Food & Drink. Travel. Est. 2005
Eating and drinking abroad and at home. Sometimes I get sick too.
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 now the world’s best. And as it turned out by when I booked at table at Osteria Francescana it was the world’s no.2. What’s the difference?
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 […]
View from the Steyne Hotel. Not bad eh? Enjoy breakfast in Cafe Opera, Level 1. Breakfast is available from 6:30am -10:30am daily. As a hotel breakfast it ain’t bad. Passable (just) scrambled eggs but best of all streaky bacon and decent sausages. A highlight is the honeycomb, yoghurt and fruit. Nice filter coffee. 0845 Meet with your Destination NSW host Lauren Zoneff and make your way on to the Harbour Master Steps for your Manly Fast Ferry. Myself, Kerry […]
1540: Flight DJ849 arrives into Sydney Meet your Astra Limousines driver for your transfer to the InterContinental Sydney. Delays! The storms in Melbourne means that I don’t arrive until after 5pm for a drinks party at 6pm. 1800: Meet Destination NSW in the lobby of the hotel for transfer to the Hilton Hotel for the Crave Sydney International Food Festival Official Launch Party I meet David Lebovitz in reception together with Helen from Grab your fork and Chocolate Suze and […]
You don’t have to know much about Anthony Bourdain to know he loves Melbourne. He was back earlier this year guided around town – and down to the Royal Mail Hotel – by Matt Preston, Tony Tan and Paul Wilson. Here are the Youtube clips from what was show recently in the US. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa6gTkgIbgc] Part one: Paul Wilson while he was at the Half Moon in Brighton. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo6ic9iIUzE] Part two: Playing Trugo with Matt Preston and kebabs on Sydney Rd […]
Wine with Indian food? Even seasoned food writers seem to think you can’t eat anything spicy – let’s call it curry – without an ice cold glass of lager. Certainly normal punters think it’s laughable. Last year in my mum’s Indian local, out of 150 curry munchers only myself and a blond hairdresser were spotted with a glass of wine, white dare I say. The problem in India is that wine is expensive. Actually that’s not the only problem – […]
We’ve traveled and eaten from the Bay of Bengal on the east to the Arabian Sea on the west. We’ve encountered slow internet connections, outdated browsers and dodgy mice which is why I haven’t updated since Chennai (Madras), where we first tasted how fragrant Indian food can be when made with freshly ground local spices and plenty of curry leaves. There is so much I want to tell you but there is only one thing you sickos want to know […]
The desert is inevitable in Dubai and it is difficult to resist a safari. While we will feast in the dessert there will be no booze or belly dancing tonight because of Ramadam. I don’t mind. We traverse the dunes in Top Gear fashion while I weakly exclaim “Oh my god!”. I don’t really mean it as the track up the peaks and down the dips aren’t that scary. While everybody else looks towards the sunset and the passing camel […]