Pipped Olives Can Get Stuffed

Is it just me? OK, I get that pipped olives are notionally easier to eat, because you don't have to spit out the pips.

But THEN you find a secret pip you weren't expecting and smash a tooth (or your dentures - we're not "teethist" here) on the stone they were supposed to have removed from your path.

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Bendigo Provencal: A Maldon / Castlemaine weekender

Rendez-Vous

http://www.maldonbbrendezvous.com.au/

35A Reef Street
Maldon 3463
03 5475 2194
0466 069 093

Bonjour!  Ca va?  Beauty!

Qu’est que si que ca?  Why am I speaking French while being whole heartedly Aussie?  Let me tell you a story about last weekend.

We went away with some friends up to the Central Goldfields of Victoria; specifically a weekend in Maldon with a day trip into Castlemaine.  We ate at an auberge, I gorged like I was on a Bacchanal, ended up like a haggis AND came up with the concept of "Bendigo Provencal".

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70's food styling is BACK!!

You heard it here first!  Ring the bell, Kit's Cucina: always at the forefront of what's HOT HOT HOT in food styling.

Bring on the macrame angel wall hangings, brown tiles, exposed timber, and boiled eggs in Bendigo Pottery two tone ceramic egg cups next to a jug of mulled wine, with candle light, blocks of Coon™ cheese, and a bunch of parsley...


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How To Make a Soufflé… and Rise to the Occasion

Yesterday, we spent most of the day, or more accurately the afternoon and evening, on the couch watching television.  I had had visions of launching back into the book, for a couple of hours, maybe playing my guitar, doing a thorough vacuum, etc., but… nah.  In the end, it was just too relaxing lying around doing next to nothing.

We did, however, as a married team, bake a soufflé.  My first.  Which leads me – in an ambling kind of climb over the stile and wander up the garden meadow, touch the tree at the edge of the pasture and then log-roll back over the cow pats way – to this:

Mrs Brady, or Carol, from the Brady Bunch.

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Dolcetti

http://www.dolcetti.com.au
223 Victoria Street
West Melbourne VIC 3003
(03) 9328 1688

OK, I know what you're thinking.

"I'm a lady! I like lady things! Like pussy cats, and lace, and tea parties, and frills... and shit." (Little Britan)


Whatev's.  I popped in to Dolcetti, a kind of plaret (now I've Googled this word and there's nothin' - ploirette, plaré??? – answers on a postcard please), for a meeting yesterday, and realised how little I travel around Melbourne.

North-ish Melbourne?  West of Elizabeth St?  You're joking???

My friend Suze said "you should review this place."  So what the hey?  Here I am.



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A Valentine Tart

Kit's Tarte Frommage et l'Oignon a la Mode Stephanie
~or~
(in a bogun voice) Cheese and Onion Tart

I can understand the ambivalence many hold toward a holiday dedicated to keeping the flower business single handedly going.

"Why do we need so many freakin' themed days?" they cry.  "One day it's Christmas - am I being Christmassy enough? My birthday? How am I tracking against my self-identified life landmarks? Father's Day? Mother's day? How am I as a parent? (I don't even have any kids - people should be thanking me!) Give me a break!  Do we really need another day showing up our inadequacies?"

The answer is, I'm sorry to say, a resounding YES!


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WA Part 3 - Perth and Fremantle, The Big Smokes!

There's so much to enjoy in Western Australia: the Pinnacles (standing stones), wildlife, monks... even Gina Reinhardt's hole (apparently she's got the biggest one in history, and is importing workers from all over the world to come and make it bigger).

There’s even a town called Wanneroo, also known as the town that lost it’s “t”.

But if you want to have a quality nibble, and I'm not talking getting bitten in half by a shark, you'll need to go to the big smoke of Perth and Fremantle (two country towns that have had a growth spurt and become one through the agency of urban sprawl) .

One thing people told me before going to Perth was: “listen, it’s not cultural, but it does have character”.

I don’t know if that’s local cringe factor, but I found it all very easy going and pretty good quality. Here are some top tips.


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