Image courtesy of Bretts Wharf

I’m sure you can tell I’m a lover of mushrooms, take my most recent Mushroom Bourguignon recipe for example, so it was a no brainer when I was invited to take part again this year in Australian Mushroom Growers Mushroom Mania month.  For those of you unfamiliar, Mushroom Mania is a celebration of mushrooms and mushroom dishes taking part during July in over 2,000 restaurants Australia wide. To kick things off this year I opted to start at Brett’s Wharf located on the banks of the Brisbane river in Hamilton.

It’s just over 6 weeks until our wedding, yes, I’m thrilled to announce we’re finally getting married soon, so things the last week have been quite hectic to say the least. While so far everything has been, thankfully, relatively easily slipping into place, it was still a welcome break to head out for lunch to Brett’s Wharf on Sunday and sit back and relax while we enjoyed the beautiful water views over lunch and a glass of wine.

When we arrived I was surprised at how busy it was for a Sunday lunch, with the restaurant being three quarters full. Famous for it’s seafood, it was no surprise to see most of the nearby tables full of delicious seafood dishes, with the shared plates of Chermoula Prawns, Grilled Bugs, Crispy Squid, Grilled Oysters and Lemon Butter Sauce being eagerly enjoyed. We were there to enjoy their mushrooms dishes though, so this was our focus when we scoured the menu.

As we weren’t overly hungry we decided to head straight into mains, with Troy selecting the Grilled & Pistachio Crusted Black Angus Beef, Wild Mushrooms and Tobacco Onions. I was slightly disappointed that there were no vegetarian mushroom dishes available, but happily opted to go with the Tomato Tatin with Goats Cheese, Caramelised Shallots and Kalamata as I adore tomatoes.

After we ordered and our waiter left the table a lovely waitress called Anai came over and introduced herself and asked if we were the “mushroom people”. I said yes and she told us how her Mum is one of the research scientists involved in researching the health benefits of eating mushrooms, which was a lovely coincidence. Seeing I was not able to order a vegetarian mushroom dish she told us about some mushroom stuffed zucchini blossoms that were part of the duck entree and ran to the kitchen to organise them as a side dish so I had a mushroom dish to try. I really appreciated this, as it was not something she had to do.

Grilled & Pistachio Crusted Black Angus Beef, Wild Mushrooms & Tobacco Onions – $39

Troy enjoyed his dish of Black Angus with Wild Mushrooms, although admitted the meat was a little drier than he would have liked, but he said the mushrooms were delicious, especially matched with the beef.

My Tomato Tatin appeared as two individual tatins, with two tomato halves encased in puff pastry, acommpanied by roasted shallots, goats curd and a kalamata tapenade. The tatins were lovely with the tomatoes bursting with flavour and worked wonderfully with the sweet roasted shallots and creamy goats curd.

Brett’s Wharf Hamilton – Tomato Tatin – $27

I absolutely adore zucchini blossoms, so I was thrilled that Anai managed to arrange the mushroom stuffed blossoms as a side dish. The zucchini blossoms were lovely and crisp in their light batter coating and the mushrooms filling was packed with finely diced mushrooms and onions which had been cooked down to make the most beautiful and intense mushroom filling. The mushroom stuffing did overpower the zucchini blossoms, however as they were designed to be enjoyed as part of a duck dish, it was taken out of context being enjoyed on it’s own, but enjoy it I did.

I’m not normally one to skip dessert, but considering I want to look my best in my wedding dress, we did. That being said, I was tempted by the evilly delicious sounding Caramelised Banana Tart with White Chocolate Ice Cream and Popcorn.

Mushroom stuffed Zucchini blossoms

 

Join the Mushroom Mania fun and you could win $150

Mushroom Mania runs from July 1 through to July 31.  Here’s how can you join in and win?

• Download the free Mushroom Mania app for your smartphone or check out the locality guide online to find your local participating restaurants.
• Order a dish that features mushrooms
• Write and submit a review of a mushroom dish you’ve eaten for your chance to win $150 every week throughout July

• Join the Mushroom Lovers Club for mushroom recipes, cooking tips, news and more
• Follow Mushroom Mania on Twitter and Facebook

 

Bretts Wharf
449 Kingsford Smith Drive
Hamilton QLD 4007
Website: http://www.brettswharf.com.au/
Phone: (07) 3868 1717

 

Delicieux dined at the Bretts Wharf with compliments of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association as part of Mushroom Mania month.