Shinboners

It's a superb book. Do you have their other books? Flatbreads And Flavours, The Seductions of Rice, and Home Baking? I would love for them to do a book on China. I've just spent an hour looking through the book. The stories are wonderful, the recipies are enticing, and the photography is just superb. The pictures of the food just make you want to go straight to the kitchen, whilst the photos of the places they visit and the people they meet, well, you just want to fly to the subcontinent as soon as possible. How could you not like a recipe called "Pea Shoots For A Crowd"? If you love the Alford/Duguid books for their mixture of stories, food, and photography, then I'd suggest that you track down "Saha" by Greg and Lucy Malouf. I've written a review of the book here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79080

I got my copy about a week ago. I'm a big fan of Alford/Duguid's books, and on my first skim through it, it looks as if it's as good as their previous work. I really can't wait until holidays start so I can read through it.

I drank beer, specifically James Squire Amber Ale. I think it's made by a small brewry in Sydney (no doubt if it's owned by someone like Fosters, someone will point that out soon enough). It's not a bad either. It's very easy to drink, very smooth, a wheaty taste that isn't overpowering, and it has a nice finish (it says "nutty finish" on the bottle, and that's pretty apt). It went very well with the Thai grilled chicken wings last night.

That depends on the hard headed financial decision vs. (for want of a better word) ethics. And I reckon that 99 out of 100 owners would take the financial decision. On purely ethical grounds, I reckon it'd be hard to justify a rise in prices for the same product (assuming the same input costs) simply due to an extra chefs hat. If you were profitable beforehand, you should still be profitable with the extra hat, and if anything, you'll know you'll have a waiting list of diners. I would also think that as prices rise along with the chefs hats, you'd probably lose a few diners who helped support you in the beginning with their patronage as they get priced out. But in the real world, you charge what you believe the market is willing to pay. After all, you run a restaurant to make money. If you happen to be cooking the food that you want to do, then that's an added bonus. I know that if I ran a restaurant and got an increase in chefs hats, I'd be putting up the prices. I really should look up my old economics textbooks as there is a term for this phenomena of increasing prices and yet, demand increases. It's to do with human psychology. If you have a certain reputation, then you must charge a certain price. And if that price is high, therefore the product must be good. I knew a guy who ran a wine appreciation course (an excellent course, btw - I think it's called Fine Wine Appreciation and you can find flyers around town). A few years ago, he put up his prices, and despite the course being the same, demand skyrocketed.

Well, since I wasn't anywhere near old enough for bistro dining in the 70s, all that food is new and exciting for me right now. And even if I was eating this food 30 years ago, if it is well executed and tastes good now, then there's no reason to ignore this as a dining option for today.

Did I hear someone say "Melbourne eGullet lunch in January?"

It certainly does. But I reckon that for the restaurants, the gaining or a loss of a hat would have a significant effect on their bottom line. Which leads me to the next question. In Sydney, restaruant owners are quite open about their desire to get a chefs hat rating. Note Neil Perry's response to losing a chefs hat and Matt Moran's determination to regain a lost chefs hat in the "Heat in The Kitchen" documentary. Then there was Chui Lee Luk's concern about what rating she would get as the owner of Claude's. I suspect that Melbourne chefs are the same, but they're probably less open about it compared to some of their Sydney counterparts.

I totally agree with you on that point. If you are paying top dollar, then you should be walking out the door satisfied. I reckon that there is probably more pushing of boundaries when a place has 2 chefs hats than 3. Perhaps when a place gets the 3 hats, perhaps a degree of conservatism could creep in (as they try to protect the rating). There could also be a sense of sub-concious self-satisfaction too. There's also the issue of diners who go to a place due to the chefs hats rather than the food. As someone else had pointed out in the Vue de Monde thread, there were diners who were simply happy to be seen in the restaurant, and it wouldn't have mattered what you served them. It's been over a year since I went to Vue de Monde and Pearl. At the time, I thought Vue de Monde was worth 3 hats whilst Pearl was probably a 2 hat place. In regards to Circa, I was very keen to go there this month. I checked their menu online, and nothing really grabbed me. So I booked elsewhere.

I remember Nam Loong on Russel Street. After Sunday morning Cantonese classes, we'd all go down there for the char siu bao, before spending the afternoon playing Galaga in the video game parlours. Earlier this year, they had a few problems with the food authorities due to hygine problems.

