PCL

Not many places with high culinary centers, apart from Melbourne, heh heh, but if you're referring to indigenous peoples, yes, Aboriginals do eat the stuff. But it's no different to sheep's balls (waiting for the chevy chase jokes), or ox balls... Just treat them like meatballs, but you gotta poach them first, maybe in veal or chicken stock then crumb and saute or simply saute and cook in a sauce. I think done properly, roo meat, like with rosemary, salt, EVOO and grilled on HOT coals could be fun... crusty on the outside, blood rare on the inside. Once had it with chorizo. VV Good. Also

I thought you were staying away from garlic...

Oh Jin-san... I'm not totally with it on the chile and grapeseed oil... Can I suggest the following modification: - blanch in dashi - flavor with mirin, sushi soy, sesame oil, pinch of sugar, and pinch of the chile, squeeze of lime, and yeh... the bonito flakes...

I fully admit to being tempted by Grange. Anyone been there? Thanks muchly Tom for your list.

Where is Becasse? Too lazy to Google 'cos I'm at work. I'm in Sydney every fortnight or so, and it sounds like a place to go for dinner without clients/hangers on's... I don't mind dining alone...

Hi Phish, You can try Victoria St grocery stores, city end of the strip, or perhaps try Sydney Road, Brunswick. Or ask your friendly bar tender where they get supplies from. Good luck

The other night, we had Midleton's Very Rare Irish Whisky (triple distilled by the fine folk in Ireland who make Jameson's) with Belgian milk chocolate. Powerful. And yes, there was Hendrix playing in the background.

dude, it was on as a special at Hungry's many years ago. It is most definitely not a standard menu item.

The satay served by Malaysia Airlines is first class... sadly only available in Business and First...

what is ambien?

Great post on Ipoh, Shiwie. The guy who owns the Tien Chun hor fun stall is an old friend of the family. I was born in Ipoh and grew up on food like that. Should note that the satay guy at Tien Chun does a great pork liver and intestine satay. Chee-yun, tai-cheung. Strictly non-halal. The pics of Ipoh also made me very homesick. Great work. Will be pestering my aunt to make hor-fun very soon. Hope to be in KL and Ipoh later this year.

Given the extensive expositions already posted, I'll add the following, for whatever its worth. But first of all, "authenticity" is bullshit, regional variances rule, IMHO. About 7 years ago, I spent a summer helping out in an Enoteca in Pietrasanta (about an hour's drive from Florence, by the coast, near Viareggio, in fact, only 20 mins from the leaning tower). We did the following over coals: - duck breast - boar chops (cinghiale) - filleto (self-explanatory) - bistecca This is how we did the bistecca: - remove from walk-in during afternoon prep - get grill fucking hot with vine shoots and maybe some applewood, fired with extra coals. - soak bunch of rosemary in olive oil, not the good stuff, no point really - slap steak on grill, leave 5 mins. - season side up, brush with oil, flip. - 5 mins later, season side up, brush with oil, flip. - 3 mins later, remove to cool side of grill or onto serving plate. - serve to the punter, carved at his table, EVOO and lemon on the side - fagioli on the side, or a mista verde salad. the meat was always marbled and well and truly fatty. In fact, the grasso was well prized. Made one 'strong'. People in the streets would debate who made the best bistecca where, some preferring one idiosynchracy over another. Te solution was simple, go to the place that did the one you liked. Choice, is important. vote wisely.

