Norco Maniac
Is back!
**Disclaimer: in this thread you will encounter a gardening cook's food snobbery, dark humour and much talk about Retro bikes - read at your own risk!
round one of our Tour De Parmigana started with last weekend's first State Series points round in Mildura. we left Adelaide on Friday afternoon with the intent to stop in BennyMac's hometown of Renmark overnight and check out the riverboats. we made good time on the road and were able to get to our cabin in the Riverbend Caravan Park before dark with enough time to unload three bikes and associated race gear and go for a wander to the historic river bridge before we were off to the Renmark Hotel for dinner. the hotel was built in 1898 for the riverboat trade and has a stunning Art Deco facade - it's a shame that the bistro and motel were built on and mis-matched and the food certainly didn't live up to the old-worlde charm of the original building. the dining room was open, hard-floored, low ceiling-ed and glass-fronted, all of which combined to make the place incredibly noisy with only half of the tables occupied, and the house specialty of hot cast iron grill-your-own-off-your-plate 'roo and prawns served to create a fug worthy of an Olde English alehouse, minus the charm.
i'd been hoping for a real old-style pub meal such as can be found in the historic hotels in Gawler, but instead we got a bland, overpriced cafe-modern-pretentious selection, the kind that can be found pretty much anywhere in a tourist town. the three dips and bread starter could have come from your local Woolies fridge shelf, my "Porterhouse with blue cheese crust" chef's specialty turned out to be a dollop of cheese on top of a rather ordinary steak with commercial chips and a side order of overcooked veg, and the usually ravenous BennyMac got about halfway through his iron-hard outside, gooey-raw inside Parmie before giving up in disgust. even dessert was a disappointment, we not only had to remind the waitress that we'd ordered and paid already for the dessert, and were finally served a very bland, slightly gritty and almost tasteless "vanilla" creme brulee sprinkled with plastic-tasting preserved orange peel, fake cream and a lone strawberry.
they did have a very nice selection of local wines so at least the meal wasn't entirely a loss.
8/10 for the Long Row Shiraz, very dry and fruity.
-10 for the flash-cooked half-raw Parmie
5/10 (grudgingly) for the Porterhouse - only because it was a decent size
Saturday was a clubby at Mildura, so after a morning spent touring BennyMac's old stomping grounds including a good coffee but pretty ordinary bacon-and-egg sandwich from the corner deli we headed off and arrived just as noms were closing. Mildura has come back from some nasty club infighting to put a very worthy track together. apart from a rather low start gate that's hard to launch off with any speed, the track flows nicely and despite the club crew having to be finishing it in the dark Friday night in nasty dry and blowy conditions, it rode well with enough technicality that all riders had something to play with despite the low gate coupled with gusty winds claiming many victims on both the Saturday and Sunday.
i only brought out the Formula cruiser and BennyMac the new GHP 20" for the day but we were both very glad we'd made the effort to make the clubby. the only odd note was that both of us were targeted for wearing jeans on the track while others were left alone. our are Raceface street/park jeans with an extra crotch gusset and loose knees for wearing guards under, yet they told us that only tracksuit pants were allowed unless we had race pants on. weird.
Saturday night saw us at the local RSL for dinner with young fellow Cross Keys rider and his dad. another disappointment as we were back in BlandPretentiousCafeland (TM) with another high-priced yet rather ordinary menu. my (slightly overdone) pork scallops arrived with risotto wrapped in puff pastry (wtf?) a spoon of bearnaise sauce, and some soggy half-baked pumpkin and broccoli. sigh. BennyMac's parmie was decent tho, nicely crisp at the edges and with enough sauce to be flavoursome without being overpowering. the local Mildura shiraz was another dry, fruity and berrylicious wine served with a big smile from the staff.
8/10 for the local Shiraz
7/10 for the parmie
5/10 for the overcooked pork and pastry-wrapped rice
Sunday's State Series points round saw Violet and BennyMac taking five bikes to the track. we were both riding the Retro Open Wheel class, with BennyMac also riding 14+ money class and 40+ Men's Cruiser while i was on the gate with the 30+ Women and two 13+ girls who had declined to ride with the boys their age. 200-odd riders fronted so seating was a premium - we left our bikes propped against the fence behind staging with water, pineapple juice, dried figs and fruit bars for inbetween race snacking. we literally hopped off one bike, changed shoes, grabbed a drink and a mouthful of fruit then off to roll the carpark to warm the legs or a quick ride to the far-distant amenities before it was back to staging for our next race. i was literally chasing BennyMac onto the start hill to get liquid into him between motos in the blustery, dry and dusty conditions as the organisers churned us through.
the club's organisation was impressive to get us all through between 11am and 4pm with quarter-finals and runoffs as well. the track could have done with a little more water though i've since been told they may have been on water restrictions? the upshot was it was very dry and powdery out there on a longish track with a blustery head/crosswind that made pedalling the Retro bikes a gruelling chore. i was glad to simply get through my eight motos unscathed chasing women 10 years younger than me and girls half my children's age while BennyMac did very well in cruiser, winning all his motos, just missing out on semi's in 14+ by unclipping on a berm, and rolling Retro to warm the legs down.
