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Showing posts with label food and drink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food and drink. Show all posts

Monday, April 02, 2012



 This recipe was inspired by Madhur Jaffrey and a couple of other recipes I found online.  I changed a lot of things, adding heaps more garam masala, using olive oil and adding extras like green chillies and cherry tomatoes.  I hope this recipe works for you as well as it worked for me - it's quite a simple process and is very tasty indeed!!


Ingredients

2 cups red lentils (dhal)
6 cups water approx


Olive oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Tumeric powder
Knob of ginger
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Chilli powder
Garam masala powder
Curry leaves
3 large green chillies
6 shallots
10 cherry tomatoes


Put lentils in pot with the water. 

Bring to boil, scrape off the foamy stuff on top.

Add some large slices of peeled ginger and a couple of curry leaves to the water and a few teaspoons of tumeric.

Reduce to a low (very low!) simmer, partly covered for around 40-50 minutes.

After around half an hour, put some olive oil in a frypan, heat and pop the mustard seeds and cumin seeds (if you ask me, more is more so don't be afraid to throw a few teaspoons in!)

Fry the garlic, shallots, the rest of the ginger (finely chopped), 3 chillies (seeds are optional - they aren't particularly fiery, so why not!), chilli powder, garam masala and curry leaves.  

Add more and more garam masala as you go, remember this will be diluted when mixed with the dal.  Add some tumeric and the cherry tomatoes, frying until cherry tomatoes have disintegrated. 

When dal is looking almost ready, add all the ingredients from the frypan and mix thoroughly.  You will need to add some salt (perhaps quite a bit!) and a bit more tumeric.

Serve with or without rice, add fresh chopped coriander and top with heated roti or naan bread. 




Monday, October 24, 2011


Have you ever wondered about the difference between caffe latte and cappuccino? Many don't know the difference, including the people who serve them.

Let's start with cappuccino. Cappuccino comes from the Capuchin friars - some say it refers to the colour of their robes, others say it refers to the friars' distinctive hairdo - bald in the middle and hair ringed around the head like a headband. Whatever the reason, we have the wonderful caffeinated beverage, coffee, steamed milk, and a large head of foam topped with a ring or a pattern of cinnamon, cocoa or chocolate sprinkles.

Latte, or caffe latte means "coffee and milk". So, unsurprisingly, the drink consists of coffee and a boatload of milk. This is often served in a glass with a napkin wrap to stop you burning your fingers. It is more similar to a flat white than a cappuccino, only the caffe latte contains more milk. According to Wikipedia, the drink was popularised in Seattle in the 1980s and is still hugely popular today.

Which brings me to my daily battle with take away coffees. I love to drink a take away cappuccino, lift off the lid and lick off the foam and chocolate from the inside. Perhaps not the daintiest look, but that's how I do it.  Only a cappuccino can provide this experience, so I order a cappuccino every time I get a coffee.

For some reason, my saying "Cappuccino" sounds distinctly like "Caffe Latte" to the person behind the counter.  I walk out only to find that I have a milky coffee and no foam, no sprinkles, no fun.   Apparently the rise of caffe latte in Seattle was so powerful, that nobody believes you anymore when you ask for a cappuccino.  They think "poor thing, she's obviously not keeping up with the times.  I'll do her a favour and make her a latte so she won't be excruciatingly embarrassed."

I would like to release an open letter to my particular local cafe, however this can apply to cafes around the world:

Dear "Barista",
You are actually Italian, so you should know better than to confuse a cappuccino with a caffe latte.  I know it's hard for you and that I am the only person since 1989 to ask for a cappuccino since everyone is sooo hip to the latte thing, but I-don't-care.  I want my daggy outmoded cappuccino, I want it brimming with foam and chocolate sprinkles.  Kindly make mine frothy, I don't want a hot milk with a dash of coffee in it, I don't care if Kate Moss is doing it.


sincerely,
Proud (if not fashionably challenged) cappuccino drinker



Thursday, November 11, 2010

This is the perfect solution to the diet question:

What treats can I have?

Well, I have come up with yet another diet (I should be launching these as books!) for those watching their weight.

It's called the "Inedible" Diet

1.  The treats look delicious
2.  The magic of imagery tricks you into thinking you have eaten cakes and pastries
3.  They serve an ornamental function as jewellery

**Note:  mind you don't try and eat these, they are made from polymer clay!



Mini diet piece #1:  Carrot Cake Charm

Mmm.  Yum yum!  No need to worry about portion sizes!




