PCL

I got slapped once when making family meal with salmon in batter.

onion rings. with a garlic mayo. aioli for some. ommmm..... inner peace during tumultous times.

As an Aussie, my answer is simple, "No." We were out fishing on a boat yesterday. Caught whiting. Made up a batter with water, flour and beer. Then dipped the bastards into a loose beaten egg mixture... there you go, the egg component, then into the batter. Then wham, in the fryer. Technically, the answer is no, cause the egg doesn't go into the batter. I've also done it so that the fillets get dredged in sifted fine flour then into said batter, with no egg. Both work well.

In an attempt to lend an international flavour to proceedings, I'd like to suggest the following: http://www.charlesmeltonwines.com.au A fantastic producer of Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, South Australia. They are produce a knee trembling Cabernet on limited release, but well priced. He also produces something he calls the Nine Popes, a GSM blend. The site is currently on hold due to current release information being updated. http://www.foxcreekwines.com.au This time from the McLaren Vale, South Australia. Good table wines, and some good blends.

What level of profficiency are you at? I have a friend doing patisserie at WAIoT at the moment and he's enjoying it. He also did his Chef's certification there too. It's an impressive school by all accounts and you're probably at the right place to start of with, but I agree with TCO. What do you want to learn and why?

I am totally jealous. Chez Denise table covers adorn my living room wall. Ate there everyday for almost a week in April on my farewell tour of Paris. the Potee is excellent. a tip for future visits is that the Chef, M. Bernard, sells foie gras out the back, but you need to request an audience with the Chef and be tactful. French speakers only.

Green Lipped Abs from King Island, near Tasmania, southern Australia, are like, woo hoo... big and tasty. Some restaurants, notably and Italian one, are serving it 4 ways. But they've priced themselves out of range. A great way of doing live Abs, whatever coloured lips, is to make a light broth with chicken stock, flavored slightly with ginger and to make thin slices of the abs, to be dipped a'la fondue and popped into eager mouths for rapid consumption. accompanying dipping sauce would be: light soy (best you can get), chopped spring onion and coriander leaves, ginger strips, sesame oil, spoon of sugar, sliced chillies, topped with hot garlic infused oil (peanut oil).

A couple more plugs for Melbourne: - Probably the best Cantonese restaurants outside of Hongkong. The Flower Drum is a high-end, multi award winning, and deservedly so, example of the genre. - Probably the best sushi/sashimi outside of Japan. Big call, rivalled perhaps by San Fran, and oh yes, Sydney. We look after our oceans, and the best farmed tuna and salmon around. - We even have an Armenian cafe. Beat that. On other cities, the ones I feel a lot for are (in no particular order): 1. Paris - purely sentimental on one level, yet amazed at the culinary descendents of the classics. 2. San Sebastian - pure fun. 3. KL - honest street food I grew up with 4. Hongkong - sheer variety, one stop shop factor, and Cantonese style seafood, endangered species and all. 5. Tuscany - another sentimental choice. emotional for me, it's bistecca when inland, scampi and branzini on the coast, and cannelini everywhere else. E gli vini non fa male anche.

Went to Ardeche last week. It bombed. The vegies were from snap frozen packs I suspect, but that's only my opinion. The duck, well, hardly recognisable. Others had pork, and also the snails. They all bombed. I can't even bother to describe it. O'Connor's Marinelli is still the best bet, or even Silo in Kingston for lunch. Silo was great. Real food. Pity it's a bit away from the city, but worth the trip. Picked it over Artespresso and stayed for 4 hours. Good wines too.

Il Bacaro in Lt Collins St are always accomodating if you call up in advance. ITalian flare it must be, speak to Marco or Joe if you decide to go there. IT's kinda suity, but it always impresses. Giovanni Patane, former co-owner of Sud is now back at Bacaro where he did wonderful things. Another old favorite for that something special is always Florentino's. The restaurant upstairs has a good degustation menu for $140 I think, but don't quote me. And they'll always do something special if you let them know in advance. Peter in the cellar bar is someone to talk to, especially if you do it in person and explain the circumstances.

I flipped through this one at Books for Cooks on Saturday. It's comprehensive. Worth a second look. I also went home with Bourdain's new gem. Fucking great. Got Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating on Order, and Keller's Bouchon. Will be a great month ahead.

Nothing against it. Just that there is a specialist cookbook store in town, and that should be exploited. Well, okay, not in town, but close enough, I mean, 5 mins on the 86 tram on Bourke. HoC is a nice book store. Bourdain even did a signing there about 5 years or so ago. Happy Monday.

With a place like Books for Cooks, why search anywhere else? I mean, Hill of Content... um, really, please, I'd rather go to Borders... ...on second thought, nah... Readings first, then HoC...

A really good Chinese place is the Lee Garden Restaurant. Cantonese style, but I haven't been there in years. Like many "high-end" places in Singapore, it's attached to a hotel, usually also "high-end". I'd probably avoid western cuisine, unless you're after burgers and fries in a chain, due to influx of many highly paid ex-pat frenchies/belgos/germans/the odd yank/brit/aussie working in the town charging exhorbitant prices and serving up food that simply wouldn't pass muster back in their home turfs... ...read Culinary Grade B-sters. I await the onslaught from Singaporeans. That way, we might find some really good places the paid-for-plug magazines don't mention.

Thomas Keller has a recipe for this. I don't think it's in the French Laundry cookbook, but I'll try to dig it up. I've been meaning to try it out for a while now, and since the season is firing up down here, I think the time might be nigh!

