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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, experience, and community. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, please join in.”

I reckon we’ve had open source and transparent wine lists in Australia for sometime. It’s called BYO. And it is coming back. For example, BYO is available every night at Esposito at Toofey’s and Thursday nights at Libertine for a bargain $10. St Jude’s Cellars is doing something similar with its attached bottle shop where $15 is added to the retail price of the wine drunk at the restaurant.

Wine lists cause a lot of confusion with restaurants charging roughly 2.5 times wholesale price sometimes for the very stuff we drink at home. In Nobu’s case the mark-up is three times.

What about an open source menu? Could that work on a BYO model too? Diners turn up with ingredients, possibly home caught or grown, and leave it to the chef. Diners pool ingredients with other tables.

Perhaps, the restaurant has an iphone app which will identify what all the other diners are bringing to the table at the request of the chef. Each diner simple pays $10 for each course for preparation.

As with the internet the chef has to deal with a lot of crap.

Personally, I’ll turn up with a locally sourced Perigord truffle, some Tuna (but unlike Nobu I can’t source otoro direct from Port Lincoln), eggs from my neighbours hens and beets and salad leaves from my inner city veggie garden.

What will you bring and what do you want your open source restaurant to be like?

Popularity: 4% [?]

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 and she wanted to get up and help. I was going to say “flip” burgers that that would debase her artform, the one she performed under she retired at the age of 90 after a stroke.
The actual recipe for the pattie is so secret that even Salakowski’s priest wasn’t allowed into the room when she mixed it. She passed the recipe to her daughter Barbara Zegir, who at the age of 62 has worked in the cafe since she was ten years old and is now taking one year off.
From today Jenny Dee, who is related by marriage, is keeper of the secret.

This burger is the stuff of legend. I know people who would just drive to Seymour on a Saturday night to eat one or two. The key to this burger is in the balance of the egg, pineapple, cheese and pattie - plus the bun. The bun itself has a crisp slightly caramelised crust (not as much as the excellent Rockpool wagyu burger, the best in Melbourne).
The meat pattie is not to large or small. And that’s a key point. There are a lot of people out there who equate good with size and they are wrong. This burger leaves you wanting more rather than wondering when you will get to the end of it.
At $7 the burger with the lot gives Neil Perry’s $17 wagyu a run for its money. In reality the two burgers are completely different beasts eaten in completely different contexts.
So when you are driving up the Hume Highway go straight past the first service centre you see. Don’t even think of Maccas. Turn off and drive through the main street of Seymour. The cafe is on your left by the pub.
It is a five minute diversion that is worth the effort.
Friday lunchtime we had to queue behind eleven people. Be prepared.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Funky Booze Bus challenge on Fitzroy St: see who can get the most drunk

“prominent Melbourne nightclub owner Peter Iwaniuk labelled the meeting “deceptive and biased” and said he was angry that no hospitality industry representatives were asked to speak.

He argued that many of the suggestions were ridiculous and said licensed venues were not to blame for the city’s social problems. He accused the speakers of provoking trouble rather than working productively to address concerns.

“Encouraging a lynch mob mentality in residents who wish to turn entertainment precincts into sleepy hollows is hardly about restoring the balance, the theme of the Government’s new alcohol action plan,” he said.”

From the Saturday Age

11.09 Sunday 29 June. My Sony- Ericcson is buggered and I want to take a picture. There is blood splattered on the street outside Area 61 on Fitzroy Street and down towards the Seven Eleven. Pretty much any Sunday or Monday morning there will be blood splattered on the pavement somewhere on the street.

7.45 Saturday 28th June. Grey Street, corner of Clyde Street. Ten men in dinner suits are pissing against a wall in the street. Their executive bus is stopped on Grey Street.

Peter Iwaniuk you are biased and have no fucking idea what you are talking about.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Perhaps it’s the different rules of society and etiquette in Japan but it is a very strange place when you need an introduction to eat at a restaurant.

I suppose London has a similar thing happening with its traditional Gentlemen’s Clubs. Then there is the more modern Milk and Honey in New York, and now London (and opening the less exclusive Match Bar in QV fairly soon once a few liquor licensing problems are overcome).

Anyway, last week I was talking to Masako Fukui from Kei’s Kitchen (you may have read about their classes on Grab Your Fork) about kaiseki and she was telling me about the culture of restaurants in Japan - and the biscuits too.

