Snadra

The flowers aren't the large hibiscus you've probably got in mind. They're actually the calyx of a smaller flower from this plant, which should stand up quite well to what Katie plans. They also have a fairly large seed in them that needs to be removed if you plan to make jam/stewed fruit from them. I've had rosella jam and it's got a nice refreshing, almost raspberry flavour. So, so far I am imagining a gorgeous red-coloured drink with quite a bit of acidity and some sharpness from the gingerale, plus the garnish. By the way, your souvenir cocktail booklet idea is just brilliant!

I hope you'll have a chance to share pictures! I agree with you about the prices of those blossoms. They're made a short drive up the road from me and the prices are still awfully high.

That sounds delicious! I can imagine the tang of the molasses would work really well. And those roasting with thyme or sage ideas from Darienne and runwestierun are also brilliant. I like to sautee carrots with thyme, why did I never think of sweet potato with thyme? We like them baked and topped with a compound butter of lime (rind and juice), chilli, fresh coriander/cilantro and coarse salt. Many sandwich shops (at least in the city) have thin slices of cooked sweet potato as one of the fillings on offer, and they turn up quite often in vegetarian sandwiches and lasagne. I have never eaten candied or marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes, but I will someday - sounds too good not to try at least once, although I image it's pretty sweet and rich.

Retravision, Bing Lee, Harvey Norman and The Good Guys are the biggest electrical retailers I can think off of the top of my head. There are a lot of brands out there, but Westinghouse and Fisher&Paykel are probably the better known - I have had two Westinghouse fridges myself and can certainly recommend them. Keep in mind that fridges here tend to be smaller here than in North America (although that is starting to change). You could also rent (eg Radio Rentals) or get one second-hand on eBay or Gumtree. Also, your apartment will probably come with a dryer, but not a washing machine, so keep that in mind when you're shopping too. I have become less and less fond of Victoria's Basement over the past couple of years. The Benzer brand seems to be their 'house' brand and I've been less than impressed with its quality. Plus I'm sure they inflate their 'were' prices to make their 'now' prices look good. Peters of Kensington has better deals as a rule. That said, I have gotten some bargains at Victoria's Basement - you just have to be aware of prices and products! Other places to keep in mind for homewares bits and pieces are Freedom and Ikea. You will also find seasonal sale bargains at the department stores David Jones and Myer (this past weekend David Jones had 30% off most kitchenware and homewares). As far as ingredients go, there are a fair number of Aussies on this site who know where to go for the good stuff and we have started a directory of online ingredient sources in the Australia/NZ forum as well. There is an active forum on Vogue, with some pretty knowledgable and nice people on it. There is little in the way of ingredients you won't be able to get here - prepared products are a completely different story, natch!

That cocktail sounds great! Hibiscus (usually called rosellas here and I think similar to jamaican sorrel) are commonly used to make jam here. In fact, I have a jar my mother-in-law made sitting in the cupboard now. I've also seen a few old-fashioned recipes for cordials and stewed rosellas, but as far as I know, they are always made from the fresh flower, and I gather you are using dried? I leave it to others to work out whether it's possible to candy the dried fruit, but it can hurt to try, can it? At a guess I suspect you would need to simmer it in syrup in stages over a number of days to get the sugar to penetrate the flower. There are some ideas at the bottom of this page. In the meantime, if you can get your hands on these it could solve your garnish problems. Edited to fix link.

With raisins, and sleeping pills? <ducking and running> MelissaH That was my first thought too! I'm loving your blog - looking forward to seeing how you do pizza!

That's such a nice thing to do for friends. ANZAC biscuits are an Aussie/NZ classic and designed to withstand shipping. Try this one or this one, which are both very similar to the one my mother-in-law uses and which I can't find at the moment. I love them. Old-fashioned molasses crinkles/softies benefit from a few days of ageing and are pretty sturdy as far as shipping goes. The idea for savoury crackers is brilliant. My other thought was homemade dukkah with pita bread and a small bottle of olive oil. Homemade grissini are nice too and long-lasting. I've made these ones 6 or 7 times and they're very popular. Also: not homemade, but aren't mandarins coming into season there now? A box of mandarins might be appreciated - they're easy to peel and eat and deliver vitamins and freshness. Or new-season apples.

I can't speak to the cream, but I am convinced that McD's hash browns shouldn't count against you. Resistance is futile when it comes to those vaguely rectangular cakes of crispy greasy goodness. I ate some Sao biscuits today. No, not decadent, but honestly, the box would taste as good. My only excuse is that it was past lunch and I hadn't had anything to eat yet today, and it was either them or the milk arrowroots (shudder).

