Snack Man – Introduction On our first visit to Brisbane in a number of years, one of the highlights of our visit was discovering Snack Man in Fortitude Valley and the story of the people behind this exciting, busy venue. First the setting. You reach Snack Man from East Street […]
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Deep in Marseille – Introduction In our story about coffee called The Fascinating Story of Coffee we wrote about how France has been very slow to embrace premium coffee. We proposed a couple of reasons that included their colonial history where many of the countries they occupied grew the less […]
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Antiche Carampane – Introduction Travelling to Venice is not without doubts and questioning. Should we add to the problems this beautiful city is having with the ravages of tourism? Can we “tread lightly” in the city and not add to the many problems that it is currently experiencing? These days, […]
Winestand Waltz – Introduction Winestand Waltz is a tiny natural wine bar in Shibuya run by talented Yasuhiro Ooyama who has a deep knowledge of French and Japanese natural wines. You will find it quite close to Ebisu station. You cross to a side street, walk along for a few […]
Butagumi Tokyo – Introduction We never cease to be amazed about the power of a good restaurant to help enliven you and make you want to eat, no matter what the circumstances. We had been looking forward to our lunch at Butugami for some time, but a trip to one […]
Agnes Brisbane – Introduction Agnes in Brisbane is an exciting Brisbane restaurant. In retrospect we should have made more than one booking. Hidden away at the CBD end of Fortitude Valley this restaurant is hidden away in a quiet street out of the main action. The space is relatively large […]
Automata – Introduction Automata is a sleek yet charming restaurant in the inner Sydney suburb of Chippendale serving absolutely delicious food overseen by talented chef Clayton Wells. Clayton has assembled talented staff for both the kitchen and the front-of-house. Clayton and his team turn out the beautiful food, the dining […]
Gauge Brisbane – Introduction Gauge is a very good restaurant in South Brisbane that we have enjoyed on a number of occasions including a quite recent trip prior to the latest lockdown. On this recent trip we were looking forward to our weekend lunch booking as we were meeting up […]
Miller + Baker – Introduction Miller + Baker is the first time we have written a story about a place that is both a flour mill and an excellent café and coffee house. Miller + Baker is a place that exudes a friendly atmosphere while, at the same time, being […]
Brisbane – An Introduction to Eating and Drinking Over the past decades we have made many trips to Brisbane to sample the food and drinks without being too excited about many of the venues. We have also noticed the continuous encroachment on the CBD and surrounding areas of ugly, too-high […]
Yuan Mei – China Cookbook Author Yuan Mei was born in 1716 (in the famous lakeside city of Hangzhou) and died just short of the end of the century in 1798. He is regarded as one of China’s great poets, but he also spent much of his life (especially from […]
Longjing tea – Introduction Our quest for finding great tea has been an ongoing obsession for many years. Whenever we have been in Asia we have sought out the best tea merchants to explore their offerings whether it be white tea, green tea, yellow tea, black tea, oolong tea or […]
Photos from a visit just after it opened a couple of weeks ago, @poolishandco is yet another addition to the reasons why Cygnet may be the best small town in Tasmania for the availability of good food. With Cygnet Garden Larder a few steps away, a local butcher, and @theearlybirdmarketgarden just up the road, before you even start looking further afield, it’s easy to buy good ingredients and eat well. If you’re thinking of holidaying in #Tasmania and have a romantic vision of shopping for local produce and cooking each day in this area the romance can be matched by reality.
Meanwhile, back in Tasmania, this may be one of the best-sited picnic tables we have ever seen. It’s attached to the granite rocks at Bicheno’s blowhole. For your bucket list perhaps? There’s plenty of delicious seafood a short walk away at @tasmaniancoastalseafoods and @lobstershacktasmania if you don’t bring your own supplies.
