A short hour after taking off from Melbourne airport, the plane dropped through the clouds revealing a carpet of green as far as the eye could see. We were going to land very soon, but I couldn’t quite make sense of that. It looked as though we were going to land in a paddock; I couldn’t see anything out the window that suggested that the city of Launceston was anywhere nearby. I’d had my head in a book and tunes in my ears throughout the quick flight so hadn’t heard any of the usual announcements that you get about the time of landing and weather at the destination. Were we making an emergency landing in a field? Had I somehow got on the wrong flight? Continue reading “Launceston – it’s nice to meet you (part one)”
Breakfast, I think, is a meal with multiple personalities. It can be the same every day, it can be slurped out of a straw on the run, it can be hot, cold, big, small, nutritious, unhealthy, NBD, the most important meal of the day or skipped altogether. And sometimes, it can be so fantastic that you keep telling people about it for the whole day. Continue reading “Square & Compass minted peas with whipped ricotta, avocado, jamon and poached egg”
Yoghurt, to my mind, is about the biggest rort going. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, and eat it almost every day for breakfast. But until I lived in Phnom Penh I had no idea how easy it is to make. It is seriously easy. So my question is, if you can buy milk in the supermarket for as little as $1.00 for a litre, why is a litre of no-added-sugar, natural yoghurt upward of $6.00? Continue reading “Make your own yoghurt”
On a recent excursion to the very excellent greengrocer where I pick up my weekly fresh foodstuffs, I went a bit cray cray with the kale and mushrooms. I’m not sure how many meals or people I thought I was cooking for, Continue reading “Frittata of chorizo, mushrooms, kale and feta”
Oh the little happy dance I did when I found out that a very exciting new butcher was to open in my neighbourhood … Not that there is any shortage of purveyors of meaty wares where I live – there is an abundance of supermarkets, large and small, as well as stand-alone butchers, but it isn’t quantity that I’m after, it’s quality. Continue reading “Meatsmith country terrine”
Quinoa, I think, has done well to go from seemingly nowhere, straight to superfood status, totally bypassing the stigma of being hippie food. Other things, like yoga for example, took a long time to evolve from being an activity for new-agers to being an utterly normal – clichéd, even – thing to do. Continue reading “Quinoa salad with mushrooms, kale and balsamic tomatoes”
While the exact origin of the Reuben sandwich is uncertain, different accounts put its genesis at somewhere between 1914 and 1926. Now that’s a sandwich with staying power. This American deli classic made its way onto menus and into the vocabulary of Australia’s sandwich-eating Continue reading “The rise of the Reuben”
A guy walks into a cafe and orders a takeaway coffee. The girl behind the counter asks if he’d like any sugar and he replies, no. ‘Sweet enough already?’ she quips. ‘No, I want to stay bitter’ he replies. Continue reading “Paradox Coffee Roasters – chorizo, kale and sweet pepper omelette”
A while ago I bought some ricotta for a new recipe that I wanted to try out. I would say that I’m generally indifferent about ricotta. In the ’80s I used it to make spinach and ricotta parcels, like everyone else, but I can’t say that I’ve used it much at all in the last, ahem, few years. Continue reading “Whipped ricotta and honey popsicles”
eating & going places 