loiosh
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Posts posted by loiosh
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I had some really good yum cha in the Valley in Brisbane but I'm stuck for the name of the resto. There's a place here in Canberra which claims to offer Szechuan yum cha, but I haven't tried it yet. I did have some interesting spring rolls from their dinner menu....filled with glutinous rice and bits of (smoked?) pork.
Never go to yum cha with someone who doesn't eat pork or seafood.
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Travel.
Here here! You can come visit Australia, or just crank up the heat and have Xmas Dinner Aussie Style:
cool cooked prawns, in a salad or as prawn cocktail with avocado, lettuce, and cocktail sauce
cold roast chicken or turkey
ham
lots of salads...
christmas cake
We're opting out of visiting family this year and spending some time at home. I'm thinking of making a festive Eastern European meal with infused vodkas and chilled barscz.
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We're thinking of moving house interstate to Sydney or Melbourne. We've spent some time in both cities as visitors, but want to get a better feel for where we'd like to live. I'm hoping to draw on the forum's expertise to see what suburb(s) we should be looking at from the point of view of people who really enjoy food and cookery. Some of our criteria are:
- good produce/meat/specialty food shops close at hand
- tasty restaurants within walking distance
- good pub(s) within walking distance
- anything else cool or interesting (bookstores with large cookery section, markets...)
What suburbs do you think are tops for food and drink?
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Recipes for baked goods often have high-altitude directions. Do you have to change your recipes so they'll work underwater?
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I had a bet going with a mate that every month, a synonym of either 'fast', 'fresh' or 'easy' would appear on the cover of this magazine. After several months, I finally lost.
It's a very pretty magazine, with lots of great photos. I've been a bit disappointed with some of the recipes in the past. The trick is to look at the photos and then make your own version of what you think it'd be like. Pretty much everything is designed to be quick and there's lots of encouragment for people who don't really cook fresh stuff normally. Most of the ads are for things like Chicken Tonight and sweet chilli creamcheese dip, so I guess if you give up on cooking the real stuff, you know what to do.
It does fill a useful niche, though, as Vogue and Gourmet Traveller come off as being incredibly stuffy. (Try reading articles aloud in your best comedy Toorak accent.) Another un-stuffy magazine with pretty photos and (IMO) more interesting content is Dish from NZ.
I don't really buy it anymore, mostly because I don't think the recipes are very interesting, and there aren't a lot of articles or reviews. Also, I got a bit tired of the aren't-we-naughty identification of the desserts section as 'wicked' and the enormous sections of gluten-free, sugar-free, flavour-free dishes. (No offence intended to the truly allergic.)
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Currant or grape jelly, ketchup, possibly Kraft BBQ sauce (I don't like it, but that's what mom puts in.) Add drained tinned pineapple tidbits along with the Lil' Smokies for a "Polynesian" touch.
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You can often get chiogga beets at Whole Foods.
If I had to pick a forgotten vegetable, I think it would be kohlrabi.
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I concur with jsolomon about the availability of fresh foods in the midwest at least. When I was growing up, fresh vegetables were available, but were something of a rare treat for us. Mostly, we'd have some sort of hamburger-based main, canned veg, rice or other 'starch', canned fruit at meals. Maybe once a week there'd be salad with iceberg lettuce and those hard pink tomatoes with some of that good old Catalina dressing. (Funny how I miss that. Kraft French dressing in Australia tries harder to actually be French, instead of just red.) I guess our reliance on canned stuff was due to limited means, and there really wasn't a lot available in winter even at high prices, particularly in a town of one thousand souls.
Eating this way isn't really as dreadful or horrifying as some (possibly overdramatizing) folks on the forum might think. Making things from scratch or knowing where your food comes from doesn't automatically make you a better person than someone who doesn't. Despite not having school lunches prepared with organic vegetables or a dazzling array of fresh, multiethnic dinners at home, me and the majority of my classmates grew up to be pretty healthy. And a lot of people do eat this way, not only in America. (Come over to my house and we'll have creamed corn from a tin on toast for tea.)
Regarding green-bean casserole, the last time I made it for a large group, over half of it got devoured by an English friend. I was wondering if it made him nostalgic for stodgy school dinners. (I made one for Thanksgiving last week, but it came out a bit runny -- I think Australian Campbell's is less stodgy and more mushroomy, which would *normally* be desirable.)
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Saw "French" for $30 at the local Big W, if you're keen for a Christmas shopping bargain.
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Navarro's non-alcoholic varietal grape juices are strong-flavoured and delicious...a far cry from the usual Welch's. They can be a bit hard to find in the shops, but are a special and festive drink in their own right. Not sparkling, but I thought I'd mention it.
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During particularly dry years, local honey gatherers here in Australia will go up into the mountains to collect honey from bees which pollinate the gnarled, twisted snow gums and other trees on the mountainsides. They're quite strongly flavoured.
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Another factor, I think, is that the 'serious' eaters are more likely to order an appetizer, so chefs can be more inventive with the flavors here. Everyone who comes to the restaurant is going to order a main, so more of the choices have to be 'safe'.
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I think the real issue is that anything you read on a forum like this (or indeed, anywhere) needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Posting under one's real name does not automatically guarantee the veracity of a statement. Which is certainly not to say that anyone here intends to deceive, but mom taught me not to believe everything I read.
One issue about the truth of statements arises when eG is used as one of the main sources for content published by the mainstream press. Reporters who rely heavily on fora such as this one for article fodder, without engaging in further research to verify statments, are engaging in lazy journalism.
