A: It didn’t used to but increasing in Australia we are buying into the idea of Fairtrade, as these charts show. This week Harriet Lamb director of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK is visiting Australia, a leader in certification of the ethical sourcing of products. The fact is that Europe has been leading the [...]
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Check out Everything wanted to know about coffee (but were afraid to ask your hipster Barista) part 1 I‘m drinking coffee made from beans that are one month old. The beans are from the Bambito estate in Nicaragua. They are arabica, from from a mutation known as Caturra. It’s here in Australia because Nolan Hirte, [...]
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Cibi: try the green tea muffins Cibi is a cafe that thinks it’s a gallery. Actually, it is a gallery and regularly holds openings to launch the various (mainly kitchen) products it imports (mainly) from Japan. Housed in a modern warehouse building on Keele St, the Cibi space features a large open kitchen and grunge [...]
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So there we are, driving along minding our own business in Sal’s Fiat 500. Well, we’d reversed out of Flinders Lane illegally right next to the Police Station and then driven through the bollards into Little Collins Street. A traffic warden has the gall to bollock us. Yes, I’m afraid my sound still isn’t up [...]
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In addition to my journalism, now I am blogging for a living over at Ad News and for St Ali where I’m producing a series of video blogs looking at various aspects of coffee culture and some of the geekery behind it. Cafe and coffee culture in Melbourne is going crazy right now and the [...]
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I‘m starting to judge cafes by their espresso machines. The more serious the machine, the better the coffee. So when you walk into a cafe and you see a six group Synesso longer than a coffin worth some $40,000 and you know something special is going on. It sorta trumps even St Ali’s $30,000 Slayer [...]
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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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They say if you leave a monkey on a typewriter for long enough they will produce the works of Shakespeare. Similarly if you leave a human being on a espresso machine for long enough and it will eventually produce a decent extraction. The problem is that there is no consistency. Such is the case at [...]
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Meanwhile on the Cappuccino Coast the Geelong Advertiser is still frothed-up in the absurd coffee-gate (their words not mine). “Councillor Shane Dowling said the idea for duelling baristas on the waterfront could become a permanent feature of the Geelong event calendar…. The comments sparked a storm, with noted Melbourne food writer Stephen Downes leaping to [...]
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The Geelong Advertiser found itself at the centre of a storm in a very hot coffee cup yesterday after Geelong-Otway tourism supremo Roger Grant came out calling for a better quality of caffeine beverages across the city. He said: “Why can’t we be known as the the cappuccino coast?”
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We are a coffee granule free zone. But I do have half a kilo of some stuff that passed out of a Weasel’s backside. At least in Vietnam they call it weasel. It is a civet and the beans are poohed out, it having eaten the coffee berries. Some poor bugger collects the droppings and [...]
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Just warming-up the new Ricoh for Andrew at Spittoon Extra’s breakfast meme. Saturday morning at ikea. I was ready to be apaled. Two sausages, two hash browns, bacon (I avoided the spongy looking scrambled egg), tomato and beans plus an orange juice and a pretty good long black for AUD6. That’s about £2.50. And it [...]
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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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