Shinboners
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Posts posted by Shinboners
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I got this from another website that I use. The guy who made the post has good links within the food industry, so if it happens, you know where you heard it first:
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.p...=154156&page=15
It's going to be a great 18 months at Crown food wise.
On the schedule is - Nobu due to open mid year.
Maurice Terzini returns to Melb (cafe e cucina, icebergs) with Rob Marchetti to open a new restaurant Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons named after their grandparents late this year.
Thomas Keller from French laundry is also coming.
As is Guillaume Brahimi of Bennelong in early 08.
Word is that they (Crown) want to make them the premiere food destination in the country and one of the best in the world - and quite frankly with this collection (plus existing Rockpool)they will be.
It's gunna be bliss.
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Welcome back to Melbourne!
also saw some big seafood/butcher stores around Dandenong (don't ask)Dandenong or Springvale? It sounds like you saw those huge Vietnamese butchers and seafood stores.
Is France Soir still good? It's just around the corner...France Soir is still very good. I had a great evening the last time I was there.
But there's plenty of choice when it comes to French food.....Aux Batifolles, Bistro Thierry, Libertine, L'Oustal, and Les Boucheries Parisiennes are a few places that spring to mind.
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Jared Ingersoll has released his second cookbook, "Sharing Plates". It's $35, and I had a flick through it. It's got a similar feel to his "Danks Street Depot" cookbook. I was a big fan of his first cookbook, but I'll probably give this one a miss.
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But restaurant reviewers aren't the only ones dissing restaurants. If we get bad food, bad service, bad attitude from the staff, don't we all let everyone know? Equally, if we have a great meal, a memorable experience, don't we recommend the restaurant to others?
True, but it's not quite an equal reaction for good and bad experiences. People are far more likely to tell their friends about a bad experience than a good one. There's some statistic that is quoted in many marketing and sales books, and it went something like, "If a customer has a good experience, they're likely to tell about 4 people. If they have a bad experience, they're likely to tell 12 people".
I suppose that for top end restaurants, if they get a good review in the weekly press, it's almost expected. It's really only when their score (in Melbourne at least) jumps up a couple of points that people really take notice. But if they get a bad review, then their foundations get shaken.
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I know Judd hasn't expressed an opinion on the issues raised in the letter, but look at his recent brutal review of Restaurant Atelier on this board. Do I agree? I can't comment because I haven't been, though that's not due to his comments. Do I appreciate his honesty? Absolutely.
Personally, I'm more likely to go to a place reviewed by people on here than from reading the press. For years, I've been meaning to go to Cafe Di Stasio, but negative reports by Pat Churchill and PCL has put that idea out of my mind for the time being.
Seth Godin wrote about how Sripraphai, a Thai restaurant in New York, built up a loyal clientel by the discussions generated about it on a website called chowhound.com
This is taken from his book, "Small Is The New Big" (page 93 if you're looking for it), and it sums up how I feel about the nature of reviews on a message board as opposed to the press:
Why does it work? Because the people who post are trusted. They have a reputation. They are not anonymous. And most of all, they have real voices, voices filled with authenticity and experience, giving people a reason to trust them."
We're a long way from Godin's world where the majority of diners will look to websites to find good restaurants than from the pages of Epicure. However, it does work in a more traditional way where word of mouth works for many restaurants. In Melbourne, places like Mario's, Ti Amo, Veggie Bar, etc. are never going to win any chefs hats, but word of mouth ensures that they'll be packed during lunchtime and dinner.
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That's a very heartfelt letter, and it just puts into focus how ridiculous it is that a restaurant's fate can hinge on the opinions of one reviewer. It reminded me of two comments in the past, both of which show how a slight change in angle can make so much difference to a reviewer.
The first was from a documentary from last year where they showed Matt Moran's commenting on losing a chef's hat. He said that the then chief reviewer for the SMH, Matthew Evans, might be a trained chef, but he couldn't hack it in a kitchen. It was a put down, but an unfair one as at the very least, Evans was writing from a point where he did have some knowledge of what goes on in the kitchen and in a restaurant.
