Category Archives: blogging

Summer heat dissolves writer’s brain – takes time off to re-gel

Sun 06 Jan, 2008 Duncan 15 Comments

Syrup & Tang has been in existence for about 10 months now. I’ve been buoyed by the enthusiasm of my readers and encouraged to continue this project. Most of it has been fun, though it hasn’t all been roses — there were three abusive commenters this year (one slapped down, one edited, one completely censored)… the downside of the internet’s lack of social constraint. And there were all those miscracked eggs and macawrongs to deal with late at night! 😀

Technical

For much of the year the site attracted rather a lot of search engine attention for the phrase ‘women showing undies’… An unintended consequence of one of my early en passant pieces. I’m also perplexed by the number of hits I get for the search term ‘t’. Yes, ‘t’. Go figure.

Most visitors are in Australia — I’ve yet to break into the international scene, alas — and the type of browser you guys and gals use is interesting: about 30% Firefox, 32% IE6 and 23% IE7. That middle figure frustrates me because Internet Explorer 6 is both aesthetically unfulfilling (it doesn’t do some of the fancier visual elements of my site) and also a security risk for the user (IE6 has had more security patches than a quilt, and if you haven’t automatically been upgraded to IE7, the likelihood is that many of those patches have never been applied either).

About 65% of you use a fairly standard screen (approx 4:3 ratio), with 1024*768 pixels being the most popular. 27% are using a wider screen format (probably laptop, 1280*800, etc), and then there are some lucky people with enooooormous screens: (2560*1600!). I’m relieved that less than 2% of visitors use small screens (800*600).

Reading

The most commented article was my brief mention of the Bloggers’ Banquet — no surprise, as I think most Melburnian bloggers found it generated a big buzz. Readers’ favourites seem to have been the book reviews (Botanical, Secrets of the Red Lantern, Maggie’s Harvest, but not the one for Fast Food Nation).

I was surprised at how little traffic/comment was generated by the travel or restaurant articles. And not a single person clicked on one of my links to Amazon, so no income for me! (Not that I expect any food site in Australia earns much/anything from Amazon affiliate links.)

And my favourite article (the one I most enjoyed writing) languished, unloved but for one comment by my friend Harry: Amazon tastes bad. Meanwhile, the article series La Macaronicité was possibly one of the most interactive, nagging, complaining, encouraging, swearing-inducing, happiness-evoking, egg-cracking affairs around! Waiter, I want more!

So what comes next?

Syrup & Tang will go into hiatus for the rest of January. I’ve been working through some ideas for a modified design and need time to work on that. Naturally, I still encourage comments everywhere and will respond as usual. In fact, I’d also like your comments right here:

What would you like to see more of?
Is there anything about the site that doesn’t work for you (technically, visually or conceptually)?
What new stuff would interest you?
Do you use the RSS feed, the email subscription, or just pop by when you remember to?

I’ll certainly be exploring new types of content, expanding the link list (a weak point so far, sorry) and testing some new layouts.

Comment away o readers, regulars and lurkers. (Private comments can also be sent via the contact page if you feel the need.)

And remember, no-one has yet guessed the flavour of the macaron in the final macaron article!

Prosit!

– DM

blogging, chocolate, eating, food, hl

End of year notes (with extra chocolate)

Thu 03 Jan, 2008 Duncan 8 Comments

Well, well, listen carefully. 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 {embarrassed look on face}. Think of this as being the end-of-year/start-of-year food porn clearance.

But first let me say that I’m glad to see the back of 2007. It wasn’t my favourite year in many respects. This year I had to teach myself not to care about stuff, which doesn’t come naturally. I waved goodbye to The Age Epicure (though waving isn’t two-fingered enough, if you get my drift). I juggled four jobs with less to show for it.

