Dim Sim

I always get my royal blue potatoes at a stall at the Collingwood Children's Farm-Farmers' market, 2nd saturday of each month

Does anyone know of any good laksa in Hobart ? I will be there next month. So far I haven't had any luck with the couple of places that I like to try, both places are no longer open, the Choux Shop and Percura restaurant. I need to have laksa at least once a week otherwise I get serious withdrawal LOL, Oh laksa lemak that is, not assam laksa.

I am looking for a replacment for my existing stove, considering Ilve, and now really like the idea of Lacanche Cormatin, the 3 burner hob with the cast iron simmerplate over the 5KW hob, thinking about gas oven option, I am a long way off from getting one, but just looking around, anyone have any thoughts, or have a Lacanche, any tips or info would be helpful, are they as well built and reliable as they make out to be ? can the hot plate be removed and replaced with a trivet and used as a wok burner ? what is their gas oven like, hot spots ? cold spot ? is the gas hob good and reliable for low gentle simmer setting ? how long would they last. Cheers.

Like go to Singapore and ask for "Singapore Noodle" ? sorry, I just couldn't resist

what a bargain , thanks for the info, I am interested to have a look in Simone Ortega's 1080 Recipes , any info of when this one will be on the shelf ?

I am eagerly waiting for Frank Camorra's MoVida to come out, for years I wish he would, and now I am glad that he finally written a book on spanish cuisine, anyone knows the release date for this book ?

Oh yes,I will be keen to know the outcome

just try it. ← it smells and tastes alright, does it mean it is okay to use ? I don't want to get food poisoning

Hi all, I need some advice and suggestion on where to eat and stay when we are are in china, places we plan to visit are Guangzhou, Guilin, yunnan and kunming, Lijiang and Chengdu ( keen to try some real Sichuan cuisine ). Bear in mind we are on a low budget, thanks in advance

Just the other day while I was cleaning the freezer, I came across the master stock that I have used a couple of times about 2 years back, it has been in the freezer all this time, I was wondering if it is still alright to use, may be give it a good boiling over a few minutes, or just throw the whole thing out and start a new batch, any suggestion ?

That looks wonderful, always like oxtail, I should give it a go, actually it is a little bit like what i will be having for dinner tonight, I've made some Vietnamese beef and carrot stew, I will be having it with crusty baguette. hzrt8w I just love your pictorials, done your congee with pork and egg, and I will be making it again soon, keep it coming

does anyone know how to process olives, I always get mine from the greek deli at the Vic market, already brined. I get told different stories each time as to how to process them, some said to soak them in ash apparently to get rid of bitterness ( not too convinced about this) anyone has a good method/recipe they might like to share

When you use a premium olive oil, is it something you just use with salads or where there is not much cooking required (like quickly searing some fish fillets)? For other things like browning some onions that will eventually find their way into a stew, do you use just an ordinary olive oil? In this case, wouldn't the benefits of the premium olive oil eventually get lost in the final dish? ← For everyday cooking I use Colavita EVOO (I get the 3L tin) , I use more premium ones for drizzling onto bruschetta, pasta, pizza and minestrone just before serving, I like the heady aroma that it gives especially on hot food, I use it on salad too, especially the lemon scented olive oil.

My favourite Australian olive oil has to be Mount Zero biodynamic evoo, may be I haven't tasted many, but i find most australian brands a bit harsh tasting ( burn your throat even ) , a bit raw and green . but not Mount Zero.

Thanks Sue, if i can make it down to hobart this year, it will be on my list.

sorry to divert from guinea fowl eggs topic, but is this the same Chris Jackman as Mit Zitrone and Jackman and Mcross. I was very disappointed when I visited Hobart about 3 years ago , and found out that he has just sold Mit Zitrone ( but we breakfasted at Jackman & Mcross at Battery Point every morning while we were in Hobart, great place btw), and we were told he has gone 'bush' to plant raspberries ?! if this is the same guy can you please tell me more about Choux Shop ? back to guinea fowl eggs.......

10 or fifteen years ago, remember seeing items like steak and kidney pie, lambs fry , brains , liver on most of the pub menus, that certainly isn't the case now. I used to go to Cafe K in Little Bourke street, and most of the time they have crumbed brains, and grilled pickled tongue with caper sauce on the menu, oh my god , there were the best, a bit sad when they closed. If anyone is interest, at La Parisenne Pate they make very nice andouillettes sausage (chitterlings and other mysterious bits) they are so good.

