Ylee

Just wanted to chime in to say, I've had mixed results with recipes from Alinea, but I still love the book for the photography and wealth of ideas. I'm also a huge fan of Claire Clark's book. It wasn't what I expected when I bought it, as I was envisioning something more focused on restaurant-style, plated desserts - but I've tried many recipes from it and the results have always been solid. The red wine chocolate cake for example.

Hi Fergal, They have the same menus for lunch and dinner. Seafood there is one of the freshest and best you'd find in Sydney. Looking forward to reading your review once you've visited.

I prefer not to have music playing, but don't mind it if it's on. As long as it's not the same album that we've been listening to three days in a row (which has happened before)!

This is not a particularly unusual cookie, but I love Mexican Wedding Biscuits/Cookies - a shortbread style cookie with nuts, dusted with icing sugar. Similar to the Greek Kourambiedes.

Oh no, when did this happen? I was there in Oct of last year. We tried an eclair (amazing), matcha danish, and a selection of cakes. The matcha one was particularly good. I think it was called 'bamboo'.

Haven't tried Henri Charpentier, but I've been to Hidemi Sugino's and took some photos of the cakes on display before realising that I wasn't supposed to (oops). We had some lovely cakes there, but I think overall, if I had to pick only one pastry shop to return to, it would be Sadaharu Aoki's.

Very excited - just ordered my copy! Can't read a word of French, but I'm sure I'll get by somehow.

Definitely macaroons, and lamingtons!

Thanks, I had a look at the Chef Rubber site. They don't have any information on shipping (which maybe they only reveal once you have registered and are well on your way to checking out an item).. which is annoying. Is Chef Rubber reliable?

Hi everyone! I was looking for some online alternatives to Amazon for buying cookbooks, and stumbled across this one, which has quite a few books I want, at a fairly reasonable price (eg. the Frederic Bau book is cheaper here than on Amazon) http://www.chipsbooks.com/ Just wondering if anyone has used this site before (I will be ordering internationally) and if they consider it reliable? Thanks in advance!

I went there recently. (http://blog.lemonpi.net/?p=1661) We had an early dinner (6pm) and were pretty much one of the first people in, so no queueing, thank goodness! I haven't had many soup dumplings before, so didn't have a point of reference, but I enjoyed the meal. Have been reading a lot of criticism about the prices though!

I'm looking to smoke some chocolate for maybe a ganache. Am wondering if anyone can offer advice on this (eg. how long, and what should I smoke the chocolate with), or point me in the direction of where this has already been discussed..? I did a search but couldn't seem to find anything relevant.

How about lemon flavoured white chocolate ganache? I've filled chocolates with lemon curd before, but served them cold because I was worried about them being too soft as well. Didn't have any problems with moisture on the chocolates though.

I too have always wondered about this question. I've been told that it does make a difference to the end product (the churned ice-cream) and whisking the yolks and sugar until pale will result in a lighter product. But by light do they actually mean, a creamier product?

I'm quite partial to anything by Woodside at the moment. Tarago River cheese, mentioned by garlotin, is pretty good too. I like their Gippsland Blue and Shadows of Blue. Neither are overpowering.