Over the weekend, it was a pleasant surprise to discover something I don’t believe has been on everyone’s radar, at least not the majority of the population. In my humble opinion, it is apparent that Cote du Rhone style Shiraz is alive and well in a country where most people are mindlessly reaching for petroleum charged, big bold brick wall wines. The winemaker is called Gallaghers, and they’re in Canberra, surprise number 2. Greg Gallagher told me he’d been making wines for people like Taltarni for quite a while and decided he wanted to do his own thing. More and more winemakers are doing the same and I believe, fantastic. We as a country should learn some subtlety. Of course I’m over generalising, but hey, the big bold Aussie wine is as cliché’d as Ken Done, Neighbours, etc. The 2001 Shiraz is a fine drop. Admittedly my nose wasn’t working well, due to being caught in the big storm in Melbourne over the weekend, but I chanced upon King & Godfree’s (Carlton) and popped in for a bottle or two to take home and from what I tasted, it was enough to convince me it warranted closer attention. It was soft at first on the palate, tannins quite lively but never stringent. You could say it was fruity but I never know which fruit it is really, and this one was very interesting, rolling from one fruit type sensation to another. Full bodied, yet pliable, and mate, what a finish. We were having veal shanks for dinner (also bought in Carlton, from Excell Meat Supplies, next to Readings on Lygon St), and mate, it worked. The shiraz lifted the entire ensemble of unctous shanks, deep shallots and demi-glaze to a sensational level, given that I hadn’t given the shanks enough time in the oven to langour, and thus was not as soft and pliable as they should have been…. …or maybe it was the riesling… a 2004 vintage, also from the G-man… of which I’d quaffed with a few servings of sauteed mushrooms with butter and parsley and mmm… garlic. I never drink riesling, but I ventured forth here and it didn’t once remind me of weird Alsatian numbers and stood up to my cynicism just fine. In short, do give it a go. The website is http://www.gallagherwines.com.au/ and it is definitely stocked at King & Godfree’s. It was $15 for the riesling and $20 for the shiraz. What did you drink last weekend?

In Melaka, there is that famous chicken rice... it's the "wat-kei", meaning smooth chicken in Cantonese with the rice served as balls. Eaten with that sour/spicy/vinagrette type Hainanese chicken rice chilli sauce and lots of thick dark soy.... Wow... I'm dreaming now.

Mrs.Jones This may seem presumptuous or even overtly cautious, but really, all I'm trying to do is find out what people think of this little place in Carlton, Melbourne. I've walked past, and my wife baulked due to the menu for the week, but I'm keen to give it a go, seeing as 211 was actually quite good. Opinions and criticisms welcome.

I'd say write to your local authorities and get the inspectors on to them. No one fancies salmonella, so why should you tolerate a stupid chef?

the Malaysian cultural ambassador, HE Mr Laderman strikes again. will check out article, but in the meantime, favorite nonya dishes: - enci kebin (fried chicken) - otak otak (fish mousse) - petai sambal udang (um, smelly beans with prawn sambal, lol) oooohhh, and loads more, i'm gonna go eat some tonight... Melbourne's got some great places to go eat such things these days... love your work Pan, will be checking this thread in weeks to come.

For those of you interested, Simon Johnson's in Fitzroy are bringing in some whole Foie in the next week or so. They are pasteurised, whole lobes, gently pre-poached. They served some at France-Soir not long ago, and for around $200/500g, I think it's a steal. Salut!

Victoria St Richmond... can't remember the name of the butcher, but it's vietnamese, and it's next to a restaurant called Minh Xuong where they make some of the best crispy skinned roast pork in town. they always have brisket for pho. and they are cheap. i can't stand those pussy-livered butchers these days that trim everything and then snub their noses when you ask for skanky cuts for tasty stews... a big bunch of them work at the queen vic these days and they look like burnt out lawyers trying to cash in on the organic health craze, bunch of wankers i say.

The salad is simple: - shredded carrot - shredded white radish - bean shoots (some people like it, some don't) - crispy rice/tapioca crackers, crushed, but not too much - ground peanuts, unsalted - pomelo segments, chopped, this you will find it difficult to source i suspect, everyone knows the best pomelos in the world come from Ipoh. - pickled red chilli strips, extremely fine julienne'd, also you'll find this difficult to source... - deep fried rice noodle for texture for the fish... traditionally it's a freshwater fish, 'sang-yue' the cantonese call it, but the closest i can think of is probably an estuarine bass type fish, sea bass should be fine... sashimi thin, marinated at the last minute with lime juice, five spice powder, pepper and sesame oil. salmon works well too, but too fatty for me... as for the sauce, its plum sauce, but the clear yellow variety you see sometimes at roast duck restaurants, and its mixed with a savoury chicken stock based, corn flour thickened demi-glace... you want sweet and sour but not too much so it overtakes the fish and vegies... think thats it, but i'm probably wrong, i know it.

