Pat Churchill

Thanks for that. Still finding my way round the suburbs. I was at the Farmers' Market at Gasworks Park in Albert Park on Saturday and found a couple of chaps selling barramundi. I asked them if they ever smoked it and they said they did but they'd just sold out - but they gave me a taste of their sample. I will have to get out of bed earlier next market day!

Pete I was out Lilydale way today and I noticed there is a herb farm just past the town (approaching from Melbourne). Might be a good place to try if you haven't had any luck yet. Had an interesting visit to Daylesford a while back (http://www.cookingdownunder.com/outabout/daylesford/index.htm). I will have to check out Sault in a future visit!

We shifted to Melbourne from New Zealand a year ago and I love it here. The food scene is terrific. In that year I've had only one bad restaurant meal. We frequently go for a drive at the weekend and we've found some great places within say 90 minutes of the CBD. It's a pleasure for us to take Kiwi visitors out for a run and show them some of the places we've discovered that they wouldn't otherwise see as "tourists". Another bonus - it's easy to get around on the trams. I wouldn't bother taking my car into the city. Check out the Out and About section on my website for a look at a few of the places in Victoria we've visited - http://www.cookingdownunder.com/outabout/out&about.htm We've also found the locals very friendly. You should have seen them in action during the Commonwealth Games helping visitors find their way round, suggesting places to visit. 10 out of 10 to them!

Thanks for the input. I will venture further afield.

I moved to Melbourne from NZ last year and it's just occurred to me that I haven't seen any smoked fish at the fish stalls in my local market. I asked one of the fishmongers and was told they get some in at Easter. Easter - that's a long way off. And why only Easter? In NZ I could buy several varieties of smoked fish - hake, warehou, kahawai. I haven't even seen any cans of smoked fish in my (admitedly small) local supermarket. I have a craving for smoked fish pie. I know there's smoked salmon around, and I've bought small whole smoked trout, but that's not what I am after - just ordinary white fish fillets smoked. Help!

Check out http://www.gildedfork.com/internships.html. Might be a start... Good luck.

I try to buy my basil growing in a pot, but experience has taught me it needs to be a larger (10-11cm) pot rather than those little ones that are only around 7cm wide. They grow quite happily on the bench for several weeks and I just pinch out leaves from the top to encourage the plants to bush out. Coriander (cilantro) has given me the most grief but the method that has worked best for me is to seal it in a plastic bag and keep it in the fridge. I have one of those gizmos that heat-seals the top of plastic bags but I have also used a rubber band to twist off and secure the bag. The secret is to have no holes in the bag. Normally I have my own herb garden but we are on overseas posting and currently renting so I buy most of my herbs fresh at the local market. But a herb garden doesn't take up much space and it's not labour intensive. I miss mine :-( I think it would be better if we coud buy a large bunch of mixed herbs rather than have to throw out half the fresh herbs because we never get to use the lot.

Limoncello is pretty good for a dessert flavouring. I've played round with it myself: http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2003/169.htm

Supermarkets typically have a cabinet full of "general consumption" cheeses in the dairy section and then have the more exotic stuff situated near the deli department. Which part of the country are you visiting?

From answer.com: food·ie (fū'dē) pronunciation n. Slang. A person who has an ardent or refined interest in food; a gourmet: “in the culinary fast lane, where surprises are expected and foodies beg to be thrilled” (Boston Globe). Translations for: Foodie Dansk (Danish) n. - en der er yderst interesseret i den seneste kogekunst Nederlands (Dutch) iemand zeer geïnteresseerd in eten Français (French) n. - amateur de bonne bouffe Deutsch (German) n. - Gourmet Ελληνική (Greek) n. - καλοφαγάς Italiano (Italian) buongustaio Português (Portuguese) n. - pessoa (f) muito interessada em culinária Русский (Russian) гурман, любитель поесть Español (Spanish) n. - gastrónomo Svenska (Swedish) n. - matfantast (vard.) 中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified)) 类似食品的东西, 美食主义者 中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional)) n. - 類似食品的東西, 美食主義者 한국어 (Korean) n. - 미식가, 식도락가 日本語 (Japanese) n. - 美食家, 調理が好きな人, 食通 العربيه (Arabic) ‏(الاسم) مولع بالأكل و الطبخ‏ עברית (Hebrew) n. - ראשו ורובו באוכל, אנין טעם