Mini diet piece #2:  Mini Christmas Cookies


Don't mind if I do, I suppose another one won't hurt...



Mini diet piece #3:   Cupcake Charm


Do I wear them?  Or eat them?  Heck with it, I'll just look at them!




And of course, what banquet would be complete without....



Mini diet piece #4:  Mini Gefilte Fish



Alright!  Gimme the fish already!!



Tuesday, February 02, 2010


Would you pay 15 thousand dollars for a meat pie?

Well I wouldn't, I'm a vegetarian.

In a recent NineMSN Travel article, a number of expensive menu items are detailed - here are the Top 6 Expensive Meals:

#1 $1156 Caviar Omelette (Norma's New York)
I don't care if they use caviar from the rarest fish in the world and dodo eggs.
I can whip up an omelette in about 7 minutes using free-range Victorian grown eggs. Whack in a bit of caviar from the deli if you must but either way you'll save about $1149.

#2 $193 Chicken Club Sandwich (Cliveden, London)
Apparently the kind of meal recommended by Henry IV. A good king by all accounts but rather expensive taste. Made from 30 month air cured ham. Eeew!! Perhaps we are paying by the month for this service...

#3 $15,820 Wagyu Beef Pie (Fence Gate Inn, Lancashire)
Made with $965 per kilo beef. What, did the cows eat gold during their time on this earth? I'm sure it's a nice pie, at almost $2000 per slice it would want to be. If it's anything like the pies I have sampled at the footy at the MCG, I'd rather a nice used car if it's all the same to you.

#4 $1146 Ice Cream Sundae (Serendipidy 3, New York)
And I thought the Pancake Parlour was expensive! Whee!! 23 carat edible gold leaf. From what I've read, gold is the sort of thing you buy and keep in a safe or under your bed - as opposed to stuffing it in your noggin'. Each to his own I suppose.

#5 $289 Truffle Chocolate (Knipschild, Conneticut)
A rare French perigod truffle surrounded by a... chocolate truffle. It's enough to give you a Knippshion (sic)!
Big whoop. Gimme a six pack of Ferrero Rochers and we'll call it even.

#6 $10,000 Diamond Martini (Algonquin Hotel, New York)
I've had expensive nights out. Just last Friday I had $25 in Wild Turkey shots and a lovely hangover to boot. This diamond martini, it appears, hurts your wallet as well as your head. But the bonus? You get a diamond stuffed down the bottom of your glass. Whacko the doodle bang. A real diamond. If I want a martini, I'll buy a martini. If I want a diamond, I'll go to a jeweller's.
Important Note: Don't drink this one too fast.


Sooo, I could either have the most expensive meal in my life...
OR
For $28,604 I could buy a 2005 Volkswagen Golf and have $11,454 left over for a nice holiday in Byron Bay.

Which would you choose?




Tuesday, January 19, 2010


Rant time.

The old 2 minute noodles had a tangy flavour - a kind of salty, zingy hit. Apparently Maggi have taken it upon themselves to do some sort of focus group study.

You know the kind where the "consultant" guy gets paid $750 per hour to talk, well... bollocks.

"Okaaay. You know what 2 minute noodles need? Let's ask a random selection of bland-palated people and see what they think."

"Okay, now they have chosen the cardboard tasteless ones, we need a name"

"We'll brand them as 'EXTRA DELICIOUS' - they'll love it!"


Yeah.

Extra delicious to who? People with a cold?

Thanks to this treachery, we now have 2 minute noodles with very little flavour and barely-recognisable rehydrated vegetables. Vegetables that are still crunchy when the noodles are cooked!! Mmmm....

But you know what? They are now 14 grams lower in fat!! And "ovenbaked"...


Whoopeee.

You know what I want? I want those 14 grams of fat re-absorbed into those noodles so I can have the taste back.

What happened to my ridiculously wrong munchy snack that tastes like real (pardon the pun) 2 minute noodles!?!?

Grrrr!!! ARgh!!!

~End Rant.



Monday, November 23, 2009












You may have noticed this - you go to the supermarket or grocer and the price for fresh raspberries is rather prohibitive.

In fact, the price of gold and raspberries seem to following a similar trend. And given the choice, I would probably choose the gold.

However, I have found a little loophole that ensures you can have raspberries all year round without taking out a second mortgage.
Check your local grocer or supermarket for frozen bulk raspberries. Bulk? I hear you gasp. Don't be afraid. I have found that for $8, I can get a large pack of individually frozen raspberries that last for months, all at the same price as a small punnet of fresh raspberries.

