NZ and AUS day 5: in which we eat our weight in food

Brent and I spent the whole day on the Tranzalpine train across New Zealand from Christchurch to Greymouth and back.  We took the Scenic Plus Dining experience, which means we basically ate our way through the day.

Here is a picture of my first glass of wine of the day:

 

I am not a food blogger, for the very good reason that I seldom remember to take photos of my food before I eat it, but I did bring the menu home with me, so here’s what we ate:

 

Breakfast:  pastries, mango/orange/banana smoothie, agria potato and herb rosti with poached eggs, bacon, spinach, hollandaise, and grilled tomato (Janet), brioche alpine toast with vanilla mascarpone, poached pear, local honey, and candied ginger crumble (Brent).

 

Lunch:  Roasted free range chicken salad with cos, pickled red onion, roasted corn, and ranch dressing plus finger sandwiches of smoked salmon and champagne ham.  (Brent didn’t eat his salmon sandwich.)  Then there was lunch dessert:  coconut and vanilla panna cotta with peach mango compote (Janet) and Whittaker’s chocolate mousse with Cookie Time triple choc crumble (Brent).

 

Afternoon snack:  South Island hot smoked salmon, charcuterie, marinated olives, pickled vegetables, marinated feta, and pesto with warm baguette.  I swapped my olives for Brent’s salmon and we were both happy.

 

Dinner:  Slow-braised Canterbury lamb shoulder with buttered potatoes, Canterbury wine jus, broccoli and salsa verde (Janet), Agria potato gnocchi with sautéed wild mushrooms, baby spinach, gremolata, and Parmesan (Brent).

 

Dessert:  Caramelized Whittaker’s white chocolate cheesecake with Black Doris plum gelée and compote with short bread crumble (Brent) and cheese platter featuring Talbot Forest gouda, Kapitia brie and Kikorangi blue, crackers, Geraldine pear and fig chutney (Janet).

 

The scenery was tremendous.  I took a gazillion photos, but will only share these four right now:

 

What an amazing trip!