PCL

A leftover lamb roast is also good in the following way, provided you have leftover gravy as well: Brown some chopped garlic in EVOO, Toss chunks of the lamb in the garlic and oil, Coat with some gravy, careful not to let the gravy burn, Slop on plate, eat with more peas and bread to mop. I find this very comforting the winter.

I thought it might be interesting to see how different people approach food and cooking when camping. To kick things off, an overview of what we do might be appropriate. It occurred to me that whenever we go camping, I stop cooking. Mrs PCL takes over food duties. I pitch the tents, cut firewood, build big fires, catch the fish, stock the esky with beer, but almost never cook. Unless it’s the camp oven or griddle, and we do like a bush chilli or stew or something, maybe damper (unleavened bread), with the coals in a separate fire pit. A few definitions might be useful here as some of the items/equipment I’m used to might be uniquely Australian, though I doubt it. Camp oven: cast iron pot, seasoned, un-enamelled, with heavy flat lid which may be used as a griddle. Griddle: cast iron flat plate on one half, grillage on the other for direct heat. Fire pit: separate to main camp fire, usually a dirt pit about 2 ½ feet in diameter, about 3-4 inches deep, filled with hot coals (red) either transferred from main fire or reduced within pit. The former is preferable, with auxilliary coals from the main fire as needed. Esky: a portable keep-cool unit, filled with ice packs and used for storing beer, beer, beer, some meat and milk etc. May also be used as foot-stool, extra seating, low table… whatever! Legend has it that when properly seasoned and treated, beer cans actually reproduce in one of these things. My wife would usually work the gas stove and rustle up some easy nosh, usually just for dinner. Hot lunches when camping are rare for us, usually some bread and cheese, dried sausage, or something else quick from a can. Hot meals from the stove for dinner might comprise:: - pan fried sausages with onions - pan fried cutlets/chops (usually lamb) with onions - easy pasta (usually penne) with a canned sauce fortified with garlic, onions, spices - instant noodles (chicken flavour is always a hit, and it must be Maggi!!) - re-heated Stroganoff with pasta/quick-cook rice - salad - corn on the cob - canned sweet corn/baked beans/peas If the camp oven is in use (sometimes weather conditions do not permit open fires of any description, or I might just be plain lazy), the following may be prepared, provided we’ve packed the ingredients: - chilli, with beans, ground meat and other goodies - pot roasted joint of beef (lamb doesn’t take to camp oven cooking) - camp bread with raisins (called damper which is just flour water and salt, and some sodium bicarb) - braised chicken with french onion soup mix - a stew/braise depending on what’s on hand - baked potatoes/corn/carrots The usual standards would be prepared on the griddle. It should be noted that the lid of the camp oven can double as a fry pan too, if rested directly on the hot coals of the fire pit. - chops and cutlets - steaks (usually T-Bone) - pancakes - bacon - eggs - sausages - fish (if I catch some!!) And we’d usually pack a couple loaves of sourdough or rye in addition to that great stand-by, fluffy white bread. Some staples that always make it into the packs are Nutella (hazelnut chocolate spread), marshmallows, Cherry Ripe chocolate, drinking chocolate and jelly babies. Breakfast would usually be pancakes (just add water pre-mix) with maple syrup and bacon, with coffee or tea brewed on the stove. Usually, if brewing leaf tea, a handful of gum leaves (from eucalyptus trees) are chucked in for that authentic bush cuppa flavour. What do you eat when you camp? What do you bring? How do you cook?

could you please elaborate on canned bread??

There's some scarey shit out there man.

Now, Chinese Spam, in a can, from a company called Ma-Ling, marketed as luncheon meat, is like wow, totally fantastic when sliced and fried S L O W L Y... in a teflon non stick, and served up with fluffy steamed rice and Srirarach-cha <<forgive spelling>> chilli/hot sauce... And WOW..... jar'ed white asparagus... straight up, with a NZ sauvignon blanc... you're in business.... maybe a Pouilly Fuisse or Chablis too... nada to them New World Chardies.... But I keep tomatoes in cans in the pantry, with no small measure of anchos, sweet corn, peas, and refried beans for them sudden taco cravings.... And also for camping!

Do shrooms provide munchie type cravings? I am unfamiliar with this with regard to shrooms... But a some quality spliffage will almost always remedy a bad shroomy experiene...

