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Gourmet experiences: VICTORIA

Unique gourmet produce
Yackandandah Louisiana Cajun style simmer sauce
The Yackandandah Jam and Preserving Company is a family run business set in rolling farmland just outside the historic village of Yackandandah in North East Victoria. Their preserves, simmer sauces and curds are all hand made in small batches from local produce and the reputation they have in the marketplace is a reflection of the care and attention put into each jar by owner Rex Little and his dedicated team. The pick of their products for me is their lime curd and Louisiana Cajun style simmer sauce. I love Cajun food and this simmer sauce is an easy way to bring the authentic Cajun flavours to the dinner table.

Beechworth Bakery Fruit Eccles

Eccles cakes are a small, round cake traditionally filled with currants and made from puff pastry with butter and topped with demerara sugar. They are named after the English town of Eccles where a local baker named James Birch began selling them from his shop in the town centre, in 1793. Being from England myself, I know a good Eccles Cake when I taste one - and there aren't too many bakeries in Australia that know how to make them properly. One that does is Beechworth Bakery, in the old goldmining town of Beechworth in NE Victoria (and their franchises bakeries throughout Victoria). They put apple, sultanas, currants and glazed cherries in theirs, so they are a variation on the traditional recipe, but every bit as tasty. I never pass up an opportunity for brekkie or lunch at the bakery, which has earned itself an enviable reputation over the years, and always come away with a bagful of Fruit Eccles to munch on as I drive.

Milawa white mould Camembert cheese

This cheese is a velvety, white mould variety made in the Normandy style, which develops a mushroomy aroma and a mild salty flavour. When ripe texture is oozing with a creamy golden interior. It hails from the renowned Milawa Cheese Factory in the Milawa and King Valley gourmet region, one of Australia's oldest gourmet regions and Victoria's breadbasket. Situated a short drive from Wangaratta on the Hume Freeway in North Eastern Victoria, the area was one known as the stomping ground of Australia's most notorious bushranger, Ned Kelly. These days, it's wineries and gourmet produce are the major attraction.
Everything on offer is close together, it's easy to get around, and it's not too far off the main drag to include as a stop-over on your way to Victoria's high country, or when travelling between Melbourne and Sydney by road. Milawa's wineries are its most well known assets, but there's also the cheese factory and shops specialising in mustards, olives and chocolates.
Milawa Gourmet Region website details all the producer suppliers of the region, and the Pedal to Produce website has some great bike rides (the lazy ones among us can go by car) to the numerous wines and produce localities in Victoria's north east.

Gooramadda Olive Oil

Though grapes have been grown for wine production in Australia for two centuries, it has only been in recent decades that olives, which in Europe are traditionally grown alongside grape vines, have been planted in significant numbers and a local industry developed. Olive oil imported to Australia from Europe can be up to seven years old by the time it reached our tables and is stale and bitter, and it takes a visit to a place like Gooramadda Olives to discover how infinitely better freshly pressed olive oil really is. Gooramadda Olives is a family business located halfway between Rutherglen and Wodonga in North East Victoria. They grow five types of olives, and process them on the property into table olives and cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, which is retailed the final product through our cellar door. These people know their stuff and they are more than happy to share their knowledge to any budding chef who will listen. Their range of olive based products extends beyond just oil to include jars of olives, a home made tapenade, olive oil soap, skin cream and lip balm.

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Your Experiences ...

Has there been a gourmet food supplier you have visited whose produce you have found to be totally yummy? If so, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us a little about the product and the place when you came across it. You can either write the review yourself (feel free to send pics of the product), or simply advise us of the product and its manufacturer and we'll follow it up ourselves.
Our preference is for unique products that are not available at regular outlets across Australia, particularly those which are either unique to their locality or are made with ingredients unique to their locality.