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The bags of real bread flour you can get at supermarkets aren't ever close to the 15% protein mark. The two brands still available in Melbourne appear to be Defiance (11%) and (?)WhiteWings. The other day I also noticed small bags of a new line by TipTop, which includes a "high grade" flour. EDITED for correct brands. Other than a friendly baker who isn't using some sort of pre-mix(!), the best sources are often Middle Eastern grocers, at least in Melbourne. Cake flour... as in real low protein fine cake flour... nowhere? USAfoods in Melbourne sells Swan's brand, but I gather from US friends that it's not a quality brand. Some Italian importers might stock a variety of Italian flours beyond the much-sought-after Tipo 00. As an aside, remember that Australian cake recipes are written for standard Australian plain flour.

I very much appreciate the tip about the restaurant! But in the end, as the budget isn't enormous, I won't be hopping between restos for their cheese plates... maybe one resto for the cheese will have to do. Do gulleteers know of any reliable fromageries in the 11e or nearby, or good cheesemongers at either of the markets on bld Richard Lenoir?

Supermarket price seems to be around A$7.50

These are good and interesting suggestions guys, thanks. My theoretical knowledge of varieties isn't bad, it's just the actual opportunity to try a wide variety in France which has been lacking.

For the first time I will have access to a *fridge* for four days in Paris, so I'm planning to jettison some of the cafe and resto hopping and aim for a little home cooking and eating... at last the markets will be useful rather than just beautiful. I am definitely not a voracious eater of cheese, but would like to broaden my knowledge of varieties, and I'm not sure how best to do this without straining my finances or having a lot of excess cheese. There is no way I could eat my way through a mountain of rounds of cheese, even with a little help from an accomplice, so how best to sample a range of cheeses? I'll be staying in the 11th, close to rue Oberkampf, which I know fairly well. There's at least one cheese shop on the street, plus the small market on Richard Lenoir, and the large one down towards Bastille. And I can hop on the metro to the Auchans at the end of the line... not the most respectable solution perhaps, but one perhaps worth keeping in mind? I'm fairly open minded about varieties, though least enthusiastic about soft white rinded cheeses and blues.

When I last brought maple syrup over from Canada, the equivalent price per litre for standard supermarket brands in both countries wasn't radically different. An important note: maple syrup which hasn't gone through commercial processing, eg farm-sold syrup, is regarded as a potential quarantine hazard.

That's incorrect. Quarantine restrictions exist primarily for plant, dairy and meat products. Most processed foods with low dairy content, and some treated plant products are permitted, but *no* meat products are permitted. Check the AQIS website for full details, as Portia_Smith suggested.

This part of your question seems to have gone unanswered so far... and I can't remember having seen a restaurant menu that attempted to use anything in the way of native herbs/spices/berries/etc. Lemon Myrtle might occasionally turn up in a dessert perhaps, but beyond that...?

The "singles night" thing is just following the speed-dating concept, I think. It seems to be growing as a 'recreation' for the 25-35s.

I'm not a big wine person either, tarka, but the wine-growing areas are very attractive country areas of Australia, and some of the wineries have good restaurants (and some don't or are horrendously expensive). The general route I suggested above is very scenic -- but if you want to stick to cities, then Syd-Melb-Adelaide should consitute your itinerary (or you could reduce it to two cities + environs depending on what sightseeing priorities you have). Brent Kulman's point about missing so much of Australia's beauty by staying in the cities is very true, however. I don't know how far in advance one has to book for Tetsuya, but the Flower Drum in Melbourne, regarded by some as one of the best Cantonese restaurants in the world, can require booking a long way ahead. The Citysearch websites for Melbourne and Sydney can be good sources of summaries of the main newspaper reviews. What sort of dining are you interested in? Fine modern Australian? Fine in general? Trendy? Avant garde? Just the best of anything? Ethnic diversity? All and everything?

