Welcome!!one!
Buongiorno, bonjour and “g’day”! (don't you like how they're all the same thing? ~ who knew Australian vernacular was so cosmopolitan???).
Also, "a good day to you, sir/maam" for our American pals, "Ni Hao" to China, and "Здравствуй" to our Russian comrades, "etcetera etcetera and so forth"... (for Yul Brynner).
It’s your old pal Kit (Christof) Fennessy here. I've been writing this blog with your help for ten years, and there's over a hundred and fifty recipes, restaurant reviews of Australia and around the world, and general gourmet articles in these pages for you to fritter away your idle hours on.
Want to know more about me? Friend me on facebook, follow me on twitter, or even look up my New Yorker cartoons on instagram! NB; different platforms not all food related)
A big thank you, as always, to my sponsors at Blue Vapours (use them for all your design and advertising needs - we are waiting for your call!).
Now, what's on the bill of fare today?
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Meat Smith
Fitzroy VIC 3065
http://meatsmith.com.au/
I'm torn about this entry. The other day I was walking down Smith St, past the old Safeway, when I stumbled across this place and was literally stopped in my tracks.
It's meat. It's murder.
And, let's face it, this shop is extremely Gen Y / Millenial in its styling and concept; i.e. from the same cats who brought you beards, fixy bicycles, "discovered" plastic skateboards, set up endless coffee shops (white tiles optional), have tattoos, primitive earrings and buy themselves five hundred dollar heritage axes because they're in touch with the past, man. I mean, should I be plugging a business so obviously "hipster" it makes me want to be violently ill? Even the name of the shop is kind of annoying.
Obviously the answer is yes.
... full text
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Champagne Charlie is My Name!
University House Champagne Expo 2016
The University of Melbourne - November
Champagne Charlie - the song.
... full text
Sunday, November 6, 2016
The Best Sandwiches in the World
The Alpen Pantry
23 Arcadia Rd
Old Greenwich, CT 06870, USA
alpenpantry.com
Alright, fine. I know what you're thinking:'What an ambit claim, how can you possibly demonstrate that something is the best? It varies from week to week, even the greatest sandwich maker has an off day."
Well, I am prone to hyperbole, but as the man at the Alpen Pantry (Old Greenwich, Connecticut) said as he leaned on the counter and someone fixed my sandwich up "Well, we've been here for over seventy five years, so we must be doing something right".
Yes, I'd agree. There's a preponderance of black breads, and their website is essentially the sandwich list supplied below, but for those who are thinking of opening a sandwich bar of their own, you could do far worse than emulate this little gem that my brother pointed out to me while I was visiting the US recently.
Click the "full text..." tab below for the complete list of sandwich fare. OK, so there's only one vegetarian option. But a crab/langostino sandwich? Come on!! Truly excellent:
... full text
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Bergerac is Coming Your Way!!
131 King St
Melbourne VIC 3000
bergeracrestaurant.com.au
No... not the TV show, the restaurant!
If you don't know the song used in the title of this article, you should probably click on the link below and listen to it while you read the rest:
Spiderbait: Bergerac (from ShaShaVaGlava)
... full text
Thursday, October 20, 2016
A Lunch for Two with Dorothy Parker
Kit Fennessy takes us on his October book tour to New York, where he finds one of the best receptions he gets is from a ghost writer while out at lunch...
“I’m going on a literary tour of New York to promote my new novel. Any advice on who I should meet?”I recently, believe it or not, guilelessly asked that question, just days before leaving for the Big Apple, my new title ‘the Hidden People’ just back from the printers and a plane ticket in hand.
This question left rather a lot of people “in the know” stumped, many of which replied back with “sorry we can’t tell you”. The Melbourne City of Literature Office, however, were more helpful:
... full text
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Ricky and Pinky - a Preview
@ Builder's Arms Hotel
cnr Gertrude and Gore Sts
Fitzory
The Builder's Arms reopened it's front bar doors last night at 5pm, and I was afforded a preview of the new fit out for Ricky and Pinky, the Chinese restaurant mooted to be opening on Monday 29th August... though you can try your luck with the kitchen now with the bar menu on trial. See the fitout pics here!
... full text
Monday, August 22, 2016
The Cape Tavern
Corner Surf Beach Road and Market Place,
Cape Paterson
http://thecapetavern.com/OK, I shouldn't do this. Any time I want to do anything to promote the Cape, people say "shut up, do you want people coming here or something?"
And the answer, invariably, is "not really, no..."
But last Friday's dinner convinced me to write a review of the Cape Tavern anyway.
... full text
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
A Gastronomic Utopia
"Heard about the 21st one??? I still haven't heard about the first one!" ~ I hear you think.
Well, I quite agree. Me either!
It appears it's coming up in December, and at it numerous luminaries will flex their considerable foodie knowledge, go on a wine tour to central Victoria and then all tuck in to a banquet dinner (find out more here) ~ all to the theme of Thomas More's "Utopia".
Thomas More was an Englishman who lost his head for not supporting Henry VIII's Church of England – which might not have been such a bad thing since he was later sainted by the Catholic church and avoided becoming Henry's "Lord Privy Chancellor"; where you had to wipe the enormously fat king's bum with a flannel. Blech!!
His famous work Utopia was about an ideal society, and coming from England, I'm sure he probably would have liked some nicer food. He would have been sick of chip butties, baps, and curries Indians had never heard of.
