cnspriggs

I found the burger excellent for it's patty and outstanding bun. I would like more mushroom flavour out of those mushrooms but that's being picky and personal. I can't help but wonder what place will follow next and how tough a competition it has. Too bad no one got the foie gras version just to see how it was! I was disappointed in the fries. My first and only Feenie burger was over a year ago and I remember leaving absolutely in love with the fries. Not only were they cooked to perfection they tasted like they were cooked in duck fat and had loads of flavor. The ones at the club meeting were bland and 'dry' for lack of a better word. It was a great night and I can only hope I'm in town when the next burger or other egullet event happens!

My apology on the Brett thing! To be clear, the character from this yeast is not always considered a fault (much the same way that a bit of volatile acidity or other wine faults can be complexing at low levels). It is dependent on the level of the compounds and the style of the wine. Also, to make things more complex there may be different sensory characters imparted from this yeast depending upon the strain some of which are more and less desirable. Oh and 'earthly and leathery' are not necessarily from Brett either.

Hi all! Last Friday night I took my other half to Bishops for a birthday dinner. We both wanted to go there in hopes of meeting John Bishops. Unfortunately he wasn't there or at least we never got to see him. One question I must pose to the group is about seasoning in fine dining. See the review below but the quick version is-does anyone else often find fine dining food over salted? The last experience I had with tasting some food and thinking 'gosh that's got a lot of salt' was at West. I vainly attributed to an off dish but I've sinced noticed that the finer the restaurant the more I notice the salt. I was under the impression that food should be salted to the optimum balance where it livens the food but is not noticed. So, is it me being more sensitive to salt (and yes I use salt in my own cooking ) or is it possible that because salt is used so much in the finer restaurants that the staff has become accustom to higher salt levels? On to the review. The nut shell is that we had a very lovely evening of well made if not overly exciting food. I appreciate the effort for local ingredients Bishops makes and thought the quality of all ingredients was good to very good. amuse: A parmesan pasty puff. Subtle, simple and nice. Appies: 1) Herb and olive oil marinated salt spring island goat cheese with baby beets and blackberry vinaigrette. The ingredients were very fresh and flavorful and the sweet baby beets made a nice compliment to the goat cheese. I couldn't help wondering if the dish would have worked better with a slightly aged and less sticky goats cheese. Especially as young goat cheese has a tendancy to coat your mouth so much that you can't taste anything else. 2) Seared scallops with ripe avocado salad and fresh mango coulis. I'm afraid I can't report on the scallops (I'm allergic) but I did get a taste of the avocado salad and the mango coulis which I loved for the bright and tangy flavours mixed with the sensual texture that avocado has. Very very nice. Mains: 1) Roasted cowichan bay duck breast AND duck confit with sticky rice and shitake mushroom spring roll. Both this and the dish below were very large. The duck breast was extremely tender and packed with flavour. Both this and the confit were good and served simply. I can't say the duck was anything too original but I did enjoy it. However, I really enjoyed the sticky rice and shitake mushroom spring roll. It was packed with mushroom flavour and the sticky rice made it seem like comfort food yet the crunchy spring roll outside made it balanced enough in texture to not see sloppy. I'm hoping to replicate these at home. 2) Fraser valley lamb in four parts with roasted new potatoes and sweet vermouth basil reduction. The 'four parts' were braised lamb shoulder, roasted leg of lamb, a lamb chop, and a mince meat ball. Again all well cooked but not exciting. The potatoes were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. The sauce was well suited to the lamb. My partner seemed to feel as I did about my main-good and enjoyable but likely not something to remember forever. A note on presentation: I thought all these dishes were nicely presented. Simple and without being contrived. I'm not a fan of the tower of food as presentation nor do I like having to guess how to eat the food. These dishes were nicely garnished and yet simply served. Dessert: We skipped because as I mentioned above the portion size for the mains was quite large and dessert would have been too much. So we opted for coffee and green tea. Both of which were good but not special. Wine: A red from the Rhone -100% Syrah (I forget the producers name). This was recommended to us by the Maitre d' for having nice mouthfeel and good for our dishes. It was packed with Brett and had decent mouthfeel but that classic Brett bitterness associated with it. I'm not anti-Brett so did not complain but to me it seemed an odd suggestion. Service: Very very good in all respects. The timing was relaxed without ever feeling like we were waiting. There was no pretence or attitude in the server (though the maitre d' seemed a bit sombre). We didn't have too many questions but all were answered well. Grand total $211

Hang on. I was just at Go Fish yesterday (July 16) and I swear there were fish taco available. I didn't order them so can't report but I think they were on the specials board. Can anyone confirm?

