Gordon Ramsay: “Ladies, I’m 100% real, there’s no need to pinch quite THAT hard!” Ellie the Kitchen Wench received a pack of Monsieur Truffe raspberry truffles for her winning entry (above) to my Gordon Ramsay caption competition. I think she liked them. She says: “…oh lordy, I don’t think that taking a bite of chocolate has ever made me whimper before…” Food fascist 1. No more Gordon Ramsay this year please 2. Enough of Monsieur Truffe. Gorged on 15 yesterday
Author: Ed
We need your menu inspiration for modern artist
Julie Poulson is looking for inspiration Inflation is the bain of artist Julie Poulson’s life; pie and coke now costs $4.80. Nevertheless she is beavering away creating works for her exhibition in Cairns opening on 9 March. Her current work is ” Mango cheeks $14 a box” is taken from roughly painted roadside signs, printed, painted and assembled through stitching. Her work Hot Dog Fries is hung in the modern Italian restaurant Vivos in Palm Cove in far north Queensland. […]
ENJOY THIS … BUT READ THE FINE PRINT IN YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE POLICY BEFORE YOU GO – DON’T FORGET TO PACK THE POLICY
By Ed Charles COVER STORY It pays to read the fine print of your travel insurance policy carefully, Ed Charles writes THE air tickets are paid for. The boutique hotel and spa resort is booked. And the designer label luggage is packed. But have you bothered to check whether you have the right level of cover for that once-in-a-lifetime holiday? The likelihood is not, as illustrated by the number of complaints going before the Insurance Ombudsman, Sam Parrino. He says […]
Wagyu lunch: better late than never
The hands on approach with Wagyu I was invited back to a wagyu lunch at Jamon (3 Murphy St, South Yarra, Vic 3141 +61 3 9804 5710) by the chef and owner Charles a couple of months ago and should have posted this earlier. His point, which I wrote about for The Australian’s Indulgence section, was that wagyu is not some generic meat; it should as with other meats be appreciated by the cut. The Australian’s story says it all. […]
The great anchovy debate
Spot the Ortiz anchovy Jak simply asked the deli for a tin of anchovies. Dumbfounded by the cost she paid the extra $15.75 and brought them home slightly perplexed. I was mildly interested having been following the debate between Neil and Rebecca on the expense and finer points of Ortiz anchovies. What amazes me about these beasts is that the cost of a tin in the market can vary by over $2 – that’s almost the cost of a regular […]
Car share schemes show road ahead
The business of sharing cars has taken off in Sydney and Melbourne, writes Ed Charles SOMETIMES you have just got to do it. Car share plan GoGet came into being when founders Bruce Jeffreys and Nic Lowe put their own cars — a ute and a diesel station wagon — into the first incarnation of their company, Newtown Carshare, which rents out cars by the hour. They secured a sponsored Volkswagen Polo from a local dealer and, with a dozen […]
Gingerboy: eating at $3.50 a minute
Great. Jak and I are out on a date. A nice slow meal in a hip new hawker food restaurant from Melbourne chef Teage Ezard, Gingerboy (27-29 Crossley Street Melbourne 3000 +61 3 9662 4200). Despite my vivid imagination painting a picture of various hawker stalls in a tropical courtyard, the sort of thing you find in Ho Chi Minh City, it’s a flashily decorated room down a cute Melbourne alleyway. Fairy lights wink from behind black bamboo cladding and […]
Help! There’s a pineapple in my meal
I’ve been putting off writing about this for a few weeks now because I’m a bit embarrassed about what I’ve done. And that’s probably why I’ve been away from Weekend Herb Blogging for a while. But I’ve made the brave decision to join-in this weekend with WHB hosted by Nandita at Saffron Trail. It all started when a report arrived from Brisbane, Queensland, of the worrying trend of pineapple appearing in main courses in restaurants. I was happy to sneer […]
The Australian: Is all wagyu the same? fat chance
THE CURIOUS COOK I’M sitting with strangers at the bar of Melbourne sushi restaurant, Jamon, when chef Charles Greenfield begins a reminiscence about Kobe beef. It’s 1968 and Greenfield is supping beer at a sushi bar in Japan when he first tries the delicate, fatty Japanese steak. That was it,” he says, savouring the memory of that first taste, after which he rolled up his sleeves and became a dishwasher at that very restaurant while keeping his day job in […]