Thanks to Shalmanese's link above, it's the Australian Specialist Cheese Show. $30 gets you unlimited cheese tastings and 5 wine/beer tastings. I assume that it's always on around August, so keep your eyes out for it next year.

or the white cut chicken. ← I'd argue that the white cut chicken is cooked right through. Sure, there is the red colour in the bones from the blood, but the meat itself is cooked right through. I'm not sure about the Hainan chicken rice. When I've had it, it's been similar to the white cut chicken - but I've never prepared the dish myself.

I'm just speculating, but this has just given me another possible reason for the double cooking of meat. I don't know whether it's only true of the Chinese I know, but it seems to me that generally, Chinese like their meat to be well cooked. Not rare, not medium, but cooked right through. Take something like duck for instance. In European cooking, it is served pink. But for the life of me, I can't ever recall duck being served pink in a Chinese restaurant. The same goes for squab and any other meat you can think of. If you go back to the squab, if it's steamed then roasted, it will be cooked right through. But if you just roast it, then it should be pink in the middle.

The pork belly is often blanched first, rested overnight, and then roasted - hence twice cooked. I think the blanching has a dual effect. It washes out the impurities and scum, and it helps to soften the meat. It happens a lot in Chinese cookery. There are poultry dishes where the bird gets blanched, rested, and then deep fried.

The exception that proves the tule?

Try www.winestar.com.au Ask for Bert and tell them that Daniel Chan sent you. He might be able to help you.

Tea House does the comfort food very well. Their Ma Po Doufu is sublime. I thought it was a rule amongst us Chinese that pork belly had to be cooked at least twice.

For those who are interested in Lebanese and Syrian food, here's a review of "Saha" by Greg and Lucy Malouf. People who love the cookbook/travelogues by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid might also be interested in this book. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79080 And you can find a review of Damien Pignolet's cookbook, "French" here. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=77253

There's also that annual cheese tasting that the Australian Cheesmakers Association (or whatever they call themselves) holds. IIRC, it's $20 or so, you get about half a dozen refils on your wine and you get to sample as much cheese as you like. Mind you, I haven't been to one for a few years, and there are far worse ways to waste an afternoon.

Windy. Hot and windy. Cold and windy. Threatening to rain and windy. Threatening to toast everyone and windy. Yep, it was a bloody windy day on Sunday. Windy weather and a bunch of mates from the restaurant industry kicking a football around a rectangular section of grass. You could be forgiven for thinking that the order of the day would be lots of drinking and the long ball game. But watching the players, all in some pretty impressive team uniforms, doing stretches, and listening to the team talks and the on field chatter, you could tell that winning was on the minds of many. Not only that, they wanted to win with style. Everyone wanted to be 1970 Brazil rather than 1989 Arsenal, which for those who have no idea of sport means that you'd rather eat roquefort instead of Kraft cheddar. There were a few things that caught our eye. Grossi Florentino had a few females playing for them - huges props to them for that. The Botanical team shirts were the only ones without the name of the restaurant on them. Every Circa player had the number 86 on their back. There was also the English accents. I haven't heard so many since the last time the English cricket team toured Australia. And finally, the alcohol on offer was for the players only. I'd like to think that was in honour of the recently departed George Best - the Escoffier of the football field for those who don't know. No, change that, Best was a mad genius. Make it the Marco Pierre White of the football field. It was a good day all 'round. And now, the scores and a short Q&A with Robin Wickens. Group A Circa - Vue de monde 3:0 Interlude - The Botanical 1:1 Interlude - Vue de monde 7:0 Circa - The Botanical 0:1 Interlude - Circa 2:0 Vue de monde 0:3 Group B Grossi Florentino - Taxi 0:0 Pearl - The Point 1:0 Taxi - The Point 0:4 Pearl - Grossi Florentino 1:0 Grossi Florentino - The Point 0:3 Pearl - Taxi 2:2 Semi Finals Interlude - The Point 2:1 Pearl - The Botanical 0:1 Final Interlude - The Botanical 1:2 Yellow Cards Matt from Circa Number 7 from Pearl - don't know persons name Number 9 from Interlude - Jonathan Alston A short interview with Robin Wickens How did you pull up on Monday? Not to bad, we were at work at 9.00. A little sunburned though How did the Interlude team go? We played well. Some good football and the highest scoring team What was the score in the final? 2-1 botanical What was your highlight of the day? Beating Vue de Monde 7-0 Fill us in on how you played? Best bit of play? Biggest clanger? Thought I did ok, fitness was a bit iffy, had no energy by the final. Missed a sitter against the Point in semi’s Why did the Circa team all have the #86 on their back? Not sure What was the funniest sledge that you heard? It was quite funny when the whole vue team rolled over sarcastically after one of our Brazilians went down a little to easily Did your Southampton F.C. shorts bring any Saints fans from out of the woodwork? Unsurprisingly no Who would you much rather have over for dinner – Matt Le Tissier or Thomas Keller? Definitely Le Tissier And finally, you wore the #7 shirt. Name some Southampton players who have worn that number. Keegan, Steve Williams, Matt Le Tissier, Kevin Phillips

