It’s the dream of many to buy a cute little vineyard somewhere and start making wine, good wine hopefully. It’s the sort of hobby that sends people broke with high entry costs and often inferior wine produced. But oh what a joy to drink something you’ve made yourself, even though all your friends just want to spit rather than swallow. The sensible way to make wine is not to own a vineyard. All you need is access to good grapes […]
Month: May 2011
The downside of taking the China option
Kerrie Richards says quality and specifications aren’t up to scratch FACING a strong dollar and the prospect of increased input costs from the federal government’s proposed carbon tax, the big concern for many local manufacturers is the threat of low-cost competition from China. But as Queensland manufacturer Merino Country has found, China has as many disadvantages as advantages for many Australian manufacturers of clothing. Kerrie Richards, managing director and owner of the merino clothing manufacturer, says the company is pinning […]
Gambling with padrons
Padron peppers: are you game? A box arrived in the post, a big one, packed with padron peppers. They were plump, bright green ones, picked the day before by Garry Crittendon, the pioneering winemaker on the Mornington Penisula, who first planted vines there in 1982 at the age of 28. These padrons were far larger and more vibrant in color than any I’ve seen for sale in some of the better food stores and in Melbourne’s markets. They looked and […]
Modernist Cuisine and how to buy cookbooks
There are plenty of reasons to buy Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. The trouble is that all Australian retailers rip us off so I would, when it becomes available, buy it online If you are unfamiliar with the book, it is the brainchild of former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold who holed himself up in a 1670 sq m warehouse with assorted chefs, geeks, scientists, cheffy geeks and food journalists to create the definitive six volume […]
Kicking Indian food clichés
What’s your favourite Indian dish? Chicken tikka masala? Rogan josh? Naan bread? Indian restaurants have huge menus full of these and other popular dishes from the north of the country, but most ignore the delightful vegetarian spiced food from the south, and the wondrous array of fish dishes from a country with 6,100km of coastline on the mainland alone. By moving away from the staples of the north, Atul Kochhar has changed the way Indian food is perceived. In 2001, […]
The chaos that is Misschu
Order at the tuckshop window Click through to the MissChu website at your peril. It’s noisy, just like the restaurant, if you can call it that. The vibe is exactly the same as the crowded chaos of a SE Asian city at this joint at the top end of Exhibition St, between Lonsdale and Latrobe. The walls are pasted with refugee-style imagery. The crowd at lunch is largely office with guys in shirtsleeves wearing lanyards, groovy Asian guys in beanies […]