then it was pack the ute and 400k's back to Adelaide before collapsing into bed still high from the weekend.
round one of our Tour De Parmigana started with last weekend's first State Series points round in Mildura. we left Adelaide on Friday afternoon with the intent to stop in BennyMac's hometown of Renmark overnight and check out the riverboats. we made good time on the road and were able to get to our cabin in the Riverbend Caravan Park before dark with enough time to unload three bikes and associated race gear and go for a wander to the historic river bridge before we were off to the Renmark Hotel for dinner. the hotel was built in 1898 for the riverboat trade and has a stunning Art Deco facade - it's a shame that the bistro and motel were built on and mis-matched and the food certainly didn't live up to the old-worlde charm of the original building. the dining room was open, hard-floored, low ceiling-ed and glass-fronted, all of which combined to make the place incredibly noisy with only half of the tables occupied, and the house specialty of hot cast iron grill-your-own-off-your-plate 'roo and prawns served to create a fug worthy of an Olde English alehouse, minus the charm.
i'd been hoping for a real old-style pub meal such as can be found in the historic hotels in Gawler, but instead we got a bland, overpriced cafe-modern-pretentious selection, the kind that can be found pretty much anywhere in a tourist town. the three dips and bread starter could have come from your local Woolies fridge shelf, my "Porterhouse with blue cheese crust" chef's specialty turned out to be a dollop of cheese on top of a rather ordinary steak with commercial chips and a side order of overcooked veg, and the usually ravenous BennyMac got about halfway through his iron-hard outside, gooey-raw inside Parmie before giving up in disgust. even dessert was a disappointment, we not only had to remind the waitress that we'd ordered and paid already for the dessert, and were finally served a very bland, slightly gritty and almost tasteless "vanilla" creme brulee sprinkled with plastic-tasting preserved orange peel, fake cream and a lone strawberry.
they did have a very nice selection of local wines so at least the meal wasn't entirely a loss.
8/10 for the Long Row Shiraz, very dry and fruity.
-10 for the flash-cooked half-raw Parmie
5/10 (grudgingly) for the Porterhouse - only because it was a decent size
Saturday was a clubby at Mildura, so after a morning spent touring BennyMac's old stomping grounds including a good coffee but pretty ordinary bacon-and-egg sandwich from the corner deli we headed off and arrived just as noms were closing. Mildura has come back from some nasty club infighting to put a very worthy track together. apart from a rather low start gate that's hard to launch off with any speed, the track flows nicely and despite the club crew having to be finishing it in the dark Friday night in nasty dry and blowy conditions, it rode well with enough technicality that all riders had something to play with despite the low gate coupled with gusty winds claiming many victims on both the Saturday and Sunday.
i only brought out the Formula cruiser and BennyMac the new GHP 20" for the day but we were both very glad we'd made the effort to make the clubby. the only odd note was that both of us were targeted for wearing jeans on the track while others were left alone. our are Raceface street/park jeans with an extra crotch gusset and loose knees for wearing guards under, yet they told us that only tracksuit pants were allowed unless we had race pants on. weird.
Saturday night saw us at the local RSL for dinner with young fellow Cross Keys rider and his dad. another disappointment as we were back in BlandPretentiousCafeland (TM) with another high-priced yet rather ordinary menu. my (slightly overdone) pork scallops arrived with risotto wrapped in puff pastry (wtf?) a spoon of bearnaise sauce, and some soggy half-baked pumpkin and broccoli. sigh. BennyMac's parmie was decent tho, nicely crisp at the edges and with enough sauce to be flavoursome without being overpowering. the local Mildura shiraz was another dry, fruity and berrylicious wine served with a big smile from the staff.
8/10 for the local Shiraz
7/10 for the parmie
5/10 for the overcooked pork and pastry-wrapped rice
Sunday's State Series points round saw Violet and BennyMac taking five bikes to the track. we were both riding the Retro Open Wheel class, with BennyMac also riding 14+ money class and 40+ Men's Cruiser while i was on the gate with the 30+ Women and two 13+ girls who had declined to ride with the boys their age. 200-odd riders fronted so seating was a premium - we left our bikes propped against the fence behind staging with water, pineapple juice, dried figs and fruit bars for inbetween race snacking. we literally hopped off one bike, changed shoes, grabbed a drink and a mouthful of fruit then off to roll the carpark to warm the legs or a quick ride to the far-distant amenities before it was back to staging for our next race. i was literally chasing BennyMac onto the start hill to get liquid into him between motos in the blustery, dry and dusty conditions as the organisers churned us through.
the club's organisation was impressive to get us all through between 11am and 4pm with quarter-finals and runoffs as well. the track could have done with a little more water though i've since been told they may have been on water restrictions? the upshot was it was very dry and powdery out there on a longish track with a blustery head/crosswind that made pedalling the Retro bikes a gruelling chore. i was glad to simply get through my eight motos unscathed chasing women 10 years younger than me and girls half my children's age while BennyMac did very well in cruiser, winning all his motos, just missing out on semi's in 14+ by unclipping on a berm, and rolling Retro to warm the legs down.
then it was pack the ute and 400k's back to Adelaide before collapsing into bed still high from the weekend.