Wedding Food Tasting at The Tea Room Gunners' Barracks

We attended the wedding food tasting at Gunners' on Wednesday 30th October 2013 in order to make a final selection for our wedding menu.

The Event Coordinator allocated a time for us months ago and we had to pre-select a number of wines and dishes to sample on the tasting day. The tasting was "complimentary" for us and we would be charged for each additional guest.

Preface/Rant

We got the "Classic Beverage Package" and were only allowed to select 1 sparkling wine (out of 3), 2 white wines (out of 5) and 2 red wines to taste (out of 5) regardless of the number of people attending. Aside from the obvious meagre number of wines we were allowed to taste, I was surprised that we were only allowed to choose 1 sparkling wine - seriously Gunners' Barracks? How the heck were we supposed to make an informed decision with only one wine to choose from? Luckily in the end we were able to sample the other two after speaking to the Event Coordinator.

As for food, the number of different dishes we were allowed to choose had to correlate to the number of people attending. We ended up having 4 guests in total: Andy, myself and 2 bridesmaids. So we were allowed to choose 4 entrees, 4 mains and 4 desserts. I can't imagine having only 2 dishes of each to choose from if it were just the two of us. This lack of ability to taste a reasonable selection of the menu (given that this was a tasting after all) was disappointing, given the reputation and costs involved with the venue. Although I acknowledge their extensive menu with 10 entrees, 10 mains and 10 desserts available, it should have been standard to choose at least 4 of each regardless of the number of guests attending. Isn't that what tasting plates are for? Or, why don't they make it a complimentary tasting for 4 guests instead of charging for each additional guest? Seriously, I feel that it really cheapens their reputation by coming across as exploitative.

Our Selections (* wedding choices)

Drinks
Sparking wines

• Step X Step Sparkling, Langhorne Creek & Barossa Valley, SA
• Avoca Sparkling, Multi Regional, SA
• *Andrew Peace "Masterpeace” Sparkling, Piangil, VIC 

White wines

• *Step X Step Sauvignon Blanc, Langhorne Creek & Barossa Valley, SA 
• Step X Step Chardonnay, Langhorne Creek & Barossa Valley, SA

Red wines

• Andrew Peace “Masterpeace” Cabernet Merlot, Piangil, VIC
• *Step X Step Shiraz, Langhorne Creek & Barossa Valley, SA

Not too much to say here, just that we weren't very impressed with any of the sparkling wines.
The Sauvignon Blanc was quite nice and the Shiraz went well with one of our mains (I'm not a red wine drinker but Andy was sufficiently satisfied with it).


Entrees

1. *Ceviche of salmon with a ginger and soy dressing, pomegranate and coriander leaves 

Ceviche of salmon

Hands down best entree of the bunch.

Beautiful presentation, elegant, fresh, wonderful flavours that are amazing together.

2. Prawn cannelloni, spiced calamari, sauce vierge

Prawn cannelloni

I didn't think I was going to like this one - and I was right.

The texture was strange and it wasn't very tasty either. 

This one was pretty easily ruled out by all of us.

3. *Berbere spiced poussin, basmati rice, confit of the leg tortellini

Berbere spiced poussin

A very impressive dish with modern Indian flavours.

Poussin is a young chicken but this is certainly no ordinary chicken dish.

The tortellini was delicious and the rice was full of flavour.

     

4. Grilled whole de-boned quail, soft polenta, pine nut and currant dressing

De-boned quail with polenta

Another delicious entree with amazingly creamy and light polenta.

We decided not to go with this one due to its similarity with one of our mains.

Mains

1. Roast jewfish fillet, crushed potato with black olives, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn and basil

Roast jewfish fillet

Unfortunately this dish looks better than it tastes.

Confused flavours and salad-bar slapped-it-together feel easily ruled this one out.

Some kudos for well-cooked fish.

2. *Seared kingfish, prawn and pearl barley risotto, coconut cream 

Seared kingfish with risotto

Well-executed, sophisticated dish with interesting and delicate flavours.

Fish was perfectly cooked - crunchy skin and soft inside.

3. *Parmesan and herb crust chicken breast, cavalo-nero and sautéed mushrooms, potato puree

Parmesan and herb-crusted chicken breast

A non-pretentious, hearty dish that is just... damn delicious.

Chicken was perfectly cooked - hallelujah!

4. Five spiced duck leg, braised lentils, orange and fennel salad

Five-spiced duck leg

A very impressive dish, well-cooked and flavoursome duck with a very complimentary orange and fennel salad.

We just had some concerns over the lentils - one of those elements that you may get sick of.

Desserts


1. *Belgium chocolate fondant, peanut butter ice cream, raspberry sauce 

Belgian chocolate fondant

Andy's dessert favourite.

This picture does not do this dessert justice! The peanut butter ice cream was also not this melted when it first came out.

According to Andy it was best chocolate fondant he's ever had because it was so light.

Personally, I'm not a chocolate person but I imagine all the chocolate lovers out there would be very happy to get this dessert.

2. Manuka honey and yoghurt cheesecake, earl grey poached pears 

Manuka honey and yoghurt cheesecake

This was an inoffensive dessert with light flavours.

However, there was nothing special about it and the cheesecake was somewhat bland. 

Perhaps it may have been more impressive if served alone, but it definitely pales in comparison to the other desserts.

3. *Caramelised apple tarte tatin, hazelnut ice cream, calvados sauce

Caramelised apple tarte tatin

My dessert favourite by far.

