Hurray! Oysters are back in season, ahem, down under. Actually, it is difficult to tell when they are out as most fishmongers stocks them whatever, even during the hot summer months when they are awful. Obviously, Australian’s aren’t discerning about this bivalve as most people either buy them in bottles or preshucked, lying their dead for hours and without those sexy salty juices. The best in Australia are from the cold waters of Tasmania. the worst from the warm waters […]
Drinks
Get boozed-up here. Try a relaxing tea or a buzzing coffee
The joy of heritage veggies
The hottest stall at the St Kilda Farmers’ Market? Organic heritage vegetables. It’s the one where people squeeze in shoulder-to-shoulder and queue three deep. Think unfeasibly long striped snaking cucumbers. Voluptuously rippled, erm, aubergine Aubergines. White and aubergine striped aubergines… At a time when organic has become commodotised and baby vegetables seem a little tired these are vegetables with that very old-fashioned concept of a unique selling proposition. And they look at taste great too. Ideal candidates for Kalyn’s Weekend […]
Sauce fit for a Bourbon; steak fit for Uncle Monty
Merde! I forgot some links and I’ve opened as can of worms here. Huguenots, Bourbons…religious wars and bad French. Several regional dishes were planned but a late night meant an unexpected demand from J (avec a hangover) for steak au frites avec sauce béarnaise. Actually, she wanted a steak haché or probably a royale with cheese, but I’m a fascist and I’m cooking for IMBB23 over at Cucina Testa Rossa. Although the origins may be obscure they are attributed to […]
Why I ignored fashion and chose grapefruit over peaches
The occasion to celebrate Viognier with wine brand Yalumba. There we were in Melbourne’s most hyped new restaurant, Longrain, when I snapped this pic. It was a fitting venue for such a chic grape, the wine that Brett Easton Ellis drinks in his latest work, Lunar Park. If you believe this book Easton Ellis’ work – even the compellingly violent American Psycho – is about fashion. So Viognier must be near its peak in the US. Australia will probably be […]
Weekend zucchini emergency. Urgent help needed
I’m in trouble. Three Zucchini plants all survived this year and there are just two of us. We are in urgent need of help. As each day passes the massed forces of the Zucchini threaten to take over. At first there was just one or two a week. Now its one or two a day. Three days ago I blinked and when my eyes opened I was confronted by a vegetable the size of a pot bellied pig. We need […]
Five food challenges for 2006 (and koala)
Lucas (aka Crazy Gaijin) has tagged me to come up with my five food challenges for 2006. 1. Bake loads of different cakes and biscuits Especially a sponge cake, probably a traditional one using no fat but also a Genoese (made with butter) one filled with strawberries and cream. I’ll probably make a couple of each and gorge myself. I may share some with friends and neighbours. Or perhaps I’ll hide them and scoff both. There may be a small […]
Land of the giants
Steve walks down the street and over the road to an ofice carpark to harvest giant rosemary for our whole baked snapper. Then he reachedd over the first floor balcony to his house-sized bay tree. Brisbane in Queensland is land of the giants. My own Bay tree is barely 30 cm tall. Steve’s is more like 30m. Okay, 10m. These pics were taken on the 30th and we’ve only got back home and got the broadband firedd-up again today. A […]
Always choose a wine by its label
I find wine labels pretty exciting and this Wine Blogging Wednesday #16 even more so. I once worked in a marketing type job and was involved in some brand development. The idea was to imagine what the bottle’s label would have been like, say, a couple of hundred years previously. With that in mind we could develop a label that communicated heritage, quality and all that guff. Winemakers are split between heritage look labels and funky designs. There are plenty […]
How to drink it. Or how I learnt to ignore the whisky bore within
Who looks the plonker: the whisky bore who drinks the oldest single malt within reach or the person who likes it with a splash of coke? Well here’s a thing. The guys who make the world’s whisky when down the pub have a choice of mixer on the bar: a jug of water or a bottle of lemonade. They choose, of course, the lemonade because that’s what they like best, according to whisky maker Ian Williams manager of Home of […]