It all started with an idea from Reemski from I am obsessed with food who set up an Australian (and let’s make that NZ too) Foodbloggers Google Group to discuss the idea of an Australian Foodbloggers’ Conference modelled on the not so International one in the US. I’ve also set up a group Google spreadsheet [...]
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Remember the days when continually old media bagged food bloggers? The same thing isn’t happening with Twitter, a cross between texting and direct messaging – in a way a microblog. Could it be – to the media at least – that Twitter is the acceptable face of social media? Or is it because Twitter is [...]
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To date I’ve been quite polite to all the people who have approached me to run competitions for bloggers to write review of restaurant review sites. I haven’t run any because I don’t believe bloggers are the people who will mainly review on these sites. The thing about this blog is that it is my [...]
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F inally we have a winner for the food blog survey sponsored by Kitchenware Direct, picked from the 165 entries. In social media tradition I asked on twitter for a random number. I got three, added them up and divided coming up with Andrew Dean from Windsor who was chuffed to have won the Shun [...]
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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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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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It is quite bizarre how many restaurant websites use flash technology. It was quite clear at Restaurant08 during my panel session on the internet with chef Raymond Capaldi, Mark Armstrong from Google, Julia Topliss from Web Prophets that none of us like it (and Google has trouble finding sites with it). And we’re not the [...]
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I can’t believe myself yesterday on the restaurant reviewing panel at Restaurant08 downplaying the influence of blogging. Of course, what I was doing was downplaying the influence of blogs versus a newspaper such as the Herald Sun which has around 1.8 million readers a day. I’m lucky if I break 1,000 unique visitors a day [...]
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Dissident Chef wrote:Where are you Tomato? Are you flying the flag yet? DC He means: I am running an underground restaurant? Regulars will remember last winter and spring the hype over an alleged Melbourne underground restaurant. While a software updated meant the content of the post was lost, the short of it is that Zingara [...]
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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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