a Muscadet from the Loire Valley in France, the final word wine for pure oysters. Its complicated buttery, citrusy notes go so properly with all of the flavours from these three oysters that current mineral, saline, iodine and creamy notes unexpectedly.
Cold course
Next come a pair of chilly and chilled dishes beginning with six Merimbula oysters ready-topped with a mixture of components—a gin and tonic granita that’s sharp and palate-cleansing, an excellent crimson wine vinegar and shallot mignonette and better of all wasabi mousse and ponzu.
The savoury notes from the ponzu stability so properly with the zingy warmth of the wasabi.
Our second chilly dish is an oyster tartare. Served in a bowl-shaped crunchy wanton, the entire oyster sits beneath a blanket of finely shopped chives with glowing globes of salmon roe on high.
To go together with this course, Valentina serve a clear dry German troken Riesling, whose crisp freshness matches the lightness of the meals.
Warm course
This subsequent spherical of dishes—4 in all—is probably probably the most artistic.
First are 4 house-made vol au vents crammed with a blue cheese béchamel and an entire Merimbula oyster.
These cylinders of puff pastry take me proper again to my childhood when vol au vents have been a ubiquitous celebration snack. I say convey ‘em again! Absolutely scrumptious.
Next, served of their shells, are Sydney rock oysters in a wealthy velvety Champagne beurre blanc topped with caviar—a extremely opulent dish that speaks to the posh of consuming oysters.
Also of their (monumental) shells are engasi mud oysters cooked in a fragile tempura batter and served on a velvety squid ink sauce. These large engasi oysters are so creamy and wealthy, they don’t get practically sufficient credit score or fame.
Finally for this course is an oyster po’boy. I’ve had one in all these earlier than at Ironside in San Diego so my benchmark is ready fairly excessive.
Served in a buttery brioche with a pointy caper-forward tartare sauce, the juicy deep-fried oysters create such a spread of textures towards the pillowy bread. Very spectacular.
This course comes with a Pinot Blanc from Alsace in France. It’s a creamy, full-bodied, daring wine—particularly for a white and has a stunning warming sensation similar to these dishes. Yet it additionally has sufficient acidity to chop by the richness.
Pasta course
After all this meals, you’d assume that the very last thing you’d need to eat is an enormous plate of pasta. But then this comes out.
A superbly al dente linguini with the smoothest velvety alfredo egg-based sauce and bottaga roe punctuated with tender smoked oysters. It’s an exquisite dish that, though fairly wealthy, is so moreish and balanced, you may’t cease consuming it.
Paired with this dish is an enormous fats Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula. It’s a rounded, fruit-forward wine that squares as much as the strong flavours and textures of the pasta with out taking away from the fragile flavours of the smoked oysters or the sauce. At the identical time, it has sufficient acidity on the finish to chop by the richness.
Sweet course
Finally, the dessert comes, although we’re undecided how far more we will eat.
Served on a mattress of toasted granola, the quenelle of oyster stout ice cream (I do not know how they make it) is chocolaty and light-weight but filled with umami. Next to the ice cream is a creamy easy zabaglione made with champagne, which provides a light-weight elegant mouth-feel to ingredient.
It’s a surprising dish that captures how versatile oysters may be—you probably have expertise like this kitchen.
With the dessert is a hazy Pet Nat glowing wine that cuts proper by the sugar and cream. Champagne works properly with ice cream desserts anyway, however the Pet Nat, which has extra physique than the common glowing.
On the again of this unimaginable expertise, we actually need to come again to Valentina on a daily evening. We ask the employees what’s good right here.
They advocate the burrata and flatbreads, the anchovy toast, scallops with beurre bland and black pepper, spaghetti vongole, wagyu steak, snapper and tuna tartare, and the whipped cod roe antipasto.
Looks like we’ll have to come back again a couple of instances. What a disgrace!