Lunch review: Podfood, Pialligo Plant Farm

For my work Christmas lunch, we went to Podfood at Pialligo Plant Farm. This little cafe is situated on the same property as the Pialligo Plant Farm nursery. I love flowers so it was nice to be able to walk through the nursery after lunch. The cafe is in a super cute 1930s cottage, and has quite an innovative menu.

We decided to skip entrees and start with mains. I had the slow cooked lamb loin, spiced roasted aubergine puree, yoghurt and lemon balm dressing, capsicum and quinoa ($33):

The lamb was absolutely delicious, it melted in my mouth... and the flavours and texture of the accompaniments complimented it beautifully. According to an ex-chef who works in my Division, his lamb was slightly overcooked but overall he thought the meal was good. The ex-chef / foodie / expert picked the wine, which was the Collector Reserve Shiraz 2008. I don't think I have developed much of a palette for reds yet, and I usually don't enjoy a red drop very much, but this one was the smoothest shiraz I have ever tasted. It was beautiful - no wonder upon googling it swept up a whole lot of awards at the Sydney Show.

The good thing about these modern cafes with teeny servings is that there is always room for dessert. I had the salted caramel butter pastry tartlet with pistachio ice cream and cumin crumbs ($13):

The salted caramel went very well with the pistachio ice cream. It was a fantastic balance of flavours.

Here are the other desserts that were had by the group:

After lunch, we walked through the nursery and delighted in flowers. My favourite were the fuschias:

More flowers and photos from the Pialligo Plant Farm art gallery to come in another post :-)