Tag: Australia

Mekong on Swanston St: The meaty taste of disappointment

I’m starting to become accustomed to the sense of betrayal that I feel after eating once again at old favourites in Melbourne. Most continue to please (or at least, meet expectations). But Mekong on Swanston Street in Melbourne, to use more common language, has gone to shit. Well before I left Australia for Cambodia, Mekong… Continue reading Mekong on Swanston St: The meaty taste of disappointment

Vue De Monde, Melbourne

When Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Future Yet Come decides to take me out to dinner, he’d probably take me to Vue De Monde to wallow amongst the Baby Boomer dugongs in suits and pearls. That crystalline vision into how my life would transpire if I spent the next twenty odd years focusing upon crapulence would… Continue reading Vue De Monde, Melbourne

Beer Flaw Tasting

“T” is for Taint If there is one thing that evaluating beer in Cambodia has primed my tastebuds for, it is tasting bad beer. I never particularly dwelt upon the reasons behind their badness because I was too busy trying to find synonyms for “watery”. I had never approached badness in a systematic way. So… Continue reading Beer Flaw Tasting

Bánh Mì Xiu Mai

Bánh mì xiu mai is the ultimate culinary mashup: a strange interpretation of Cantonese food in a French baguette via Saigon. The banh mi is your average baguette filled with a slap of pate, pickled carrot and stalks of coriander. The xiu mai part is utterly bewildering. Picking the xiu mai from the sauce The… Continue reading Bánh Mì Xiu Mai

Guerilla Gardening: How to compost a whole cow

The guerilla garden continues apace with one rude surprise. The bamboo has been chopped down and left aside to mulch as much material as possible before I call in the council to remove the woodier stalks. The rude shock is that beneath the thin ground cover of rotting bamboo leaf and years of accumulated trash,… Continue reading Guerilla Gardening: How to compost a whole cow

The outing of Camy Shanghai Dumpling House’s secret

When salmonella went feral a few years ago at a favorite Turkish restaurant, hospitalising a wardful of unlucky diners, I felt the urge to eat there out of solidarity with the owners but sadly, the health inspectors had put paid to my plans. The joy of returning to a previous favourite restaurant is built entirely… Continue reading The outing of Camy Shanghai Dumpling House’s secret

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