Thank you all so much for your advice! I will report back on what we decide. Though I am excited to see the good value options at Araxi etc I needed a place because I am being taken out by people (lucky me!!) for dinner and I know they are not able to spend large amounts of money so I don't want to send them somewhere intimidating. However, I still wanted a unqiue place so these options look great! Thanks again.

I am hoping someone can suggest a place in or around whistler with good food without too high of a price point. As much as I would love to hit Araxi etc I need a place with main courses that top at $25. Location and style of cuisine does not matter. Thanks so much in advance.

On the topic of butter can someone point me to a store that has Lescure butter? Thanks!

Great to see activity on this board! I do miss the active posts in the Vancouver board and hope to see more food talk here (especially all you Adelaidians hiding out there!!!) Also I find it interesting the number of comparisons of Melbourne to Vancouver. When in Vancouver I'd really only heard Vancouver compared to Sydney. Fi Fi La More since you have eaten at Vijs and this is the restaurant I miss most in Vancouver I was wondering if you could recommend a place (Sydney or Melbourne is fine) that you think is as good. Here in Adelaide I've only really found places that have stereotypical Indian food without much creativity. I too am impressed you paid the prices at Urban Fare for lamb! Other than treats, I stuck to Stongs daily meals. As a general question, when did Australia first ban unpasterised cheese? It would be great if that rule changed!!! I sure miss Les Amis du Fromage in Vancouver. Ozmouse I was looking for fresh chorizo and have since found someone that can get me some. I'm in full agreement that regardless of the city it often takes quite a few Km's to get what you want. Oh and I did also enjoy chocolates at Cacao! Overall I would agree that Australia gets better produce and rightly so as you grow so much of it here. Since Vancouver/Canada must rely on imports for a lot of it's produce we don't always get the freshest choices. However, I believe that the products that are grown locally in both Vancouver and Australia are of equal excellence (except perhaps the strawberries... :) though I am still hopefull to find good ones). I think this is the crux for most food things anywhere in the world, buy local and seasonal and you will get better goods. As for the beer, I have been quite happy with some of the microbrewery beer in Aussy. Just like to see more of them! And to rescind a bit on my rant, I have found some excellent Australian wines that aren't too oaky/jammy. Overall though I still think Canada gets a better international selection, if poor quality service!

