Royal Mail, Dunkeld

It is well known where I work that when you’re allocated to Horsham Hospital for a rotation, you must drop by The Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The Royal Mail is a 3 Chef Hat restaurant with many other accolades to boot. To provide you with some sort of reference; Horsham is about 3 hours from Melbourne and Dunkeld is around 1.5 hours from Horsham. The road from Horsham is a scenic route and you get to enjoy the beautiful Grampians but it is also notorious for kangaroos and other wildlife. When you arrive at Dunkeld you are greeted by a small town with one petrol station (which closes at 7pm every night) snuggled amongst the Grampian ranges.

My co-interns and I of course had to try the famous Degustation Menu. It is on the pricey side however it was good reason to spend our well earned money on. There is also a Vegetarian option and a Wine tastings option (which is a little more expensive), where you will get accompanying wines with your meals. My friends who had the wine definitely enjoyed it however would’ve liked more!

Rice paper, finger lime & salmon roe

Chicken crisps & pork sandwiches

Tomato, prawns, cinnamon basil & daikon ice

Heirloom carrots, garlic, soy cream & sorrel seeds

Egg yolk, new potatoes, salt cod & fish crackling

Slimy mackerel, mustard, nori & sugar snap peas

Eel, bone marrow, eggplant & pickled vegetables

Duck coastal plants & calamari cream

Apple, almond & caramel

Berrie, fig leaf, white chocolate & rose

Pistachio, hazelnut, honeycomb & chocolate

It was definitely a amazing menu accompanied by visually stunning creations. My favourite would be the first 2 courses. I have never had such a “hoity toity” food experience before, so I’m not too sure about some of the weird textures such as calamari cream and daikon ice and bone marrow. It is on the expensive side however it is worth the experience. It’s definitely something you want to do once!

Week run-through

I apologise for the lack of posts. It’s been difficult doing anything besides working and sleeping these past few weeks. With school holidays over, things are getting busier at the hospital, with more patients and surgeries.

These last 2 weeks have been tough with the changeover of Registrars and increase in patient numbers. There’s more secretarial duties, pagers going off and sicker patients… but I’ve learnt that I really have a great support system around me and have been so appreciative of the help and support my fellow interns and registrars offer.

I’ve come to really love the Australian landscape. There’s no where in the world like it and being in Medicine has allowed me to travel around this beautiful country.

One of the things you must do when you are doing a rotation in Horsham is to dine at the Royal Mail in Dunkeld. A 3 hat restaurant, 1 and a half hours from Horsham. A hoity-toity service and degustation menu- worth the experience but not sure about the expensiveness and long trecherous drive along unsealed roads dodging kangaroos.

The weekend before Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend came down to visit and gave me this new Pantone book with an attempt to create multi-coloured roses.

I’m so glad to be back in Melbourne this weekend. Was anticipating a crazy weekend, but am happy for it to be quiet and restful. Have a lovely weekend!