Act 1 After a five year gap our protagonists meet in the offices of a discreet hedge fund just off Berkeley Sq. We catch at taxi to the basement bar Cafe des Amis just behind the Royal Opera House enjoying a couple of Kir Royales. A woman screams as a mouse runs under her feet. Our heroes exit stage let. Act 2 In the foyer of The Royal Opera House. What looks to be Australian Strewth columnist DD McNicoll disappointingly […]
Recent posts
No happy ending to this shitty desert banquet
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 […]
Low rise traditional hotel in Dubai has charm
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 […]
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 […]
A Quiet Achiever
From SBS Food For something that is more or less an underwater snail, the humble abalone has done pretty well for itself. Twenty years ago a Chinese grocer would pay a few dollars for a barrow load of the ugly blighters known as ‘Muttonfish’ picked out of Port Phillip Bay. Nowadays this mollusk, or to be more precise Haliotidae, is prized by chefs to the extent that many regions including South Africa, the Middle East and California have overfished and […]
Trunk stop
From GQ Australia How does a heritage-listed synagogue become one of Melbourne’s hottest new restaurant-bar venues? Ed Charles finds out from Trunk’s Nick Kutcher. It was the irresistibly enticing site that drew Nick Kutcher into the restaurant business, a block big enough to build a skyscraper on, half of it open land. But the site on the corner of Little Lonsdale and Exhibition streets – with a heritage listed 1859 synagogue – was bought for its charm rather than its […]
Web application driven by a need to remember
From The Australian, Entrepreneur THERE are many reasons to start a business. Some people are driven by money. Others by passion. But for Omar Kilani, of Sydney, the Remember The Milk web application came about simply because of a personal need and his passion for programming, which he has followed since he was 13. He wanted to organise himself, and his business partner and fiance Emily Boyd was an enthusiastic user of to-do lists. In 2004, Kilani relished the programming […]
Crowd-sourcing can help with content, design, feedback
From The Australian, Entrepreneur TO some extent, Web 2.0 or the read-write web as it is known, is all about crowd sourcing. The idea is that the crowd can create content for you, give feedback and even have a hand in designing products they really want. It’s a tricky concept for many companies to master but the latest generation of crowd-sourced websites such as 99designs and Gooruze are making it safe for businesses to participate. There are many definitions of […]