Niall

I hope this happens to me....

That would ahve been Harry's Cafe de Wheels; a sydney institution.

Steve Manfredi left Bel Mondo over a year ago, and it hasn't been t5he same since. The food standard has dropped, but so have the prices, so it is still worth a visit if you really want to go, but there is much better food to be had, even at their price point.

This years good food awards were announced last night, and there have been some interesting changes. The list of award is here. Claudes, tets, Quay and rockpool were joined at three hats by Est and Marque. I haven't eaten at est, but Marque must have been having a bad night when I was there early this year, or lifted their game since to get three hats. In the two hats grouping, its good to see Yoshii up there; his food and restaurant are fantastic. Its good to see Becasse there too. The most controversial moves were Bathers and Aria dropping from 2 hats to one; especially in a year where Matt Moran cooked at James Beard and has had a lot of other publicity in the australian food media. He's been in most food magazines for the last 2 months.

If you are looking for somewhere unique in Sydney, Yoshii is well worth a visit; they have two degustation/ omakase menus. When we were there we had the 'Yoshii' menu, which consisted of 10 courses; all of which were fantastic. The food is very good japanese, and there is a sake flight to match the dinner. The courses that stood out most for me were the steamed sea urchin egg cup, the tuna sashimi, the cedar smoked rudder fish and the Wagyu beef. The menu we had is $110 per head; there is also another menu that was $85 which was completely different except for the rudder fish, and looked fantastic. Yoshii is on harrington street in the rocks If you go to billy kwongs, make sure you get the banquet; I have never been dissappointed with it. Becasse is somewhere else you should look at; it was announced today that it has moved up to two hats, and it's wine list won the small winelist of the year. The food there is fantastic; Justin North is a great chef.

I'd love to see a similar "study" done of tequila drinkers.

http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jh...103533&pid=null

Home Gourmet is another internet provider I have just heard about recently; I haven't used them though.

Tabou in Surrey Hills is a good French bistro, Uchi lounge is good for Japanese. Restaurant Balzac in Randwick is BYO except Fridays and Saturdays and is very good. The prophet in Surrey Hills is a great Lebanese place. Billy Kwong is good asian food, although not the most comfortable for a long Wine dinner. On the lower North Shore, I can't recommend Milsons in Kirribilli highly enough. The service is great, and when we BYO'ed good wine they offered to decant it before they were asked. Otherwise try Paradoxe or La Goulue in Crows Nest for French BYO. 2060 in Waverton is good too. Yings Chinese in Crows nest is great. Which desert do you live in; I lived in North Ryde for 6 months and the food up that way is terrible; Il viccolo is about the best it gets. I tried Curzon hall once and was sorely disappointed; I should have just got up and walked when they were missing the first three wines I tried to order off the winelist.

Eggs. Any way. Boiled scrambled fried poached. I never get bored.

I haven't tried them but you could try http://www.cheeselinks.com.au

I was astounded by the quality of food in South Australia generally. On the evenings we were there we ate at Soho, Cibo and Amalfi, and in all cases the food was great. We didn't have the budget to go to Grange at the time unfortunately. For me Cibo was the standout of these three; the food, service and wine were excellent. The portions were huge. Amalfi was a lot less formal, but the food here was great too and the atmosphere there is great. Because of the quality of the food in Adelaide, we based ourselves there while visiting the wine regions (we got to the Adelaide Hills, Barossa, Clare and McLaren Vale), rather than staying in the vineyards

Hi Lisa, Here you go: Heres two I've used: Simon Johnson always has top class stuff: http://www.simonjohnson.com.au/ Comme en France has Foie Gras, rillette, goose and duck fat and Confit http://www.comcen.com.au/~mlsmet/Home%20eng.htm Greengrocer's standards have dropeed a bit since they were taken over by Woolworths, but still have some good stuff: http://www.greengrocer.com.au/ Others I haven't used are: http://www.mudgeehampers.com.au/ http://www.eatfresh.com.au/ Wishlist have some hampers: http://www.wishlist.com.au/Search/Category...3135&PCHID=3119 I hope this helps

I with FG on this - a novelty. Although they are not bad with some oriental and other hard to match foods. These are far from novelties at this stage and in australia are proving to be very commercially viable; The Rockford Black Sparking is selling out within two months of being released, others are getting very popular and it is now becoming uncommon to find a wine list without them. While I wouldn't put one with steak, the good sparkling reds go excellently with duck, turkey and game dishes. They are going well beyond Shiraz at this stage into blends, straight merlots, cabernets and Chambourcing is becoming increasingly popular, with makers like D'Arenberg making a very good one. I believe that Bollinger has made a sparkling red aswell.

Because I'm Irish: What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow. A. A. Milne Or a different approach to dieting: My advice if you insist on slimming: Eat as much as you like-just don't swallow it. Harry Secombe

I was at a cooking class with Matt Moran last night and he told us a pretty interesting story about this drinking session and a glass of '61 latour pomerol he skulled without knowing what it was. He told us about how Tony and everyone else there had a good laugh at his expense. He is a very funny man. He is also doing a Market tour followed by a morning in his kitchen followed by dego lunch with 10 people on a few Fridays; we enrolled this morning for August 15th and I can't wait.

I always assumed the point of bacon was the fat..... why let it drain away?

I find it interesting that this is not available in Australia or New Zealand? Should be be insulted or honoured? Are out palates deemed too sophisticated or too unsophisticated? We can'r get the Mataro or Colombard either.

The pie shop is Harry's Cafe De Wheels. It's in Wooloomooloo on Cowper Wharf road at the corner of Brougham St. You can walk there from Circular Quay. Here is a Citysearch editorial. Get a map from your hotel As for the GPO; If you are looking to try australian cheeses; try the Jindi triple brie; other than that, discuss your tastes with the staff there; they are usually pretty good.

These are two varieties of these; Moreton Bay bugs and Balmain bugs. Both are delicious.

Domaine Cazal Viel is one of our french favourites. There is quite a bit of good aussie stuff starting to happen, but I'm not sure about US availability.

We do drink burgundies reasonably regularly; our local bottle shop has a good supply of various '97s and '98s, and whenever we eat out for special occasions, we nearly always splurge on a a good premier or grand cru. But with my terrible memory, I can rarely remember the winemaker's name. And I don't have the discipline for tasting notes. So usually we have to depend on the recommendation of the sommelier. I find that burgundies are a great wine; they are usually our choice when the little lady chooses chicken or a lighter meal and I choose beef or lamb; there are few wines other than pinot that can match both. I would guess that the main reason Burgundies (and other french stuff) is not drunk much is because people don't have the knowledge to know what is what. There are so many producer names, and few people would know the name Nuits St George et al as well they would Napa Valley, Oregon or even Chateau Neuf du Pape. At first taste, burgundies can seem light and watery, particularily if you are unsure what to expect; I know my first tasting of a lower end Jadot left me wanting more. Edit: And most people, like me, would not have the memory to remember what they have drunk before.

Based on my experience, the reason its more men than women who do this is because women are usually attempting to hide other purchases, like their 15th black handbag

Scones.

This is a development that should lead to more consistently good wine, but will take us further down the path of removing the art from most winemaking.