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Are you still looking? My family is in the seafood, including tuna, business in Port Lincoln. You won't get it dockside. You need to make contact with the people who actually do the fishing and they can direct you to the retail sources. Google "David Ellis Tuna Boat Owner's Association" and you will come up with some contact info. Good luck - it's worth pursuing and it is available.

I think that you must be looking for dinner rather than lunch, because during the day there are little restaurants and cafes every 10th step. In the evening it's different, and little laneways which seem empty and dark during the day suddenly come to life with small dinner-only restaurants. When the Cheap Eats book comes out next week, I think you will find it very inspiring - there will be about 200 restaurants within walking distance of where you live. Most every day eating restaurants are to be found in the south eastern part of the city centre. Unlike Piazzola, I dislike eating in most pubs, but there are a few goodies worth making a trip to - Hotel Lincoln on Cardigan St in Carlton comes to mind. It's just a short tram/walk trip away. It's been a while since I was in NY but I can certainly understand your craving for pizza. Excellent thin crust pizza is (was?) to be found at Mr Wolf in St Kilda http://www.mrwolf.com.au/ and Ladro in Fitzroy, but it's been over a year since I stepped foot in either. I hope they are still in existance. If they are, beware the noise level on busy nights. Please forget trying to find New York pizza here in Australia. Things are different here, from the flour / ovens/ cheese etc to the preferences of the locals. Good luck!

Oh, gosh - right. You can see I'm still learning about Sydney. When I was at the Bather's Pavilion I was thinking that it was a hell of a way for the kitchen hands and wait staff etc to come to work. Restaurant wages and those houses didn't kind of mix. - Jane

Pat - Great little duck store on Ingles Street - http://www.luvaduck.com.au/ -Jane

I've just returned from helping a friend from the USA find a long term (3 yrs) rental property in Sydney - and helping her test out all the nearby restaurants. In 4 days we found a fabulous spacious new apartment over on Bourke Street in East Redfern, one street from Surry Hills. It's walking distance to Crown Street, which has excellent restaurants like Billy Kwong and Benzin. My friend just loves the convenience of everything and has found pretty good butchers and grocers. You can't beat going to Pyrmont for most stuff edible, however. Because we both knew nothing of Sydney, what we did was hire a taxi for 3 hours one Saturday morning, and got the driver to take us to several rentals which were open in Surry Hills, Paddington, Darlinghurst and Redfern, all very close to the CBD. (Found on www.domain.com.au the day before). Bear in mind that one has to plan such a trip like a military operation - rentals are only open for 15-30 minutes. We got fantastic advice from the taxi driver - oh, how fortunate we were to get one who spoke English.. Within each suburb there are streets which are really nice and some which are downright spooky. Technical details: What we learned was that in order to get a good rental, you need to find a potential place during the week and be prepared to meet the agent at the property within an hour. This way you are not with a zillion weekenders crawling over the place and can actually have a conversation with the agent. Be prepared to apply for a good one on the spot. Come ready with cash for a deposit (one week's rent). Once the place has a deposit and application pending, they cannot show it to anyone else. If you find and prefer another place while the application is being considered, the real estate office will refund you the deposit pro-rated for the days you "held" the property. If they reject your application, they return all your deposit. Have 2 local people ready to give you good references. Despite the hype of real estate agents trying to convince everyone that rentals are scarce and that you have to offer more money than the owners have asked for, that's tommy-rot and just normal real estate agent hype. After the intial confusion, we found lots of choice and certainly did not pay more than the asking price. PS Balmain is great. We had lunch at the Bather's Pavilion one day, and I don't know if all days are as light and bright like this but that beach was pure magic. -Jane

I've just returned from experiencing 4 days of Sydney restaurants. Billy Kwong's was the absolute sensation. No bookings taken, but we went early Monday evening and were seated immediately. Back-less stools for seating which we thought would be a problem, but we became so focussed on the fabulous food that we didn't notice. Excellent, knowledgable and kind service. First rate ingredients. We will remember the steamed oysters and crispy skinned duck forever. Kylie was at the table next to us experimenting with all kinds of interesting looking off-the-menu dishes. It's kind of nice seeing the owner-chef keeping such a direct eye on the place and continually working on her menu. I don't agree about calling it "non-traditional". It's very Chinese. It's just that there isn't a hint of a crap bottled sauce or cornstarch thickener in sight.

