Everyone who knows me well enough to welcome me into their home on my travels knows that I eat one thing for breakfast. It verges on religion. If I stray from the one true breakfast, I am punished with bad moods and heavy stomach (or growling hunger). What's more, perhaps unusually for something so mundane, I'm quite faithful to one brand…

A delicious pairing of whole roasted hazelnuts with sweet, buttery hazelnut shortbread and the lovely tingle of salt crystals. Even people who aren't enthusiastic about hazelnuts might find themselves longing for more. It's just a pity these sablés noisette are a bit tricky to make.

There's a bit of a backlog of things to post about, not helped by 18 days without the internet at home. It wasn't fun. So let's start with a rundown of the reviews that have appeared at The Gastronomer's Bookshelf in the last two or three months! It's been an interesting mix of new books and some serious classics, alongside one book that some of us think never deserved to see the light of day. Read on…

Many Australians are aware that the US behemoth Costco, bulk retailer extraordinaire, opened its first warehouse in Melbourne recently. Costco has received more than a bucket of free promotion through all the media attention it got (and I guess I'm not helping). I've been to Costco in the US and wanted to see what the Australian experience would be like. It's striking how a novelty in one context (me being a tourist in the US) feels so different and unwelcome on my home turf.

Nut pastries involving layers of thin pastry and ground nuts are eaten all the way from Greece through the Middle East to Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and beyond, typically known as baklava/baklawa. Rather than making one of the many recipes I have, I combined the essence of a number of traditions, using spices and scents typical of much of the cuisine of that very broad region.

Every contestant in Masterchef Australia episode 61 had crunchy macarons. (Ok, except Andre, who didn't have macarons at all.) The microphones captured the powdery crunch. It should never have been like that. I think I know why it might have happened. NOW UPDATED with extra stupid stuff.

Two months of book reviews on The Gastronomer's Bookshelf you might like, including The Clatter of Forks and Spoons, Anjum's New Indian, Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts, and The Complete Robuchon!

I've never been to a chocolate factory. I've long dreamt of bathing in couverture, taking illicit bites of bonbons on the production line, and other interesting fantasy activities. Even in a chocoland like France it's almost impossible to come close to such an opportunity. The Chocolatrium at Michel Cluizel is a lukewarm towel to the cold shower of chocoholic frustrations.

All sorts of things grow when the weather is going crazy. In Paris this week, the temperature fluctuated between 14C and rainy and 35C and excruciatingly humid. I got home from a day of walking around the rive gauche (Left Bank = mix of university, studenty, somewhat wealthy, public service, cultural and dawdling tourist population). Look what had grown in my bag from the curious cultures floating through the air…

There was a strange box containing…

I had intended to review some of the chocolates from the British chocolatier Artisan du Chocolat, as I was in London recently and had previously enjoyed (and written about) them after a visit in 2007. Some businesses in high-end food succeed in respecting customers, others choose to be rigid and intentionally haughty. Artisan du Chocolat seems on the face of it to fall into a more positive category, but on this visit I was disappointed.