Writer, Eater
I've spent much of the last week limply scrolling the trackball of my nifty mouse, trying to conquer the number of posts in my feed reader. As I reached a milestone in scrolling, a timely gift made life just a little rosier.
Three articles
Readers might be interested to know that I've got three articles over on another site, touching on service, obesity and water.
An opening in the cupcake market
Crabapple Cupcake Bakery in Prahran Market is closed, with a mysterious notice on the door.
Early harvest
As summer approaches my meagre garden begins to yield harvest. My tomatoes have been recalcitrant and I am still waiting tetchily for both Roma and Grosse Lisse varieties to bear viable fruit. (My jealousy of Sticky's reports of tomatoes weeks ago therefore remains.) The story is different for my snowpeas and strawberries, thank goodness.
On chocolate, child slavery and a newspaper
Something interesting is going on at The Age newspaper in Melbourne. In the space of eight days, the newspaper has published two pieces about slavery in the West African cocoa growing industry. In September it also published a piece about this issue by a prominent Christian activist and anti-slavery campaigner from Britain. Why now?
TASTY PRESERVES
Three flavours of macaron
Many of my readers know of my macaronic obsessions. As the latest batch, made for the foodblogger get-together in March, was well received I thought I'd publish some pretty photos of them and tell you more about the flavours, add a tip or two, and alert you to a macaronic...
Read more Sat 21 Mar, 2009Gânache Chocolate (Melbourne), and a hangover
I awoke to a hangover. A dull pain knocked at the back of my skull. Had I been an alcoholic hypocrite? Heavens, no! This was a very special hangover. Chocolate. Read about a new venture in Melbourne which will certainly keep the bar high for the chocolate scene.
Read more Fri 25 Apr, 2008The Larousse Gastronomique, plus a pile of Christmas book gift ideas
For lovers of food knowledge, the Larousse Gastronomique is an indispensable book... and I recently slaved over a feature for The Gastronomer's Bookshelf about the new edition and the history of the various versions. Meanwhile, co-editor Mark has prepared a...
Read more Fri 13 Nov, 2009Can the honest reputation of foodblogs survive the PR-foodblogger relationship?
It seems foodblogging has matured far enough to be entwined in a pretty tiresome game of cat and mouse with restaurateurs and public relations (PR) companies, egos, money and more. It's worth contemplating what the fallout will be. This article has been brewing for a few months, as I tried to reconcile my opinions about freedoms, community, advertising and blogging with some of the changes that have been happening in Melbourne's foodblogosphere.
Read more Sun 17 Oct, 2010The cruelties of good nutrition – or the day the broccoli came home to roost
I am disturbed, disturbed! An article in The Guardian late last year drew my attention to the existence of a list. A subversive, deeply disturbing list. A list with earth-shattering implications for my hitherto guilt-free...
Read more Sun 25 Jan, 2009
