james test

We have been receiving recommendations for I Carusi pizza almost since the moment we arrived in Melbourne, from friends and from food bloggers . It's difficult to explain why it's taken this long to visit an affordable restaurant such a short tram-ride from our home! But it has, and even now it has taken a decisive moment from Jo-Lyn - while sharing a meal of Mike's incredible home-made gnocchi - for the booking to be made. I Carusi has a very unassuming front: barely the width of a terrace house, it almost looks boarded up until you read the roughly hand-painted orange lettering on the opaque window. Inside is a dimly lit room crowded with people, boisterous conversation echoing off the walls. We're served by hip, efficient staff with no-frills attitudes and only a couple of grins to spare. Jo-Lyn and Mike have come prepared with a well-picked bottle of Merlot and order some entrees to share. I'm not a fan of olives, but the other three happily make their way

When I recently read about World Nutella Day I figured it was about time I participated in my first blogging event! Although Nutella didn't appear too frequently in my childhood, its occasional visits were certainly welcome. The fun starts at the supermarket where there's a good chance that the smooth, chocolatey spread will be sold in an array of cartooned drinking glasses. This week I scored a tumbler with three Nickelodeon characters: Jimmy Neutron, Angelica from Rugrats and Spongebob Squarepants! The usual reason for the appearance of Nutella was that Mum would be making a super-sized choc-nutella pudding to cater for a weekend lunch with her friends and their offspring. It's a family-friendly recipe, with a moderately moist and chocolatey cake, and a layer of rich nutella sludge underneath. Fresh out of the oven, it's definitely a comfort food: impossible to serve neatly, with extra scrapings from the bottom heaped on the side, this pudding will instead win y

Update, 31/12/2014: Flavours of Lakhoum is closed, replaced by Noir , a fancy looking French restaurant. After our lazy Saturday , Cindy and I decided to make Sunday a bit more active. We started with a trip to the sneakers exhibition at the NGV, an entertaining pop-culture diversion amongst the 18th century European art, and then wandered around the Yarra until we hit Richmond. Our target for the day was Flavours of Lakhoum, a Middle-Eastern cafe famous for its delicious, cheap food and the coffee art of Chris Phillips . The interior was cool and welcoming after our hot walk to get there, and the coffee art adorning the walls convinced me that we'd be sticking around for post-lunch lattes. The service was a bit erratic, keeping up with the floods of weekend patrons seems to stretch the staff to capacity. The vegetarian options on the menu were not overly numerous: a haloumi and spinach pastry, wraps, sandwiches and meal plates based on either zucchini pancakes or felafel alon

A new regular food-blogging read for me is vanesscipes , which is written by a vegetarian who cooks in her small Brooklyn home. For dinner on Saturday night we attempted our first recipe from her site, a new posting of tortilla soup . This is a fabulous concoction, which can be made as simple or elaborate as you feel (just vary the garnish). The soup is fairly watery, but it's choc-full of veges, beans and tortilla chunks, meaning that it's a filling meal on its own and every spoonful offers something interesting and different. You can also pitch the chilli dosage to your preference, from a comforting warmth up to a firey attention-grabber! Vanessa uses corn tortillas, but Mexican supplies are more constrained in this part of the world and I used flour ones. In doing so we've missed out on a "deep, toasted corn flavor", but I don't think the processed, rubbery corn tortillas at the local supermarket would be supplying that anyway. Instead I reckon I'

Saturday was the lazy day of our Australia Day long weekend - so much so that by the time our lunch hungers kicked in, we'd still not managed to get to Safeway and buy food. Rather than go through the ordeal of shopping on an empty stomcah, I convinced Cindy that we should head straight to Inkari . The lunch menu is fairly substantial, and there are four or five vegetarian options to choose from. Cindy and I both went with sandwiches: hers the mollete (refried black beans cooked to a traditional Mexican recipe with roasted capsicum and tomato, tasty cheese and avocado - $6.50) and mine the tortilla omelette (potato omelette with red pepper, green salad, tomato and home-made mayonaise - $7.50). Both were enjoyable - the mayonnaise on mine was delicious, but the beany flavours of Cindy's were the highlight. You can read about our previous trip to Inkari here. Edit 19/12/07: Sadly, Inkari appears to have closed permanently.