If you have the room and the resources, growing your own raspberries is another great option.


Here's a great drink idea I discovered while experimenting...
Ingredients:
Soda water
Freshly squeezed lime juice
1 nectarine, cut into segments
4-5 frozen raspberries


Combine all ingredients and pour in the soda water. Refreshing!!
You can substitute the nectarine with peaches, pineapple or any other fruit you can think of.
The beauty of frozen raspberries is that they act as ice cubes and keep the drink icy. After the drink is finished, the raspberries are ready to eat.

Be sure to check out more juicer recipes, and tips on fruit and healthy eating.

Other ways to up your raspberry intake include drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea, getting your own Raspberry Seeds, and cultivate your green thumb by learning how to Grow Your Own.





Tuesday, August 04, 2009















Don't shout so loud, everyone will want one. *bdum cha* (drum crash) 

 As I write this I am rather rapidly making my way through an entire pack of Mentos chewy dragees.

I ordered cream of mushroom soup today. The soup was nice, the usual standard I have come to expect from this establishment. Until that moment. It wasn't hard to find. The thing about cream of mushroom soup is that it's kind of white. And the thing about this hair was that it was kinda black. And short. And er... curly. Note: In this restaurant none of the staff appeared to have curly hair. Not on their heads, anyway. 

My face froze as I found the offending item, fished it out and put it on a napkin. It was at that same moment I lost my appetite. Perhaps permanently. 

This would make a great diet plan - I could call it the "Hairy Soup" diet. Guaranteed to put people off food forever. I do sometimes wonder if I have a sign above my head saying "Do something unspeakably gross in my food please". The fact that it was cream of mushroom soup doesn't bear thinking about.

BLAAAHHAAHHAA!!!!!! (Eats another Mentos) 

I told the waitress about the hair. She smiled at me as if to say "oh good". I suspect she did not have the faintest clue about what it was I had just told her. 

To quote John McClane (Bruce Willis) from the Die Hard quadrilogy: "How can the same sh!t happen to the same guy twice?" Or girl in this case. Please refer to previous post 'Waiter There's A Pubic Hair In My Tofu'. 

 I may never eat again.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009



My partner told me about how amazing an eggplant parmigiana can be when cooked properly. We decided to try out a 'counter meal' as they are known in Australia - basically a pub meal. The special was eggplant parmigiana and we arrived with anticipation of a mouth watering culinary experience.

WRONG!!

When the meal arrived, we suspected something was not quite right. For a start, my partner received about 4 chips while I received a larger pile. The nearby chicken parmigianas came complete with a mountain of chips and a parmigiana large enough to be a small car's hubcap. Our meal on the other hand, was quite different. The eggplant parmigiana itself was tiny, perhaps the size of an average person's palm. Oh well, I thought, quality not quantity. After tasting the eggplant, I was literally eating my words.

The knife provided was woefully ineffective, I found myself sawing away at this strange piece of boot leather and making little progress. Perhaps a local tree lopper would have come in handy at this point. The eggplant was dry, leathery and thin. It consisted of soggy layers of "batter", eggplant with the skin left on (which had the consistency of old boot) and another layer of soggy batter.

I could not bring myself to finish the meal, instead I dissected it out of curiosity and left it for the waiter to collect. When dissected, I noted it resembled Dalek innards (Dr Who fans will know what I'm talking about!).

When cooked properly, an eggplant parmigiana is thick, juicy, trimmed of skin and crumbed and fried. This science experiment was thin, skin heavy, microwaved back to life (or perhaps the undead), possibly frozen and grilled to within an inch of its life. It is my fond hope that pub meals will include vegetarian food more regularly in their menus and employ qualified chefs who have the expertise to er... cook.

If anyone out there knows a great eggplant parmigiana recipe, please enlighten me...



Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I had the misfortune of being hungry at a well known Melbourne railway station yesterday. I had travelled for a long distance and felt ravenous from the journey.

I had even decided to go for the closest approximation of food I could find - namely Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the US). I eat at fast food restaurants perhaps once a year - if I absolutely can't avoid it.

This time there was no turning back. My hunger pains were leading me in the direction of HJs and there was no stopping me. My partner was starving also and we had already worked out our order.

I spoke to the bespeckled and bepimpled character behind the counter, who I shall refer to as "P".

Me: "I'll have a vegie burger small meal deal with one extra vegie burger."