Finally got round to picking up a bottle. AUD$16.99. Did what I consider to be several tastings, nothing fancy, but I tend to pour a wine as soon as I open it, just to check for, ahem... musty grandma's socks. Then I'd rest it for a while before plunging in with great gusto....<hic> Nose #1: Bright currants, ripe but still edgy. No hint of the expected hit of petroleum, typical of B I G Aussie reds, but still on the large side. Palate #1: A good Aussie table wine, soft at first then stringy tannins kick in, leading into succulent spice, cinnamon, warming and balanced with acid at the end. THen food, which tonight was Penne Aglia Oglio, Italian canned tuna with a rocket/red onion/mesclun balsamic dressed salad, and baked balsamic garlic free-range organic no fuck-a-around chicken drumsticks. Smoothed out the lil'bastard to make it completely quaffable. Got one here as I type. The finish is more prominent after food, the ground pepper really showing off with some wood. Nice and fun. Versatile I'd imagine, but still, for an Aussie palate, it's the equivalent of a good table wine, wouldn't drink it solo myself, but would happily bosh it with mates over a good food session. Will get more. Hope your second bottle arrives, oh, Dear Rose!

Recently discovered munchie foods: - Nutella spread on unsalted butter, spread on good bread. - Honey-sweetened Chai (Indian spiced black tea) with milk.

So, whatever happened to the extra 1/4 lobe??? It wouldn't last a day in my house.

Means a muddy consistency. Though this is also up for debate. I do a thin slurry, just add to the confusion, but personal taste and preference is important no? As for the sugar, just a hint man, no more. I swear by it, like in stir fry kai lan and stuff. Takes the edge off the ginger and the soy.

Restaurants, in no particular order... France-Soir Pure South The Wine Shop The European Claypots, St Kilda Piazza Navona Ladro's Supper Inn (ALWAYS!!!) Tea House on Bourke (YEAH!!!) Izakaya Chuji Books, didn't buy many this year, but have referred to Larousse a hell of a lot. Can't believe Jamie Oliver made it on a list.

OK, 1 in 2 might be a little too much, but, but I say... it's not genetics and proteins and running out of stuff to die of. There are simply too many things out there that have been 'synthesised' and insufficient time has passed for us to fully appreciate or realise the side effects. Simple. Its like screwtop wines. We don't yet know how they will perform. Each human being has ingested so much crap by the time we're older, and who knows, the very substances keeping us alive longer could very well be the thing that's killing us later. Catch 22. As for the atomic theory of food synthesis, yes a carbon atom is a carbon atom, but it's how the damn thing is combined with anything else that just might prove harmful Slapping a piece of cow on a hot plate might seem to be fucking with nature to some, but really, its the orgasmic culmination of many millenia of foreplay. Developments, slow through human history, eventually lead to cuisine. It's like evolution. In fact, it is evolution according to some. It has progressed slowly to eventually reach the refined state its in and really, if your diet is well thought out, you don't die from it. EVERYONE eats cooked food these days, well, virtually, LOL. If you're synthesising, you're taking great leaps that our stereoscopic vision and ambition simply cannot cash.

Cool. An Aussie wine second up. I haven't touched a Lehman wine in ages. Will pop out to the local bottle shop for one tomorrow and will report in earnest.

It's simple. We do not have the right to play Creator. Once you try to fuck with nature she always bites back. Take the early petro-chemical industry and the mass spraying of people with DDT to remove parasites etc. for instance. We're paying for all that now. The cancer epidemic at the moment virtually guarantees 1 in 2 human males will get it, and 1 in 3 human females. We've fucked with the system enough no? Like the BZT scandal from Monsanto when they fed hormones to cows to exponentially increase milk production, and we end up with diseased pus infected udders leaking 'impurities' into the milk. Well, we put it there. And besides, the world is over producing milk at the moment anyway. But I digress... Synthetic this, synthetic that, bullshit mate. We're all reaping the seeds of what we've sown. So much more is wrecked to get those little 'impurities' out. Cook with love mate, cook with your heart, and don't forget flavour. All I want to saute with is olive oil and butter. Fats make things taste good in case any of us have forgotten, and different fats do different things. If you want anal leakage fine, but don't press it on the masses, and for goodness sake, feed your children organic food.

There's foam in this town if you want it (Melbourne) but why? There's air too, but that's free! Reserve is just down the road from where I live. Worth a visit or no? Despite my arrogance I've been away for like 3 years, and to be honest, I'm having difficulty with the new places or what seems to pass for food these days. Living in London made me yearn for home and now I'm back, I miss Paris.

Wow. This is a no brainer. Slice, sear, serve on crouton, sprinkle with sea salt, eat enjoy and be cheerful.

I am Cantonese, and my grandma always uses a little bit of sugar to balance out the soy sauce. It's a fundamental. May even be universal.

Nothing wrong with working in a food market. I do not agree with your statement at all. If they weren't there, you wouldn't get what you want. You need them , they need you. No one is better off.