Babka bakery cafe, 358 Brunswick St. Fitzroy, Loafer Bread, 146 scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy Dench Bakers, 109 Scotchmer St, North fitzroy, across the rd is a very nice super market, that has an inhouse bakery, they make good ciabatta Natural Tucker Bakery, 809 nicholson Street, North Carlton, Nicholson street Baker,706 Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy (or north carlton) Filou's , corner Lygon nd Fenwick St. North Carlton ( opposite the melbourne cemetery) the organic section of the QV market- if you are coming from Elizabeth street, (there is a MacDonald on the corner , just walk down that street , turn right after the deli section, and it is the shed on the left ( the first 2 stall are not organic, but the rest are ) about 4 stalls down on the right, this is where you can get your spelt and rye etc, and they stock Kingfisher bread, in fact there are about 3 bread stores in the deli section of the market, good luck.

It is funny how we don't bake in Melbourne. most European and North American that I know seem to incorporate baking into their routine. Consider we could hardly get any decent bread until quite recently ( about the last 10 years), when all those small boutique bakeries started to open up one after the other, I would have thought more people would resort to baking their own bread. I have always found it hard to get good bread flour, or cake flour for that matter, if you are nice to your local bakery, they might sell you some. It will generaly be better than anything you can get at the supermarket, You shouldn't have any problem living in Carlton. there are a few good bakeries around and a few more in North Fitzroy( which is the next suburb), if you need the name of some bakeries let me know. I afraid that I can't help you with the prices of the flour, as for the rye and spelt, you might have to go to the health food store, I know a couple of organic stores in the Queen Victoria which sell them.

To me chicken salt tastes a little bit like those Maggi 2 minutes noodle seasoning (chicken flavor) it makes you salivate, slight tingling sensation, like if you have too much msg in your food, I wonder that is what the Japanese meant by unami . Ginger chef have you heard of celery salt ? I have to go down to my local super market to check up the ingredients on the jar. the best fish and chips I had was in Port Fairy, a little fish exchange along the jetty, I had the most memorable scallop there , firm and flavorsome , and the batter stay crisp, not the 'all too common' watery soggy type, and the fish is nice, moist and fresh, the batter was thin and crisp, certainly wasn't the cardboardy type, or the one that the batter was thicker than the fillet. May be sitting near the water have soemthing to do with it. this was taken in the middle of last year, in the evening, still as good as how i remembered it from more than 10 years ago.

Hi Timtune, welcome to egullet. If you look in the Australia and NZ pages you will find a topic on bread flour. I hope this works, never tried to link other thread before, here we go http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=70210 there is a place in Brunswick sells flour in bulk, Bas foods, 423 Victoria Street, Brunswick. Which is not too far from Carlton. just go to the back of the shop you will see all type of flour on pallets. Oh, depending on how often you bake, Mediterranean Wholesalers, 482 Sydney Road, also in Brunswick, it is a big Italian supermarket, they sell 1 kg bag of Italian bread flour, as well as flour for pasta, and tipo 00.

That's amazing. Never seen a pie floater in Melb! Or Syd. I thought they really did stop at the SA border:) ← It is quite hard to find one even in South australia. In adelaide there are a couple of pie carts, where they wheel out at certain time, I was told the one near the Hilton Hotel is pretty good, I don't think it will pose any threat to Cheong Liew's Grange it actually looks quite pretty serve on a plate, vivid green color and golden crusted pastry, actually come to think of it, I am sure if Gary Rhode were an South Australia, he will come out with a spectacular version of it. Just out of curiosity, ginger chef can you remember the name or vaguely the location of the place in Melbourne that you had this ?

here is some detail on Chiko roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiko_Roll I live in Melbourne I never heard of Melbourne floater, it is not the same as the pie floater in South Australia, is it ? that meat pie in pea soup dish. It actually tastes better than it sounds. Oop , didn't see The Chefs Office has already posted the same link.

So far I only even seen this dish in Singapore. I wonder whether if this is a Singaporean Hokkien dish ?

shark fin Inn has it, but not the best version, the taro ( which they called it yam on the menu) is a bit fluffy and lacey like the deepfried taro dumplings (woo kok), which you can't taste much of the taro ( incidently I was just there tonight, felt a bit hungry after the free Sidney Myer Music Bowl concert, I ordered the duck , and off the chinese menu ,of sourse, I can't believe they still do it). Another place I used to have this dish was Hills BBQ shop ( I think that is what they are called) in Little Bourke Street, but they took it off the menu, they used to do a nice one,decent slap of taro paste, the place itself was filthy but I kept going back for the duck. that is why I am determine to make it myself. I don't think it is a difficult dish for restaurant. I would be surprise if they just use a roast duck and slap on a bit of the taro dumpling pastry and deep fry.