Truffle Hunting – Tarago, ACT

Friday, 29 Jul 11

Sex and old socks. That, apparently, is the smell that was supposed to entice me into waking up at 4 in the morning to call Tim to drag himself out of bed so as to get to me at 5.30 so as to get to Canberra by 9 for a truffle hunt. Looking back on it now, and certainly, at that ungodly hour, I can say I was just a bit insane. Just a bit.

However, as you can see by the evidence of this post, I did indeed make that phone call and we drove down to Tarago, a sleepy (hah, see what I did there?) little town about 30 minutes out of Canberra city itself. Rather than recap all the details of the hunt though, I decided a video was in order, having just discovered that my baby (the camera =P) can film videos.

As you can see by the video, the truffle producers use dogs to sniff out the truffles. Traditionally, pigs were used as they don’t need to be trained, but because pigs actually like to eat truffles, they need to be pulled away as soon as they uncover one. Dogs need to be trained but won’t eat the truffle itself – as you can see, Lucy was quite determined on getting her treat. Lucy is one of the longest serving truffle dogs in the country, and apparently she and her handler go up and down from Canberra all the way to Tasmania during the truffle season.

About the truffle itself? Well…it’s pungent. I can see where the old socks and sex description comes from. They smell earthy and musty and moist, but also somewhat green. At first sniff, I wasn’t sure I liked it. I’ve tried truffle oil (my family loves making truffled mash) and I’m used to and enjoy the smell of that, but the real thing is really strong, almost overpowering for me. Almost like the smell of strong alcohol, with that slight burn in the back of the throat. Very distinct indeed. Once you get used to it though, you can pick out spicy and even floral notes. We bought about $150 worth of truffles to take back to Sydney (at $2.50 a gram).

Then it was time for the optional lunch at the Lake Georges Hotel in Bungendore, where we were promised 2 courses full of truffles with matching wines.

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You could smell the truffles the moment the waiter walked into the room with these bowls, and I think it was here that the flavour enhancing properties of the truffles really worked their magic, making the cauliflower somehow richer and earthier. I make a mean cauliflower soup myself, but somehow, the truffles just lifted the flavour from awesome to jaw-droppingly-not-going-to-share-this-with-my-girlfriend awesome (it was Tim’s entree). Mind you, I was holding the duck hostage, so I did get my half of the soup in the end.

The duck was served on top a bed of watercress, baby beetroot and witlof, a great mix of sweet, fresh and earthy. A sweet balsamic reduction accented the gaminess of the duck. The shaved truffle itself was surprisingly mild in flavour, given its aroma, but almost melted on the tongue.

So I’m a little antisocial, and so Tim made conversation with the lovely couple from Canberra who were going to Italy the week after while I took abstract photos of the wine. Speaking of which, we felt the wine was a little unremarkable, but this may be due more to the fact that neither Tim or I are big wine drinkers.

Roast chicken served on a bed of truffled risotto and rocket was tender, but it was the risotto that caught our attention. The truffle flavour wasn’t immediately apparent, but the al dente grains of rice, avoiding the gluey feeling when overcooked, and made fresh with parsley (and possibly lemon, if my memory serves me correctly), was stunning.

But admittedly, it was the lamb casserole that caught our eye and hearts. Served with truffled mash (that doesn’t need further explaining), the lamb fell apart at the touch of the fork. I only wished there was bread to mop up the comforting sauce. Drooling at the thought of it right now.

So…what to say about the truffles? Admittedly, we have a container full of truffle-scented rice and eggs still in the fridge that need cooking, and the truffles themselves were used to stuff chickens, grated into mash and over truffled scrambled eggs, with the last few grams stored in butter in the freezer to be melted over steak. But we’re more or less truffled out, I suspect, at least for the next few months. And that’s probably a good thing for our wallets.

Posted at 3:14 pm in Crumbs, Eating Out | Respond?

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