The other was from one of Marco Pierre White's books (I think it was Wild Food From Land And Sea) where he was scathing about restaurant critics who did not come from a food background - he mentioned one who was formerly a sports journalist. His point was that if a person didn't have any background or passion for food, how could they write with any authority on what was being presented on the table?
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I was having a craving for New York pizza and I checked out an
New York pizza? What makes a pizza a New York pizza?
Anyway, try i Carusi for pizza.
Another thing you could try is going up to La Parisienne Pates on Lygon Street in Carlton. Buy some of their takeaway or a mixture of pates, cured meats etc., and take it home for dinner.
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- Pellegrini's, 66 Bourke St, around $12 a main course. Hearty pastas and good coffee. Dessert around $4-5, so it makes your budget. Someone told me they charge you based on how you look (the better you look the cheaper), but I can't confirm the veracity of such vicious rumours.
A few years ago, I took a couple of friends from Sydney to Pelligrini's for dinner. We all had the same thing - they got charged $15 each, I got charged $10.
Oh, and I'm not particulary good look either. 
The Italian Waiters Club (Meyers Place) is also cheap and they have good food. The Cellar Bar (part of the Florentino) is also surprisingly good value. You can also take a 10 minute tram ride up to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and go to Mario's. I'm also a fan of Arcadia on Gertrude Street. If you fancy a 20 minute walk from the city, there's Tiamo on Lygon Street in Carlton.
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I've been out of the fine dining game for a while (mother of a 3yr old), am huge with second child,
I have a lot of empathy for you. My partner and I used to dine out monthly and try new restaurants each time. But since the birth of our daughter, we go out less, and to a couple of favourite haunts (that also happen to be baby friendly). That's not to say that I'd give up my daughter to go back to dining out all the time!
Anyway, good luck with finding somewhere to go. If you look up the index for Australian discussions at the top of this page, you'll find links to reviews for a few Sydney restaurants.
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Mexican food will be the focus of Meave O'Meara's "Food Safari" show. Tune in on SBS on Wednesday, 14th February at 7.30pm.
I've seen most of the shows in the current series, and it is very well put together - as one of the (few cluey) TV critics wrote, she manages to put in quite a lot in half an hour. Still, in the last couple of editions of the Age Green Guide, the critics have had a go at her....apparantly she shows too much enthusiasm about the food
......I'm really not sure why because imho she's one of the best food show presenters on TV. -
If you do a search of the internet, you should be able to track down a book titled, "The Foodies Guide To Sydney", and that will give you an idea of food shopping in that city.
You should also check out sites like www.realestateview.com.au and www.domain.com.au to get an idea of the rental market in Sydney.
Of course, there's the third option of telling your employer that you refuse to live in Sydney and that you want to work in the vastly superior city of Melbourne.
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Sounds like an excellent reason to plan a trip to Western Australia and the price including the accomadation seems very reasonable. Thankyou for sharing your experience with us Julian.
*Yes, I know it's the same as what Taubear posted, but it sums up perfectly what I wanted to say.
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Donovan Cooke got a mention in Marco Pierre White's autobiography, as did Curtis Stone.
Funnily enough, Shannon Bennett didn't get a mention (so maybe he wasn't one of Marco's boys as he hinted in his "My Vue" cookbook
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Here's a link to an older discussion about salt on this forum:
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Did I read somewhere about one restaurant offering a dozen different salts? The cynic in me says NaCl is NaCl but I guess some of these salts have unique "characteristics"
I think it was the French Laundry that may have offered a variety of salts.
In Justin North's "Becasse" cookbook, he's got a chapter on Murray River Gourmet Salt, and it seems that the flavour differences occur due to the other minerals that get mixed in with the NcCl.
