Niall

Theres some good aussie white ports around; but I generally don't drink them as aperitifs; More usually as a less sweet dessert wine, or just with a nice cheese platter; my two favs are the plantagenet and Gralyn versions; both from Western Australia.

... or combine ferry on the harbour and the beach.. get the ferry to Manly at about 5:30pm; about 30 mins trip; then walk down to the beach (3 mins), turn right and around the path down to Shelly beach (max 15 mins), and eat dinner at Le Kiosk; it's not the best seafood in Sydney, but it is very good and the location is amazing. Then get back to the ferry wharf and take the jetcat back to the city and see the lights. Ferry times can be had at wwww.sydneyferries.nsw.gov.au (pdf file linked) Also: Map of Manly The ferry comes in at Manly Wharf, if you walk straight up the Corso you hit the beach.

Banc in Sydney do an excellent Creamy Corn soup; the recipe is in the Banc Cookbook. From what I remember it involves making stock by putting corn and cobs seperated into water with some onion, and simmering for a couple of hours. Afte that boil up some fresh corn freshly off the cob until just soft and then blend the whole lot up. Push the lot through a sieve, and then fold cream in. Sprinkle basil and some freshly cracked pepper on top.

I did a vertical of the Michelton Print label from Central Victoria on Tuesday night.... all very yummy. We did 16 vintages between 1980 and 1999; the '98 and '99 look like being stunners. Other favourites were the 86, 91 and 96. But I am in complete agreement with mickblueeyes; you can't beat a good burgundy for anything (except maybe value). I don't get too much of it though. My favourite wine I drink regularly is the Daniel Schuster Pinot Noir from NZ, although that's a bit hard to get sometimes.

I second most of what Roger says except that Claudes and Balzac are now the two with waiting lists; tetsuyas can still be problematic, but much easier than before; I've heard of people getting Friday bookings on the wednesday before. Theres probably only 3 or 4 places that are more than 25 minutes from either Sheraton.

I once tried a homebrew blackcurrant wine; that was awful. I had it at my uncles and declined to try his elderberry or gooseberry wines after that.

That sounds very interesting.... Now I'll have to try to find it... There are some good botrytis Sav Blancs coming out of the woodwork aswell; Broke Estate from the hunter have a fantastic one; but I haven't been that impressed with the versions from Orange I've seen. DeBortoli released an experimental 86 Botrytis traminer a couple of years ago.. that was pretty good.

It's that time of year again; Three hats: Claudes, MG, quay, Rockpool, tetsuyas Others: SMH website Quay got restaurant of the year; I'll have to put it on the goto list for this year. It was good to see Becasse make the 1 hats. I've had a quick look at the Age website, but can't find much menbtion of the melbourne awards.

I've found that the synthetic corks are not good for aging wine; one winery we purchase from regularly offers to replace wines with them for ones with cork. From what I've heard, some of the UK supermarkets are already demanding that their suppliers use the screwcaps

There are lots of good Oz sweet wines; the DeBortoli Noble one is fantastic, and there are loads of others; Brown Brothers do some nice ones too; although I don't know what would be available over there. As Mr Balic said, there are lots of good tokays and muscats from here too... some fortified, some not. I really liked the St Jean de Minervois muscat from minervois in the Langeudoc aswell.. and there is a good Baron Phillippe de Rothschild sauternes we had in France that was really good value aswell.

Some South Australian wineries have been putting Rieslings with the Stelvin Cap away for 20 years; and they have notice no problems at all.. I have no problems with the Stelvins at all; I believe grosset won't be putting Corks in any of their whites. And as thats my favourite Riesling I'd better not have any problem with it....

I wasn't overly impressed with Minervois reds when we were there; They do a good muscat though..

I had duck with a gooseberry and strawberry chutney.... a suprising but well worked mix.... A nice tartness to cut through the duck fat..

I find that its easier to cut bread with a thicker harder bottom crust by putting it in its side.

