anguso

I recently had some knives ground and sharpened at Henry Westpfal on West 25th Street, and I noticed a metal shop in the back. It's a separate business, but the lady who took in my knives said that they were very good at doing odd jobs in metal. To me, the trickiest part of this job is likely to be getting a nice clean (and cleanable) joint between the curved inside of the pot and whatever fitting you decide to install. Henry Westpfal & Co. 115 W 25th St New York, NY 10001-7245 (212) 563-5990

Sorry it took me a while to respond - thank you all for your thoughts - I'll be tracking down all the leads you mention, am quite interested to see what Bluecorn is doing - someone here had also mentioned it to me. It seems from what I've read that they are pushing beyond the traditional. I guess in St Kilda that's a prerequisite, given the other options in the area. One concern I have about Mexican food in Australia is the perception that it's probably not very good for you. People who think that may well have a point, but there are just as many examples of light and fresh mexican food (especially dishes from the coast) as there are for each plate of beans, lard and jack cheese. I wonder whether it gets in the way of greater acceptance. It's really only been (from what I'm told) the last 15 years that have seen a change in that perception here in New York - let's hope that such a change might occur in Melbourne, or Australia. I would've thought Melbourne is as adventurous (or moreso) as any other city... Notwithstanding all the above, as I type, I'm starting to salivate at the prospect of my weekly lunchtime Taco feast on 116th Street in East Harlem. It's no health food, but it's not my full time diet... I'll see if I can take a couple of pics while I'm at it and post them...

Hi Melbourne eGulleteers, In a few weeks I'll be visiting Melbourne (I'm an expat Melburnian coming back to see family), and on my already long list of things to do, I'd like to add a meal at one of Melbourne's better Mexican restaurants (of which, from memory, there may be very few). It's a long term dream of mine to open a mexican place somewhere, probably starting with a taqueria, and hopefully building up to something more substantial. I'm spoilt rotten here in the U.S., not only from the local selections, as I live in East Harlem, where most of the mexican restaurants are staffed by expats from Puebla, but doubly so as my wife is mexican american with an vast ancestral cookbook. I dread coming back to live in Melbourne and not having access to a simple but great taco filled with chorizo, carnitas, cecina, you name it... I'm sure there are lots of tapas places around, but is there anything purely mexican of note? So this trip will be partly to find out what the lay of the land is - growing up, the only options available were the predictable and pretty awful Taco Bill-type bean and cheese places. Has anything changed? I look forward to reading any opinions you might have, Angus.

I think the place being referred to is actually Tarallucci e Vino, on the NW corner of 10th St. and First Ave. They are the distributors for Danesi, and rumor has it they're opening another place somewhere around Union Square. They make a pretty good espresso, and good pastries/panini too.