Of more interest is what North does with his salt. He has recipes for the following: aromatic confit salt, curing salt, citrus salt, dried fish seasoning, dried porcini salt, seaweed tea salt, celery salt, and smoked celaric salt.
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We've just moved down to Port Melbourne from Albert Park.
I would have thought that the tram lines would have been good enough to get you to Albert Park and back.
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I got told that Epicure had an article a week or two ago about the best fish and chips in Melbourne...well, Victoria. A friend told me that they nominated some place in Rosanna as having the best fish and chips.
As for my experiences, I've had reasonable fish and chips in Melbourne, but nothing that has been truly wonderful (like Bubs under the previous owners). I think you're better off finding a good fish supplier, making your own beer batter, and doing your own fish and chips at home.
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Bubs Seafood in Nelson Bay, NSW. Best fish and chips ever.
Sadly, no longer the best fish and chips ever.
I was back in Nelson Bay over New Years, and naturally, Bubs was the first stop after dropping our luggage off at the house. Nelson Bay is a fishing town, and yet, in the shop display case, they had fish from Vietnam on display....wtf? After getting our order, we noticed that the beer batter wasn't as light and crispy, the fish didn't taste as fresh, the serves were smaller, and the whole thing cost that few dollars more. Whilst it's still better than a lot of fish and chip shops back in Melbourne, it was still very disappointing compared to what Bubs has been in the past.
It was later that we found out that Bubs had changed hands during the year. OH well, it was great while it lasted.
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... tolarno's??...
i thought that's now defunct??
Yes and no.
The owners of the property where Tolarno's is located put up the rent, and Hewitson was not prepared to pay it. However, Guy Grossi took up the lease under the new terms and he will re-open under the name "Mirka Tolarno". Grossi was an apprentice under Hewitson, and it's said that the friendship is very strained.
I remember reading somewhere that Hewitson will be opening a new restaurant with the Tolarno name.
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Well, it looks like I'm getting the Lake House cookbook for Christmas.
Anyway, Serge Dansereau has his new book out for Christmas, "Bathers Pavilion Recipes and Menus". $65 IIRC.
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"Lake House" by Alla Wolf-Tasker has just hit the shelves. It's $75, but it looks stunning. It's very much along the lines of cookbooks like Saha (Malouf/Malouf), the Alford/Duguid, Thomas Keller cookbooks - great recipes, beautiful photography, and plenty of stories and observations.
And Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has released his second cookbook too.
There have been a couple of re-issues, both in hardback. "Spice Notes" by Ian Hemphill and "Arabesque" by Malouf/Malouf.
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The Spring book is being released tomorrow, September 1. It's along the style of the Winter one and has a good collection of recipes. I've posted a review on my site : http://www.cookingdownunder.com/books/bookintro.htm
And yes, there'll be a Summer one round November.
[updated to include review url]
Cheers
It might be one day short of November, but the Summer edition of the Epicure cookbook has now been released.
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I assume they are refering to the size of the eggs, but what's the theory?
I'm taking a guess here, but I think 65 degrees celcius is the minimum temperature that you can cook an egg and kill harmful bacteria in the egg.
I've had a dish at Interlude where they poached an egg at 65 degrees (or thereabouts) for three hours, with some very impressive results. The egg whites end up in a jelly-like texture, but softer.
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Where are you located? In Melbourne?
There seems to have been a mini-boom with boutique chocolate makers in Melbourne, so if you look them up in the yellow pages and have a chat to them, they should be able to set you off in the right direction for supplies - or they may even let you buy smaller quantities if you sweet talk them (pun intended).
Crown Casino's next big name?
in Australia & New Zealand: Dining
Posted
I think Crown's motivations have more to do with making sure they can have the same "name chefs/restaurants" as Las Vegas than it has to do with putting Melbourne alongside London, Paris, New York etc. as premier food cities.
But if Crown are willing to bring in the likes of Rockpool, Nobu, Keller etc., then I'm happy to take advantage of it.