Provenance: Valentine’s Day Berry degustation
On Valentine’s Day, Dany, the Boys and I headed to Provenance for a berry degustation. The original plan had been to hold the event as a picnic in the Edinburgh Gardens, but with the weather forecast predicting showers, it was held inside the restaurant – picnic style on astro turf!
Thanks to Dany for the pic!
All the tables and chairs had been moved out, the entire floor astro turfed, and everyone sat on “picnic blankets” (I think they may have been tablecloths!) for the duration of the meal – fun!
The theme being berries, everything we ate involved berries of some kind. When we arrived, we were greeted with a bottle of Point Leo Road Salmon Blanc de Noir, and warmed ciabatta along with raspberry infused salt and strawberry infused olive oil.
I couldn’t really taste the raspberry in the salt – it just seemed really salty! But it was a lovely colour. The olive oil did have a faint strawberry flavour, and the bubbly went down rather well.
Next up were grilled chicken skewers with strawberries, balsamic vinegar and rocket salad. I’m not a huge fan of fruit with meat, but found that the balsamic vinegar really brought the strawberries and chicken together.
After that we received venison skewers on celeraic mash and blueberry sauce. I wasn’t too sure about the venison and blueberry sauce combo, but I LOVED the sauce with the celeraic mash.
After that it was time for dessert – not one dessert. Not two desserts. THREE desserts.
The first dessert was a divine summer pudding. Summer pudding has always sounded odd to me – white bread soaked in berry juice? How could that possibly be good? Well, it was. Really good. The bread was all moist and juicy with the berries, and just lovely with a dollop of cream. (I ate all that cream. Hell yeah.)
Dessert #2 was pannacotta with berry compote. It was a good pannacotta – creamy and smooth, with the berry sauce providing some tartness.
And finally, dessert #3 was a bluberry tiramisu topped with shavings of white chocolate. It was a berramisu really, as there didn’t seem to be any coffee in it? It was my least favourite of the desserts, but that could have been due to already eating two rich desserts and three bottles of bubbles (between the four of us). Phew. I was a bit weary by this stage and ready for a nap!
We had a great time though – hopefully there will be another event soon to look forward to.
Provenance
288 Smith Street
Collingwood
Phone: 03 8415 0700
Vee - A Melbourne Munchkin.
March 9, 2010 @ 10:57 pm
Omigosh, this looks fantastically fun! I usually shy away from visiting gastropubs because I have this idea that they will be dark and beery (I should really stop imagining we live in Dickensian times)…what a revelation!
mademoiselle délicieuse
March 9, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
Ooh, think I could definitely handle a berry feast like this! Such a summery and romantic thing.
Hannah
March 10, 2010 @ 7:21 am
Oh gosh, I love berries!! I've never had a summer pudding, but now I feel I must rectify this asap!
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
March 10, 2010 @ 10:54 am
what a nice thing for Valentine's Day. I've had a few bad berry & savoury combos so I'm quite wary of them too, but then it's always a nice surprise if it actually works!
missklicious
March 10, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
An indoor picnic, how cool!
The food looks great too.
penny aka jeroxie
March 11, 2010 @ 7:43 am
So so cool. If there is another, I would go. Have been meaning to get my butt there for awhile now.
Anh
March 11, 2010 @ 8:29 pm
This is really lovely 🙂 I can see that you had great time!
Cindy
March 12, 2010 @ 12:39 pm
Three desserts! That's my kind of degustation. 🙂
Jess
March 12, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
I love Provenance.
Iron Chef Shellie
March 13, 2010 @ 10:51 am
Looks sooooooo goood!! never though to have an indoor picnic!
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
March 14, 2010 @ 7:53 pm
oh man, I've been waiting for this post and I've only just seen it!! Wow, they really did put berries with everything!! Couldnt imagine blueberry and venison, but I gotta try the mash combination. Oh all those desserts!! You must have been in heaven
Adrian @ Food Rehab
March 14, 2010 @ 9:19 pm
Gotta love astro turf huh?! I can see why you'd love the berry pannacotta- does look creamy indeed!
Agnes
March 14, 2010 @ 11:00 pm
Vee: It was really fun! Quite amusing how much more fun it was just because we were sitting on the floor rather than at tables.
mademoiselle: too bad berry season is coming to an end! Ah, I love summer.
Hannah: oh yes, you do need to rectify it, stat! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the summer pudding.
Conor: berry + savoury is an interesting thing. I'm not sure I'm totally into it but I'm willing to give it a try!
missklicious: it was really good fun!
Penny: they seem to do theme dinners every now and again. If there's another one, I want to go again too – I'll flick you an email and let you know about it!
Anh: we were there for hours, and the time flew by!
Cindy: hehee, I was soooooo tired after the three desserts.
Jess: I can see why!
Shellie: an indoor picnic is a good thing. Altho probably not quite as good as an outdoor picnic!
Maria: ahh, I've got such a terrible backlog. So many things to write about. We have obviously been eating a lot recently!
Adrian: astro turf rocks. I think we should get rid of grass altogether and astro turf the world! 😉