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 […]
Drinks
Get boozed-up here. Try a relaxing tea or a buzzing coffee
Grange Hermitage launch at Dan Murphy’s new flagship
Once upon a time there was a big wine store on Chapel St Prahran. It was called Dan Murphy’s and was pretty flash. Then it was bought by Woolworth’s and moved into a smart new warehouse building across the road – it was the flagship. It is still there but now the flagship is in East Malvern (811-823 Dandenong Rd) and it has a flash tasting room for all the posh wines it sells. I was there Monday for a […]
Farmers’ markets: are they worth it?
Honeycomb from St Kilda Farmers’ market: worth it. Hopping in your car and going to the St Kilda Farmers’ Market (Peanut Farm Reserve, Chauncer St) this Saturday? From Salon (via Crikey!): “Worried about the global warming impact of the fossil fuel consumed by the trucks that bring your tomatoes from hundreds of miles away to your local supermarket? In a life-cycle analysis, the couple of miles that you drive in your car to get to the supermarket and back does […]
Five things you didn’t know about me
I’ve been tagged by Andrea, an Australian living in Paris, from Buy Organic for the “five things” meme. Sorry it has taken me a while… 1. I was exposed in The Australian today. Yes, it is true that this food blogger soon becomes part of the “enhanced” food media landscape. I was first approached by the Herald Sun (Australia’s biggest selling daily newspaper) last November, it firmed up earlier this month and I finally signed a contract last Wednesday. The […]
Wine judges brawl it out
“Judging Australian wine shows is the closest I’ve ever come to hand-to-hand combat.” So says wine writer Tim Atkin the Uk’s The Observer: “No one actually exchanges punches, but the verbal fisticuffs can be brutal. If you’re brought up to be polite and to consider someone else’s point of view, the bare-knuckle opinions can come as a shock. ‘I thought that wine was fucked, mate,’ a fellow judge told me after I’d advanced the claims of one particular Shiraz/Viognier blend.”
Five things to eat before you die
I’ve been tagged by Cucina Rebecca in Sydney to join the “Five things to eat before you die” meme. Devised by The Travellers Lunchbox, as I write this there are 103 entries, that’s 515 dishes. I know what I don’t want to eat and that’s hospital food. I’ve had this big plan just in case some dreadful disease decided to take me. It’s extreme ski-ing. Picking a steep couloir, with the big crevasse at the bottom, I would strap on […]
Aperol Pink Grapefruit Double Agent
Ingredients 45ml Aperol 45ml pink grapefruit juice Tonic water Ice A couple of months ago a bottle of Aperol arrived. I pitted it against Campari, my favourite aperitif. The conclusion was Aperol to Campari is as Averna to Fernet Branca. When I want to stimulate my appetite or put a meal to bed I go for the most bitter aromatic concoction that I can lay my hands on. The same before I eat a meal. Aperol was the junior partner […]
Weasel poo coffee – as posh as pig’s arseholes
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 (hopefully) washes them before roasting. It makes a very, very dark coloured bean and a very strong dark coffee. J says it even tastes of […]
Missing ingredient makes the chai
Sometimes you just need something to calm you down… when you’ve become hot under the collar over teabags. When two interviewees postponed today. As a matter a fact, I’m hot under the collar now. So it was that I though I had to buy chai, that calming hippy dippy Indian spiced tea. Three local supermarkets later and I had none and was too bothered to drive or ride across town to buy it. The best selection was at the local […]