P: "Okay... is that medium or large meal deal?"

Me: "A small. With one extra vegie burger."

P: "Anything else?"

Me: "Yes, I'd like another vegie burger and a large onion rings."

P: "So that's two vegie burgers..."

Me: "No it's three vegie burgers altogether." (I run through the entire order again)

P: "Okay, so that's two vegie burgers...did you want coke?"

Me: "No, three vegie burgers. Yes, coke is fine."

P: "Okay, two vegie burgers and a coke."

Me: "Three vegie burgers. Three altogether."

P: "Two vegie burgers..." (she is getting annoyed now)

Me: "Three."

P: "Yeah. That's what I said!" (hands on hips and glaring at me)

Me: ?!?!?!?


Meanwhile the lady behind me (who shall be known as "K") was declaring very loudly that this restaurant should be condemned by the board of health.

"It's filthy!" she argued with the same bespeckled 16 year old genius who had served me.

The 16 year old was indignant.

P: "Well we have been very busy."

K: "That's not the point. It's a health hazard out there. Somebody needs to clean it up. Can I speak to your manager."

The manager came out, sporting perhaps a whole extra year on "P" and a few less pimples. She sent out someone to "clean up" which consisted of walking around the area once and finally moving one high chair two inches. The floor was still littered with wrappers, bits of pickle, all sorts of hideous things. The seats outside were so bad that my partner and I opted for the comfy spot near the doorway where everybody coming in can crash into your suitcases.

We finally got our food and sat down awkwardly. Taking a bite, we both looked up at each other and sighed.

The burgers were cold. Not just a bit cold but stone cold.

I got up, gathering the burgers and trudged back to the counter. By now my hunger was a raging fever and all that was standing between me and some food was "P".

Me: These burgers are cold. Could you possibly make us some hot ones?

P: (stares sullenly at me, grabs burgers, disposes of the burgers, mutters and has a private conversation with a weird looking guy)

This weird looking guy eyeballs me. I give him an inquisitive look as if to say "yes, I'm the one fussy person that expects 'flame grilled' Hungry Jacks burgers to be hot. Since flames are hot and all that."

I watch as this strange and suspicious person goes back into the kitchen (which I hoped was not as disgusting as the "restaurant" itself) and grabs some ingredients.

He assembles the ingredients. I watched him to make sure he didn't sully the burger out of spite. So far so good. It's a new burger. Things are looking up.

Then he lifts the burger up and puts it straight in the microwave. My heart and my shoulders sank. What did I expect exactly? A real flame grill? Any sort of attention to food preparation whatsoever?

The burgers WERE hot. Straight out of the microwave.

Except mine. A small quadrant of the burger was still stone cold.

Perhaps they should get their flame grilled microwave fixed.








Tuesday, June 10, 2008

It's coming up to that time of year when we think of shopping around for fathers day gifts. In fact, there are only a few days to go! It's pretty accepted that Dad's often like beer. It's not being stereotypical, they just seem to like it. How many of your Dads drink spritzers or cosmopolitans? Hmm? Not many, I bet. I found a Beer of the month club which sounds rather exciting. Did I say it was for me or for a present? Oops. There you have it. I have a confession to make. Yes, I like beer as well. This monthly beer club offers memberships ranging from 1 month to 12 months or ongoing. You can pay by the month ($21.95) or in full, providing you with a 12-pack of 4 distinctly different beers to try. The selection of beer is screened by a panel of beer tasters to make sure you get the best tasting beer. The various types of beer sound intriguing, too. Included in the selection have weird and wonderful names like Snake River's Lager and Devil's Elbow. If you purchase a 12 month membership you will receive a $25 bonus to use for further membership or merchandise.


Mmmm. Beer. The gift that keeps on giving!






















This post brought to you by GreatClubs.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I saw one of those travel documentaries on the weekend. It was one of those "foods of the world" specials. I love to cook (and eat!) so I thought this would be good.

How wrong one can be.

As you know, I am a vegetarian. It is not something I would want to shove down anybody's throat (if you pardon the pun!) but I will tell you one thing.

I would rather be force fed a baked potato (in small pieces of course!) than be forced to drink bat's blood or some of the other "things" they showcased on the show. These things masqueraded as food for a while. Up until the time when one of the presenters had to take a bite.

The most distasteful bit (apart from the food itself) was the insincerity of a particular US based backpacker presenting the show. When eating the food, she will almost always say "Mmmmm. This is soooooo gooood. Mmmmm."