On the positive side, I ate lots of wonderful chocolate (though found that disciplined chocolate tasting really spoils the fun). I designed this website with lots of encouragement and support (thanks, Harry!). I enjoyed the enthusiasm of Melbourne’s and Australia’s foodblogging world. I acquired a lovely white Macbook on which something new for the site is currently brewing. I ate some of the best olives ever (thank you, Simon!). I drank champagne with hibiscus flowers (thank you, Debbie!). I ate at the infuriating (Fat Duck) and inspiring (Interlude. Thanks, Robin!) ends of the ‘new cookery’ spectrum.

I’m hoping 2008 will involve more enjoyment and less crap for all of us.

Down to the food now…

Chocolate

I ate this…

I’m very interested in high-cocoa milk chocolate (hence the first selection above). Valrhona and Michel Cluizel provide reliable satisfaction (though not at Australian prices! Imagine, for a moment, that a block of either costs less than EUR 4.00 in France — at most AUD 6.70! Now prepare for the sticker-shock next time you go shopping in Oz.)

The second pic shows one of my favourite middle-of-the-road Belgian brands, popular in France but alas almost entirely unobtainable in Australia (I saw some gift boxes at The Barn in Rozelle (Sydney) a few years ago). Café Tasse does a wonderful range of large and small blocks and tiny mini-tablets.

Meanwhile, I was enchanted by the meticulous presentation and packaging of the chocolates from Richart. There are seven flavour collections, including the Balsamics, the Citrus, and the Herbaceous. Intriguing. And expensive! Each of the chocolates is a tiny cube, a mere 15 mm across, filled with flavoured ganache. Individual flavours include things like ylang-ylang, basil, cinnamon, fennel, ‘bouquet exotique’, thyme, lemon, etc. The range was very interesting, with complex notes in many directions, though too often failed to deliver enough oomph to be special. I’ve complained about excessive subtlety in ganache flavourings previously.

In Lyon, one of the premier chocolatiers is Bernachon. A kind soul had recommended that I try one of their palet d’or (see below). These are large (from memory, approx 7 cm in diameter) thick discs of firm dark chocolate-crème fraîche ganache, flecked with gold (my personal value increased with every bite). I’ve seen similar pucks around France and never felt tempted… and I must admit I only bought this at the kind soul’s behest. Well. What a stunner! Rich, complex, fragrant. You could eat one a day and die happy (and prematurely, and broke).

They also do a range of cakes, including this delightful (if a tad butter-creamy) thing of caramelised pistachio paste, pistachio cream, kirsch flavoured chocolate cake and more. Mmmm.

Amongst their chocolates there were some curious ovoids called, um, Romanoffs? Mendelsohns? Mussorgskys? Something like that. A flavoured chocolate paste enrobed in a coloured, gritty sugar shell.

At the shops of Jeff de Bruges I discovered reasonable chocolate, and lovely little boxes of dragées (sugar almonds). Interestingly, Sydney now sports an outpost. Who’d have thought?

This year I did disciplined tasting of many chocolates from the UK and France. Ones I haven’t written about previously were from Jean-Paul Hévin, La Maison du Chocolat (LMdC) and Michel Cluizel. Cluizel is the only one available in Australia. I’ve seen the pralines (bonbons) in only a couple of places. They don’t quite equal the quality of Hévin or LMdC. Hévin is highly regarded and the pralines were mostly well-judged and interesting, though I had my only horrendous-French-customer-service experience ever at the hands of one of their staff. LMdC is a long-standing chain with a strong international presence and, despite this, has a product which stood clearly above the others, much to my surprise. They could open a shop in Australia. I wouldn’t complain…

Cakes

2007’s travel was very much about catching up on things I’ve skipped previously. Finally time to visit the pâtissier Gerard Mulot. His macarons are excellent (I think he’s won a prize) and the tarts were delectable. An additional positive: despite his renown, the shop in Paris’s 6th arrondissement was relaxed and unpretentious.

A new place for me was the outstanding Pain de Sucre in rue Rambuteau (3rd arrondissement). Macarons (stunning), marshmallows in a cornucopia of flavours, bread and delighful tarts.

Chocolate and hyssop. Lime.