Nice work Shin, though I'd say Matt makes a better coffee than Paul at Peli's... To add to the list: Pure South in Southbank for 'modern Australian' Ladro's in Collingwood for pizza The Wine Shop (under the Supper Club) for wine and food Cookie in the City for modern asian/australian, great bar too... Vlado's in Richmond for meat, period. Desgraves Espresso in the City for coffee... Akita in North Melbourne for Japanese Shira Nui in Glen Waverley for sushi... Claypots in St Kilda for seafood... Flower Drum is definitely worth a visit, but a cheaper alternative would be Tea House on Bourke in Camberwell. It's run by Flower Drum alumni and is just as good in my mind. Bookings for both as told by others is problematic, but PM me, I can usually swing something at either of those places. But Tarka, if you narrow it down to what you want to eat, that would help. By our very nature, cuisines are varied and almost always you'd find something exemplary. Melbourne of course, is the best food city. Don't let anyone tell you different. Full Stop.

Part One A revival of this thread is long overdue in my opinion. What, with the release of the cookbook, and coinciding recently with my birthday, I decided to eat there, even with the protestations of my father ringing loudly in my mind's ear. About a year and a half ago, meaning early 2003, my father ate there with a cousin, along with their wives, meaning my mother was there too, but she never likes anything my father likes so... His comments were less than flattering. I would have been there myself had I not still been stationed in London. VdM had made some ripples there too, and word on the street was that here is this this brilliant young man doing food never before seen in town. Michelin *** stuff. Stuff he'd learnt working with the masters. He'd staged. He'd travelled. And he was hungry. And no one else wanted to employ him. So after all that, and numerous ravings from friends, we went. Mrs PCL and I. It was my birthday. I went the whole hog, 13 courses, and the sommelier's degustation. Anticipation was high, expectations, astronomical. The table, space etc were fine. They spent a lot of time going through the 'expression of the Chef's philosophy and creativity' which made me cringe a little... well, a lot. It was patronising in my opinion, and perhaps a little too casual. If you're paying $500 for dinner, you want to be treated with respect, not by someone leaning on the mantel piece explaining what a degustation is, and how there is not menu for dinner, and how refined the whole experience is going to be. The old adage is show, don't tell. So I'm just going to list what I ate, or rather, what I remember because they never email'ed the menu to me as promised (several times in fact). Anyhow... the specials were promising, white truffle risotto for a $60 supplementary, or crayfish for an extra amount I remember not. We ordered one of each. Two glasses of Piper's bubbly mis en cave 1999, for $16 each to kick things off. Bottle of sparkling water, San Pel's. Amuse was a prawn cocktail. With foam.... ouch. Thousand island foam... double ouch. Then a blur of dishes, all well executed, but temperature seemed inconsistent across the plated elements. The "interpretation" of Carbonara arrived, and yes, it stuck in my memory because of the following issues: - overcooked pasta, which was a linguine - in a crayfish sauce, with cray meat... sauce had too much alcohol that was not cooked off, and did not appear to be mounted. - raw quail egg wrapped in the linguine didn't quite come off due to temperature - crispy pancetta was not crispy Then something else in between. The Caesar, arrived... dressing was WAY TOO MUCH... each leaf of cos was smothered. And a poached quail egg this time. The pancetta this time, however, rocked, but really, I had to scrape the dressing off and considered asking for a finger bowl to rinse some leaves. However, one egg too many so far. Seared foie gras came next. Given the restrictions on importation of foie into this country, I was surprised that they'd seared it. We only usually get foie gras entier mi cuit, that is, partially cooked, but still pink and cryo-vac'ed. They claimed that their foie is from Strasbourg, and is as close to raw as they can get it. I thought it was rubbery. The balsamic dressing in my mind, cannot be described as innovative. The truffle was G R E A T. Nothing in the risotto to detract, and only a light green sauce to compliment. The cray tail was great, but nothing you can't do at home. If he'd poached it in butter, then G R E A T. Champagne sauce was good, but once again, special? End of Part One...

If its invechiatto, use sparingly, you won't even need to infuse anything or reduce anything... a little in sauce plate with a few drops lemon juice to temper and spoon on to the little bastards before consumption...

Reduced balsamic, infused with lightly crushed peppercorns, tempered with a touch of lemon juice. It's a Tuscan thing if you're interested in the origins, the Versilia to be exact.

Topic people!!.. Topic!!! Kai-lan qualifies as dim sum. Try freezing that!! I'm not entirely convinced by Jon's argument to classify them separately. Pasta is pasta as dim sum is dim sum. It's just a matter of how good they are and what one's tolerances might be.

Great idea this list. I'll post one later, but thought in the meantime to get the ball rolling, I'd pass the preliminary remark that VdM could very well be the disappointment of the year for this punter, and given there's only a week and a half left in the year, the wooden spoon is pretty secure.

Hakkasan xiao long bao definitely good.