“There is a very exclusive biscuit company in Japan called Kaishindo and they even have a website but you can’t buy biscuits from them. You have to have an introduction.”

Masako has eaten some that her mother Kei, a kaiseki chef of over 20 years experience, got through a friend. On her website she says:

“This practice of turning back first timer is known as “ichigensan”, and for example, Kaishindo, a most exquisite handmade biscuit company, will only accept orders from people who have had a personal introduction into the clientele circle. This is the 10th year of my desperate search for an introduction”

Masako says that there are lots of restaurants in Japanese that would not even be considered in Australia as a restaurant. Many may be in dark dingy places that are difficult to find. “They do not have toilets. There are also a lot or restaurants that just won’t allow anybody off the street come in.”

“It’s very exclusive. Somebody who knows the restaurant has to take you there. Sometimes they serve the most exquisite food. But as a food critic or a regular punter they won’t allow in.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

Crispy anchovy bones

“We’re in the country. What do we do now?”
I needed advice but, of course, text didn’t even work on my increasingly dodgy Sony-Ericsson.
There I was stuck, not knowing what to do with my trousers falling down.
I still haven’t worked out why this keeps happening. I am wearing a belt and it is either something to do with me having lost weight and needing to go a notch tighter or because I have put on weight and my belly is pushing the trousers down. Perhaps it was caused because the only thing to do in the country is to eat, drink (as the driver, moderately) and pretend that I am The Stig on winding back roads.
At least I managed to wear the correct underwear for the prevailing conditions.
Saturday’s particular winding road brought me from Beechworth to Range in Myrtleford a restaurant attached to a motel on the Snow Road.
On reflection I may have lost weight as I spent a good deal of time dodging Jackie’s stabbing fork tines at Range as she demonstrated what she wanted to do with the squawking women in the corner.
The problem was that there was another woman squawking behind her and two large tables competing to make the most noise reflecting the noise to us poor couples at the other end.
For the country the service good although there were a couple of blips perhaps to do with their noisy handfuls that night.
Our bread arrived after my superb appetiser of a crispy deep friend anchovy skeleton served atop it’s cured flesh ($4).
I’d expected to have a very meaty weekend being the country but it is possible to eat well at Range as a vegetarian or at least eat only small amounts of meat. The chef, Michael Ryan who has a thing about teapots, has put together a really good menu with simply four appetisers, five starters, mains and puddings and three cheeses.

Beetroot carpaccio

Jak started with a Beetroot carpaccio, orange jelly, Kiewa Estate orange agrumato (orange olive oil), Mt Buffalo hazelnut praline, yoghurt, and tiny beetroot shoots ($17). It was very fresh and the orange/beetroot match works well.

Almost a teapot

I chose some meat I’m afraid, the chicken, local pumpkin, and soy bean tea ($19) which is a broth served in a teapot. The broth was rich and full of savoury umami flavours in which floated chicken dumplings, pumpkin and a generous helping of Soy Beans, which to me always feel like an injection of goodness.
Of course, Jak is a Queenslander and it is impossible for her to eat without meat, a crisp fatty as it should be slow cooked pork belly sitting on segments of roasted apple, an apple and pomegranate sauce and a refreshing shaved fennel salad ($30).

Pork belly

The crackling was paper thin and crispy, not chewy like it often ends up at home. The Pork fell apart at the touch of the fork tines (shortly before they were back in my face again).

I was looking forward to my Potato gnocchi which was tossed with cauliflower, almonds and sage ($26) because it came with King River Gold. It was a classy vegetarian dish but I was disappointed as it turned out King River Gold was not a drug but a local cheese a very tasty one melted into the gnocchi at that.

Gnocchi

It was also a very rich dish which I offset with my own salad of shaved fennel mixed in with apple, celeriac, almonds and feta ($12).
All this was astonishingly good food and astonishingly good value if you are used to City prices. But the wine list is even better with quality wines by the glass costing from $7 to $10.

Chocolate terrine

Now I had to do something drastic. I gambled that I’d lost weight and chose the chocolate terrine ($13) which I hoped would add some weight on to me and help me keep my trousers up. It didn’t as it was light rather than a solid lump coming with a delicate spiced banana mouse, some creme fraiche and some caramelized bananas that were so good I must try doing it at home.
It was time to finish with Ryan’s final teapot integrated with a cup de resistance and a peppermint tea.
Everything was just right and I didn’t need to eat a thing more, and that includes the ladybird in my tea.