As a Canadian (born in Victoria lived for many years in Vancouver) now living in Australia I can't resist posting due to many frustrations I've had with the Australian food culture. I am living in Adelaide so much of my perspective is from this city but have also travelled to Melbourne and regions. (small note to ozmouse that Vancouver is the west coast of canada). I agree that our similarities exist in our great restaurants so the rest is what I've experienced outside the the top restaurants. Starting with price, Vancouver beats Australia hands down. With the dollars being almost 1:1 it's very easy to compare and I have not found a single item of food or a single restaurant of similair qualities where the Australian version is at a minimum 1.5x higher including produce. This is especially true when many have indicated that Adelaide is not the most expensive city Australia. The one difference that I can not comment on is how the prices relate to what the average worker earns. On a personal beef $1.50/lime when you grow them here is ridiculous when we buy them for $0.30 in Canada where we don't grow any! Many of the comments that I have to follow can largely be attributed to a lack of food knowledge and culture I have found here. For example while I agree with ozmouse that Australia has more ' independent butcher, fishmonger, poultry shop, and fruit & veggie shop' than Vancouver, have more doesn't mean the quality is better. Using butchers as an example, in every butcher shop I have entered in Adelaide (including the markets) I have asked about the source of the meat, and how long and how it has been aged. I have not found a single merchant who has aged meat for more than 14 days and many have no idea how long or even where the meat has come from. Additionally, there is a distinct lack of meat with any marbling in it rendering much of the meat tough and tasteless. Oddly, I have had a lot of Australian meat in Vancouver that was excellent so was very surprised at the poor quality here. As for fish mongers, I believe the Vancouver and Australia to be on par but with different products. The oysters are excellent but different in both places. Vancouver has no lobster/shrimp industry so that can not be compared but the crab is great from both places. There are different local fish so a direct comparision is hard (I don't expect to find my coveted sokeye salmon in Australia just as I don't expect barramundi in Vancouver). As for freshness, I have found just as much unfresh fish in Australia as I have in Adelaide so I think it's a problem that plagues the fish industry in general and we need more consumers demanding freshness. Fruit and vegetables and other products are equally frustrating for knowledgable vendors, however I would say that in general Australia is blessed with some excellent fruit and veg grown in the country. Canada does grow many fruits but obviously must ship in some products that we can not grow and thus these will be less fresh. Finding strawberries in Australia that are not oversized monsters, unripe and lacking any flavour has been next to impossible. They are reminisent of the ones shipped to Canada from California and nowhere near as good as the BC grown ones. As for nonfruit/veg it's hit and miss. As an example the number of stores I had to ask for chorizo in before I found someone that even knew what the product was many. Chocolate has to be one of the most dissapointing things in Australia. I have been into many local shops or at markets with makers of chocolate products and asked about their products. When enquiring about the %'s, source of the chocolate or other questions most times they can not answer. In one place I asked a man what kind of chocolate that he used for his truffles came from he said 'it's real'. On further equiry he said he used a powder and water and had no idea where it came from! Further, hot chocolate is not simply a brown colour warm milk drink as is mostly served here but it should actually taste like chocolate. I will concede the greek food and to some extent Thai in Vancouver is lacking but that is not to say Australia isn't missing a few cultures Vancouver has. For one, excluding top end restaurants there is a lack of French food and culture here. I have not yet had a pain au chocolate that wasn't tough, chewy, likely not made from butter and poor quality chocolate. My experience with Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese has been similairly good in both places. I've noticed quite good selections of Italian food and products and there seems to be a geniune passion for the culture here just as there is in Canada. However, I must reply to Fi Fi La More as I've had terrible pizza in Australia. In many places I've specifically asked for thin crust and been told that it is thin only to get a pizza with dough at least 1cm thick. That's certainly not thin. Additionally I've had pizza (still with thick dough) where the cheese had obviously been frozen before being put on the pizza and when served to me was still cold! I have had 1 good pizza in my entire time here and had to pay $25 for it! Regarding decent bread, I have yet to find quality bread that isn't white. Yes if you like white bread I'm sure there is lots of good examples in Australia but for anything outside of that Vancouver has a much larger and better selection of bread hands down. Coffee in australia is excellent across the board and better than all but the very best in Vancouver. Note that there is not drip style coffee in Australia so no comparison can be made. As for the wine situation I may agree that the goverment liquour stores in BC are lacking in light and service at least they have more than only Canadian wine. Australia has largely only Australian wine in their stores. If you are looking for a good selection of chilean, California, France, Spain, Italy, Argentinian wine certainly don't come to Australia because they really only sell Australian wines with a smattering of hugely marked up foreign wines. Australians need to realize that not all wines in the world are sickly jammy, loaded with oak and boistered with fake acid and tannin. Finally, to end my little rant (I also have been needing to vent!), I have never experienced anything more parochial than South Australians in all my travels.

Hi! Is there any good websites that are specific to Australia and food oriented? I'm looking for things that are like epicurious.com where there are recipes and reviews by readers (though reviews aren't crucial) or sites like foodtv.com/foodtv.ca for recipe searches. Other food sites that are really australian oriented would also be great to know about! Cheers.

Ate at Relish recently and though it was a nice restaurant I was underwhelmed by the food. The Risotto was made with a really metallic taste (synthetic stock???) rather unexciting. The Gnocchi was ok but the mushrooms they were served with tasted like they had been soaked in lemon juice. Feels like a place that if a little more attention to detail had been paid it could be very good. Another place that got rated well in the local paper was an Organic pizza joint in Glenelg but I wouldn't recommend them. Our pizza was to have boccoccini cheese on it. It's bad enough that the cheese had been previous frozen but when the cheese is still cold when served you know something isn't right. While here, can anyone recommend a place to get meat that has some marbling and age? Most age I've found is 10 days and trying to find a piece with any marbling has been very challenging. Cheers

Hi! I was wondering if some of you could post your favorite spots in Adelaide for foodie related things. Most of the postings here seem to be about The Grange but I'm more interested in sourcing food for my own cooking. Particularly like to know who some of the better vendors are in the market, where your favorite coffee places are, who makes great bread, best chocolate places, great wine shops, good places for food related items to buy. I'm actually living in Glenelg so rec's for that area of town are welcome. Thanks very much!

