When I arrived in my flat nearly a year ago, I brought only half a kitchen with me and had many essentials missing. I’ve been limping along with a cheffy frying pan that needs replacing and no griddle. But the early arrival of zucchinis at my plot in the Mater St Community Garden meant that [...]
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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 champagne (usually a blend of chardonnay pinot pinot meunier and pinot noir) rather than sip it, use a pinot noir glass. I’ve [...]
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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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There’s this thing about the number known in Bingo parlance as legs 11 in our family. Well, apart from my late father who was born somewhere around the summer solstice which means he was a wizard. But for my self, mother, sister, and stepfather all our birthdays fall on the 11th of December, September, June [...]
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See where the knobs broke. Or should that be knobs off? On the surface Miele is the brand to buy. It’s solid, doesn’t discount and sponsors most of the important food events. It is the backbone of the mobile kitchens at Prahran Market. Then why am I left so angry by my stove top? Because [...]
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Admit it, these apply to you too. The other week Christian Lander the author of the blog and now best selling bookStuff White People Like was in town. Basically Stuff White People Like is a bit like Top Trumps for White People. I’ll trump you some Murray River Salt and an Ortiz anchovy over your [...]
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Spot the crap stuff (and pic) in my status symbol kitchen.What kind of swamp do I inhabit? No, I don’t live in Elwood which is now merely stinking canals and is vulnerable to subsidence.I’m talking about the stinking, sticky slimy loathsome depths of depravity that my mind has sunk to meaning that I can’t even [...]
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DJs: “Pitted olives is that?” Tomato:“Oh, yes that’s a wonderful idea. Pitted olives. Oh, but could you hold on the dental work?” DJs:“Excuse me sir?” Tomato: “I’d like that without $5,000 of dental work, please.” DJs: “I don’t understand.” Tomato: “It’s quite simple really. Each batch of pitted olives I buy from you features fully [...]
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Last week at my wine group lunch at Oyster (35 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 300 Vic +61 3 9650 0988) I couldn’t help but notice the steak knives. They have the classic shape and even the trademark bee. But sorry, these are not Laguiole but a blatant copy by Maxwell & Williams. I am very [...]
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I’ve been researching a new coffee machine after my crappy first generation Chinese import lost puff. If a machine is any good, there is usually a massive cost differential between what I could buy it for overseas and in Australia. Then poking around the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website for a story for The [...]
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The electric juicer hasn’t left the cupboard for over a year. It seemed like a good idea at the time but in reality it is simply a sugar machine. Far better I say to cut out the middle man – the juicer – and simply eat the whole fruit, with peel if possible. That gives [...]
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INGREDIENTS 3 cups coconut milk 1 cup chicken/prawn stock or water tad of salt palm sugar cup of cubed pumpkin 6 fresh deveined and peeled prawns and six dried shrimp, rinsed ground white pepper Paste 1 tablespoon or so dried prawns salt 3-4 red shallots, chopped finely 3-4 coriander roots, chopped finely 8-10 white peppercorns [...]
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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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I have a place reserved for the Chocolate 15-18 chocolate humidor right between my truffle brush and my novelty apron. From: Coolhunting
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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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