Finally got around to making this salad last night (really must start taking pictures...) Followed the directions exactly (a rarity for me)but used leaf lettuce instead of romaine/cos. You're right, it could use a little bit more sharpness to it, and I ended up adding some pickled ground chiles to it at the table as well. I quite like the flavour of just-wilted lettuce and worked well with this dish. We had it for a main course, but it wasn't quite filling enough. Next time I'll make some rice or even green onion pancakes to go with it but last night was all about getting it out quickly - including washing the lettuce, it only took about 15 minutes! I can see making this with any mince (chicken, pork, lamb) and salad greens at hand, with a slightly more generous amount of seasoning.

Could I throw a (small) spanner in the works and ask about how the Grill Dome compares to these as well?

Are you looking only for American references, or for books on the subject of back country life from any country?

I put my stainless Fissler pots and their glass lids in the dishwasher all the time and haven't had any problems. I've had them for around 12 years, the last 5 or so with a dishwasher, and they get used a lot.

I have been thinking about this lately as we are planning another self-catered trip. Knives: what about getting a couple of those colori knives that come with their own sheaths? I'm ordering one next week to check it out. Probably not perfect, but at the price you won't care if you lose one. Washing up stuff: Tea towels!! You can never have too many and they double up as bandages and pot holders. I bring a cast iron pan and a non stick when we go away, but if I were thinking of outdoors cookery I would bring my heavy French skillet as it's got a longer handle and I really need to use it more anyway. Other thoughts: tin foil is handy for many things, including wrapping leftovers. You could consider a plastic box with a lid to keep the smaller stuff together and it could double up as a wash basin. Also maybe a bowl or a pot.

Yes, Stuart's right. I think you're talking about microcitrus aka finger limes. They come in lots of different colours and are native to Queensland. Apparently they are now being grown in California. On menus I've only seen them as 'lime caviar' on oysters. I've never seen them at the shops, but that's probably a reflection of the suburb I live in! For other Aussies, Kendall Farms and Daley's were the first two nurseries that came up when I did a search for plants. I wonder how far South they can be grown?

I'm sure I remember going to a Dixie Lee Fried Chicken place near the Overwaitea in the 80s, although it probably doesn't really qualify as fast fast food... And there was always the marvelous selection in Cranbrook !!

Erin & Jenni, what do you eat sesame rice with? And Jenni, is your method the same as Erin's? It sounds delicious. ChrisZ, my husband loves prawn toasts - but I've never thought about making them at home...hmmm. I don't like prawns myself, but there are some interesting flavour possibilities there. My first thought was dukkah, maybe with some turkish pide for dipping? There are a lot of versions of dukkah around, and I gather every family has its own, so do a search if that one doesn't quite appeal. I made the pide a few weeks ago for the first time, and it is delicious, with a perfect texture. It is a bit tough to transfer onto the stone though, as the dough is very soft. If you have extra dukkah, you could use it for one of these recipes: Dukkah lamb, eggplant & beans (which I have made and is very good), or Dukkah chicken with pickled spiced oranges (which I haven't tried, but am intrigued by). There's a lebanese bakery around the corner from where I take my uni exams, and it's become a bit of a tradition for me to get a coffee and a zah'tar topped flatbread before every exam. I have an exam next week, and there's only one reason I'm looking forward to it!

That sounds really good - must try that. I make a pumpkin salad that is cubes of roasted pumpkin, and I toss up torn chunks of italian bread and some pine nuts in for the last 4-5 minutes of cooking time, before tossing with lots of parsley leaves, parmesan and some olive oil and balsamic. Now I'm thinking it would be great with pecans instead of pine nuts, and I might just have to try it with pasta (without croutons), and maybe sherry vinegar instead of balsamic. Thanks for the inspiration!

Can't wait to see what people come up with. I've got a big bag of pecans at the moment and I've been thinking about using them (crushed) to coat a chicken breast or pork tenderloin (for some reason that seems very 90s to me, but probably delicious), and I'm sure I've seen them used to crumb fish as well. I've put these cheese wafers together for parties a couple of times. I find they're better if they are cooled on a paper towel on the rack to absorb excess grease - it gives them a nicer feel in the hand and I think it sharpens their flavour as well. They're pretty popular and go nicely with a drink in your other hand. And there's also the spiced & slightly sweetened pecans you can make as a salad topper. And what about as the nut component of an ersatz pesto? ETA: Whoops! A bit of a cross-post with Karen... great minds, eh?

I would probably buy a transformer too in your situation. One thing I didn't think to mention: if you are renting you will need to buy/rent a fridge. In Canada my rentals always had a fridge, so that was a bit of a surprise when I moved here!