Hmmm... the allure of Armenian food seems to transcend mere satiation of the appetite. I am now reminded of Proust, the triggering of memory via sensory stimulation... the book is gathering dust, but I'll just talk to the resident Proustian, my wife... The fusion element is intruiging. The use of yoghurts, mid-east spices... now... any takers on the Kvass??... is it Armenian sarsaparilla or is it another adopted item in the corpus?

It was called Basturma, and the sausages were called Shujuk. As for the garlic, it was very prominent in all the dishes, but not unpleasantly so. Now that people mention the middle-east, I could definitely recall that in the kebab type treatment of the lamb and pork, although I'm sure the pork is the European influence... I also googled Chanakhi, and apparently its of Georgian origin, although the Georgians don't do it with beans apparently. It's here if people are interested: http://ggdavid.tripod.com/georgia/cuisine/chanakhi.htm As for the crossroads element, this reminds me of a thread possibly in this forum, on Fusion... the winning argument was, if I remember correctly, that fusion should occur along Darwinian lines. When excessive tampering takes place, we often end up with too much lemongrass, but I digress.

Thought I'd post this here rather than in the geographic specific forum, hoping that it might get a little bit more exposure. Now, I tried it for the first time a couple nights ago here in Melbourne, Australia. Simple stuff, some air-dried beef slices and sliced sausage for starters then mains of chargrilled pork and lamb on the bone, and a huge serving of chanakhi. The chanakhi is a soup, thick and hearty with potatoes, beans, chunks of braising beef, and loads of spices. I could taste paprika, a hint of chilli, and layer upon layer of other stuff. Was salty too. People I've spoken to since have commented that a lot of EAstern European soups are quite salty. But it was a good dinner washed down with Kvas, a russian grain-derived beverage. It was lightly carbonated, slightly sweetened, and reminded me of sarsaparilla (which reminds me to go pick up some root beer today). I noticed many of the diners, ostensibly either Russian or Armenian were tucking into their meals with bottles of whiskey and other spirits nearby but no vodka in sight. If anyone can shed some light on the cuisine or knows something to share, I look forward to it!

I was at Pangkor Laut with Mrs PCL two weeks ago for a week. It's a great resort, and it's all on one island. It's an hour by boat back to the mainland, but they don't really want you to leave, and you won't want to! The Fisherman's Cove restaurant is great, but they are closed Wednesdays I think. Go for the fresh seafood on display, ask for the product (sea bass, snapper, grouper, HUGE tiger prawns etc) to be either grilled or fried. Don't bother with white wine as it's too hot and the ice buckets don't keep much cool. Instead, head for something red and light like the Louis Jadot beaujolais. For lunch, the Chapman's Bar offers great hawker type food, like banana leaf curry lunch, decent satay. Drink lots of coconut by the beach. Snorkelling is good fun too. And yeah, great burgers at Chapman's which is on Emerald Cove. Enjoy yourself at Pangkor Laut. The Spa facilities and services are FANTASTIC!

I was living and working in London last year when KK opened its first outlet at in the hallowed halls of Harrod's Food Hall. The queues were also huge. And no prizes, the freebies drew them in. You get a hat, some bags, and a fold out cool looking menu. But I must say, the product is pretty good. Every time I was in the area, I Krispy'ed up, but then again, I was on expenses, so I always brought them back to the office to share. If they opened here in Melbourne, I could see myself having one or two. For what its worth, it's a superior product to Dunkin' Donuts, but no contest to the Jam Donut vendor at the Queen Vic....