Feeling grateful for the couple of trips we’ve managed to make out of Tasmania this year, including to Perth, early in August. Not willing to waste a moment (all travel is to be treasured and never ever taken for granted again) we somehow managed lunch at @madalenas.bar in the middle of a day of many tastings in spite of the fact all commonsense said we didn’t have time. It’s a bit of a blur apart from a very strong feeling of gratefulness that Joel, Matt and the kitchen indulged us after our tasting. Checking the time stamps, it seems, with @tomvanbeem’s help, we ate all these dishes in about 18 minutes. Not a bad effort! The octopus with fermented chilli sauce was as good as we remembered it from our first visit nearly two years ago now and the Abrolhos Island scallops with almond and mandarin is a glorious dish that deserved to be eaten and savoured much more slowly. But if the choice was to eat it quickly or not eat it at all we made the right decision.
Lots of exciting things happening at @madalenas.bar with a big project to add an upstairs bar underway. We hope our next visit is soon and slower!
One of the best things about last year (and best things during 2020 are guaranteed life long good memories) was @analiesegregory’s Friday lunches at @lucindawinebar. We’re so pleased they are back starting today (a Thursday but from next week on Fridays again).
It may be the only restaurant in the world where you are strongly advised to order ahead but you can only order the dish not a seat.
Somehow it always works out (and you can order takeaway as well).
In theory you can walk in to eat but it’s definitely not recommended. There is always a finite number of servings. These single dish lunches, always with something glorious for dessert, and with the potential for a glass of perfectly-matched wine, are highly sought after.
The advice is to keep a close eye on @analiesegregory’s Instagram posts a day or two before, DM her immediately she posts what she is making, and then enjoy something like
these beautiful hand-cut noodles, with enough squeak to carry a complex sauce seasoned with crab and Analiese’s black garlic.
And arrive early or late if you want to be immediately assured of a seat when you arrive.
As always, thank you @kobi_ruz for facilitating these delicious lunches by generously providing Lucinda to host them. You are a very important reason why this is a good town to live in, and these lunches are another.
Where to begin … a glorious lunch at @si_paradiso and a chance to hear a little more of @calemason’s upcoming projects (standby for @casa_perth, a beautiful space where the results of his wine hoarding over the last few months are about to be revealed).
Needless to say with Cale choosing we managed to dent their list of greatest hits (there are a lot) but still we feel only scratched the surface. If we lived in Perth we would eat here constantly – and probably, because it is big and very lively and we are old, at lunch time when it’s not quite so busy and the pace is relaxed.
Wine generously provided by @tomvanbeem who, more patient than us, still had a bottle of the de Moors’ 2014 Le Vendangeur Masqué Caravan, which we can report is still drinking beautifully. No matter where the grapes come from (Caravan is négoce fruit) the wine is always so distinctly de Moor. He also opened a bottle of Les Valseuses 2019 Ces gens-là. He has just started to import Antoine Le Court-Chedevergne’s wines (he of the beautiful @casaantolia just outside Arbois) and this, our first taste, was delicious. It’s as tasty as that colour in the glass promises (there is a photo).
This first photo is the lobster tramezzini – menu click-bait that takes you to a good place! There is also pâté en croûte (with truffles), kingfish crudo and steak tartare with celeriac chips, crab on roti (dangerous), mussel-stuffed baby calamari with amped up spices, aged coral trout topped with lemon and capers (the gentle acidity just right after so many rich dishes) and, just in case we hadn’t eaten enough, one of their justly famous pizzas.
We are very proud to have so many of our wines here and at the new Casa. They are in safe hands.
When you feel the call to drop in every night it’s pretty easy to work your way through the whole menu at @winesofwhile, a home away from home that can be a full on restaurant meal, a one glass of @twometretall cleansing ale pit stop after tastings all day, somewhere to drop in for a piece of custard tart or a satisfying piece of grilled sirloin with horseradish cream one dish dinner.
The custard tart may not always have pink grapefruit marinated in Mosse vermouth on the side, which was @jackbotha’s inspired addition when we did a by the glass take over the other night but it will still be delicious.
Here are some highlights from recent days.
