Fine Dining 
“This is the restaurant Bill Clinton brought Hillary for a surprise anniversary dinner,” the guide said. We were in Cairns, the take-off point for Australia’s spectacular Great Barrier Reef and if Clinton wanted to do the unexpected, he chose the right place: from the street (itself unprepossessing), there’s only a discreet sign telling you that you are at Nautilus. There’s no entrance, no grand opening, just steps.
A lot of steps. The guys at Nautilus obviously want you to work up an appetite as you climb up and up, finally ending in what looks like a mini-forest where tables and chairs are scattered at different levels, the lights are dim and discreet and you sit in the open under a large canopy made of netting to keep birds away (and coconuts from falling on your head).
The story goes that Nautilus was started by an Englishman they call the Remittance Man. Apparently he was banned from Australia (reasons unstated), but sent remittances to his wife, also English, who continued to live in Cairns. She made jewellery featuring local shells and the like (calling her brand Nautilus), and then decided to use the space to serve tea and scones. That was 55 years ago. Since then, the afternoon tea place has become a restaurant whose fame has spread far and wide, in fact, far and wide enough for the President of the United States of America to commandeer the place for a very private dinner (give or take a few secret service agents blending into the shrubbery).
As you would expect, the place is pricey. For example, if you ask for bread, don't expect a freebie. What you will get is wood-fire oven baked bread with lemon-thyme sea-salt and butter, and it will set you back Aus$ 7.50. It’s delicious, so you'll order more, which will set you back some more. Starters cost around Aus $ 25, main courses about Aus $ 40, while desserts are Aus $ 17 or so.
If you are vegetarian, you could start with a soft Basil Cake which is served with roasted capsicum and tomato salad, Persian feta and aged balsamic. If you are non-vegetarian, the choice gets much wider. I enjoyed the Sautéed Prawns coated with Parmesan crumbs and served with citrus vierge, garlic chive puree and salmon pearls. That mix of ingredients combines to give a wonderful melange of lemony sharpness, pungency and fleshy sweetness.
Obviously Nautilus likes to take different, and even conflicting tastes, combine them judiciously and come up with a flavour that mystifies and yet pleases. Sardines from Western Australia, for example, are pan seared, but served with cucumber, Escalivada salad, sour strawberry and chocolate oil. The Wagyu Beef entrée (and how can you escape Wagyu beef in Australia?) is less adventurous but nonetheless successful: it is spice cured and served with fennel remoulade and vanilla vinaigrette.
You are spoilt for choice for the main course if you are a seafood lover. There is a whole coral trout (crispy fried with Kaffir lime and palm sugar dressing), whole Queensland mud crab (wok tossed with chilli, tomato and lemongrass jam), oven roasted Barramundi fillet (served with baby squid, buttered almonds and parsley with fresh grape dressing), as well as lobster and Champagne consommé (pan-seared with snow pea tendrils and lemon myrtle oil), served here as a main course. There's also a Chef's Market Fish, presumably Catch of the Day, cooked to your liking. The seafood has a wonderfully matched Riesling which comes from Leeuwin Estate, one of Australia's best. This ‘Art Series’ wine costs Aus $ 55, but it's really worth the price.
If you have the stamina (and space) for a dessert, you won't be disappointed. There's the intriguing Chai Tea Panna Cotta with fresh figs, honey syrup and ginger brioche. Or the Valrhona Chocolate Mousse served with white liquorice sherbet, cocoa crumbs and rasberries to enliven things a bit. I chose the Upside Down Orange Cake, an apt choice Down Under, and happily scooped up the mix of citrus and date reduction, soursop curd and cinnamon sugar.
Did the Nautilus meal save the Clinton marriage? Probably. Which woman could resist such a romantic evening in such an unusual setting, especially when the food was so good?
Melbourne/Chateau Yering
Just 50 minutes northeast of Melbourne's centre and not much further from its airport, is the heart of Victoria's premier wine growing region of Yarra Valley. Bang in the middle of it lies Chateau Yering, a historic old building and now an elegant hotel. You can't get a better base for visiting the wine region, or for hot-air ballooning, which is an added attraction.
