International flavour

An international flavour was an added extra at our lunch table today.

The flavour did not arrive on our plates as part of the food order; it was seated at the table. Lady Gallant of Gallant Drive, Mississauga, Ont. is visiting our fair city and what better place to take an international visitor than to dine at the seat of government in this state – Parliament House.

And to the Stranger’s Corridor dining room.

The Strangers Corridor was opened in 1892, as a place where members of parliament could dine with visitors while doing deals and attending to the wants of their more important and influential constituents. As the name suggests the dining room is set in a corridor, albeit a very wide one, with wood panelling, carpet and side alcoves for more private occasions.  

Sounds all very grand doesn’t it?

Lady Gallant didn’t think it was very grand at all. Looking around, she remarked on the scarcity of diners, assuming it was a place neither well patronised nor well advertised. It is not a restaurant vying for a place at the top of the best restaurants in the world and usually attracts members and their invited guests in non-parliamentary sitting days, plus other people in the know.

I chose this venue for one reason in particular; the Stranger’s Corridor dining room is quiet. The floor is carpeted, there are no glass walls and no concrete floor.  Plus it has the aforementioned alcoves; we settled into one of those.  Ideal for three ladies and their accoutrements.

The Old Girl, who arrived from her country seat earlier in the morning, found her way upstairs and we eased ourselves into the comfort of the alcove seats. Seafood linguine was the choice for everyone, and the conversation flowed in a constant stream as you might expect at a table where grandmothers gather and the first topic of conversation is grandchildren. Once the grandchildren were dealt with and it took some time, talk moved onto other happenings, here in Melbourne, in regional Victoria and across the Pacific in Canada.

All this chatter left us without time for coffee.  The Old Girl had a country train to catch at 2.30 so we shouldered out way onto a crowded tram and arriving at Southern Cross station, we walked the long walk to the country train platform and waved The Old Girl goodbye.

These biennial lunches are quite special for us, separated as we are by the Pacific Ocean and half the land mass of Canada.

Alcove for three - Strangers Corridor dining room.