When Helen talked about using a mandoline, one of the things that came to mind was a butcher's glove (maybe like this one. My thinking was it would allow you to hold the object you're slicing in a way that suits your injury, without risking further injury. Those pushers/guards can be a I'm sure I saw this idea in Gourmet a few years ago...

Australia can be expensive when it comes to overseas goods! My parents were visiting me a few years ago and bought me a kitchenaid mixer, nearly dying at the price - it was three times what my mother paid for hers... I'd say the prices on the kitchenware direct website are around the high end of average. The hospitality shop does require you to buy minimum quantities and it does concentrate on food-service brands. What sorts of things are you thinking of bringing vs buying here? When you're tossing up what to bring, do keep in mind that stovetops and ovens are smaller here, usually 60cm wide (although newer houses/kitchens may have 90cm ones). The other thing to consider is the timing of your move. There are pretty good sales here in January, and the mid-year sales in June/July can also be quite good, so if you're trying to keep your packing to a minimum and you're arriving at around that time, things might be cheaper than you think. On the otherhand, things are generally really much cheaper in the US/Canada, so if you're shipping other household goods in a container, then it's worth lugging your homewares along as well. I second Nick's Peter's of Kensington suggestion, and would add that their freight charges, at least within Sydney are very good - when I've ordered from them it's always been $7 per order, and I live on the very outer edges. Sign up for their newsletter, although you will be getting a lot of christmas decoration stuff at this time of year. You might also check out http://www.everten.com.au/ and don't forget http://www.ebay.com.au/. And I love Ikea for inexpensive dishes, glasses and other bits and pieces. I'm not sure which brands of electrical appliances you were looking at, but Sunbeam, Breville, and Kenwood have cheaper options than Kitchenaid here. The prices listed are RRP, and you can usually find them for less in major stores. I have a Breville handmixer and kettle and have been very happy with them. If you want to check out quality comparisons, Choice is the local version of Consumer Reports. (Edit: did this post really need the word 'generally' repeated 5 times? I don't think so....)

Those eggs sound delicious! When I was a teenager I was taken to Majorca on a holiday, and I remember going to a cafe and seeing 'egg and chips' on the menu and ordering it, thinking it was some sort of authentic Spanish meal (I also had some fabulous grilled rabbit if that makes up for it at all). Anyway, it WAS delicious, both egg and chips cooked in loads of olive oil, with the oil definately spooned/flicked over the top of the egg. The olive oil part was unusual and tasty, but the basting was familiar: my German father, who was thin as a rake all his life, used to do the same thing when cooking eggs in bacon fat, before then soaking up the bacon fat with bread.... When I told him about the oil fried eggs, he added them into his fried eggs repertoire. And these days I still cook my eggs in oil in preference to butter - they taste cleaner to me somehow - and I love the way the hot oil ruffles their edges. Kylie Kwong has a recipe for deep fried eggs which are excellent in a similar ruffled-edge way, with the delicious addition of chilli ... so it looks like they're done in a few parts of the world. And don't forget son-in-law eggs, although they're boiled before deep-frying...Never tried them, but they sound awfully good.

Darienne! Now that summer is almost here in the Southern hemisphere (27C today) I was reading through this topic hoping to get some hints on the best way to make an iced coffee to start my day with...and then I read your post! It would certainly make the morning commute (on the train, on the train!) a lot more interesting. Now, I think I'm going to try the cold press method that runwestierun explains the the previous post, and as my office got a new coffee machine (nespresso, and it's better than I expected), I might do some experimenting there as well. In the meantime though, has anyone come up with any new coffee methods over the Northern summer?

Recently visited one of my favourite places, Lochiel House, again. We're not frequent visitors, but it honestly seems to get even better everytime we go - and apparently the SMH reviewers have agreed, giving it an extra hat in the last Good Food Guide. This time they had steak tartare on the menu (I am incapable of resisting raw meat!) with rice crisps, nori and a warm yolk. It had just the slightest resilience and was perfectly balanced. They have great relationships with local producers and it shows through the entire menu. Also, having a non-drinker as my partner, I really appreciate the care they put into matching wines by the glass to each of the dishes on the menu. For those just visiting, they are some distance out of central Sydney (and they are a regional restaurant, in a very old building with slanty floors - call it charm), but worth the effort.

Australians don't celebrate Halloween, and many people moan to me about the 'American Thing' that's insinuating itself into Aussie culture (as an expat Canadian, I take great offense at that - we do Halloween too!). But I figure they just don't know the joy of a halloween molasses kiss. Edit: punctuation round-up