So there we go… some food porn. Live vicariously through my pictures if you wish:)

Thanks for reading.

– DM

blogging, cooking, eating

Season’s greetings from Syrup & Tang to readers known and unknown (reveal yourselves!)

Mon 24 Dec, 2007 Duncan 7 Comments

I’d like to wish all of the visitors to, readers of and commenters on Syrup & Tang a wonderful, tasty Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas then I hope you can reinterpret the sentiments to apply to you too! I’m a broad-minded eater;)

So, dear readers, if you haven’t already popped up in the comments somewhere previously, why not say hi and introduce yourself? (Once you’ve finished with the pork, turkey, ham, duck, goose, chook, nutroast and pudding, if you prefer!)

I’d love to know who my readers are.

Meanwhile, I’m just popping around to my neighbours’ with loaves of bread for Christmas (and you thought it’d be macarons, didn’t you!). Slow-ferment olive and parmesan bread… They’re lucky I haven’t start chewing on the loaves already. I hope they’re all home!

Best wishes to all (and my friends too:P)
Duncan

blogging, local

Bloggers’ banquet, Melbourne

Tue 13 Nov, 2007 Duncan 45 Comments

Last night (12 Nov) saw a get-together of some of the Melbourne foodblogging population. What a lovely bunch! I arrived late due to work commitments, so a good deal of the savoury edibilia had already been lifted from the long long table of goodies which people had (mostly) cooked up. The pics (from other bloggers) show all the stuff I missed and one or two that I actually got to sample. It was great to put names and faces to the people behind Eating with Jack, Deep Dish Dreams, The Day of the Expanding Man, Melbourne Gastronome, A Goddess in the Kitchen, Where’s the Beef, Vida, Get Real!, 1001 Dinners 1001 Nights, Ned-with-impending-blog and numerous others who I didn’t get to do more than smile at.

My own contribution to the long long table of goodies was a box of salted caramel macarons (macarons being a type of almond meringue, properly known as macarons de Paris, with two discs sandwiching a creamy filling of any flavour you might like). The photo is, alas, not mine, but sourced from the photos others took of the Bloggers’ Banquet.

– DM

blogging, food, hl

7 food facts about me

Tue 04 Sep, 2007 Duncan 16 Comments

Fruit and veg at a Sicilian grocer

A few weeks ago I was ‘tagged’ by Amelita at Squishyness to list seven food facts about me. Here, at last, is a list of tidbits. In turn, I tag Lemonpi, eatingwithjack, and xocolate (a delicious Portuguese blog, though a little quiet this year). I hope you find some entertainment value in this offering:

I approach some raw fruits and veg with mild trepidation because I’m allergic to many of them in their raw state. I have to weigh up 15 minutes of intense itching in the mouth against the delight of a ripe nectarine or cherry, or a bite of a tomato straight from the garden. Thankfully, there’s no danger of fatality.

I detest fish and seafood — sometimes a severe impediment for a food-writer and for a traveller who loves Portugal and Japan! It’s not an allergy, but I’ve had a primal revulsion to the smell/taste of most seafood since the earliest tastings.

I hoard chocolate. It comes from having lived in poor-chocolate countries like Sweden and the UK. I would visit friends in Germany and fill a suitcase with blocks of chocolate to keep me going back in Sweden.

In my twenties I ate an average of 100g of chocolate a day (especially when I lived in Germany).

Turpentine is not beer — a lesson I learnt when I was two years old. A hard lesson for a young Australian! Thankfully I have no memory of the stomach pump.

When in France I endeavour to eat at least two items of patisserie per day. This came about as compensatory behaviour from living in London, where good cakes/pastries were very very hard to find at reasonable prices.

I wish more people, men in particular, viewed cooking as a potentially rewarding (relaxing, even!) everyday activity, rather than another chore best avoided. No matter how enthusiastic guys might be about food, the all-too-frequent incredulous comment ‘you mean you cook for yourself most nights?!’ is depressing.

– DM