Dosa Hut is the best restaurant in Melbourne; at least it is if you have $6.50 in your pocket and a hankering for Indian street food, which neatly outlines the problem with picking “best” restaurants. It’s contextual. I hate recommending restaurants to people that I don’t know because I’ll get their context wrong with invariable… Continue reading Dosa Hut
Category: Melbourne
Kebab Pizza
A few weeks ago, a Swedish friend contacted me to tell me that she couldn’t believe that we never had discussed kebab pizza. I’m sure that I had discussed both of these foods with her, but in complete isolation. Someone in Sweden has popularised the notion of combining two of the world’s disparate street foods… Continue reading Kebab Pizza
Rotisserie = home
I’ve moved into the house of an expatriate Slovenian bootlegger and as soon as I’ve set up a rotisserie, it feels like home again. If there is a single item of cookware that I could be trapped with on a desert island, it would be the rotisserie, although only if there was an indigenous chicken… Continue reading Rotisserie = home
Guerrilla Garden Bounty
The best part of growing a garden is harvesting more than you can eat in a single sitting. It’s easy to see how harvest festivals started with a seemingly endless bounty of food in a few scant weeks of ripeness. The bucket of “Tommy Toe” heirloom tomatoes is hardly endless but the tomatoes have completely… Continue reading Guerrilla Garden Bounty
Gong Xi Fa Cai, Rendang
Another year, another chance for lion dancers to molest the unwary. The risk of a lion dancer catching aflame grows each year. The hanging iceberg lettuce attracts them. Welcome to the Chinese New Year. I had a vague plan to hit up some dumpling joints but was derailed by a newish Malaysian place: Old Town… Continue reading Gong Xi Fa Cai, Rendang
Red Emperor, Melbourne
Har gau from Red Emperor, Melbourne I always thought that only tourists ate on Southbank. It’s the wrong side of the river for me; that strange cultural divide that bisects Melbourne wherein both sides can say that the other is the morally and culturally wrong side. Since the Casino that dominates the south bank of… Continue reading Red Emperor, Melbourne
Charcuterie fetish object
At the Art Deco exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria I noticed a diecast meat slicer made by Hobart that looked as if it was developed for the charcuterie needs of 1950s astronauts. I immediately wondered if anything of the like was available in my price range. The answer is not even remotely. But… Continue reading Charcuterie fetish object
Little Creatures, Fitzroy: Invasion from the West
There is only one thing that can turn me off the citrus-y and floral pale ales of Little Creatures Brewery and that is the music of Collette Roberts. Her ode to campanology was blaring across the industrial Viking beer hall that brewery Little Creatures have infested in Fitzroy in Melbourne as I entered. When did… Continue reading Little Creatures, Fitzroy: Invasion from the West