Hi Jake, If you are in Melbourne try here: http://www.savourschool.com.au/ Simon Johnson and The Essential Ingredient carry a decent variety of chocolate between them including gianduja. Scullery Maid may carry some specialty hardware items - give them a ring first. There is also a cake/candy/chocolate supply store (Cake Deco?) in the Pt Philip arcade just near Flinders St Station which sells the stuff you've been importing. Sorry, don't know any online sources - if anyone else does please post.

Wow - thanks for this - I've been looking for a source to re-tin copper. As for cookware here in Australia - what a ripoff. Luckily I brought back all the stuff I accumulated while living in the USA for a couple of decades, so I'll never have to buy any more. I agree with Shalmanese - get someone to bring some back from overseas if you can't go yourself. Or look into Amazon's shipping rates. Look for a brand called All-Clad. Fabulous stuff and you won't have to get a fourth mortgage.

I don't think it's the norm. I live in Melbourne and wouldn't dream of tipping. Nor do my friends. We have a hard time stopping our American friends because they feel weird leaving a restaurant without tipping, but it doesn't take them long to get used to our way.

Huge problem with ingredients. Has anyone seen epazote? fresh tomatillos? achiote seeds? Fou d B - I've put aside some chile seeds for you.

I'll be happy to provide seeds - contact me via this board. You can't bring them in from the USA - customs will be all over you like a rash. I got mine from a little store in North Melbourne which sold all things chile. They've either moved or gone out of business. Yes I love Diana Kennedy's books - they are dauntingly authentic. In another food forum we practically had open warfare over Mexican cookbook authors. What passion. It was fitting that it was about Mexican..

What I'm doing with them is roasting them and making a sauce with onions, garlic and mexican oregano. Then I can use the sauce in a variety of dishes or use as a condiment - whatever I feel like. Although simple to make it is SO deeply flavourful, and quintessentially Mexican as Rick Bayless says. My inspiration is his Mexican Kitchen - a marvellous book which I picked up second hand at Books For Cooks ages ago. Ever since reading this book we've always made corn tortillas by hand, and the difference between fresh and packaged is astonishing. Yes, start really early - I think I will about early Sept. Where are you getting the seeds from? Do you need some?

Can't find the exact topic where we talked about growing fresh chiles but this one is close enough. I just wanted to report that my poblanos did absolutely fantastically here in Melbourne. Next season I'll start earlier (probably inside) to get a larger crop. It is heaven to have the real thing again. Thanks to whoever it was who encouraged me.

I live in Melbourne. I went to Interlude with my aunty after it was mentioned on eG as a good place to go. She ordered the pickled cucumber. She looked at it and said, "Well, I'll be! All twirlied up! Do you remember when I did that to all our cucumbers in the 80's?" I guess the chef at Alinea must have been inspired by my aunty. Oh, by the way, she did it with rock melons too. If you choose one which is not all the way ripe and leave a bit of the green on when you peel it it looks really pretty all twirled up on a plate with a bit of garnish.

Exactly! That's what I do here in Australia. Good brand (and only one I can find) is Lowan's Gluten flour and I just add to the plain flour here depending on what kind of bread I'm making. Having lived and cooked in the USA for over 2 decades, I find that Aussie plain flour is very soft in comparison to most American flours. I wouldn't dream of trying to find or create special cake flour - waste of time. I love our flour. Haven't made such good cakes and scones for years. Don't know a soul who uses boxed mixes. Ye gads.