The very cool teapot

Food Fascist

- More to come on the surprising amounts of insects we eat.

- Wii Fit not used for three weeks

- Also try Rinaldo’s, Simone’s, The Epicurian Centre, Bridge Road Brewery, Bright Brewery, Warden’s Fine Food. More to come on this soon.

- I’m surprised so much ocean fish is used out here and not moreMurray Cod (farmed) or trout. Cananybody explain?

- Is that bloke from menulog spamming you as well?

Popularity: 9% [?]

Mark Bittman makes a lot of sense on the need not to give up meat but eat less. In the New York Times (via Lifehacker) he outlines a manifesto for eating less meat on which I’ve put my own spin below.

It’s also worth checking out Bittman on the excellent TED Talks.

Meanwhile, with Confessions of a Food Nazi we’re planning the vegan/vegetarian bloggers meet. I think we have six coming already.

Where: Lentil as Anything Abbotsford Convent. Afterwards at Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment.
When: 12.30pm Saturday 26th July

1. Forget the protein thing.
Vegetables have protein too. Ditto nuts etc.

2. Buy less meat
Easy. Meat is becoming too expensive. $38 for an Organic chicken? $30 for a regular leg of lamb?

3. Get it out of the center of the plate.
Make vegetables the centre and meat a condiment, a treat.

4. Buy more vegetables, and learn new ways to cook them.
That’s the tricky bit. Try Antonio Carluccio’s Vegetables.

5. Make non-meat items as convenient as meat.
Vegetables are actually very easy to prepare. And grow.

6. Make some rules.
I’ll have salad instead of a burger one lunchtime this week.

7. Look at restaurant menus differently.
Tricky. Most are meat or fish based.

Any tricks or tips? Are you coming?

Popularity: 15% [?]

It was a close escape. About 300 women and two men packed into the foyer of the George last Sunday afternoon.

I was saved from seeing Sex in the City and instead spent a few hours in the Melbourne Wine Room. Apparently, the change in clientelle there started the previous Thursday. First one Cosmopolitan, then many many more were ordered.

The crowd was different to usual, well-groomed women mainly toasting each other with sauvignon blanc or Champagne pior to the next sitting of the film. None of the emasculated men had temerity to drink beer although I noticed a couple of blokes managed to slip-in a pinot.

Then it was to Baroq House on Thursday, not to have Jägermeister poured down my throat by a topless dwarf in a top hat, sadly (Yes, he also did gigs at Baroq). But for a much classier cocktail class courtesy of  Belvedere Vodka and mixologist Grant Collins from Bar Solutions.

We learnt, we drank and nibbled. How we laughed. And then my team (not named by me) “Two Blonds and a Bloke” came second in the mixology competition. We also made a decent martini and a Moscow mule so I did escape with my masculinity intact, almost. And I’m still avoiding Sex and the City.

 Luxury Cosmopolitan Escape

450 mls Belvedere Cytrus (or plain vodka)

100 mls Grand Marnier (or Cointreau)

600 ml Cranberry Juice

Dash of lemon juice

1. Chill a giant martini glasswith ice

2. Fill the bucket  with ice. Add the vodka, cointreau (on this occasion) and cranberry juice.

3. Remove ice from cocktail glass. Strain mix into cocktail glass.

4. Top with a dash of lemon. Add a flamed orange zest.

5. There’s enough vodka in this to knock you out. Drink irresponsibly and you will be refused entry to Sex and the City.

Popularity: 14% [?]

