james test

Update 27/2/2014: Walking past the other day, I noticed that The Green Grocer has closed down and been replaced by Sixteen 83 Epicerie. With Cindy heading off to Brisbane for a pre-Christmas training course, Sunday was our last chance to catch up with Krusty a nd J-Files before they ditched Melbourne (and us) for exotic foreign pastures. To commemorate our brief Melbourne overlap, we braved the stifling heat and dense smoke for breakfast at The Green Grocer in North Fitzroy. The Green Grocer doubles as a small organic foodstore and a cafe specialising in organic breakfasts and lunches. Surprisingly, things were still fairly quiet when we arrived - obviously North Fitzroy doesn't get going until a bit after 9am. Either that or the thick smoke had fooled everybody into sleeping in. Regardless, we had the place almost to ourselves and the focus quickly turned to ordering. Aside from Cindy's baffling anti-egg agenda, the mix 'n' match egg options were the flavour of t...

You may have noticed that posting has been patchy over the last week or so: the reason is that I've been out of Melbourne and without internet access for 8 days! Furthermore, it seems that Michael is too shy (or rude or lazy, but we can give him the benefit of the doubt) to respond to comments in my absence. On the agenda, three items: 1. Scroll down a little (or follow this link ) to find a new review of SOS . 2. There are still a few days left on the Menu for Hope . Please buy some raffle tickets in support of the United Nations World Food Programme , and pick out your preferences in the mouth-watering list of prizes. I'm after the blog redesign and the Traveller's dark chocolate sampler. If you choose something else you'll be increasing my chances of success, thank you! 3. Michael owes us a review of the breakfast he and I ate at the Green Grocer, so hopefully it'll appear in a few days. Otherwise we'll probably be taking a mini blog-break until the new year....

In an attempt to use up a chunk of paneer left over from our Doof-inspired Indian night , Cindy decided to make marinated panir steaks from Kurma's 'Vegetarian World Food'. This had been our plan on Tuesday night , but this time we remembered to buy some fresh salad to accompany things. The marinade was delicious - sweet and a bit spicy, but we could probably have used tofu rather than paneer to improve the nutritional value without a big sacrifice in taste. Still, it was a speedy meal, and gave us another flavour to add to our salad rotation . Panir steaks with maple syrup marinade 2 blocks panir chopped into triangles 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon asafetida powder Marinade 3 tablespoons maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon tomato paste (preferably from a bottle without mold on the top layer, but you do what you can) 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablepoon dijon mustard 2 tablespoons lemon juice Whisk all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. ...

Helen over at Grab Your Fork is running the Asia-Pacific section of this year's Menu for Hope . Last year food bloggers around the world raised $17,000 for UNICEF. This year, the United Nations World Food Program will receive the proceeds of the campaign. The money is basically raised through a series of raffles with prizes donated by generous bloggers, restaurants and other food-related organisations. The list of prizes is over at Grab Your Fork , along with more details about the whole campaign.

To celebrate my 26th birthday Michael booked a table for two at SOS, a somewhat upscale restaurant that I'd been wanting to try for a while. What sets SOS apart from Melbourne's other fine dining is its premise of sourcing sustainable and seasonal produce as much as possible, with seafood the only vegetarian violation on the menu. And Another Outspoken Female's review and the online menu gave us due warning that there is a lot of seafood on offer: the entree list is roughly 40% vegetarian, the mains list 33% veg, and all the specials were distinctly fishy. I found the atmosphere of SOS to be a little disjointed. It's very open, making the most of the summer daylight, and ultra-modern in design. The communal tables and placemats give a casual feel, yet the service is more formal, with the staff pulling out chairs and setting napkins on the customers' laps. While I appreciate the constant topping up of my water, I'd feel much more comfortable looking after my ow...

Instead of preparing dessert for mum and Carol, I thought that a visit to Koko Black would be an impressive way of introducing them to my neighbourhood. We arrived at about 9:45pm, and even on this Wednesday night the Carlton chapter was chaotically busy. We joined the waiting list and were shown to a table within about 10 minutes. Despite the demands made on them, the young staff were efficient and more than friendly; they were entertaining. Pictured above is the Belgian Spoil that Michael and I shared: little tastes of chocolate cake, shortbread, two Belgian chocolates, chocolate mousse and chocolate ice-cream ($10). All were delicious: Michael particularly loved the bittersweet, cocoa-powdered chocolate and my pick would probably be the mousse. Mum and Carol shared a molten chocolate pudding, with a crisp and decorative wafer topping and fizzy-sour raspberry sorbet on the side. They were into it long before I had my camera poised: those sisters are a bunch of fast eaters, som...