The gourmet contact who gave me the tip-off to let me know about this confluence of gourmets was a little late in letting me know for the submission of a paper (catastrophe!). However, in the interests of transparency and petitioning the committee, I have submitted a proposal today and leave you with the option of rating whether or not YOU think I should present at the symposium. Have your vote on the poll I present to the right of this post...
Read Kit's proposal here!
... full text
Thursday, July 28, 2016
We want plates!
We Want Plates
Get thee hence!
... full text
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Authentic Coq Au Vin Recipe
... full text
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Another post from Greece
I wonder if it's because I suggested in the last one that there was a naked lady if you clicked "read more"???
Then again, who am I to stand in the way of the internet highway or my voracious readership?!? To wit, Tim Scally writes:
... full text
Monday, June 20, 2016
Don't Tell Me Ramen are No Good for You??
Is this really real???? Thanks Matt McPhee...
http://www.metaspoon.com/instant-noodles-health-warning/
... full text
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Winter Solstice - Tuesday 21st June 2016
... and the Summer one if you're reading this in the Northern Hemisphere (well done, incidentally, for having warm weather... you bastards...).
I went out for another of our pagan festivals on Saturday; my therapy session of a long lunch with friends on a Saturday near the winter solstice.This year it was at the Railway Club Hotel (two thumbs up, incidentally), and I felt compelled to make a speech to mark the significance of the event, though really only said "thanks for coming to this, because I suffer seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and need something to look forward to, and didn't those pagans have it right with their Yuletide celebrations?"
I had, however, prepared a rather longer historico-research piece about the winter solstice and pagan rituals, and for those interested, you might like to see the full text here.
... full text
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Roving Blog from Greece!
... full text
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
The Builder's Arms is Changing... again!
"Quoi?" I said.
"Oh yeah, they're opening a Chinese restaurant next door. Is says so in the Age... The jack hammers are starting up next week."
Here we go again.
... full text
Monday, May 16, 2016
HUME HIGHWAY GOURMET
Note: this article is not about cooking
road kill
(but is mostly about): Dean Street, Albury
... full text
Monday, April 25, 2016
Rose Hotel - new fit out
406 Napier St
Fitzroy
Could Fitzroy get any trendier?Well, apparently, yes! OK, first up, let me say – as a long time habitué of Abbotsford, Collingwood and Fitzroy – I've become aware that there are a number of neighbourhoods within these suburbs, kind of like the French arrondissements and départements.
"Prenentious? Moi?"
So there is Fitzroy, and then there's "Fitzroy" and then there's another type of Fitzroy as well. Maybe ten or twenty zones if you want to be picky (including the murder zone!).
The wedge between Smith St, Brunswick St, Johnson St and Alexander Pde/Freeway extension is relatively affluent these days. For example, there's the "Croissanterie" called Lune, which migrated there from South Yarra (near the Rose St markets) which has people queuing for croissants so often, their "goddamn"street view from Google maps has a line of people waiting on the street.
... full text
Monday, April 4, 2016
Schnapszahl
Schnapszahl? I understand the "double digits" are like seeing double, or even triple, like when you've had too much schnapps.
Of course, I had to check the spelling (thanks Maria), but you can now astound all your Deutsche pals!!... then ask them for a drink.
... full text
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
KFC – Kit’s Fried Chicken
The Original KFC Recipe
... full text
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Perfect Onion Rings
...the idea being that whatever you do, you can never make food as bad for you as the processed food industry would (who notoriously throw in things like corn syrup, emulsifiers, cancer causing flavourings and the like).
Not being able to find the fabled recipe from the paper, I scanned the net and found this recipe (presented here with my own variations) which is MUCH SIMPLER. While making these I was taken back to other American classics I’d made like Kit’s Fried Chicken (What? No recipe for that in this blog? I’ll remedy that soon).
... full text
Monday, February 29, 2016
Pedal-Stools!
Goz City
502 Little Collins St, Melbourne
www.gozcity.com.au
Just a quick entry today:Well I had to laugh. "Finally someone's putting me up on a pedal stool."
"A what?"
"A pedal-stool".
Oh come on! Surely you've seen the IT Crowd??? Check it out here.
Goz City has these seats, which made my day, and their gözleme are pretty good too. I had the chicken and herb while enjoying a very tasty black coffee. Why not give them a try?
... full text
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Return to Sorrento
Morgan’s Beach Shack, Cakes and Ale, Hotel Sorrento, the Continental Hotel
As I recently drove down to the Peninsula, I took a new (to me) road called Peninsula Link (“PenLink” to those in the know), or the M11; passing dozens of wineries, with the vines covered in nets. The roads have changed, as has the scenery, but memories of teenage holidays I’d taken down there with friends came flooding back, and I realised it had been years since I was there last.
... full text
Monday, February 1, 2016
Drummond St Carlton: Carlton Wine Room, Masani, and Town Mouse
They’re all pretty good, so if you’re in Carlton and can be bothered walking one block from the standard pizza and pasta joints, you’ll find yourself well rewarded. They also have a very good bakery nearby…
... full text
Monday, January 18, 2016
Adieu to the Elms Family Hotel
Corner Little Lonsdale and Spring Sts
Melbourne
(closed)
A piece of Melbourne culture disappeared almost silently yesterday, slipping into the ocean of history with a soft blub that was almost (almost) drowned by the sounds of cruffin shops opening.See the photos here...
... full text