I too have been surprised at the size and lack of sweetness of the local berries. I overheard someone saying something about 'everbearing' variety versus 'June' bearing variety but didn't catch the whole conversation. If anyone can enlighten on the different types of strawberries out there that would be great. I love the small little strawberries that are packed with flavor and haven't seen any this year.

Can someone tell me what exactly tendon & tripe are? Thanks!

I looked for these at Urban fair this past Saturday and couldn't find any. Perhaps I just missed them but if someone saw them there this weekend please post!

I got to try both the bottled 2001 and barrel samples of the components for 2003. I may pick up a couple bottles of the 2001 out of interest but it is made from very young vines and had a few 'bumps' in it that are not uncommon in a first vintage from any winery. Provided nothing goes wrong between now and bottling I will be intereted in getting more of the 2003 vintage and maybe even 2002 depending on how it turns out. It sells for $35 at the winery or in wine shops without a mark up (ie, VQA stores).

Out of curiosity, does anyone here tip for the service they get when buying wine in a wine shop?

Tocino I fully agree about the glasses etc in the restaurant which is why I will still tip for wine service and nice glasses but I don't base my tip on the price of the bottle. For example let's say it works the other way. If I happen to feel like a simple inexpensive white wine instead of an expensive red wine and my waiter/sommelier is excellent and I have beautiful glasses should I be tipping less because my bottle cost less? No, that doesn't make sense at all! I guess I just look at TIPS as payment for service and not a simple percentage of the cost of the wine.

following that logic, you'd tip the same amount of money for a 10 dollar entree as you would a 35 dollar entree because the server did the same amount of work to bring it to your table. I disagree. The difference is that if you are spending $10 for an entree you are likely at a less fancy establishment than if you are spending $30 for an entree. As gastropimp points out the fancy restaurants should (but they don't always...) have superior service with better trained and more experienced staff and therefore a larger tip is deserved. Therefore the waiter who delivers the $30 entree in the fancy restaurant presumably earns the $6 tip compared to the $2 tip for the waiter delivering the $10 entree. This does not hold for wine. Wine in the simplest of restaurants spans $20-$100 dollars a bottle and hence a range of tip from $4-$20. The service will be the same no matter what bottle you choose and therefore I do not believe that waiter who delivers the more expensive bottle should get the larger tip. Further if we are in an expensive restaurant the bottles could range as high as $500+ meaning that the waiter who pulled that cork by your logic would get a $100 tip for the exact same service. Since tips are supposed to be about service I do not believe that wine should be tipped by the % of the cost of the bottle.

I guess I would like to hear an arguement on why waiter number one who pulls the cork on a $100 bottle of wine should get $20 whereas waiter number two who pulls a cork on a $50 bottle of wine should get $10. They did the same job. I don't mine tipping for sommelier that offers service or a even flat 'per bottle tip' but to base the tip of wine service on the price of the bottle does not make sense to me. I am positive I've read in articles that many people do not tip on wine in a restaurant or at least do not base the tip on a percentage of the cost.

I think the original posters question wasn't so much about what % to tip but about what to value on the bill to tip from. Personally I find the mark up on wine extravagent in most places so generally subtract the price of the wine before tipping as this is what I have read to be standard. For example if a bottle that sells for $30 cost $60 in a restaurant (and even more is often charged) I don't believe that anyone could possibly earn a 20% tip ($12!) for pulling a cork. So I am in the group that says you tip on the preliqour price of the food. As for with or without tax I agree with the poster that said most of the time it makes such a small difference to the tip that I don't worry about it. Come to think of it I do have one question. At a restaurant do you get charged tax on the price of the bottle of wine too? One other thing that I often think is a little unfair is the that we base our tips on the price of the bill rather than on the job done. I often look at the people that work in a less expensive yet busy restaurant and they are practically running around to get everyone served. Yet when the bill comes in at such an establishment they will get a smaller tip than a server at a fancy restaurant where the bill is higher yet the pace of service is slower (and potentially easier??).

Can anyone out there tell me why beef comes in different colours? I noticed some beef is a very bright red whereas other beef has a brown colour. Does the colour change when the beef is aged? Is the colour a sign of quality at all? Thanks! Cherie