Chateau Yering, as the name suggests, is a magnificent mansion, built in the French style, a country home in the 1850s for one of Australia's founding families. The Chateau's vast gardens were first planned and planted by Baron Von Mueller, the driving force behind many of Melbourne's attractive public gardens.
The Chateau has been converted into a really charming hotel, with antique furniture and curtains and drapes. Its 32 suites have such luxurious king-sized beds that it's difficult to wake up in them (I should know: I almost missed my early morning hot-air ballooning appointment). Each suite is also equipped with a cat. Not a live one (luckily) but a furry soft toy, which you leave outside your door as a sign that you do not want to be disturbed.
As befits its French antecedents, Chateau Yering, also has an award-winning restaurant that they simply call Eleonore's. With its elegant period décor, you feel you are back in time in some aristocratic French banquet and you expect to be surrounded by frock-coated gentlemen and be-gowned ladies. Since that doesn't happen, it's just as well that the cuisine is Modern French, which means light and delicate, rather than delicious, but heavy.
Of the six starters, I couldn't make up my mind between the Ballotine of Atlantic Salmon (served with Yarra Valley salmon roe, cucumber and coconut jelly) and Seared Loin of Hare. I chose the latter because the braised hare was paired with shallot in a vol-au-vent. Its pastry was light and flaky with the sauce poivrade and bacon and Brussel sprouts puree providing a perfectly complementary taste.
The main courses offered a choice of Arctic Char, Wild Squab, Saddle of Lamb and Venison. I chose the last, for how often do we get this meat on the menu? It was rare-roasted and accompanied by sautéed black cabbage, celeriac puree, braised shallots and roasted beetroot in a chocolate and raspberry jus.
If I could take a trip to Yarra Valley again, I'd go to Chateau Yering and demand the same meal, the same room and the same cat.
SYDNEY/ICEBERGS
Sydney's Bondi Beach is a bit like Mumbai's Chowpatty: It's huge, has magnificent sand and a lot of people. In fact, there are so many people out there partaking of the sun, sea and sand that it makes you hungry. That's your cue to make your way to Icebergs.
Icebergs is huge too. The restaurant is acres and acres of glass, which is the right thing to have when you are at a height, overlook the beach and have a grand view of the ocean. Its menu is huge too, in fact large enough to send to a publisher as a manuscript. When you order you'll find that the portions are — that word again — truly huge. This is obviously where Australia meets America.
The Icebergs bar has as extensive a list as you are likely to see: it contains, for example, nine kinds of Martinis. The cocktails menu, in fact, runs into an equal number of pages, while the wine list— showcasing Australia's wines by region and style — is over 20 pages long. Fortunately, Icebergs cuisine is lean, based around a modern Mediterranean theme with, as you would expect, a strong emphasis on seafood.
One of the starters is Tuna Tartare accompanied by Tuscan Dwarf Peaches, Kale, Chives and Basil. There's crab, served with soft Polenta, chilli, garlic and lemon. There's a generous Italian section on offer, with various kinds of Risotto and pasta included. (Examples Risotto with Coral Trout or squid-ink and Spaghetti with clams). You can eat Fish Stew Anaconda style, Stingray with silver beet, Harvey Bay scallops and etc etc.
But, in spite of its emphasis on seafood, Icebergs draws a lot of customers for its steaks, especially it's Rib Eye. You can have an 800 gram one or a 500 gram one. I chose the smallest, which is 300 gram and even then found the quantity intimidating. The steak can be char-grilled and served with a selection of mustards, or roasted in a clay oven on the bone. Each piece is aged on the bone for tenderness and comes from either the best Wagyu or Black Angus breeds. To accompany the streak, choose a marvellous Australian Red, a 2006 Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz, which has been described as sexy, and has a deep palate of dark fruits and violets tied with silky tannins.
However the best thing about Icebergs isn't the food, good as it is. Or its large selection of excellent wines. The best thing is that you can eat and drink and at the same time look out and feast upon and drink in the constantly unfolding drama outside, surfers fighting the waves, swimmers showing off their skills and everyone proving to one and all that Australia is God's own country.
