Gnome Among the Gumtrees

The fancy truffles were from Manjimup - land of tall trees and green fields. 

On the way to Manjimup is another mythical place...

Gnomesville.
(Seriously it's on the map. Google it.)

The Legend of Gnomesville.

"Vicki Campbell is a Ferguson valley local who lived on the north western side of the roundabout with her husband Kevin. Both played a fundamental part in the early years of Gnomesville. Vicki recalls her early life with many gnomes around her parents farm.

The story starts when she saw new surveying pegs and found out that the old couple on the south side were to have some of their land annexed for a new T junction. There was much concern about this T junction, not only from the land to be taken but also from the T being at the bottom of a hill.

A public meeting with the Shire and landholders outlined the objections and a decision was made to consider a roundabout. Eventually this came to pass but tensions still remained.

At this time the first gnome appeared. No one put it there. Vicki is quite clear about this. This was the gnome of legend. It was first seen in the hollowed out old tree next to the roundabout. In her childhood Vicki had parked her bicycle here to catch the school bus.

As in the legend, it wasn’t long before other gnomes joined in this silent protest. But the gnomes were not the type to take things too seriously. Some times they would entertain both themselves and spectators with cricket and football matches. The West Coast Eagles football team was the one to beat in those days. They used to play on the roundabout but they were evicted from there.

Within a few months there were perhaps 20 gnomes. Over the years, perhaps 30 of Vicki’s gnomes have come to stay in Gnomesville. And now...

There are thousands.

 I didn't even know there were that many gnomes in this country, let alone in one place.

And they've come from far and wide, each with their own story. 

Over hill and dale...

 

...or in caravans...

...with the few rogue gnomes being put in their place...

 ...before reaching their new home among the gumtrees....

It's gnome sweet gnome.

Friends with a Friend

 The great thing about having visitors is that you get to do things you never would.

There's a restaurant two blocks down the street that I pass at least twice a day, if not more. 

Ironically, it's called Friends.

Friends is a fancy restaurant.

Luckily I had a friend coming to visit me that happens to enjoy my love of food.

Friends also had a coupon for a fancy dinner.

A truffle dinner.

A truffle degustation.

So my friend and I put on our fancy dresses for a fancy dinner at Friends.

Truffles are quite trendy now. They also happen to grow in Western Australia (these were from Manjimup to be exact) and it's truffle season. I like chocolate truffles,  but have never had the fungus truffle. Let alone five courses infused by truffles. It started with the fancy waiter bringing out a truffle in his white gloved hand to let us sniff the truffle.

And since I didn't take a picture of the whole menu, I will have to describe them with my not so MasterChef interpretations.

First Course: White bean and field mushroom soup with black truffle. It was so creamy that the two soups stayed separate to make a yin yang in the bowl. And said white gloved man came back to shave some truffle onto out soup.

 

Second course: Cold chicken meatloaf with some crunchy pickled carrots. With some truffle sauce strewn across the plate.

 

Third Course: Slow aged beef with a wine reduction, some pureed peas, orange (maybe carrot?) something and beets, cauliflower and some delicious fancy scalloped potatoes.

Fourth Course: Creamy brie cheese (because who doesn't like cheese) with a single dried apricot a couple walnuts and some other random stuff. Negative was the brie was a truffle sandwich. But the part of the cheese that didn't have truffle tasted good.

Fifth Course: A creamy mousey thing and truffle ice cream. Yum.

And the best part about it was getting to share it with my Friend.