Do you remember Monty Python's Life of Brian... There are some eGulleteers here who will be able to answer the food-experience-maximisation questions far better than me, so I'll leave that to them. One route could be Sydney, Hunter Valley (that's north, near Newcastle), then down through NSW to the Murray River, across to Mildura for wine and dining, down through some of Victoria's wine regions to Melbourne, the Yarra Valley (east, close to Melbourne), then sort of westwards up the coast (after a southward dip;)) to Adelaide and the Barossa Valley. That's just a quick sketch...

I would happily go for the Mrs Jones donuts (or the Donut Van) over Krispy Kreme... yes folks! I tried them when up in SYD last week... it was warm, it was soft and fluffy, it was messy, it had a *strange chemical note*... ok, it was kind of nice, but I'm not a convert.

Believe it or not, my typo was a different one! It should have been (for the one I intended) www.australian-beef.com (ie, with hyphen, without .au)... but y'know, I think Suzanne found the better one!

Hi Kangarool. I think most brisket in Oz is probably corned, which might explain why you can't get any -- it looks like a question of popularity, more than terminology. What you are looking for is, I think, "point cut" brisket, though given the responses from butchers, I guess that won't get you any closer to your goal. I'm not an expert on meat cuts by any means, so maybe someone else can confirm? A useful website for an idea of Australian cuts is Australian Beef, and if you click on Product Guide>Primal Cuts you'll find the variety of cuts and diagrams.

ah, but for those of us who love the Jam Donut van's donuts, these are completely different animals. The only thing to beat the Jam Donut van must be homemade donuts:)

I'm actually in Melb., arbuclo, so it was a brief observation of the York St shop as I rushed past on business... And I didn't want to face joining a queue for something that might be an abomination.:P I'm up there again at the end of July, so maybe will steel myself and venture in.

To my horror, as I walked down York Street in Sydney last week, I saw a queue stretching out of a small corner shop. Krispy Kreme. A queue for doughnuts?? I remember the bad-food-hurting-poor-suburbs controversy (or was it a storm in a tea cup?) when they opened their first shop in Sydney earlier this year or late last, and was surprised to see a central Sydney shop with a queue. I guess people like them. Of course, I've read of lines of people in the US, but as Krispy Kreme isn't a known brand to most Australians, it seemed odd. Have other Aussies on eG tried these? What's the verdict? An amusing marketing ploy... the mag SuperFoodIdeas has created two "divine temptations" incorporating Krispy Kremes. If you really feel like raising an eyebrow, it's on the KK website: here

Can't help on the Crisco front (never used it), and I don't think i've ever seen canned pumpkin here... but I think my reaction is that of most Aussies -- "why do you need canned pumpkin when you can buy fresh?" Unsweetened chocolate... no. You'd have to bring some, or pay very high prices at some specialty shop here, assuming you could find it here somewhere. About bringing things: all food *must* be declared to customs/quarantine on arrival, but most processed foods (like chocolate or canned pumpkin) are admitted. Dairy, meat and plant products are *very* restricted.

The simplest solution is to do it by weight ... but maybe your sister-in-law knows whether she has AU metric cups and tablespoon measures? Sometimes the ml are printed on them too. And if she doesn't, then pack a cup and tablespoon. One ounce is indeed 28.4gm. One US fluid ounce is 29.6 ml. Breadflour is available in large bags from some larger supermarkets (though increasingly squeezed off the shelves by breadmixes), and loose from many Middle Eastern food shops in Melbourne. Our better plain flour is ok for basic domestic breadmaking, and you can buy gluten flour in the health food section of supermarkets if you need to boost the gluten in your plain flour. cheers/Duncan

I guess an easy way to think of things is that US Imperial measures are a little smaller than ours: 1 AU cup is 250ml, whereas a US one is 237ml (8 fl oz) 1 AU tbsp is 20ml (ie, 4 teaspoons), whereas a US one is 15ml (ie, 3 teaspoons) 1 AU block of butter (250gm) is a little more than 2 US sticks of butter (2 x 113gm (4 oz -- I believe dry oz are used here, but may be wrong)) I hope that helps. Confusion sometimes arises in Australia because imported/junkshop measuring cups and spoons are often not AU metric. Unfortunately The Kitchen Hand (Anthony Telford) is pretty unreliable on a lot of conversions.

