I‘ve never been one for hermetically sealed comfort of so-called seven or mere 5 star hotels. Instead of taking this safe and unadventurous approach to global accommodation I prefer something in the local traditional, which is also perhaps more rustic and certainly cheaper. IMy researches led me to the XVA Gallery in the Bastakiya area of Dubai, noted for the use of the traditional wind towers in the architecture. The XVA, which also serves as an art gallery, also features […]
Eat streets
Where to eat on Melbourne’s and Australia’s famous eat streets.
Refreshing Indian food in Dubai
I‘m in Dubai but not in your usual hotel. I’ve picked low rise a traditional building in one of heritage areas, near the textile souks. The thing you notice in Dubai is that you meet everybody but the local Arabs. This is a city that has grown incredibly fast build on the blood and sweat on Indians, Pakistanis and Phillipinos to name but a few. Because I’m stupis I’ve chosen to visit during Ramadam. This means it is illegal to […]
London help needed for visiting food blogger
What are the essential food and drink experiences in London at the moment? I arrive back for the first time in four years, and the first as a food blogger, on the 10th September, leaving on the 22nd (Right now I’m sweating it out in Dubai for some reason). Part of my visit is for work to conduct some interview for a book but so easily it can become entwined with pleasure. But it’s a whirlwind tour where I also […]
Confessions of a cheese judge
First off I was late, dawdling this rainy morning. I missed the briefing and my lab coat was too small even for a ten year old child. On a bright note though, the hairnet was just perfect and I was wearing the correct all-terrain underwear and cashmere socks. I’m at the 2008 judging for the Melbourne Specialist Cheese Show (open Sunday 17th August 2008 at Crown) run by the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Association. I admired chief judge Ian’s red hairnet […]
Truffle hunters come home victorious
Spice finds a giant Perigord truffle. The whole of Australia is Perigord truffle crazy right now. In the past few weeks alone I’ve eaten some of the best and most aromatic truffle dishes that I have ever come across. Chefs report they have never seen so many from Australia and summer ones imported from France. Today, one hour out of Melbourne about ten minutes the other side of some McBungalows I was part of a group hunting for truffles led […]
This chair must be stopped
Look around you. There is probably one similar near you right now. This is the New Zealand Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc ( the most popular and ubiqitous white wine in Australia) of cafe chairs. I keep tripping up over it everywhere. This picture was taken in Hamilton (worth avoiding). I’ve seen it in the Yarra Valley. It’s spread like a rash through my home suburb St Kilda – Mirka at Tolarno, Banff, Spuntino etc. Are we doomed to sit on […]
First glimpse at Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus Inc in Flinders Lane
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt writing about the opening of restaurants is that it rarely goes to plan. As a writer it is easy to be caught out. Openings can be delayed by months or even years. And so it was that on Thursday the 26th I rocked up to Cumulus Inc (45 Flinders Lane +61 3 9650 1445) for supper to find the chef (Andrew McConnell of Three, One , Two and formerly Circa The Prince) and architect, […]
First underground restaurants. Now underground biscuits
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 […]
What is good service in a restaurant?
…a waitress who had a giant spot with a head the colour of a pale yellow egg yolk. The only question was on which of us was it to burst. ‘Too much service in my opinion is practically worse than none. You don’t have any opportunity to enjoy the company of the people who you are with.’ The words of Michelle Garnaut, the former Melbourne restaurateur who launched M on the Fringe in Hong Kong in 1989 and M on […]