CUISINE
Meals at Albavilla consist of uncomplicated dishes, using the very best of New Zealand's produce. Expect an international style, mostly French or Italian, sometimes with an Asian slant, but never mixed.
Breakfast is leisurely and served in the dining room - consists of a buffet of juices, fruit, cereals etc, and to facilitate service, guests are asked to select a cooked dish from a menu the night before. (Anything is possible, providing we have the ingredients on hand!)
Should guests wish to breakfast in their room, a "bedroom picnic" will be delivered.
Dinner - amuse bouche and four set courses, but recognising that sometimes traveller's desires are more simple, by prior arrangement we can be flexible and tailor a meal to suit.
We specialise in matching food with wine - at Albavilla every meal is a celebration!
Spa Cuisine, Vegetarian and Special Dietary Requirements are by prior arrangement. Extra care is taken to prepare dishes to suit.
Below are some of the dishes that could be part of the dinner menu - a menu is printed daily, with the emphasis on the seasonal availability of produce, organic and free range where possible, with herbs, and sometimes salad ingredients from the potager. Most bread and other baking is made on the premises. The kitchen is built to specifications required for professional out catering.
Amuse bouche - a small mouthful to "amuse the mouth"
(prepared according to the whim of the kitchen)
Wholemeal bread rolls (made by Lois)
Chilled pea and lemon balm soup with yoghurt
Pressed tomato and basil salad with our own fresh goat's curd
Asparagus, gribiche dressing, baby leaves, crisped black forest ham
Salad of Belgian endive, snow beans, pickled quince, blue cheese, walnuts
Truffled mushroom soup
Jerusalem artichoke and oyster soup
Duck raviolo, leek fondu, mushrooms and duck broth
Grilled white polenta, prawns sautéed in garlic butter, tomato fondu
Squid ink pasta, a touch of soy, prawns and salmon caviar
Lettuce-wrapped snail soufflé, tomato and fennel bisque, chervil sabayon
Spiedini of scallops, cauliflower cream, crispy fried leek and truffled brown butter
Crab and salt cod raviolo, zucchini spaghetti, scampi and verjuice butter sauce
Slow cooked five-spiced duck leg, braised lentils, creamed parsnip, baby bok choy
Herb-crusted rack of lamb, pavé potato, fennel confit, grilled baby peppers and zucchini
Lamb rump, lightly smoked and roasted, spiced Israeli couscous, spinach, pomegranate gastrique
Poussin braised in verjuice, pine nut pilaf, Moroccan spiced carrot puree, snow beans and grape and
muscat preserve
Quail stuffed with Italian sausage, wrapped in bacon and roasted, celeriac mash, black-eyed peas and spinach, plum oil
Coq au vin - baby chicken in red wine with pancetta, onions and mushrooms, olive and parsley crushed potato, braised Swiss chard
Macadamia nut mille-feuille with ratafia cream and apricots
Chocolate tart, cardamom anglaise, mascarpone and candied orange
Steamed ginger pudding, vanilla bean ice cream, caramelised apple
Chocolate torta, strawberry syllabub cream and berries
Pavlova sandwich with blueberries, cointreau oranges and burnt orange sauce
Cinnamon panna cotta with cherries and crushed amaretti
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