james test

I've been walking past Houndstooth on Johnston Street in Fitzroy for months and months and have repeatedly agitated for a trip out to sample their absurdly cheap delights. Finally, I managed to convince Cindy that it was worth a visit, and we met up for dinner and a couple of drinks on a Wednesday evening. Houndstooth isn't your typical restaurant: for starters it's ridiculously cheap - just $10 for two courses or $15 for three. Secondly, there are very few choices - basically there are a couple of entrees and a couple of mains on offer, with a weekly menu update. The dessert options are a bit broader, but still change slightly from week to week. In fact there are far, far more options behind the bar than on the menu. I didn't check out the wine list but the beer options included an impressive range of local brews including the full range of Mountain Goat and Grand Ridge stubbies. I'd come directly from a painful game of squash, so I was particularly happy ...

Our visit to Brunswick on Saturday morning also yielded some zucchini flowers. Michael noticed them at the large fruit & veg shop and pointed them out. I automatically whirred through my mental catalogue of recipes and remembered one for baked and stuffed zucchini flowers. Unfortunately I didn't have the right blog name neurologically attached, nor did I bookmark it when I initially found it. Even so, it only took a bit of time sifting through my blog aggregator to find the source : this was another spring gem from Jules of stonesoup . More recently, Haalo has remarked on the differences between male and female zucchini flowers, and I can retrospectively identify mine as female, the better for stuffing. Lucky, 'cause I had no idea about their gender issues at the time. (I wonder if Jules had any surprises during her de-flowering ...) The stuffing recipe includes two delicious cheeses, ricotta and parmesan, and is lifted into real spring territory with the zing of g...

It's that time of the year again. Nope, it's not Halloween I'm excited about, or even Vegetarian Awareness Month . I'm psyched for Nova Cinema 's Indian Film Festival ! I'm always keen for an over-long and overly obvious story of love and dancing in the Subcontinent, and to keep Michael interested there's usually plenty of Indian-style eating to go along with it. On Saturday night I booked tickets for Chak De! India and invited Tracy and Lee to join us for dinner beforehand. During our day-trip to Brunswick we stopped by the Indian grocery for a few supplies. I was very pleased to find there Lay's latest foray into potato chips for the Indian market: a packet of Masala Magic chips resplendent with Indian World Cup Cricket logos. Even better, it was bundled up with a bonus small sample of Mint Mischief chips. With Taj Mahal beers in the fridge, pre-dinner nibbles were all sorted out. For the main meal, we called on a few previously successful dis...

I started Saturday with an early morning game of squash at Fitzy's Gym in West Brunswick. The plan was to meet up with Cindy afterwards and find ourselves some breakfast around Sydney Road. In my head this was going to involve a repeat trip to Ray or something, but Cindy suggested we finally visit one of the raved-about Lebanese bakeries at the northern end of the strip. In the end this worked out for the best - I was ravenous by the time we met up and A1 Bakery was the perfect place to satisfy my well-earned hunger for less than 10 bucks. A1 started out as a pita bread manufacturing company a couple of decades ago and developed into a retail outlet with a wide range of Lebanese groceries and a bakery shopfront churning out breads, pastries and pizzas. The place is bustling on a Saturday morning, but we managed a window seat and loaded up on fresh-baked delights: a cheese pie ($4.80) for Cindy and a spinach and cheese pastry ($2.80) plus a herb bread ($1.20) for me. The spina...

I've been a bit slack with Gertrude Street Grub of late - mostly because I've not been venturing to any new places and just been revisiting old favourites . This week, I finally got around to dropping into the Made A Mano bakery and grabbing a pasty to takeaway and eat. Made A Mano is an organic bakery, with a wide range of breads and a heap of delicious looking lunch options (focaccias, pastries, muffins etc). It was impossible to go past the vegetarian pasty option ($5): a huge slab of pastry, filled with potato, peas, onion, celery and a dash of curry flavouring. The pastry was crisp and flaky and the filling was rich, tasty and vegie-licious. I found myself a nice park to sit in and savoured every mouthful. Tremendous. Address: 228 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy Ph: 9417 5998 Price: $5 for pastries

It's been a while since Michael and I prepared Indian food at home, but as usual I've had a few appetising recipes from other bloggers tucked away. These super-healthy baked spinach kofta come from SusanV's Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and they're fantastic. The main reason they were fantastic this time was because Michael made them, but they're also special for maintaining a golden crunchy crust even without frying. We were clearly going to need some sauce for the kofta and some more veges to complete the meal, and I found both of these in Mallika's recipe for eggplant raita over at Quick Indian Cooking . Unfortunately I couldn't locate any mango powder, but these were still a winner. The eggplant slices added plenty of substance and a little extra spice, and the yoghurt brought some much-needed moisture to pair with the dry kofta. Next time I make these (and you can bet your bottom dollar there'll be a next time), I'll add a lot more yoghurt so tha...

On Saturday night, Kerrie and Daniel invited a gaggle of refugees from Queensland to their home for a housewarming and movie night. They invited us all to bring a DVD to share and challenged us to team our movie choice with some thematically appropriate food or drink. Much as I love a theme, I found this one a particular challenge. The DVDs I wanted to share didn't have memorable eating scenes at all! I decided to go ahead and take Press Gang (a favourite TV series from my tween years) regardless. This series was set in a newspaper office run by high school students and featured reams of snappy dialogue, but was most compelling for the love/hate relationship between the highly strung, very English editor Lynda Day and the American wise-guy sometime-journalist Spike Thompson. So why not find an edible clash of England and America? This proved to be perfect Nigella territory. I was keen to try making her jam doughnut muffins, but they didn't really allow for early preparat...

