Food & Drink. Travel. Est. 2005
Uncle Ho. Happy Endings. And the latest Misohawni, a new restaurant in Johannesburg with a gimmicky name and a mishmash of Asian cuisines including Ramen. The social media and, in particular Twitter, backlash against the trivialisation and sexualisation of Asian culture in restaurants is inevitable. As is Misohawni taking down its Facebook page within 24 hours of opening. Check out my Medium post on the sexualisation of Asian women in restaurants.
I’m here with two friends who once (or twice) a year fill their freezers with antelope and warthog. They are not trophy hunters and no antelope horns adorn their walls. They are nose-to-tail eaters who will also cure skins for the floor and use the intestines for sausage casings. The killing of animals for meat is an emotive issue. Most of us shop at Supermarkets and buy neat bright read packs of meat produced in industrial quantities presented on polystyrene […]
There’s a lot to love about drinking in Lisbon. First are the rooftop bars and goldfish bowl gin & tonics infused with spices (usually cinnamon) and some fruit and citrus. The wines of the Duoro are amazing. The much maligned green wine – vinho verdhi – which isn’t actually green but sharp and refreshing is perfect for a summer’s evening. Everyone loves port but do you really want to drink a rich aged deep red port mid-summer? I became addicted […]
Custard tarts – pastel de nata – are deeply embedded in Portuguese culture. They are everywhere. Bakeries around the world try and replicate them. And even home cooks have a shot. I’ve eaten them in Melbourne but they never enchanted me like they did in Portugal. Spending a month chilling out in Lisbon, barely a day went by when I didn’t have one or two of these tarts. It became my personal mission to find the best in town. These […]
It’s like I’m a Martian in a strange land where, if I want a coffee, I drive 6.4km with the help of a GPS though the sprawl of Johannesburg, the world’s largest urban forest. Roads twist, turn, rise and drop through the rocky outcrops and ravines that make the landscape of this town. While there are a few urban villages in the suburbs of one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the world, most people rely of shopping […]
There’s a new trend in restaurants and cafes. Design it for Instagram sharability. Pidapipo on Chapel Street has done a reasonable job strategically placing its neon so it can be photographed with Hawker Hall’s neon in the background. Match Mylkbar takes it to the extreme, from the neon green finger in its window to… well pretty much everything about the place. The lattes come in all colours of the rainbow from regular to mushroom, pink (beetroot), green (matcha) an golden […]
Have you ever wondered about the fish you buy? Where it comes from and how it all works. The Thursday before Easter I arrived at the Melbourne Wholesale market to see it in action. The cover picture is of tuna, the tail cut so the buyers can check the colour of the flesh, the key sign of quality. In the Sydney market the fish are auctioned electronically. Here the traders set the price and haggle with the buyers via text, […]
Once upon a time people blogged. And they met up. So here I am eating with Kenny from the west and the blog Consider the Sauce to chew on blogging, social media and the food of Kwan’s Table. Kwan’s is bright and contemporary replacement to Inkr7, a once popular cafe on this corner on Inkerman Street. The food is here is pretty good though not as hot or spiced as you’d find in many Thai restaurants. But the ingredients are […]
As many of you know Attica is the sole Australian restaurant in the world’s top50 list. This is a statement on the sale of the restaurant to Ben Shewry released yesterday: “In an exciting step forward for Melbourne Restaurant Attica, its world renowned and longstanding Executive Chef, Ben Shewry, has acquired the restaurant and the brand effective immediately. The deal will see Shewry have 100% ownership of Attica and oversee all operations at the applauded venue, which lays claim to […]