My mum arrived from Brisbane this week for her annual summer visit to Victoria, where her four sisters live. Thus, on Wednesday night, she and next-sibling-up Carol turned up at our house for dinner. First up was lots of chatter, the exchange of a few Christmas and birthday gifts, and a brief tour of the flat. Next was Pad Thai! Though it's probably considered one of the less adventurous options on a Thai takeaway menu, it's one of my favourites and almost always available meat-free. I love the textural variety of silky salty noodles, crunchy veges, crushed peanuts and a squeeze of sour lime over the top. On a good day tofu adds an extra smooth-but-chewy mouthfeel. And this was such a day! Michael and I chopped the veges and prepared the sauce before our guests arrived, and the subsequent wok-work doesn't take hosts from guests for too long. Setting out the wok, bean sprouts, coriander and peanuts for everyone to serve themselves allowed for the wildly differing app...

It's been a fun four months discovering the edible side of our newly adopted home, Melbourne! Here are the highlights so far: Favourite markets: Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market Favourite breakfast: Michael votes for Ici , and I wish I'd ordered his crepe at wwwash Favourite vegetarian restaurant: Moroccan Soup Bar Favourite omni restaurant: Los Amates for Michael; Borsch, Vodka and Tears for me Favourite dessert: roast hazel and macadamia chocolate meringue torte at Soulmama Favourite new recipes: Michael's savory harira soup and my Bollywood biscotti Favourite old recipes: Spiced chickpeas for Michael; I've made multiple batches of the I-can't-believe-it's-not-meat pies Unlikely to be repeated any time soon: the delicious but labour-intensive vege stock Likely to be repeated (but we hope not): several incidents of putting the oven on the wrong setting, resulting in a burnt top, uncooked base, and takeaway food all round.

Since I was out shopping madly for Cindy's birthday present, I left her in charge of the shopping for dinner. Obviously unaccustomed to such responsibility, Cindy wandered out of Safeway at 6:15 expecting to pick up salad for dinner from the fruit shop. Alas, it closed at 6 and a return to Safeway was too much to bear, leaving us no option but to head out for a quick meal at Falafel Kitchen. We first experienced the fill your own falafel style at Maoz in Paris , and we'd been very impressed. Luckily, Cindy managed to find Falafel Kitchen on Lygon Street before she'd even found a place for us to live. I filled my large pocket up with as many falafel balls as possible and slathered everything with three different sauces (hommus, eggplant and chilli), leaving me with only a tiny bit of space for a few of the salad options. I think Cindy's (pictured) was a more balanced meal, including pickled turnip, greens and potato salad along with her falafel balls all in a 'mi...

On Sunday we had a pub lunch with Michael's mixed netball team lined up, so we wanted to be prepared with a not-too-oily dinner in the evening. We pulled out a dhal recipe that we received during an Indian cooking course at Mondo Organics last year, and then looked for an Indian-style salad to munch on the side. Along with a bit of home-made flat bread from the depths of the freezer, this was a thoroughly satisfying meal. The common ingredients of black mustard seeds, green chilli and coconut meant that the dhal and salad weren't fighting for flavour domination, and the crisp cool texture of the salad was a great contrast to the thick soft lentil soup. This is a low-fuss combination worth repeating! Green bean salad (from The Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar) 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds 1 cup green beans, trimmed and chopped into bite-size pieces 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup dessicated coconut 2/3 cup boiling water A bunch of...

Michael and I spent a few hours of Saturday morning Christmas shopping in Brunswick, and hit Lygon St for lunch at about 1:30pm. We had I Carusi in mind, but suspected it would be shut and didn't know the way to Holmes St anyway. When we instead encountered the much-blogged-about Sugardough ( here , here and here ) we knew we had to try it out. The small interior was crowded with people lining up for their share of the baked treats, but we had no problem finding a little table off to the side. From this vantage point we ducked and weaved our heads around those standing for their takeaway orders, checking out the breakfast menu behind us, the display case of paninis and quiches, the oven of pies and pasties, and the blackboard of specials. We were spoiled for choice, with many meat-free options, and I tried not to look too carefully at the assorted biscuits, cakes and sweet pastries. (Don't fret: you've seen the first photo and you must know this'll end well.) The...