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Oops, it\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day and you\u2019ve forgotten to get a booking at your partner\u2019s favourite restaurant, which now has more reservations than a nervous bungee jumper. You are, in common parlance, dead, or you will be if you don\u2019t act fast.<\/p>\n
You could just take him or her somewhere that doesn\u2019t take bookings, such as Longrain in the city or Cicciolina in St Kilda, or go for oysters and champagne at the bar at Oyster
\nLittle Bourke or the Melbourne Wine Room.<\/p>\n
The danger with this is that your valentine might want to know why you didn\u2019t book somewhere proper \u2013 and then the jig is up. If you haven\u2019t booked, it is far better to point out that going to a restaurant on Valentine\u2019s Day is “such a cliche\u00b4” \u2013 that\u2019s when all the least sophisticated people have a big night out \u2013 and you didn\u2019t want to share your beloved with a room full of strangers.<\/p>\n
Then set a time for that evening when you can be alone. This should buy you a couple of hours organising time at least. As Shakespeare so famously wrote, “food be the music of love” \u2013 so there is no better way to celebrate Valentine\u2019s than by feeding the one you love something delicious in
\nnice surroundings.<\/p>\n
Get a rug, an ice bucket, two champagne flutes and a chilled bottle of fizz \u2013 remember Valentine\u2019s Day is all about presentation, so those extra touches make it look like you\u2019ve planned ahead even when you haven\u2019t \u2013 and then head off with them to buy fish and chips from your favourite chippy to enjoy on the beach with a glass of the fizz. Or pull together a picnic as simple as smoked salmon sandwiches and take your valentine to a leafy spot in a botanic garden
\n\u2013 or, even better, boating at Studley Park. The boating costs $36 for two hours, but check with the boathouse (98531828) to make sure the boats aren\u2019t already booked. Don\u2019t forget the insect repellent.<\/p>\n
The presence of young children obviously complicates matters. Let\u2019s face it: few teenage babysitters are willing to admit they are free on this night of the year, especially at short notice. This means the Valentine\u2019s Day treat
\nmay need to be given at home, which necessitates something more focused and luxurious.<\/p>\n
Immediately, I\u2019m thinking chocolate \u2013 but chocolate alone is hardly enough! You need to add a sexy tipple. This is where wine whiz Natalie MacLean steps in. Natalie has compiled a list of 50 chocolate dishes, each perfectly matched with
\na sexy wine or two. The dessert section of her online food and wine matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com\/matcher will reveal the right match for everything from chocolate brownies (oloroso sherry) to dark chocolate mousse (liqueur muscat or pink champagne).<\/p>\n
When it comes to bars of the stuff, she\u2019s equally helpful. Natalie firmly believes that the creamy flavours of chocolate go best with sweet, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines. So it\u2019s an Italian amarone with your squares of bittersweet chocolate or a Hungarian tokaji with milk chocolate.<\/p>\n
If chocolate is not your valentine\u2019s weakness, fear not because Natalie\u2019s website will also tell you what goes with
\nanything from asparagus to zucchini. Chocolate\u2019s most popular valentine partner is probably flowers rather than
\nwine, but if you\u2019ve left everything this late then the best bunches may have already sold out. Instead, why not give the one you love a small rose bush? Then you can attach a cheesy card about how it will “continue to grow like our love.”<\/p>\n
Alternatively, live by the very sound rule that you only give flowers when they are not expected and when you haven\u2019t
\ndone anything wrong. You\u2019d better get a gift instead. Here again, there are some sound pointers on what to buy. For her this means nothing with a plug on it, nothing that relates to the home or cleaning and nothing that you want. Sadly, this usually includes saucy red lingerie and that signed photo of Tony Lockett with his greyhounds. Whatever it is, make sure it comes in folded tissue paper and is then placed in a smart box that is tied with ribbon.<\/p>\n
For him? Maybe it\u2019s just me, but isn\u2019t a year\u2019s subscription to Bacon Busters just about the most perfect present any bloke could get? I mean, what could be better than four issues packed with nothing but pig hunting. Well, other than some sexy red lingerie, a bottle of sweet nutty sherry and some brownies. Alternatively, you could just take our most important piece of advice and try and book somewhere for dinner on Thursday night \u2013 now!<\/p>\n
For more articles on chocolate and wine pairings, click on the tag below called “Chocolate & Wine” …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oops, it\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day and you\u2019ve forgotten to get a booking at your partner\u2019s favourite restaurant, which now has more reservations than a nervous bungee jumper. You are, in common parlance, dead, or you will be if you don\u2019t act fast. You could just take him or her somewhere that doesn\u2019t take bookings, such as Longrain in the city or Cicciolina in St Kilda, or go for oysters and champagne at the bar at Oyster Little Bourke or the Melbourne Wine Room. The danger with this is that your valentine might want to know why you didn\u2019t book somewhere proper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chocolate-wine","category-food-wine-pairing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6479,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/6479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}