April 2007

Menus: get an artist to get ahead

by Ed

Image pinched from the Rockpool Bar & Grill WebsiteHas anybody noticed the amount of art finding itself onto menu’s of late? I’m not going to get into the definition of art

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Cyber recipes

by Ed

Three slide shows from Wired magazine of molecular cuisine from a top chef: 1. The Cyber Egg Yum. Sodium alginate and calcium chloride. 2. Potato With Truffle Espuma Don’t forget the nitrous oxide. 3. Coffee Caviar Ooh! More sodium alginate and calcium chloride. It all sounds lovely. Seriously, it’s only the nitrous oxide that is [...]

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Fat girl, thin girl…

by Ed

Ever checked out what’s on the inside of either? From one of the most pithy and my favourite blogs.

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Lessons with terriers, cheese and pasta

by Ed

Mungo, the little bastard who stole the Parmigiano-Reggiano and much more This is the dog with the embarrassing problem that stole the Parmigiano-Reggiano that had been hardening in the fridge for weeks. Little bastard. Luckily I had already shaved, with a dangerous weapon, some of hard stuff onto the pasta and ragu. There’ve been many [...]

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Vote Vue de Monde

by Ed

I’m not sure that Sharon Shannon Bennett needs anybody’s vote as his restaurant Vue de Monde has wiped the floor in just about every single restaurant award in Australia over the past couple of years. But he may need your help in voting for the Vue de Monde website designed by David Trewern Design in [...]

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Another top 100 list

by Ed

There’s another list of Australia’s top 100 bloggers a refinement that figures the local and international Alexa ranking into Craig Harper’s Technorati based list (the list is at the bottom right. Try and ignore the self promotional ads). Out of eight food blogs in the list, two – Grab your Fork and A Journal of [...]

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14 ways to tell when a restaurant will close down

by Ed

Together with news that Port Melbourne’s Ping has closed (via Epicure) comes, via Ruhlman, the news that 60 per cent of restaurants fail, not the popularly quoted figure of 90 per cent. According to Businessweek, banks perpetuate the myth that 90 per cent of restaurants fail, which justifies the fact that they won’t invest in [...]

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Tazziberry the next Kiwifruit?

by Ed

I’ve no idea what the Tazziberry used to be called. All I now is that at $5 it was $3 cheaper than the Blueberries at the market last week. And so I made the mistake of trying whatever this rebranded fruit really is. The Tazziberry website doesn’t give much clue to what they are either [...]

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Enjoying the Japanese aesthetic at Tempura Hajime

by Ed

Sashimi and eel in the foreground. There is sometime that draws me back time and time again to the stripped back aesthetic of a good Japanese restaurant. It is the antidote to the worst of what try-hard restaurants offer. I’m talking about the over elaborate try-hard food that has become the vogue in some of [...]

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Top 100 Aussie blogs

by Ed

At least ten food blogs are among the top100 Aussie blogs according to this ranking – check the bottom of the right hand column. I sneak in at No.89 and probably one or two other food blogs should be in there.

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The $731 pizza

by Ed

That’s in US dollars. Who paid that much?

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Hot ten restaurants for March

by Ed

There are many ways people find this blog, some typing the address directly, some via RSS feeds and others searching through Google. Always among those Google searchers are the ones not seeking Anthony Bourdain but asking whether Anthony Bourdain is gay, the result of an interview with him when he mentioned a gay bar. This [...]

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Lazy supper

by Ed

We can’t all fresh healthy food all the time and when you’ve had a busy week and missed the market sometimes you just want a takeaway. For me, aside from a curry, there is nothing better than spurting Heinz Tomato Ketchup over a plate of Flake (probably very un-eco) and chips from Clamm’s Fast Fish [...]

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Home made praline cocoa nut Felchlin chocolate bunnies

by Ed

Does anybody out there remember Suchard praline Easter Eggs? As a child and adult I was obsessed with the things eating kilos at this time of year. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a tradition of praline eggs in Australia. I’m forced to make my own but every shop in Melbourne – including my usual [...]