Story and photos: S Haslam
For a sublime afternoon look no further than a long lunch at Frida’s Field, a local farm to table restaurant set in the idyllic rolling green paddocks of Nashua. Having written about the venue last month, we thought we’d check it out for ourselves last weekend. The eatery is housed in a large, elegant barn built with exposed beams, and positioned like an altar is a recycled brick oven, the centrepiece of an open kitchen at the far end of the spacious room. The barn is largely open on two sides, affording lovely rural views and a feeling of connection with the field and the freshness of the country breezes.
With a menu focussing on sustainable ‘paddock to plate’ style food the long lunches are seasonal, somewhat communal feasts, but the set menu of various dishes is designed to be shared by people of your booked party, not with people you’ve never met before. Various group sizes are catered for, and last Saturday the venue was almost full with large groups on long-range tables, some handful sized clusters and couples like ourselves. Whilst everyone in the restaurant is eating a similar meal, you still feel special – I was eating from the vegetarian menu, with our own bottle of wine and full table service.
The meal consists of firsts, starters, a main, sides and dessert and the food really does cover all bases – there are elegant and finessed flavours uniting with an earthy and substantial style and ingredients. The Smoked Ocean Trout rillette with sourdough croutons and chive vinaigrette piqued the senses beautifully, and the Wood-fired Jerusalem artichoke with sour cream and charred lemon was another ‘you definitely can’t make this at home’ favourite. The main of Wood-fired Beef was ‘fall apart tender’, and the roast cauliflower purée was a great accompaniment. The passionfruit and almond cake that was offered for dessert was warm out of the oven, with a slight crunch to the subtle crust, yet soft and moist inside, served with fresh cream. We were even talking about it the next day.
It’s not everywhere that enjoying a gourmet meal in a gorgeous setting contributes to sequestering carbon, building soil health and fostering biodiversity, so if you need one, the agroforestry principles of the farm provide yet another great excuse to go!
Frida’s Field
76 Booyong Rd Nashua
Long lunches Fri, Sat and Sun. Bookings only.
See fridasfield.com