While her face says "Anybody got some Listerine? Like a whole bottle? Germs I tells you. Germs!!!!" I'm sure when the camera is off she spits it out and runs for the nearest bathroom.

I can't even call these things food. I'll just list them. And if my stomach permits (it won't!), I will add photos.



** Bat's blood and bat soup.
The presenter spat the bat's blood out. I wonder why.
Is it just me or is drinking the blood of a vampire kind of symbolic? I tried to find out some more info on this dish but all I could find were Halloween recipes.

Yes, Ozzy Ozbourne was reported to have bitten or eaten a bat onstage. He had an excuse. He was on drugs.




















**Hedgehog. That's right. I can't remember which country. It was either the US or Canada. They went out. They "hunted" a hedgehog, ripped off all the spines, then cooked it. Amazingly, it tasted like sh!t.

This is probably why not many people eat hedgehogs. I don't know about you but when I look at that cute little fella in the picture, I don't automatically think "dinner".



**In Scandinavia, a traditional meal was served - a sheep's head on a plate. Yum yum. You have to eat the eyes, tongue and everything. Remind me not to travel to these places because I'm going to offend a lot of these people.

"You must have the eyeball. You are our honoured guest. We will be offended if you do not eat the eyeball."
"Thanks but no thanks. Got any lentil soup? No? I'll be off then. Nice meeting you."
"You must at least take the eyeball."
"Get f@cked you bunch of weirdos! I'm not going to eat your f@cking Hannibal Lecter food!!"
There endeth my exploits at diplomacy.



**Sheeps' uterus, and "Cock and balls". Pretty self explanatory. The presenter insisted they both tasted like calamari. I don't care if they taste like cheesecake with chocolate shavings, I've got a visual of where they came from. And what's been through them...



**Seal faeces and blubber.
I'm not joking but I hope somebody was. The guy actually tried it. I would have told that travel documentary company to shove it and started walking. These people sat on the kitchen floor in a kind of circle and passed around this concoction.
I mean what is the tradition here?

Did ancient people sit around and say "we've eaten all parts of the seal, now we must try the sh!t"



You know what I think? I think the peoples of the world got extremely bored and started daring each other to eat inedible things. Perhaps they kept doing it for so long that they started to take these hideous dishes a bit too seriously. After a while they couldn't remember exactly why they started eating this crap in the first place and then it became "tradition". Once it is tradition it is hard to break. Even if the tradition is sticking porcupine needles in your behind while dancing on a first-born donkey while gargling bat's blood and seal sh!t.





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Tuesday, January 22, 2008















Coffee. It's everywhere. Wafting from the booth at the train station. Steaming out of cafes and restaurants. It's easy to imagine yourself as one of those cartoon characters following the trail of coffee smells with your arms outstretched and eyes half closed. And so it comes that I am reviewing a site that reviews shopping offers on all things coffee. Coffee Reviews is for lovers of coffee and online shopping hounds like myself. The aim of the site is to gather the best "Coffee of the Month Club" offers together in one place so you can check out the offers and see if they are for you.

If you are a fan of Boca Java coffee or Gevalia Coffee, you might be following your nose to the site. The Boca Java offers include 4 bags of coffee and an itunes card for $13.90 (does not include shipping and handling), buy 2 bags and get 2 bags free for $12.00 (not including shipping & handling), free self-stirring mugs and cookies with a purchase of 4 bags of Boca Java, a one-pot coffee maker and a free "time" mug (complete with clock!).

Note: If you make a purchase you are actually joining a "Coffee of the Month Club" which means that after paying for the offer + shipping and handling you will be sent 2 bags of coffee every 4 weeks until you say "stop".

The site claims you are able to quit on the same day you ordered if you are just interested in the initial free offer. Please read the offers carefully because some customers have commented on the high shipping charge of some items - it's important to always check these details before committing to buy.

There are opportunities to leave comments on the site to share your experiences so theoretically the more reviews and comments, the more informative the site will become. I'll be interested to see how it goes in the future.



Important Note: This has been a paid review. This does not mean I am paid to have an opinion that pleases others. My review contains my own observations about the subject matter - both positive and negative. The review may contain criticism, suggestions and comments of my own choosing. See disclosure policy for more details.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I wish I was joking, I really do.

The tofu arrived, it was named "deep fried five spicy tofu".

It looked nice enough, it tasted pretty good, but you know what? When I got to the last piece of tofu, SOMETHING was hanging from its edge.

I examined the something.

It was a hair.

Short.

