Niall

There's quite a few around; The AGL cooking school in chatswood, the Sydney Seafood School in Pyrmont, Snowball & pemberton and many others.. Are you interested in a type of cuisine or a certain location? Quite a few restaurants do their own occasional classes aswell; the courses at Aria are particularily good.

Canberra certainly isn't the mosty scenic of places, but because of the local politician population there are some well rated restauraunts as paul said; I haven't done much eating there, but there are lots of things to do; bring the kids to Questacon; a reaaly good interactive science museum for one. There are also lots of nice walks and lake burley griffin is pretty scenic. While canberra might not be pretty (it looks like a big concrete uni campus) the countryside around it is very scenic. the best winerie in the region is clonakilla; there is some more information at this website

In the HUnter valley there are plenty of good places to eat; try Roberts, Amanda's on the edge or Esca for some fantastic food. If you go up Midweek there are some good food and accomodation specials. Good wineries to visit are Petersons, Tower Estate, Briar Ridge, Saddlers Creek and Moorebank among many others; avoid mcguigans, Mcwilliams, Draytons and Golden Grape. Foodwise there isn't too much to avoid; the competition seems to keep the quality up. Check out the wine country website for details of places to go. Where do you mean by North Shore? Theres plenty of good restaurants between the Harbour bridge and Hornsby but more detail of exactly where you're going to be and what you want to see other than good food would help me narrow selections down

1) mindblowing sushi. Somewhere we could put ourselves in the sushi chef's hands Sushi Counter in Crows Nest does really good Omakase for about $55. I think Chango at Crows Nest (if it was the place on the Pac Highway) has closed down. 2) an Italian meal that will make me think I'm in Italy As said before, Buon Ricordo in Paddington is the best I've had. At Norton St try Grappa; the pizza there is really good. 3) some very good Mediterranean --- preferably Turkish or Greek. If not that, then Moroccan. A said before, Moorish at Bondi is supposed to be good, but I haven't been there yet. 4) a relaxing Saturday or Sunday (or Friday) lunch by the shore in a lovely (but not fussy or overdressed) setting Watermark is great but expensive. Bring a picnic on the walk that goes from the Spit bridge to manly. The walk will take about 3 hours; if it's a good day, climb down to one of the beaches after you pass Clontarf beach. 5) a meal where the focus is fish fish fish (this in addition to the sushi meal) The boathouse on Blackwattle bay is fantastic. Eat the snapper pie. I don't agree with Doyles at the fishmarket, but doyles watson bay is worth a visit too. 6) a meal somewhere that I can get a fabulous cheese plate (preferably Aussie and NZ cheeses) I agree with most other people; buy the cheeses at Simon Johnson. Eat them on your walk from the spit to manly... 7) lunch with an Aussie friend who doesn't splurge on herself much ... where should I take her? Tetsuya, Quay, Aria, Salt, Buon Ricordo, Milsons.. there's quite a few to choose from. If it's a romantic occasion and you have access to a car go to The cottage point inn and start over. 8) oysters on the half shell!!! could be a meal or with drinks Oysters can be quite variable; your best bet is to do as the others have suggested and go to the fishmarkets where they are freshly shucked. Wildfire at Circular quay has some good one sometimes; go for the native angasi oysters or the rock oysters; the flavour is much better than the pacifics.

I got one of these. I got it on special with this. I have been quite impressed by the knife. It is a bit of a cross between a Santoku and a traditional chefs knife. It took a while to get used to the different knife shape , but now I use it quite a lot, particularly on samll stuff like herbs etc. I haven't had any probs with the shiny steel handle either; although I do wipe my hands before I use it. I wouldn't recommend it as an only knife though,I still find my 8" chefs knife easier to use for larger items like chickens. The knife honer is pretty good too; it hasn't replaced the stone, but it was easier to teach my other half how to use this than a steel properly; and I actually think it does a better job than a steel.

I went to Guilbaud's on the 23rd of December and was very disappointed; None of the tasting menus were available and the service was terrible; all of the staff acted as if they had just been told they had to do a double shift on Christmas day or something.. The food was good, but not that exciting and there was no WOW factor at all, which for the prices charged is not good. I had the Potato and Cepes soup anmd then my girlfriend and I had the Chicken tourte. Both were well excucuted with a good balance of flavours, and I was lucky enough that I was full after the experience. My diningt companions were not so lucky. After the initial glance at the menu it seemed odd that the starters and mains were equally priced; it later became apparent why; the courses were both about the same size. My companions had the Lobster Ravioli, described as uninspiring, The Scallop and Chicken Wings (nice, but not great), and the Fois GRas and Mirabelles, whihc seemed to be the best of tne entrees. For mains, one of my companions tried to order the Turbot, but was told at time of ordering that it was not available. He was then rushed by the waiter to order something else. It would have been much better to tell us at the start of the evening that it was not available. The other mains were the Veal and crayfish and the Roe Deer. Again both were well cooked with good flavours, but the portion sizes were too small. Three desserts were ordered. The lack of a palate cleanser between courses was disappointing. Again we were told at the time of ordering that the baileys dessert was not available and were rushed into ordering other desserts. The selection of sorbets, the chocolate Assiete and the trio of brulees were ordered. The brulees were nice, although the raspberry one was a bit too tart. The other desserts were not really discussed. All up it was a disappointing experience for what is supposed to be dublins best. The nearest we had to WOW all evening was John Rocha dining close by, and Bono and entourage turned up. Were we just unluck, or is this the standard of Irelands best?

