Four years ago when I launched my doomed anti-F–die mag Tomato elbowed my way in to interview Melbourne chef Karen Martini at the time she was launching Mr Wolf. The thing that stuck with me is that she liked calm in her kitchen rather than the pot-throwing and stomping of a certain top local chef [...]
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Sorry to repeat myself, but a few Age readers come to this blog and it is a big story that Ferran Adria is coming to Melbourne in October courtesy of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and his publisher Phaidon. He is here as part of his world tour, which includes Sydney, to promote his [...]
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I’ve always been an anarchist but just recently I’ve realised that even in the anarchic world of blogging I’ve realised the need for rules as a couple of bloggers need their heads banging together. There is the local food blogging equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis going on between Grocer at Get Real! and Duncan [...]
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There are a few new decent coffee places in St Kilda but right now there is a bit of a buzz about Nineteen Squares on the Peanut Farm side of Blessington St. I first heard about it from a neighbour, then down at the dog park. And it looks like becoming a popular spot for [...]
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There’s been a lot of agro, some uninformed, on the blogger versus “qualified” journalist debate this year. It’s now time to put some facts behind some of the arguments to see just who read and thinks of what and how often they do it through a survey of food and drink blog and website readers. [...]
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Just a reminder for this Saturday. We can’t book a table during the day so we’ll have to take pot luck on a table. Where: Lentil as Anything, Abbotsford Convent. Later: Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment When: Saturday 26th July from 12.30pm Who: Looks like a dozen or so of us. All comers welcome bloggers [...]
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Spice finds a giant Perigord truffle. The whole of Australia is Perigord truffle crazy right now. In the past few weeks alone I’ve eaten some of the best and most aromatic truffle dishes that I have ever come across. Chefs report they have never seen so many from Australia and summer ones imported from France. [...]
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Look around you. There is probably one similar near you right now. This is the New Zealand Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc ( the most popular and ubiqitous white wine in Australia) of cafe chairs. I keep tripping up over it everywhere. This picture was taken in Hamilton (worth avoiding). I’ve seen it in the Yarra [...]
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Officially it’s this blog’s third birthday on Friday 11th, the start of a week of celebrations with a top prize for readers. I’m going to map the current food and drink blogscape and conduct and Aussie version of Leena’s survey of blog readers. Tonight to celebrate I eat and drink at the Royal Mail Hotel [...]
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Jeff Jarvis (via NYT) is twittering and blogging about an open source restaurant: “I twittered that I was having fun writing the chapter in my book about what a restaurant run on Googlethink might look like (besides being decorated in gaudy primary colors)… …I have lots of ideas about an open and transparent restaurant operation, [...]
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The Caravan Cafe in Seymour doesn’t look like much. And it really used to be a caravan when Stella Salakowski opened it back in 1956 after arriving from Poland a few years earlier. Salakowski sadly died on Mother’s Day this year, aged 94. Her last visit to the cafe was in March in a wheelchair [...]
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Three years ago I went on a boozy winery tour with a busload of artist mates. Somehow along the way I managed not only to buy two small olive trees, but also two magnificent French oak wine barrels to plant…
There’s a rumour that Melbourne hospitals lay on extra staff in the Emergency Department at this time of year. Yes, it's tomato season and given our vast migrant population, there will invariably be a few home-bottling and canning disasters. Every Italian…
Making yoghurt at home is really simple and doesn't take much science. Here we make two different styles of yoghurt using both cows' and goats' milk.
It took four hours of a Saturday afternoon to construct this gigantic pie.
The recipes available are all pretty similar, three different types of pork with herbs and spices surrounded by jelly and encased in a hot water pastry. This one…
There's a lot of meat and fat in a pork pie including the hot crust pastry which is made with lard and butter.
I bought a whole tub of dripping, which is basically like lard (pig fat) but from beef, as…
Five days later and the bacon is cured. Salty and sweet, with a hint of juniper and sage, it was worth it.
Nothing is ever easy for me. Frustrated by the poor quality of filling and pastry in local pork…
Recent journalismWe don't see much innovation in cookbooks nowadays but The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria is as you'd expect from one of the world's most innovative chefs.
What most…
Consult a financial adviser before drinking from a Riedel.
Dishwasher tablets erode your glasses and crockery. Use liquid instead.
Decant heavier reds at least 8 hours before drinking.
If you want to drink…
Three years ago I went on a boozy winery tour with a busload of artist mates. Somehow along the way I managed not only to buy two small olive trees,…
There’s a rumour that Melbourne hospitals lay on extra staff in the Emergency Department at this time of year. Yes, it's tomato season and given our vast migrant population, there…
Making yoghurt at home is really simple and doesn't take much science. Here we make two different styles of yoghurt using both cows' and goats' milk.
One of the most exciting chefs to be in town for the Sydney International Food Festival was the witty and erudite David Thompson. If you aren't familiar with Thompson, the…
I recently had a non-brush with death while eating what turned out not to be my last meal.
It made me think of all the meals I'd wasted. A bad…
Neil Perry (left), Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal (bald). Courtesy of the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival.
On the SBS Food site you can see my story on meeting Thomas Keller…
Typical. Just as the world peaked Paul Levi, the man who had no small part in bringing us the slightly dubious word “Foodie”, launches the Gastrosexual, a man with more…
With thanks to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
It's 3.50 on a Friday afternoon. I've just finished a great meal cooked by Scott Pickett at The Point in Albert Park…
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