haresfur

I forgot to post the picture of the Shiraz-Vigonier. It's in my all time favourite piece of pottery, a tea cup made by an elderly Chinese man in Pennsylvania. I think he was a retired engineering professor but I forget his name. Anyway the cup is absolutely perfect IMO but a little small for wine. Better for scotch or bourbon. You may have figured out that I use ceramic more than glass and a mug of wine isn't unheard of (less need of refilling). While I'm at it here are the cookbooks, such as they are. Here's one for Peter Eater And for your amusement

I'll have to swing by Woolies and get some rosemary. I need to plant some, too.

I keep forgetting to look for malt vinegar so I used some cider vinegar and (shame) ketchup (Heinz) for the chips. It's been ages since I had venison, but kangaroo and deer seem to occupy the same ecological niche as browsers fond of leaping in front of cars. Edited to correct miss-matched parentheses for the other geeks out there.

Hi! Thanks for the comments. I'm amazed at the size fish portions you get here. My usual fish and a dollar's chips costs $5.50. With the scallops etc. it still only cost $10.00. Do you put vinegar or anything on your fish or chips? Here, it seems like they only put salt or seasoned salt on.

Kangaroo is still a minor meat here but the consumption is increasing. Until recently it was pretty much only used for pet food. I had someone comment to me that country blokes who wouldn't have anything to do with a few years ago are getting serious about grilling roo. It is very lean and doesn't really taste gammy to me. I'm not sure what the right word is, "rich" maybe. I bought one of those pre-marinated roast things (that's what they had in the store - kangaroo is almost always available but the choice is limited) and it was pretty good although it was way too raw even after cooking longer than the instructions said. I ate around the edges and the rest made a really good chili. Maybe some other Australians will chime in. The kangaroo topic is here. Pet mince smells pretty disgusting but the dogs and Wattle love it, even though it makes Wattle puke if he eats more than a tablespoon full. Pinot has better taste and won't touch it.

First off, here's the wine haul from earlier. To continue my day of eating Aussie, dinner was fish & chips. I ordered far more food than I needed, in the interests of exploration and entertainment. Eaglehawk has 3 fish & chips shops in 2 blocks, along with a chook shop, a pizza place, the bakery, and a few hotels that serve meals. I usually go to Sea Shells. Today I got snapper, 2 scallops, a couple of potato cakes (Thought I ordered only one) and a dollar's chips. Hope my heart doesn't explode. The scallops were good but not like Nova Scotia. Deep frying them does seem a waste. Oh, and what to drink with fish & chips? How about a 2010 Cock + Bull shiraz-vigonier? . Quite nice.

Beef and Guinness does make a good pie, though . The pies are single serving - although I had 3 halves for lunch!. I'm pretty sure the pastie is one filling but won't know for sure 'til I reach the other end! I hadn't heard about the double filling before.

Well, I think it's time for some real Aussie food. I headed over to the Eaglehawk Bakehouse for a late lunch of take away pies. And since Eaglehawk is where Mulga Bill was from: And the score. Clockwise from upper left we have beef&onion pie, wholemeal veggie packet, and Cornish pastie. Where you have mines, you have Cornish immigrants. And the tomato relish I picked up at a market outside Horesham: I saved some for tomorrow, honest.

How about "Very Secure"? I like Man Enough to Drink Pink and Very Secure I like them both too. Very Secure describes the feeling in your tummy after having one, but that can apply to lots of cocktails. I've really fallen in love with the genever. It has such a subtle taste that is fun to sip and contemplate.

There was a Co-op in the basement of a church when I was in college but my first health food store was in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. It was a tiny place, also a coop if I remember and the single mom who worked there was getting a welfare subsidy. When I first went in her hair was wild, her face and arms bruised, and she was cheerfully describing in great detail to a person checking out how her ex came by and beat the snot out of her and the look on the neighbors face when she escaped and showed up on the doorstep buck naked with hair yanked into a tangled mess. I wandered around the other side of the one free-standing display waiting to ask if I had to be a member to shop there but not wanting to interrupt. It became more and more absurd as the tale went on and on with my obvious eavesdropping trapped in the store (I wasn't suave enough to just head out saying "It's cool I'll come back."). I pretty much fell in love with her.

I've been thinking about a name for the genever Sazarac. How about "Man Enough to Drink Pink"? Or maybe "Drink Enough to Go Pink, Man"?

Going to grocery stores is an important travel activity for me. And to get to know a place, check out the pre-packaged and junk food as cultural research (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

I picked Eileen and a visiting scientist from Spain up at the train station this evening and we headed to the Malayan Orchid. We split a nice bottle of local Pinot (local as in the winery, the grapes are from Yarra Valley. We had prawns in red curry, my favourite aubergine in sweet chili (better than average chili sauce and crispy fried egg plant), and lamb in something or other. I wasn't fond of the lamb. All of it was pretty mild. Our visitor was a good sport about my taking photos. He said he was pleased to get to an interesting restaurant because in Córdoba, aside from some Italian and Chinese, it's all Spanish food. Unfortunately, no Spanish around here that I know of.