For somewhere that is so difficult to find, Gills Diner is awfully busy. Blink or become distracted for even a moment and you’ll have missed the skinny Gills Alley.
And two of the three people I have met there did just that, arriving late after circling the Elizabeth St end of Little Collins St.
Perhaps all these people who make it on time to Gills have hacked iPhones, which even without GPS can triangulate your position and guide you to a destination with Google Maps. It wouldn’t surprise me as Gill’s is a very cool place, the valve amplified Vinyl (Morissey!) being the first clue. The lack of website the second.
With the windowed division between dining room and kitchen it puts me in mind of some Bauhaus inspired refectory, with plain wood tables and the sort of chairs that would have once been at home in a down at heel college.
What it lacks in sound absorbing paneling it has in character and charm not to forget an excellent bitter herbed vermouth on the wine list. I wasn’t really paying attention so I can’t give you the name.
On my first visit I was with somebody who from now on will only be known as “Big Red” for his rapacious taste for reds and the unreasonably voilence, mostly Shiraz, he forces on me. We ate a whole pig I think.
On my second visit I was lucky enough to be with my pouting personal sommelier, who all of a sudden has developed the conscience of a locavore which is at odds with her palate of a Burgundy (Barolo or Rioja for that matter) whore.
I’m taking it as given that the list will be fashionably quirky when I eventually come to read it properly.
The food is a squint away on a Blackboard.
Oysters, freshly shucked natch. The rustic terrine is the size of a doorstep, garnished with miniature gherkins and enough for three or four.
The mains are meaty, plenty of pig, and corned beef is a fixture. There is one fish dish.
Like I said I wasn’t really paying attention. The food is good but doesn’t photograph well. Have you ever noticed that about rustic food? Lasagne especially (which isn’t on the menu here) always turns out looking like a cow pat.
Anyway, if you haven’t already, get an iPhone (or put your name down for one) and visit.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Everything just changed today if you read the newspaper food sections in Melbourne.

Citystyle, which I wrote for and was half fashion/half food is no more. It was usually eight pages, although sometime three would be taken with fashion (which I never quite understood).

It never was a match for the absurd F–die weekly Epicure, even though it is wrapped up in the sport section due to some strange quirk of Fairfax’s printing plant.

Replacing Citystyle is extrafood a highly visible 20 page section which mops up celebrity gossip, cartoons, the zodiac, crosswords, a quiz and arts and entertainment as part of a bigger revamp of the daily sections in the Hun.

Including ads and the cover some 11 pages are dedicated to food and drink.

There are three big differences. First, by wrapping everything into this one section it will bring in people who’d never previously read the food and drink pages.

Second, Gordon Ramsay starts a column (helping me represent the under 50s) which will bring more eyeballs.

Third is a major innovation - the launch of eat, a double page spread which this week gives us the top ten country restaurants, 32 one paragraph reviews that rates resturants from one star and dollar sign to five for quality and value and a review of a bar, cafe and pub (in addition to Stephen Downes’ single review). That’s 45on one spread.

I reckon the eat section will substantially increase the influence of the Herald Sun restaurant choice, although the section is aimed at everyday restaurant goers and home cooks rather than the F–die crowd.

One thing that will be interesting to watch is how those restaurants who ban Stephen Downes will be treated. Will they be included in the listing (some are today) and the splash cover features that will follow in coming weeks?

My own column is renamed from Ed lines to extrabite (at one point man bites town was mooted. I liked the idea of man bites chef) and itself, like the section, will evolve over coming issues. I’ve been asked to remember the builders, have a little more space to fill and highlight five food ideas or outlets. Otherwise my brief hasn’t changed too much.

Overall, the section is much more magazine-like with lots of little snippets and information packed in and appears to be more structured than Epicure. But the real test is with the readers.

What do you think? What would you like to see in your ideal food section? Which new features do you like and which are you not so keen on? Has Gordon Ramsay through Channel 9 overexposure jumped the shark?

Popularity: 21% [?]

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 only ones. Social media commentator Laurel Papworth hates it too and finds this quote:

“Flash-based web sites are quite possibly one of the most useful pieces of network technology around. Like heroin or microlights, they ensure that those who think it’s a good idea aren’t around to annoy us for too long.”

Nicely put.

I gather these flash sites cost aver $7,000 a year to run and market, saying nothing of the initial construction costs. But few come up at the top of Google searches and that’s the most important factor in driving traffic to your site. If you web designer advised you to go flash: shoot them

Other tips from the day:

• Personally, I hate music on sites
• Keep it really simple. Over to Laurel again and the usability guy Dr Jakob Nielsen who says:

“Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave. Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.”

• Join up to and use social sites such as Flickr, Youtube and Facebook.
• Link to like minded food and wine sites and get your suppliers to link to you
• Next month the iphone will change everything making mobile search for eating venues a reality

Sorry I have to go and eat a well-hung pheasant now.

Popularity: 27% [?]