With the weather for Australia Day forecast to be superb, Cindy and I planned an outing to some parts of Melbourne we'd yet to visit: breakfast in Balaclava to get us started, and then a wander around the bay from St. Kilda to Brighton. Cheap Eats and the breakfast blog had made me very keen to try out Las Chicas - anything that gets both a V (for vegetarian friendly) and a little toast picture (for good breakfasts) in the Cheap Eats Guide is always going to excite me. Despite some Australia Day Parade-related tram confusion, we made it to Las Chicas without too many difficulties. It's directly across from a tram stop and about fifty metres from a train station, so there are no problems with accessibility. And, luckily for us, there were no problems accessing a table either - we were seated straight away at a communal table in courtyard area out the back. Cindy quickly ordered an iced coffee to boost her failing system's sugar levels - 11 o'clock is a bit late for

During their three weeks in our home, Emma and Simon had clearly noticed our food blogging habit. We were photographing food at home, photographing food out and about, then spending hours reviewing our pictures, tapping away on the computer and talking about ' the Amateur Gourmet ' and 'Mellie from Tummy Rumbles ' as if they were either personal friends or f ê ted celebrities. Thus, on their departure, Emma and Simon generously presented us with a wireless router and a set of six ramekins! Now we can blog from anywhere in the house (I think : we haven't gone so far as testing it out in the bathroom) and I can make all those cute little single-serve puddings and cakes in tempted . On Thursday night I tested out two of the ramekins for the first time. After a holiday hiatus, Veronica Mars was back on American television and we had a new episode to watch. (Legal note: where's the beef? does not condone dowloading of copyrighted material unless your local fr

Welcome to an exciting* new regular** where's the beef special - Gertrude Street Grub. Cindy and I usually sort out enough leftovers from our meals to provide ourselves with weekday lunches. Having house guests in the last few weeks however, has resulted in much fewer leftovers and many more trips out to buy lunch. I've discovered some pretty great places and have decided to put together a weekly*** series of posts reviewing lunch places around Gertrude Street (where my office is) and the southern ends of Smith and Brunswick Streets. The lucky first place (and, in truth, the inspiration for this entire series) is Trippytaco. From what I understand, Trippytaco started out as a caterers who ran food stalls at Meredith and other Victorian festivals (although surprisingly I don't remember them being at the Hispanic Festival ). They've recently set up a shop on Smith Street in Collingwood where their vegetarian Mexican food is on sale all year 'round. The menu is s

Even though I'm now located two states away, I still receive the Mondo Organics email newsletter each month. Amongst other news there's always at least one recipe included, and this month it was for mushroom, silverbeet and cashew tart with oaty pastry. I had two incentives to give this a go: first, I have a stash of raw cashews left over from my vegan ice cream ; and second, I bought an oven thermometer on the weekend! Ellie tipped me off on Cake Deco , a fabulously crowded and slightly ramshackle shop of all things baking, located in an arcade off Flinders St. I picked up the thermometer for about $10 and enjoyed browsing through the cake pans, biscuit cutters and other decorative kick knacks. Anyway, the ladies at Mondo have always been mindful of vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free eaters and their recipe caters for all of them.* (That's one of the reasons I've dubbed it greenie pie!) I substituted the soy milk for dairy, since it's what we alw

Update 31/12/2014: Burger Republic has been taken over by Urban Burger - we've visited their Richmond branch but haven't been back to Errol Street to check out this outlet. After missing out on a taste of Burger Republic the other week , there was an undercurrent of chip cravings in our home for quite a few days. This manifested itself in a couple of meals with olive oil baked potatoes as a featured side dish (my subconscious at work), which were received with murmurs of "Mmmm....chips" from Emma. The situation was finally resolved on Saturday night. Emma and Simon had spent the day moving their belongings into their new home, and it was clear that beer and a burger would be a hearty and most deserved dinner for the pair. Burger Republic has an online menu , making the call-and-collect approach most convenient! Above is Michael's lentil burger ($8.50), with avocado, coriander, salad, relish and aioli. On the right is my red republic ($8.50), which contains a

After a few months' Brunetti drought, we managed to find two excuses to visit this week! Our first companions were two of Michael's relatives, visiting from Queensland. Since Emma and Simon arrived almost three weeks ago we've had vague intentions of taking them, but it took Emma firmly setting aside this Friday evening for it to happen. I was a little concerned that my over-blown promises of aisles and aisles of glorious cakes might mean that they would actually be underwhelmed by the Brunetti experience. Far from it! Emma lingered over the enormous pre-ordered cakes (Happy birthday Helen! And John! And our blessings on the child being christened on Sunday the 21st!) and was photographed in front of one of the display fridges before she even noticed the dozens and dozens of single serves she could have for herself. Then there was some time spent hovering around the multiple profiterole flavours before she finally picked out two. Without quite so much external deli