If you need to eat here again you could try Suchards Thai on Tooley St, or Champour Champour down at London Bridge. All the reviews I've heard and read about la pont and the other conran places aren't good, There's a Bengali place on Shad thames which is supposed to be good (I haven't eaten there yet though) and Blueprint is supposed to be decent. There's also a few ok pubs aroung; the River Bar, The Anchor and a few other.

And try the corn fritters at bills aswell...

The Echire butter from the stand beside Mr turnips is quite good. He also does Stilton butter which I have yet to taste; but I am looking forward to trying it.

If you know anyone with a decent woodshop you could just get them to make a board to your specs...

I heard that they plan to reschedule the show for a "more suitable" timeslot. Most likely to be the 3am one.

Mix it with Bacon and chives and eat with boiled eggs. Or bread. Or use as a dip.

If you go to Rutherglen you should make sure to visit Chambers Rosewood; They make some of the best fortifieds around; I haven't been yet, but what I've tasted of theirs is amazing stuff. Heres a list of wineries down that way. I believe that most of the wineries have some great fortifieds that aren't usually available most other places.. I'll have to drag the other half down when we get back from the UK.

Salads should be so easy.. You could always go to melbourne for the rugby... and your clients will be fine with the garlic I'm sure..

I was in Melbourne last weekend for the rugby, and a bloke in a greek burger shop on Lygon tried to put beetroot on my burger. It is a practice I am completely opposed to; the only good beetroot is a roasted one.. That was almost the height of the culinary experience in melbourne; we had pies at the footy, pizza for lunch, grease for breakfast. And beer. And beer. And some bundy and cola. And beer. Typical footy weekend. Go to Rutherglen... as long as you can find somewhere showing the rugby!!! The thai sounds good... I find that there's quite a few of places starting to do the thai/ korean/ japanese mix; Oishii in the Hunter is one place that seems to do well with the combo.

I went back to Macquarie centre a month or so ago and had laksa at F&L gourmet again.. they have moved premises and gone seriously down hill. I wouldn't bother anymore.

So did you win yesterday. I lost about $60. My worst melbourne cup result in the 6 years I've been here.

Marinate Pork belly overnight in a mix of orange juice, white wine, ginger and thyme. Then cover with olive oil and cook at 80 celsius for 8-10 hours. Remove from the oil and press for 2-3 hours (I do this between 2 chopping boards with a bowl of water on top). Reduce the marinade down to a syrup and strain and season. For this dish use white pepper intead of black; I find it tastes better. Just before serving flash fry the pork skin side down until crispy. Turn and heat quickly on the other sides of the pork until heated through and serve with a salad. Doing this with blood oranges gives the sauce a great colour. I find that you need at least the juice of 4 oranges per person. This is my version of a pork belly dish at Aria in Sydney that Matt Moran cooks with Cumquats.

Boxty Massaman Curry A meal isn't a feast unless it has at least three types of potato dish. A good resource for potato recipes is: http://www.bigspud.com/

Try either Orange sorbet or if you can find some jelly candies that aren't too sweet they could be used either. Raspberries can be good too. You could just use mineral water and a fortified wine; you might not be cleansing the palate completely, but al least they will give people a small break between chocolates. If you are having more than two chocolates, you should keep the cleanser consistent across all breaks to ensure that all the descriptions and comparisons are coming from the same starting point as much as possible.

Is it just me that finds this vaguely amusing.

We asked about it at our local gourmet shop (simon Johnson, Sydney) and they said just use it like you would normal balsamic. We haven't used it yet though .

I love my scanpan; I've had it for about four years now. It isn't as non stick as the teflon pans; I do have a seperate crepe pan for frying eggs and stuff like that, but I use the scanpan for everything else. Once I melted a plastic spatula on it, and when I cleaned the crap off it was still good. It's easy to clean to, I just run water over it and give it a brush while still hot.

I find that with a ricer, you have to mix the flesh with the cream/ milk/ butter ASAP while the potato is hot, otherwise the mash is a bit lumpy. After pushing through a sieve or tammy, I find that I can let the potato go cold, and then reheat with the milk/ cream/ butter just before serving; it certainly helps when there's a lot of prep for a crowd of 8+. edit; spelling.

I bake the potatoes in their skins, then scrape out the flesh and push it through a drum sieve with a dough scraper. Heat up a mix of equal parts milk, butter and cream until the butter has melted and all three are combined. Then mix with the potato until you reach the consistency you desire. When I want cheesy mash, I put the mash in a baking dish, grate or shave cheese over the top and stick it under the grill to brown.