New on the block – the “magic” at Proud Mary. Check out part two of this post. It’s complicated now ordering a coffee. No sooner do you think you have a grip on all the current vogue brewing methods and another one lands on the scene. In my case the latest ones to enter my vocabulary it’s the Trifecta (coming soon) and the Magic (see definitions below). No longer are the options just espresso-based but there a plethora of new […]
Recent posts
Defining Irish fare
It’s butter. Rich creamy butter, the product of Ireland’s rich emerald green pastures, that excites Rachel Allen, the woman who put Irish cooking back on the map, and who recently visited Australia as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. “I always come back to dairy.” says the TV chef, cookbook author and champion of local artisan produce. “I love our butter. I love our cream.” Then there’s the seasonal foods. “That meal, the last of asparagus, the first […]
The top 10 Australian cheeses
Billy the goat cheese This is a guest post by Laurie Gutteridge. He runs the Taste Cheese website and blog and the splendid cheese room at Innocent Bystander in the Yarra Valley. You can also follow him on Twitter as taste_cheese. (If you have something on value to say I’m open to guest postings – send an email. Ed) My criteria when looking for a cheese? It starts with the understanding that a holistic view encompassing everything from the farming […]
Curry: At lunch with Atul Kochhar
Spice crusted scallops, grape and ginger dressing You can’t beat a good curry. The question is in Australia, where can you find a good curry? Some 15 years ago there were hardly any curry houses and even though now they are spotted around everywhere, few offer a really great dining experience. Usually what we are served is anonymous cuts of meat in generic curry sauces heated up to order. It’s miles away from the wonderful dining experiences of other ethic […]
The Butter Factor
Butter’s come a long way since Marlon Brando first used it as a lubricant – just as cheese has come a long way since it was imported into Australia in tins. We now have our first legally made unpasteurized cheese – known as C2 – available from Bruny Island Cheese. And for the first time the Australian Cheese Awards have recognised a really decent local cheese – Jindi Old Telegraph Road. The long slow march of the cheesemakers is now […]
Heirloom – one foam too far
Heirloom looks great but the food needs to be simpler. The best French chefs are Japanese nowadays, they say. But they aren’t French they are Japanese. They are just cooking French-style with the addition of Japanese ingredients. Meanwhile, the best French chefs are now open in Japan. They rock. Or at least Michel Bras does, the man who is one of the inspirations for local, sustainable super-natural cuisine several decades before Noma had even been dreamt of. And now this […]
Josie Bones: we ate everything
We all know Chris Badenoch right? The bad boy beer guy who was runner-up on Masterchef series one. He’s the one that was chewed-up by the tabloids and spat out a love rat. Now he’s a place of his own to, so to speak, chew-up rare breed animals and swallow, together with several hundred beers. Josie Bones, his love child with Masterchef runner-up Julia Jenkins, has only a token page of wines to a telephone book of beers but surprisingly […]
The foodies’ guide to Chinese New Year
Just as Christmas is the most important festival on the Western calendar, Chinese New Year is the most important on the Chinese one. It’s about the family coming together to feast on New Year Eve, honour their ancestors and wish for prosperity. Unlike the Western Christmas and New Year, it doesn’t fall on a set day, but follows the lunar calendar; the first day being the new moon, when the moon still isn’t visible, and ending on the 15th day […]
Art for art’s sake
There’s a strange thing about art. Try to make money from it and you probably won’t. But start slowly, steer clear of the word “investment” and the works you buy could appreciate. That’s the message from collectors great and small, and from specialists such as art dealer and author Michael Reid. “In my 10 years of writing for the business section of The Australian I never mentioned the ‘i’ word once,” says Reid, author of How to Buy & Sell […]