I feel that anonymity is valuable. I've witnessed what are effectively public lynchings on other boards I've occasionally read, where the person's address and phone number are posted and members harrass other members in person. The instigators usually defend themselves by pointing out that the information is public and they are merely aggregating it. I'm depressed by the (seemingly recent) phenomenon common to blogs of 'snarking' about people, which usually results in a barrage of cutting remarks that far surpass what anyone would ever say face-to-face.
It's one of the reasons that I no longer really update my personal site. Who wants their photo to wind up on the latest site consisting of nothing but vitriol for people none of the posters have ever met, simply based on the fact that they've posted something others disagreed with, or they look 'weird' in a photo? (Arguably, anonymity might make it easier for the perpetually-adolescent to take potshots at people, but it does make it harder for them to dredge up information about their targets.)
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Limes are essential for mai tais (the proper kind, not made with a mix, resembles a classic cocktail much more than the usual bar offering) and margaritas.
Limes can be expensive here at certain times of year, and occasionally rise to $2 per fruit.
We added a Tahitian lime tree to our container garden. It probably won't pay for itself this year, but as with our Meyer lemon, it's fun to have and has lovely scented flowers in spring.
Don't forget the role of kaffir lime leaves in Southeast Asian cookery.
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Real Programmers, California variant, also consume big fat burritos stuffed with rice, beans, meat, cheese, and salsa.
I worked at a startup directly opposite a Krispy Kreme store. When the "HOT donuts NOW" sign lit up, we were off like a shot. Especially after midnight.
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Heh. I had to babysit a stranger's child while waiting for a coffee at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago. He was trying to eat the used sugar packets and almost pulled everything off a low table by yanking vigorously on a tablecloth. I'm no good with kids before my first coffee of the day.
There's a big difference between a sooky little guy who's just having a bad moment, and kids racing up and down in a restaurant, or beating arhythmically on the framed pictures on the wall, etc. If nothing else, it's rough on the servers, who have to watch out for little ones crawling on the floor or moving chaotically and quite fast.
As for signs, one would *think* that common sense would be enough, but it seems to be a rare quantity these days.
I was surprised to find parents chatting at table recently while their kids actually left the restaurant and wandered around outside unsupervised. (At least they weren't swinging on the door like before.) Aren't they worried that, I don't know, a dingo will eat them?
Having said that, one of my favourite dining companions is my (three?) year old nephew. He has learnt to eat fried rice with chopsticks. He does get sooky when he's tired or has a low-blood-sugar moment, but then, so do I.
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Heh, that's funny. I actually tried using an (old) electric kettle to reduce stock since it evaporates so much faster. However, I could never get the foaming under control so it would always spill over. Didn't seem to have damaged the kettle though.
This was milk. It burnt badly to the heating element and was pretty stinky.
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I don't think you can even buy non-electric kettles anymore in Australia unless you want shiny display pieces. Electric kettles are useful for so much more than just tea. You can get water boiling for pasta or blanching vegtables so much faster than on the stovetop. I nearly always start a kettle of water boiling before I start cooking and I almost always use up nearly all of it by the end.
They're also good for hot water to soak stuff stuck on pans, or soaking dried mushrooms or sun-dried tomatoes prior to adding to a recipe.
Do not, as a friend of mine in uni once did, ever put anything besides water into the kettle, if you know what's good for you.
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ooophs sorry back to the aussie things, some sort of Kangaroo or emu smallgoods, is there such a thing like kangaroo salami or smoked kangaroo, I know The Chicken Pantry at the Vic market sells emu sausages, as well as crocodile, emu, kangaroo, at one stage possum too.
Yep. I've had emu prosciutto and roo sausages from a butcher shop here in Canberra. The Poacher's Pantry up near Murrumbateman has stuff like that as well, and the Clonakilla winery is nearby. Most overseas visitors won't make it up that way, but PP is a nice place to have wine and charcuterie on a sunny day (the service can be a bit leisurely though).
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I always bring a slab of VB to the US with me. I've only had trouble checking it in once, and they just put it in a plastic bag and made me sign a waiver. Always gets a smile from the Qantas counter people. I thought some thirsty bag handlers would pinch it, but no worries.
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Leatherwood honey
biscuits:
Tim Tams
Iced Vo-Vos
chocolate:
Cherry Ripe
Cadbury 'Snack' bars
spreads:
rosella jam
Vegemite
snacks:
chicken crisps
seasonings:
bush tomato
wattleseeds
lemon myrtle
King Island cheese?
You can buy kangaroo meat at the airport packed up for travel.
and don't forget wine...
Any expat Aussie friends from home will appreciate their favourite beer if they can't get it where you live.
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We have a heavy cast-iron wok here, which works well, especially if you use it on the largest burner on the gas stove. However, if you have a wimpy stove you might want to consider using a large nonstick skillet as the Cook's Illustrated crew suggest. I've got a big cheap one that I use for whipping up off-the-cuff stir-fries -- mostly veg, tofu, and 'secret sauce' with oyster sauce and whatever else I have.
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Loiosh -- which is the good tapas bar, got a name?
I liked "Capitan Torres", and there are a few others around there.
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This 'quality' campaign has been going for a while in Australia. The latest wrinkle is that more deli-style sandwiches have been added. My source, who recently took a two-day drive, tells me they're not bad. You can even get yogurt with fruit or a piece of fruit on the side rather than the fries.
Best place for foodies to live?
in Australia & New Zealand: Dining
Posted
I want to thank everyone for all the great responses so far. I've really enjoyed reading all of them. We'll most likely be making a few trips to check places out in the near future, and I'll report back if I discover anything interesting (like the excellent bakery I found near Double Bay a few months ago).