Córdoba is the first port of call in Andalucía. It's famous for what would have been the world's largest mosque (the Christians buggered that up), and for a smooth gazpacho. It is absolutely crawling with tourists. A pleasant place to visit and, perhaps, to eat.

On the road and gathering experiences. I'm writing travel notes here. Something different to the normal fare, but perhaps of help to others, or mildly entertaining for regular readers. This post takes you to Singapore Airport, then Paris and Madrid.

I hope my readers find it interesting and perhaps helpful in the future.

A good piece by paediatrician Zoe McCallum, in The Age, talks about the problems of dealing with children's weight in a constructive way.

Hello my lovely gastronauts. Guess what? I'm off to Iberia (and Paris). Quite soon, actually. Impending, so to speak. So bring on the tips.

Do you know there's a wonderful soluble fibre supplement out there which you can add to almost anything? I'm sure someone's happy, but how dare the advertising suggest you add it to coffee!

Strange. I'm dining fine in Australia, yet the menu isn't French, Italian or Mod-Oz. Some of the staff and chefs speak a cuisine-appropriate language, but are most likely home-grown. The cuisine is usually regarded as meat-heavy and conservative. George Calombaris's very modern food successfully marries cutting edge with Hellenic tradition at The Press Club. It's hard to imagine you could leave this restaurant without a serious dose of gustatory satisfaction.

Today is Shrove Tuesday. All over the civilised world, people should be pigging out on pancakes. As a child, there was only One True Pancake. It was thin. Not crêpe-thin, but close enough for the crêpe free people not to know the difference. Each pancake was bestrewn with soft brown sugar and sprinkled with lemon juice.

The last breath of 2007 has been exhaled. As well as wishing all a wonderful 2008, I think it's time to clean out all the pieces of deliciousness which I didn't get around to writing up properly. Think of this as being the end-of-year/start-of-year food porn clearance.

Time for some Christmas greetings… step inside!

This is the first in a special series about one of the world's favourite petit fours. Two delicate almond meringue domes are sandwiched together with a flavoured filling to become le macaron. The macaron is the diva of the biscuit baking universe.