Shinboners

I think people will either love or hate this book. The fact is that MPW isn't at all subtle about what he wants to say in his story ensures that this will happen. Personally, I loved the book - the stories he told and the way he told them. If he wrote a more subtle, "reader friendly" book that offended no-one, I think we would have been denied a view of what MPW's personality is like.

When we went there, we made our booking by phone. We booked about two months in advance, and we had a brilliant evening. I would think that you'd have better luck getting a table during the week than on the weekends.

These cookbooks are by Australian authors, and I think they match just as good as anything that has come out of Europe or the United States. For Middle Eastern food, try these books by Greg and Lucy Malouf: "Arabesque" - set out by ingredients, and it is as good as any work by Paula Wolfert or Claudia Roden. If you only wanted one book by the Maloufs, this is the one to get. "Moorish" - a smaller cookbook that covers, naturally, Moorish food. "Saha" - more a coffee table book, similar in feel to the books produced by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. For French cookbooks, try: "My Vue" by Shannon Bennett. It covers his take on haute French cuisine. "French" by Damien Pignolet. This is probably the best French cookbook by an Australian author.

That hurts. I'm relieved that I ordered my copy last week. I had mine in my cart for about a week before I finally purchased it.

Grand Livre de Cuisine was always $157.50 Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Desserts and Pastries is still $58.50

An intereview with Stephane Reynaud from the Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia). http://www.theage.com.au/news/epicure/the-...7180519470.html

Thanks to everyone for their comments and recommendations. I think I'll get the Lewis/Peacock book.

Ah, my copy arrived today.

I think it's the third cookbook Phiadon has released. They did the Itallian cookbook "The Silver Spoon", and one for an English cafe with the title of "Breakfast Lunch Tea". You do raise a good point that this book can be seen as a case of style over substance, and personally, I'm going to buy it because it looks so bloody good. It's not as if I don't have many of the recipes elsewhere.....and anyway, you can't have too many pork cookbooks in the collection.

The missus sometimes gets misty eyed over some of the Southern cooking she enjoyed when she lived in the United States, so I think I might add a Southern cooking cookbook to the collection. Does anyone have any recommendations? The Lee Bros. Cookbook has had some good reviews on Amazon as has the Gift Of Southern Cooking by Lewis/Peacock and The Glory of Southern Cooking by Villas. Has anyone used these books? Are they good? Are there better ones? I only want to get one, so which one should it be?

For those who want a quirky cookbook, a trio of Melbourne women (Leah Holscher, Rachel Pitts, and Katherine Bird) have self-published their "Hungry Girls Cookbook". It's a collection of favourite recipes with stories and photography. I think they made about 500 copies, and it's $AUS35.00. The only place I've seen it is Readings bookstore (www.readings.com.au)

For those who like to have a few quirky cookbooks in their collection, there's a self-published cookbook called "Hungry Girls Cookbook" by Leah Holscher, Rachel Pitts, and Katherine Bird. It's a collection of favourite recipes with some stories and lovely photography. You can get it at Readings for $35.

No that's just the cover ← Ah ha! Well, at least I know Australian customs won't destroy or fumigate the book then (we've got some strict laws on the importation of wood products). Thanks for answering my question.

5 months from Canada to the UK? How long will it take from Canada to Australia then.....I guess I might get my book in time for Christmas.

We saw a lot of pine mushrooms at the Richmond street market about two weeks ago. One stand had several cartons of them, but they were of very poor quality - big, but very damaged specimens. I can't remember the price, but they were not that expensive. But only one stallholder (different from the one above) has had them in the last two weeks, and I think he would've been charging at least $50/kg for them.

I ordered my copy from the restaurant over 2 months ago, but I still haven't received it.....surely it doesn't take that long for packages to get from Canada to Australia. However, before I send them an e-mail to chase up on the order, I need a question answered. I took a look at the website again....does the book come in a wooden box?

It's just been released in Australia. I've had a look through it, and it is stunning (as many of Phiadon's books are). It'll be the next cookbook that I'll add to my collection.

As for my top 10.....and in no particular order: The Cooks Companion by Stephanie Alexander Nose To Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson The Food I Love by Neil Perry Heart And Soul by Kylie Kwong Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain Spice by Christine Manfield Thai Food by David Thompson Seductions of Rice by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid Ezard by Teage Ezard French by Damien Pignolet

Anyone who wants to get a copy of this should be able to track it down if you get in touch with any Borders bookshop in Australia (well, most of their Melbourne stores seem to have copies).

From Australia: "Good Food" by Neil Perry "Sharing Plates" by Jared Ingersoll "Autumn" by Stephanie Alexander/Brigitte Hafner/Jill Dupleix

If you like the Donna Hay cookbooks, then you should also check out the Marie Claire ones. I think Hay was involved with the Marie Claire magazine at some stage, but their cookbooks have the same format and cover a similar style of recipe to Donna Hay. Another Australian cookbook author that covers similar territory is Bill Granger. He's had five cookbooks released....Bill's Food, Bill's Open Kitchen, Every Day, Simply Bill, and Sydney Food.

Food Lovers Guide had a story on the Australian tuna fishing industry. The industry is based in South Australia, and iirc, the Japanese buyers buy the best tuna within hours of the boats returning to port.

Neil Perry's new cookbook, "Good Food" is out. On my first flick through it at a bookshop, it looks like it's a series of quick and easy recipes. The prices do vary depending on where you buy it. The RRP is $55, but I've seen it at Readings ($45), Borders ($40), and K-Mart ($35).

A restaurant named after a song by The Smiths? It must be good then.

As someone who likes to look at restaurant menus and information via the web, my suggestion would be to keep things as easy for the user to navigate as possible. A few resturants (Three One Two, Ezards come to mind) overdo it with the flashmedia extravagenzas. I'll even say that Three One Two has the worst website because it is the least user friendly....you have to scan the page to find the menu, contact details etc. - they only appear when your pointer hits the correct area. On the other hand, I really like the Pearl website. It's elegant, easy to navigate, and it showcases what the restaurant has to offer. So, if your web designer is showing you all these wizz bang features that you can put onto your blog, step back and think about whether it's going to waste the time of your readers. After all, these websites are essentially marketing exercises, and as a website developer told me recently, if you don't grab people in the first few seconds, they'll be off to check out something else.