Simon spent Saturday afternoon browsing the Cheap Eats guide for some dinner inspiration. He was particularly keen on Italian, and Mario's was recommended both by Cheap Eats and by us . Mario's breakfast menu was fairly traditional, so the wide range of vegetarian entrees, pastas and mains was a surprising and welcome discovery. We shared the obligatory shared plate of garlic bread, and our readiness for dinner can be judged by the mysterious bite that appeared in the bread before the camera was ready. Cindy opted for a light meal: the watercress salad with warm kipfler potatoes, brie, grapes, parmesan croutons and a hazlenut oil dressing. The combination of flavours and textures, from the soft, warm spuds to the sweet, crunchy grapes, was well received. The few bits of brie I managed to pinch were delicious as well. I think it would have left me hungry, but Cindy found the potatoes enough to fill her up after her share of the bread. I wavered between the vegetarian she

On Wednesday night we had tickets to the Melbourne Theatre Company 's latest rendition of Don's Party lined up. Faced with the task of getting a reasonably quick and early dinner, Michael took our typical approach of refering to Cheap Eats. Out of the CBD section came Hako, a tiny Japanese restaurant that scored the full three stars and a veggie-friendly V. We met Mike out the front and our reservation for three probably took up 20% of the seating! The list of specials was written on butchers' paper and taped to the wall, offering roughly as many dishes again as the main menu. Only a small proportion was actually vegetarian but these options looked appetising enough. Our Asahi beers arrived within minutes of our order, and we easily passed the time before the first meal arrived nutting out how the angle of the earth's rotation affects the seasons and day lengths across different latitudes, with the aid of a pen and a beer. (The topics occupying Mike's mind at

This week the prizes donated for the Menu for Hope III raffle were drawn (check out Chez Pim for the full list of winners .) Michael and I were lucky enough to score a prize each! Somewhere between here and Auckland, New Zealand travels my new copy of the Taste Favourites cookbook , which was donated by Barbara, the author of Winos and Foodies . Michael's winnings need only make their way around Melbourne, since he picked up a $50 voucher to eat at Chilli Padi . This was organised by Cin of A Few of My Favourite Things . Thanks to Pim and the regional organisers of Menu for Hope; to Barbara, Cin and all the other food bloggers who donated prizes; and finally a big thanks to everyone who bought a raffle ticket! Menu for Hope raised over $US 60 000 for the UN World Food Programme , more than tripling the takings of last year's campaign. That means a lot more food getting to those who need it most.

Brunetti usually proves to be an impressive dessert stop for interstate guests, and our night with Michael's Uncle Lee and Aunty Chris was no exception. Above is Michael's sour cherry tart: the cherry flavour verged on the medicinal but was agreeably sour, as promised. At 1 inch diameter and $1.40 each, I figured I could afford to taste two mini-tarts. The passionfruit custard was just the right combination of smooth, sweet and fruity, but the chocolate version didn't grab me. Still there's no harm done at this size, with the offending pastry probably having been walked off by the time I arrived home! (You can read about our previous visits to Brunetti here , here , here and here .)

My Aunt and Uncle (Chris and Lee) were in town for the Australian Open tennis and had set aside an evening to catch up with Cindy and I for dinner. We've yet to settle on a Lygon Street venue that will wow visitors (although Trotters did work pretty well for us last weekend), so we decided to take them up to Fitzroy for Mexican at Los Amates . The four of us enjoyed some pre-dinner drinks (including a rather tiny margarita for Cindy) as we perused the menu - Lee in particular struggling to come up with a suitable option. After much humming and hawing, everyone was settled and we ordered. Cindy eventually convinced me to share the Plato do Enchiladas Mixtas with her. I had intended to go my own way after we shared last time, but the enchiladas just sounded too good: three sets of two enchiladas, each with their own sauce: mole, salsa verde and salsa roja, served with rice, frijoles and salad. Cindy found the mole particularly outstanding, smoky and full-flavoured with the bare

On Mum and Carol's second visit to our place I knew there'd have to be dessert of some description: after any meal they are just as likely as I to start craving something sweet. On their last visit we introduced Bev and Carol to Koko Black , and this time I figured it was my turn to prepare something; something from our new dessert cookbook . Of course there must be chocolate involved, yet this still left 62 recipes to choose from! Emma and Michael perused my shortlist, discarded a few, and after a couple of days deliberation, I selected the chocolate star anise cake with coffee caramel cream. Bev's chocolate consumption is invariably teamed with a cup of coffee, and we share a preference for rich, creamy desserts. The presence of ground star anise piqued my interest: in recent years I've become hooked on chocolate spiked with chilli, chai, mountain pepper , and other aromatic spices. On Saturday Michael and I had braved the city shops, armed with a Coles-Myer gift