Delicious creamy hazelnut ice-cream with light, flaky layered pastry to die for

Flavours were perfectly balanced

 

4. Passionfruit brulée, sablé biscuit

Passionfruit brulee

It's a brulee - what can I say? Delicious, simple, predictable.

Would be very happy with it if I got it, but it didn't make the cut compared with the other two outstanding desserts.

Final thoughts

Despite my ranty introduction regarding the disappointing number of choices for tasting we had, overall we were pretty impressed with what we actually tasted. The Tea Room at Gunners' Barracks delivered in terms of flavour and quality, and I would still recommend them as a wedding venue if you value the quality of food.

I suggest you go with at least 4 people in total to be able to make an informed decision and ask to taste other wines if you weren't happy with the ones you selected.

The Celebrant

Hi,

Yes we have finally completed The Big 4 of wedding planning:
1. Book venue for ceremony and reception - check
2. Book photographer - check
3. Find and buy wedding dress - check (one could argue that it should be number 1)
4. Book the celebrant - check (if you were wanting a specific religious celebrant apparently this should be done very early)

Once those 4 items are done, I would say you've already got the foundations, the most significant components of a wedding - everything else will just help make it all nice and pretty for the lovely guests.

One of the most important components of the wedding ceremony is having the right celebrant there to marry you.

How did we choose such a celebrant?
Well we needed to decide whether to go with a civil or religious celebrant first. Andy is Christian and I do not identify with any particular religion but I was fine to go with a priest if Andy wanted. Andy was not really fussed either way. I also considered getting a bilingual celebrant who spoke both English and Chinese. However, to my disappointment, a decent-looking professional celebrant who was adept at both English and Chinese (Mandarin) is quite difficult to find - which isn't surprising really, how many Asians aspire to become wedding celebrants anyway? But that's ok, because my mum assured me that the few guests of mine that do not speak English would be taken care of.
So then after looking online through many different celebrant sites and reading through many unimpressive celebrant profiles, I finally found a few potential celebrants. You really have little to go by when assessing these celebrants. It's quite superficial really - you basically go on looks and price, and reviews help if they're available. But seriously, unless you have a recommendation from someone you know, you just don't know who is good.

I found one initially that I really liked, she had a fun and lively energy and seemed to really personalise the wedding for each couple. However, Andy's first reaction to her was "she looks like a drug addict". Needless to say we didn't end up going with her.

After many fruitless emails to various celebrants we finally found one that seemed promising and was not over-priced! She was the only celebrant we actually met and we liked her instantly. She later told us that she knew she was going to marry us from our first meeting - it was meant to be! She was extremely experienced, has won so many Australian Bridal Industry Awards (ABIAS), always looks and dresses elegantly and professionally, and knew Gunners' Barracks and their staff like the back of her hand - what else could we ask for? She ran through a plan of the ceremony and how it would be conducted and gave so many great suggestions that had never even occurred to us.

This is her website (www.getmarried.com.au) below:

Coral has already sent us two massive documents with wedding proceeding information including hundreds of sample vows, poems and so forth. Of course we are free to write our own and choose our own poems and readings but this just makes things so much easier. We have yet to actually read through them all, I suspect that might take some time. She has been very helpful in other areas of wedding planning too and, mostly importantly, seems to genuinely want to help you out.

We have now officially signed our Notice of Intention to Marry forms as bride and groom and handed them over to Coral!

Now all we have to do is find a DJ, bridesmaids dresses, hair and makeup artist, flowers, decorations, cars, invitations...

Until next time,
Diane

Photographer + General Update

So its been a while since our last update. It's not because we've given up on the blog, but after arranging a venue we took a break or we haven't done things that we can write about.

We had an engagement parties in Sydney and Melbourne. They were casual BBQ's, but we didn't take many photos. However my aunty made a spectacular engagement cake for us, which tasted even better than it looked. A facebook page displaying her other cakes can be found here

Diane has been shopping for a wedding dress, she has found the dress she wants. But if she posts about it, I will know the dress before the wedding day. She is buying it online, which saves $1,000 from buying locally. We still need to get it tailored here, however even if we bought it locally it would still require tailoring. 

We are getting the bridal party to come to Sydney in early May, so that everyone can meet eachother, also to get everyone fitted for suits and dresses.

We have been meeting photographers over the last few months. I struggled to see the difference in their work, and they all tend to say the same thing when we meet them. To add to the difficulty there is no standard package in terms of hours of coverage, extra photographer, quality of the albums, number of pages in each album let alone the quality of their work which makes the whole process a nightmare. However we finally found a photographer who's work seemed unique and we have booked them for an engagement shoot as well as the wedding. 

What separated her work from the rest was the landscape and composition of her work. It seems she has only been doing wedding photography for 12 months, but previously she was a landscape photographer which shows through her artistic talent in her work. Also in terms of budget, she was probably on the cheaper end of photographers, without compromising quality. For those that are interested you can view her galleries and website here:

http://www.melissafiene.com/

We need to decide whether to get a videographer, or whether to simply get a friend to take a video of the key moments such as the ceremony, speeches etc. While I can imagine pulling out the photo album in the years down the track, its hard to imagine loading a video and appreciating that a professional has compiled it, compared to a friend with a steady hand.

In terms of what's next on our plate, we'll probably try to do the engagement shoot in the next few months and organise a celebrant/priest for the ceremony. We will post photo's of the engagement shoot when its complete.

Andy