Yeah. I forgot to add, "British trained chefs". He did stints under John Burton Race and Marco Pierre White.

You'll find this thread useful. "Yum Cha In Sydney" http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=78587

Two years down the track, and it's probably worthwhile to revisit this topic. In Melbourne, there seem to be more British (and British trained) chefs than ever. Added to that, Melbourne has well and truly embraced the Gastropub phenomenon. So, has it been a good thing? From a Melbourne dining perspective, I think it has. Certainly, some of the finest food in Melbourne can be found under chefs like Michael Lambie (ironically, with an eye to an earlier post, his food has a distinct Asian influence), Shannon Bennett, and Robin Wickens. The gastropubs have been an interesting development. You can get some very good value food. Whether or not the chefs have been to Britain, the influence from overseas can be felt. With the steady decline in the top of the range fine dining over the past decade, a new sector in the market has opened and these places fill it. Financially, it makes sense with the public bar helping to offset the costs of running the dining room.

The Maloufs should be congratulated for many reasons, not least of all, their contributions to Melbourne's food culture. But I'd like to congratulate them on taking a risk with their new cookbook. They've already had two successful cookbooks, and the easiest and most low risk thing for them to have done would have been to play it safe and just present us with another collection of recipes. After all, playing safe has worked very well for the likes of Bill Granger and Jill Dupleix where one of their cookbooks looks and feels the same as any of the others that they've written. Their third cookbook, "Saha", falls into what I think is the hardest type of book to do - the cookbook/travelogue. Not only do the recipes have to be spot on, but the travel writing has to be worth reading, and the photography has to tie everything together. To my mind, only Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid have been able to master this type of book. Greg and Lucy Malouf's effort matches that of the Alford/Duguid team. The cookbook covers their travels through Lebanon and Syria. There are seventeen chapter, each one opening with Lucy Malouf's writings about a place they visited, the people they met, and the food they encountered. Following that, there are recipes covering a given area of food, for instance, soups, mezze dips, meat mezze, dairy, savoury pastries, and so on. Lucy Malouf's writing is a joy. She achieves a wonderful balance of history, how it relates to the present, the people, the food, and how it affected them as people. She is not afraid to put in their own personal opinions about the local politics, although sometimes, a degree of parochialism creeps in whenever they feel Lebanon does something better than anyone else. Overall though, you do get a deep insight into their experiences, and like all good writers, she leaves you wanting to start the next chapter. The recipes are Greg Malouf's domain. He often starts off each recipe with a very brief introduction, writing about some aspect of the recipe, it's history, a serving suggestion, or sharing his joy about the flavours of the dish. I think all the recipes fall into the home cooking field, so whilst the ingredients lists may appear long, the techniques shouldn't be beyond anyone. I've already made mental notes on which dishes I'll be trying soon. Finally, there is Matt Harvey's photograpy. His work is the photo essay that works parallel to the Malouf's words, and binds the whole work together. Not only does he use one photograph to show a given thing, he'll also use a series of photographs to show a process (the making of an arus bi labneh) and a series of photographs to show different aspects of a person, place or thing (as with the butchers of ballbeck). This high standard is also evident in his pictures that accompany the recipes. This is a superb cookbook and travelogue. As I wrote earlier, these types of books are very hard to do well, but the Maloufs have done it. It's well worth the $69.95 retail price.

I agree with PCL on this one. The food is more important than the service. I reckon one key to a good yum cha experience is to try and get to the table closest to the kitchen. That way, you'll get plenty of hot and fresh dumplings. If you're too far away, then manipulating the service is needed. Chat to the captain, and try and convince them to specially bring over some dishes for you.

I heard an interview with Ian Curley (?) from the Point yesterday on the ABC. It looks like all the restaurants are fired up for tomorrow, with plenty of inter-team banter going on. There will be food at the event. I'd imagine it'll be a sausage sizzle rather than cote de boeuf grilled to order.