I was in Canberra for 2 nights last week, and was taken out by my host, therefore didn't get a chance to assert the eGullet rec's. We ate at La Capanna in Kingston the first night. Nothing spectacular, pasta and pizza stuff. The bottle shop next door however, was selling Fox Creek JMS 2001 for under $24.00, slightly less than cellar door. Brilliant drop, and made up for culinary mediocrity. The second night, we ate at Martinelli/Maritelli can't remember, in O'Connor. Very very reasonable, with mains around $16, starters at around $8. We had tripe, asparagus, braised shanks, and pork loin with a butter mustard sauce, washed down with Grant Burge Shiraz 2001 ($22 from the bar down the road, tell them Damian sent you otherwise no takeaway!). Will go back for the rustic Italian. Loved the busy crowd although decor sucked, but who cares when the food is good. Also, the Hippo bar in town rocked, as did The Academy, featuring $800 acrylic lounge stools. Great cocktails at the Hippo. All in all, Canberra seems good value for BYO, and on future upcoming trips, I look forward to more dilligent food hunting! Got to make your own fun in Canberra as the 'locals' might say.

DJ's sell the Michel Cluizel range of chocolates from Rue St Honore, Paris. Fucking good stuf.

WHY WASTE MONEY??

Totally agree with you Shalmanese. And you too Vue!!... BFC in Collingwood is a lifesaver! They also offer a trade discount, or at least used to when I was working, of 10%. The Larousse you can probably buy on sale at one of the big stores (cheaper!). Carlton's Borders has it. The Pepin is definitely there, as are the others. I think you're talking about McGee as well right? They should have it otherwise, they'll get it. The website's cool, but do go there. They're great people, and very very helpful! Good luck!

Checked Becasse out last Thursday night as I was in the area hunting down an obscure Korean place for belly pork bbq'd. I was extremely keen to check out their menu with the 'value for money' tag in mind, but I guess things have changed in 2 years since this thread was started. It's a minimum $50/head seeing as its 20 bucks for all starters and 30 bucks for all mains. But the menu, I mean, how can one justify charging $20 for a salad, and then $30 for a vegetarian risotto plate?? Is it just Sydney? I mean, cool website and all, but... really necessary? Wine list looks good though. However, despite all this, I will try it next time I'm in town.

If you get really bored, the revolving restaurant is good value!!

The trip to Adelaide went well. If meat is high on your list of priorities, then definitely go to Gaucho's on Gouger St. They are not open weekends, strangely, but that could just be for lunch. We ate there the first night, a Friday. Starters were a main course plate of Epinadas (sp.?) which were pastry parcels of shredded fillet and potatoes, peas, onion. A bit like a pasty but spiced up and much more refined. The main was a whole baby goat's leg. They said it was done on the grill, but I suspect from peeking into the open kitchen (with appropriate blast glass seeing as they cook so furiously in there) that they probably par-roasted them before finishing on the chargrill. And there, I think is where it all went a little crazy. Let's face it, goat's leg should either be braised or cooked very slowly over even dry heat. My leg was tough, but the flavour was excellent. Gamey even. Went well with the Grant Burge Shiraz 2001. Decent wine list too, BTW. Overall a pleasant experience, what with marbled beef and all. If an afficiando of meat, one should go for the coffin... its a steel hibachi type thing they load up with meat and dump on your table to bring out the inner carnivore. Eat everything there with the Chimmi (sp.??) sauce that's ubiquitous on the table. I also ate at the Art Gallery Cafe/Bistro. Good honest modern food, no frills indeed. I had the slow cooked pork belly with fennel. The sauce was a little icky, but otherwise, very tasty. On the second night, we tried going to Matsuri, but ahem... when we walked in, it was like... dead. One lone couple and no one else. I didn't even see a sushi bar. It was not encouraging. The menu was small, and didn't seem to go past crumbed this, fried that, which meant not a whole lot of variety. We didn't sit down. And oh yes, everything was like, pricey. The Izakaya's I'm used to, meaning Japanese eating/drinking places are much more reasonable, I mean, I'm not paying $10 for Agedashi Tofu. I don't know whether things have taken a sudden turn recently, but honest, I went there with good intentions after having so many people post positively about it. So we ended up in Grange?... the beach town?... with some local friends and we had dinner at this apparently charming Greek place, called I think... ETIA or something similar, I'll check the receipt tomorrow. Damn it, it's Sunday, I'll post more tomorrow!

Mrs PCL is Vietnamese and here are her translations for you: Nem (small bits of meat, like ball-shaped) Nuong (grilled) - Pork is "Heo" Without specifics we don't know what the sliced grilled pork is, but could be Suon Heo Pho Tai refers to the raw beef yes. Sliced raw and cooked in the broth at service. Bo is the generic name for beef. Hope this helps.

you might want to check out the Gallagher winery in Murrambateman (sp.??) they do an awesome shiraz, from 2001, in a delicate Cote du Rhone style. web address is http://www.gallagherwines.com.au i'm also going to be travelling to canberra quite a bit in the next few months, therefore will also be looking into this thread for comments!

I would say that the price is reflective of the breeding and farming process. Not much of what comes from suppliers are actually wild. Having said that, all of the roo dishes I've had, bar one at a restaurant, have come from wild roos, shot and skinned and hung by yours truly. I couldn't discern a difference, but the ones you get yourself, like fishing, do have a psychological bias towards tasting better.