Hi Ondine. I had dinner on Friday at Balzari (130 Lygon St, so not far too far to walk). Good Aus-Med menu, with some clearly Greek dishes thrown in. Mains are $25-30 (six or seven to choose from). Warung Agus (Balinese) is well-liked by many (I haven't been) and is close to where you will be staying. 305 Victoria St. Just two of many possibilities.:)

Sunday lunch at Morgan M: The three-course lunch is now GBP30 +supplements. Choice of 4-5 starters and 4-5 desserts, but only 3 mains. A two-course menu which has been mentioned elsewhere no longer exists. Life is not so good for vegetarians, who can only take the vegetarian degustation "Garden menu" at GBP34. Seems rather unfair that there is no vegetarian a la carte option. Staff were pleasant and helpful, both when booking and during lunch. None of the problems with service mentioned in early reports were evident on our visit. The restaurant feels welcoming and comfortable at lunchtime. The pace of service was good. This account of the dishes may diverge slightly from the menu description because we kept forgetting to write things down! An amuse bouche and a pre-dessert were served: * a white horseradish cream with pickled beetroot soup (probably good if you (a) like horseradish, and (b) like pickled beetroot. We don't). * vanilla rice pudding with raspberry sorbet (yum) Starters: * cream of watercress with poêlée frog legs (very flat flavour as a whole) * carpaccio of gently smoked scallop (main impression: 'raw'), asparagus salad and coulis, fromage blanc sorbet Mains: * roasted Welsh lamb rack and confit leg (rather dry) with garlic ravioli, gnocchi (unremarkable), spinach; (hefty GBP5.50 supplement) * roasted fillet of veal (very pink), chestnut purée, glazed sweatbreads and kidney (good, with some fat), spinach, asparagus-morel-vin jaune sauce. Desserts: * chocolate moëlleux (Valrhona 70% guanaja), milk sorbet, armagnac drink; (basically a delightful, runny-centred chocolate pudding) * tradtional orange tart, chocolate icecream (cocoa-y), zest confit, orange and vanilla sauce The vegetarian menu: * watercress soup with herb raviolo * ricotta and spinach cannelono with swiss chard * puy lentils with onion cream, button onions, and broad bean(s) * asparagus with two creams/purees * seem to have forgotten one dish The bad bits? Well, we were offered a slice of bread. And never again did the bread tray pass the table. We were beguiled by the suggestion of an opening drink: champagne with white peach juice. Suckers, at GBP7.50. The coffee at the end of the meal was poor. Very poor. I'm getting tired of bad coffee in good restaurants. They just shouldn't bother. Especially when they have the nerve to charge GBP4.00 for a cappuccino. For the most part we were very happy with the food, especially the veal dish and the desserts. The vegetarian dishes were well-judged, and in some ways more successful than the meat dishes. Perhaps one could say that the food is (mostly) well-executed, but doesn't necessarily leave an impression (except the desserts).

I'm wondering whether others have experienced Morgan M since January... have things improved/become more consistent? Would also like feedback on the vegetarian menu now that the place has been open a while -- am thinking of taking a veg friend there for Sunday lunch in May.

LOL. Meanwhile Aussies generally find British Cadbury to be a foul sweet icky vanillin confection Well, the article wasn't for a real paper-- just some small internet mag, and ordering via the internet/shipping across the Pacific is not great for meltable items like chocolate, spillable items like Snapple, or prohibited items like meat and veg...

You might find brown sugar in your local Reformhaus, as divina suggested, or you could try using raw sugar (should be easy to get) and golden syrup together. In fact, the Reformhaus would be a likely source of molasses, if you wanted to try that solution.