Maybe you should start with a food blog so you've got something to show a prospective employer. Pick a topic that interests you. Research ethnic cuisines, or individual ingredients, or food history, or spices - whatever. Write an article and then rewrite it. Make sure it has clarity, is unambiguous, is easy to read, doesn't leave the reader with unanswered questions. There's more to editing than impeccable grammar. Sentences must flow. I got into food writing/editing etc via journalism. I worked as a reporter on a metro daily in New Zealand as general reporter for several years before spending some time copy-editing and learning page layout and ending up as features editor. At that time I started writing about food for bachelors (ie most of the guys I worked with who were trying to learn how to cook edible food). When I took time off to have kids, the food writing continued with a food column for a Sunday newspaper. I also wrote a bachelor's cookbook at that time. I duly resumed my career, as corporate relations manager for a large NZ newspaper group and along the way inherited a small publishing concern as part of my job. They just happened to publish an annual cookbook so I worked as publishing manager for a couple of those, overseeing everything from the food prep to the photography to design and publication (and still doing the corporate relations job fulltime!) I had to give up the latter job when husband moved cities, so I went back to newspaper copy editing for about six years, working in features. I got back into food writing and my column is syndicated to three NZ dailies. It was all right place, right time stuff. These days I am semi-retired, editing and laying out a house magazine for a NZ newspaper group and doing occasional contract work. I've launched my own website www.cookingdownunder.com. Journalism has been a great career, more so because from the early days I decided to pick up as many skills as I could (even down to buying my first computer in 1981). Funnily enough, it's the copy editing and layout skills that have kept me employable through the baby raising days when I stayed at home, to part-time work when the kids were small, onto mahogany row and now into semi-retirement. That all covers 44 years and I have never had to go looking for a job yet - apart from my first newspaper job. And boy, has it been fun! I'm never bored. How good is that? I also had the good sense to marry a fellow journo...

I'm a New Zealand food writer currently living in Melbourne, Australia cooking and eating local produce. I write for three New Zealand newspapers and recently launched my own website. It has a search facility on it if anyone is looking for something specific. Or you can email me from my website. There's also a links page.

My closet behaviour: Pigging down just-cooked beetroot. Eating pickled onions straight out of the jar. I am over: Black pudding sandwiches. Tripe and onions.

Commonsense says throw away, but then I think of nice stinky creamy blue cheese... I would be tempted, too. Feed it to the cat first ;-)

Hi Justin Lucky you. A cherry glut would be nice. I pickled some cherries during our Down Under summer and we are enjoying them now with duck breasts. I keep the opened jar in the fridge and they are just delicious. And if there's any leftover vinegar, it goes well in a salad dressing. Here's the url for my recipe: http://cookingdownunder.com/courses/misc/misc216.htm Cherry clafoutis is also great. You can use this recipe, substituting cherries for plums. You might want to remove the cherry stones first. An olive pitter will do the job. Or a resident slave :-) http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2006/226.htm

I recently did some persimmon chutney (for recipe go to http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2006/230.htm ) along with some aubergine achar to enjoy with our winter curry dishes. I've got a bowl of quinces sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. I've also preserved another batch of lemons ( http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2005/204.htm ) for Middle Eastern dishes. At Christmas (summer here) I pickled some cherries ( http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2005/216.htm ) and we are still enjoying those with duck breast.

Just returned from a holiday in Port Douglas, way up north in Queensland, here in Australia. Visited a coffee plantation there and came home with a 1kg bag of their espresso roast beans. Glad I was such a pig buying so much as it is truly great. They do mail order: www.jaquescoffee.com. We arrived there the day they started harvesting so it was a really interesting visit.

Once I get the shelving up I'll figure out how many duplicates I have and there should be good pickins for the free cookbook thread. (That is IF the damned renovations ever get done.) ← When we got our shelving up I found I had only a couple of duplicates. Then we moved countries last year and had to buy a pile of bookshelves for our rental house so I could have my "babies" housed where I could access them. Now it looks like we are going to have to move again. And in the meantime I've bought another pile of books. Even when you start getting "more selective" as you say, Kerry, there are still books you can't resist. And then I get the odd review books. I have quite a lot of reference books among the collection and I refer to them constantly so at least part of the library is working for a living. I am trying to discipline myself to pull out the occasional book and write a bit about it for my website. Next I have to discipline myself to spend less time working on the website so I have more time to read books.

Susan - I have been making osso buco lately - http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2006/225.htm - and no one at my table will touch the marrow (me included). Gross is probably the word I would use for it. Bit late to post it to you, I guess

I'm with him on the stodge and dumplings. I did a brave thing on Mother's Day and ordered a dish because it sounded really great - apart from the gnocchi. And it did taste great, apart from the gnocchi which certainly hadn't improved since the last time I braved it about five years ago. It's the one dish that lets the Italians down. (Ducking for cover)

Around 1300. And carting them from one city to another, then one country to another makes me feel guilty for being so acquisitive. But hey, they are like my children and I couldn't part with them either! The oldest goes back to the 1700s, the newest I bought last week.

Anyone seen "Carmella's" recipe book?

I'm a fan of Waterford crystal. Champagne seems to taste so much better out of it. But there it is - champagne tastes on a quaffing wine budget.