Hi! Hope you are settling in well. Great country, eh? The transformer probably gets the most use with espresso maker and the rice cooker. I think the speeds on mixer, stick mixer, and blender are slower with the biggest effect on the stick mixer, maybe because of the gearing. But it does the job, and even the pottery wheel didn't blow up. For the mixer it will only be a problem for the top speed. I thought the noodles were ok - nothing special, but it's nice to have variety. When I first heard a coworker talking about Aldi I thought he was talking about a car because his country accent made it sound like Audi.

I'll report on the wine when I open it. Maybe tomorrow. It was about $6.00 so if it is drinkable, I'll be happy. If not, I can probably get the same effect by hitting myself on the head with the bottle . The KitchenAid is an accident waiting to happen. I really need to clear some space in a low drawer...

Great tips, thanks. If I add lentils to the liquid do I add more wine? Put them in at the beginning? I think I have red, green, and black lentils in stock right now.

Last month, the Age newspaper sponsored a food event, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" so we headed down with some friends. (yabbies are like crayfish btw) The reason I bring it up is I bought a pack of Bultarra "Saltbush Lamb", including: First, a bit of background. I've always eaten meat, but at Uni I lived in a couple of vegetarian houses and when I got out on my own I decided to pretty much only cook veggie. It's been a long slippery slope into meat, mostly due to laziness (a chunk of chicken is easy protein). Coming to such a red-meat-centric place hasn't helped but has provided the chance to embrace my inner carnivore. So what to do with the, um, shanks, right? I'm thinking a braise with root vegetables. I picked up a Swede and a turnip (not that I know the difference between them) and some beets (I'll keep trying). I could do it on the stove or oven (the oven is electric, the stove is gas and probably less expensive to run, not a huge deal). Or I could soak my terracotta pot and use that in the oven (although I'm tempted to try it on the stove and see if it survives). Craig Clairbourne's recipe uses red wine and Alice Waters white. The only white I have, I think is some cleanskin (unlabeled generic) chardonnay. Any advice for a braise virgin?

Thanks. I like the kitchen but it doesn't seem as large as it looks. The rubbish bin moves around as it gets kicked out of the way. The island attracts all the homeless stuff (well except for the stuff on the dining table) so it seldom looks like the photo. My main complaint is that it is a bit dark but shaded windows are a good thing in the summer.

Tom kha gai (coconut chicken soup)! The name translates to "boiled galangal soup", according to my sources. If you have more time on your hands, galangal is a key ingredient in many Thai curry pastes. I look forward to seeing what you do with yours. I am enjoying the blog very much so far. Gorgeous pottery, and much sympathy on the canine destruction. Perhaps you could loop Cruella De Ville videos for the Dalmations when you are away from home? Ah the soup sounds really good since we've had a cold snap. Bendigo Wholefoods (I forgot to put in the link previously) had whole turmeric, which I'd never seen before. I assume that means it should grow ok here since they source most produce locally. Things to think about for the garden.

Welcome to eGullet Ethan. Nice writeup an photos on your website.

Time for some kitchen shots: The pantry: The liquor and glasses are in a wall unit in the dining room:

The joys of a young dog... I guess some people must not look at prices when shopping. Either that or they really like bananas. As Jimmy Buffet said, "It's 5:00 somewhere."

When I got home, someone had pulled the stuffing out of the couch . Anyone want a Dalmatian coat? A drink was called for so I made a Sazarac with Bols Genever: 2 oz Genever 1 teaspoon caster sugar dissolved in a little water 6 dashes Peychaud's bitters Stir with ice. coat the inside of a chilled glass with absinthe (Obsello), strain and twist lemon peel over glass then discard peel. I think the absinthe and genever go well together and with the Peychaud's as long as you don't mind a pink drink.

From Bendigo Wholefoods I went to get a few other groceries from the Stealth Coles, who's entrance is completely hidden inside a parking garage. I wandered around and snapped a few photos of the 'roo, sausages, fish, until I remembered what I needed to get - catsup, muesli, and pasta. I passed on the $12.98/kg bananas - the crop was mostly destroyed by the cyclone in Queensland. Then I went and bought inexpensive wine: a bottle of ginger wine, a Shiraz-Viognier, a Shiraz, and a Sangiovese, all under $10. The indoor photos didn't turn out but the extent of the wine selection is impressive for such a small town. I'll try to take you to the specialty wine store later.

I have lots of caffeine options at work, not that any are amazing. We have a small kitchen in my area of the building with a stock of instant coffee and Lipton tea bags. There are also some press pots and my small Melita. Or we can go to the new breakout facility where they have the same and an automatic espresso/cappuchino/mocha machine for a dollar per cup. Here are my supplies: I took leftovers for lunch but ended up only having cheese and crackers for morning tea. I eat a lot of biscuits - they don't go moldy. After work I did some shopping. First I went to Bendigo Wholefoods, a nice little funky food store. Also a good place to pick up veggie plants. I remember reading about galangal here, so I had to buy some. Now what do I do with it, again? Designer salt, dips, and ethnic food: It's great to have a place like this in town.