Curly.

Coarse.


AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The images that ran through my mind. That are still running through my mind. There was of course only one way for it to get there.

Oh God, the humanity.


When I told the lady at the cash register, she rolled her eyes as if to say "not again" and thanked me profusely.


Hang on....you mean to say this isn't the first time?


I will never eat there again.

I should have asked for a refund.

And a mint.



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Monday, September 24, 2007

I don't know why but I am ravenous this morning. I even paid $5 for a pastie at a bakery this morning because I couldn't bear the thought of not having one. I paid the very patient lady in 10c pieces because that's all I have at the moment. Thankfully she didn't think I was too weird. She just had a bit of a wry smirk at the corners of her mouth. I didn't mind. I got my pastie. I actually wanted quiche because it happened to be the nicest quiche I have ever tasted but this turned out to be the one day when they didn't have any quiche. At all. Argh!@$%#

So I'm still hungry even after the mushroom pastie. I found myself trawling through recipe sites with big, hungry eyes.

I found a brilliant recipe blog called 'Simply Recipes' with lots of pictures. Yum! I went straight to the vegetarian section (of course!) and coveted potato bakes and quiche. I'm learning how to make quiche. I'm obsessed. I think it will be a mushroom and capsicum quiche with cheese. Quiche. Argh!! I need help!

I'm going to put a picture of quiche here to further torment myself:














*stares longingly*

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

It's taken me a long time to write more about Hobart. Apologies. I have been very stressed and busy with various things. Back on track now...the story continues...

We arrived at Salamanca Market with a triple hangover. The colours and sounds of the vibrant market jarred my nerves until the second Guinness kicked in (see picture below). I held an unlit cigarette in my hand to quell the craving, knowing that lighting it would start an unstoppable chain reaction of nausea. A meal would fix us up, we thought, heading to Irish Murphy's. Little did we know of the culinary crime waiting in store for us.


Pictures:
1. Parliament House, Hobart
2. The surrounding gardens / entrance to the market
3. Salamanca Market
4. The Guinni (plural for Guinness)




























































The tradition of lasagne has been carefully passed down through Italian families for generations. That is, until it reached Irish Murphy's. Hungry and hungover, we waited 45 minutes for this abomination to the Italian tradition, and food in general.

Exhibit A: The Vegetarian Lasagne
















I don't know if the scale is apparent here but check out the size of the fork, then the "lasagne". The "lasagne"was two small halves of stuffed capsicum, each half the size of my palm, or even smaller. The chef had decided to buck tradition by including no pasta nor any recognisable lasagne ingredients, except cheese. This $12.00 morsel contained carrot, capsicum, a tiny bit of cheese, all swimming in a splat of Heinz Big Red Tomato Soup. Nevertheless we ate it hungrily and laughed about it for the rest of the trip.

I must say, the chef's attempt at Nouvelle cuisine, with the focus being on flavour, tasted no different to any bizarre concoction I have made for myself after a night on the piss.

Irish Murphy's beautiful sandstone pub was made by convicts many years ago. The Irish theme is entirely apt for the colonial atmosphere. The sign out the front proudly boasts "The Best Craic In Town". Perhaps they were referring to the vegie lasagne.

The staff were friendly and warned us about the size, we should have realised. They gave us free salads which was just as well, I was nearly crazed with hunger. The Guinness and the perfect shamrocks were a nice touch as well.

I will leave you with some images of Salamanca Market and Kelly's steps on the way to Battery Point. The whole experience was very European - if you are not planning on going to Europe, this is your next best bet! The last image is a street performer we dubbed "The Angel of Salamanca". It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?























































Thursday, October 19, 2006

I discovered this cookbook at Borders for around $20.


This is definitely the best cookbook I have ever bought. The recipes are simple, easy to follow and elegant. This is not an "I'm on a diet" cookbook which is refreshing. I am often annoyed that some authors think a vegetarian cookbook is for dieters only. I also can't stand the "vegie side dish" cookbooks. Aaargh!!

This cookbook is the perfect shape and size to prop up on your table or bench for inspiration. The first recipe from this book was a chickpea/spinach soup with paprika. The prepared meal looked exactly the same as the photo in the book and tasted better than I could have imagined.

I liked it so much I didn't want to eat it.

The book contains 200 recipes ranging from hearty feta pie to green curry and asian mushroom pilaf. The stuffed mushrooms look delicious, the laksa is mouthwatering and the instructions are simple.

Next on the menu, LAKSA!!!