I do have creme de cacao... I'll give it a go..

we found that to get by a bit cheaper, we always ate out for lunch, and then bought bread, pate, cheese, meat and salad and ate in. And if staying anywhere for a week, its nearly always going to be cheaper to find an apartment/Cottage etc. While in paris we stayed here. And in Languedoc we stayed here. When we want hotels, we either get them from the Lonely planet, which alos has good low budget food recommendations, or Hotel Boulevard for some of the bigger cities. Instead of hiring a car all the time, we didn't have one when we were in Paris, but we hired from the locations we went to; so we only needed a small car because our luggage was left in a hotel, and we didn't need them every day. Getting most places is faster by TGV, and if you prepurchase your tickets and get the j31, j8 and decouvert fares its very reasonable. But it is worth noting that some locations don't have auto cars.

Apart from the usual burns and cuts, all similar to what has been discussed, I have had one other bad experience; About 6 years ago, having never touched them before, I was chopping chillis. I scraped the seeds out with my fingernail. About 30 minutes later I rubbed my eyes. OOOooooowwww.... I ran straight into the shower and stood there fully dressed with the water running cold for about 20 minutes. Even after that it still hurt. I was wandering around with cold wet cloths held to my eyes all day. A while after this, we were haviung this very conversation at drinks one friday, and I told this story. Another friend said that something similar had happened him; although instead of rubbing his eyes, he visited the toilet... even bigger OW. I now make sure to never touch chilli seeds with my hands, and after cutting chilli I check how hot my fingers are by sucking them..

I find that accidentally tapping my glass with my fork gets my glass refilled if the wait staff haven't noticed my empty glass for a while. If my glass is consistently empty I will ask for the bottle to be left...

This Recent wine tasting that I attended was quite interesting; basically 15 excellent Shirazes from each of the 4 wine producing states were chosen by a winemaker and tasted blind by 1: a panel of judges and 2: the public; it seems that the public doesn't agree with the judges in this case..... I only got through about 40 of the wines, but my favs were the McGuigan Genus 4, the Briar ridge Karl stockhausen and the Charles melton... there was lots of yummy stuff here.. I was interested to find that I rated some of australias best shirazes behind a $18 one......

Sauvignon Blancs from NZ are fantastic; as said before, the Cloudy Bay is great. Another great one is the Vavasour. Rieslings are resaonable; Pinots are generally ok, but Daniel Schuster makes a fantastic one. There are other good pinots,but I have yet to drink them.

I had a pretty good meal at the boatshed about four years ago. I didn't spend that much time in Perth when I was there.. I would also recommend heading for the Margaret river..there are some good restaurants (and lots of good wineries) there; I'll look up the names of some when I go home tonight. Perth Citysearch has a good list of perth restaurants, with reviews and sample menus for some of them. WesternAustralia.net can also be useful if planning a Western Australian holiday.

I have a slightly different problem with the fact that my other half eats much slower than me.. because she eats slow and is more used to colder food than I am, her definition of "Hot Food" while cooking dinner can leave something to be desired; she thinks little of draining veggies and leaving them off the heat with the lids off for up to 10 minutes before serving, leaving them not hot enough by the time i get to eating. She's an only child, I come from a family of six... I'm working on her though.... She hasn't drained the veggies for the main before the starter for nearly two years now.... .. although she can still eat Noodle soups a lot faster than I can.

My mum used to make some very good rhubarb jam; just straight rhubarb jam, the obvious with apple, but also with blackberries.. that worked well. We also used to just get stewed rhubarb with custard, and rhubarb flavoured creamed rice. I've also heard that it goes well with spinach... but i haven't actually tried it.

The most common thing I do with truffle oil is mash potatoes.. very boring I know, but it just works so well..

I hope this sin't too late to be of use, but I would certainly recommend everything thats gone before; except to say that for honeymooners; Watermark would have to take preference over Bathers for Brekkie in Balmoral; fewer kids, and an excellent list of Champagnes. Other of my fav goodies are The Boathouse on Blackwattle bay; a fantastic fish place that does an excellent snapper pie, Yum Cha at Kam Fook in Market City in Chinatown; just get there before 10:30. Avoid the Summit like the Plague. There are far too many good restaurants in Sydney to waste time at a truly disgusting Revolving one.. I've heard too many people who come to Sydney as tourists saying they want to go there.. If you get stuck while in Sydney, pop into a bookshop and have a read of the SMH Good Food guide; it's usually a pretty good indicator.