Update 31/12/2014: Cafe Plum is closed. Cindy continues to devour the combined output of Melbourne's 8 million food bloggers, so when the weekend rolls around and I'm looking for somewhere new to go for breakfast, she's always ready with a recommendation. This week it was Cafe Plum, thanks to the rave review from Agnes at Off the Spork . I was a little worried as we approached - there were no other cafes nearby and from the outside Cafe Plum didn't look too exciting. But I was wrong to doubt - the inside was stylish and welcoming and the menu was full of delicious sounding breakfasts. After much agonising (the mushroom bruschetta and Castro's Cuban eggs both tempted me), I settled on the masala potatoes, with poached free-range eggs, spinach, herb mushrooms and tomato chutney ($13.50). As if that doesn't sound good enough, the chef apologetically informed me that they were all out of spinach and offered up asparagus instead. Winner! We'll get the negati...

I've written before about my need for mid-afternoon work snacks and recently I have fallen back into my bad, bad habit of buying chips or chocolate from the shop near my office. In a bid to remedy this, I retrieved this recipe for full meal muffins . They were developed by Jennifer McCann - the super-mum behind Vegan Lunch Box - with much trial and error along the way, so I was confident that the final recipe she shared with the world would be appetising as well as scrupulously healthy. These muffins had the added advantage of requiring a few ingredients that have been sitting neglected in my pantry for while (spelt flour, blackstrap molasses, currants) and I managed to time my preparation of them perfectly. Michael was away interstate for a couple of days and so I purchased the required bananas (plus a couple extra) with impunity. As I set about blending up the wet ingredients, my expectations took a dive. I had forgotten just how strong blackstrap molasses really is, and it...

On our recent visit to Williamstown , I gamely invested in a new cookbook. I say 'gamely' because, unlike many food bloggers, I'm trying not to amass too large a collection of cookbooks. (I'm a rebel in a long family line of hoarders and feel guilty about owning anything that I don't actually make use of.) Besides, you may have noticed that the new dishes we prepare at home are more often inspired by other food bloggers than by anything printed on paper. So it's a high compliment that the anonymously authored vegie food took my fancy as I idly flicked through it in a gift shop. Even more improbable than my impulse purchase of this book (no dessert recipes - can you imagine?!) was my first choice of recipe, a side dish of cabbage. While I've never hated cabbage as such, it's never really excited me either. But it seemed just the right combination of subtle flavour, fresh texture and nutrient richness to prepare alongside our two pies from TOFWD ....

After our cheap and delicious lunch at Nila , we ducked our heads into The Organic Food and Wine Deli (TOFWD) to check out what they had to offer. While the stock isn't strictly vegetarian, there was a wide range of well-marked vego, gluten free and vegan treats to eat in or takeaway. We selected two vego pies: one filled with a mushroom and tofu mix (vegan) and the other with a cheesy mexican bean mush ($4.80 each). We heated them both up on a lazy evening at home (accompanied by a cabbage dish that Cindy will blog soon) and halved them to share between us. The mushroom and tofu mix was my favourite - one of the better pie fillings I've tasted (although still not a patch on Cindy's homemade efforts ). The fact that it mixed so well with my preferred condiment (Worcestershire sauce) probably helped. The Mexican pie was tasty as well, but a little less like a traditional pie and thus not quite as exciting (at least for me). It's rare that we opt for the lazy premade...

Update, 31/12/2014: Nila City has been closed for a while now, replaced by a fancy fish and chip shop . The old Brunswick branch is defunct as well, but there's a Nila Restaurant trading in Coburg that is probably a related operation. Here's another sample from the Nila menu: pizza roti ($7.95). This is a large roti bread, crisp on the bottom like a pizza base, topped with a chickpea and potato curry, fresh tomato and capsicum slices, and finely chopped steamed mixed veges (most likely sourced from McCain or Birds Eye ). Evidently this isn't gourmet grade but it's a tasty and filling plateful - its charm lies in the fresh, flaky bread. My one Nila grumble: in my three visits I have always asked for a lentil doughnut and they've never been available! Perhaps it's time they're stricken from the menu...? (You can also read about our previous visits to Nila City and Nila Junction .)

After more than a year in Melbourne, Cindy and I are still gradually exploring the area - by the time the weekend rolls around there's usually enough adventure to be had in the inner north for us to be bothered exploring more widely. Finally, we ran out of alternatives and decided to make the trip out to Williamstown. After a quick stroll around the waterfront (which did provide a cracking view back to the city, but was a bit on the cold and windy side to be entirely pleasant), it was time to chase up some lunch. A wander along the main strip threw up an array of reasonable (if not terribly exciting) options, but when we stumbled on a sign promising us great burgers a few hundred metres down a side street, our decision was made for us. Luckily, they didn't let us down on the vego front, with two non-meaty burger options. Cindy chose the 'Vegi Patch', a vegie pattie, sun-dried tomato, salad and tomato relish ($7), while I went upmarket and ordered the 'Vegi Vibe'...

So that recipe for candied rinds told me to discard the sugar syrup after I'd sweetened and softened up those orange bits. Nuh-uh! That's sweet, fragrant sugar water we've got there, why would I throw that out? The orange flavour was quite delicate and I was after something that would allow that to shine through. My mind turned to the subtle and summery vice cream that I tried back in January - I've never teamed cashews and oranges before, but I thought it was worth a shot. It was. With a bit of extra oomph from a few drops of orange essence, the two flavours shared the spotlight nicely. However, the texture just didn't work out for me this time. I tried soaking the cashews beforehand and they were looking pretty soft, but I guess I just didn't give them long enough in the food processor. Once in the ice-cream maker, this mixture was looking super-thick after only 15 minutes (this typically takes 30-40 minutes with a standard ice-cream recipe) so I too...

Last month a post from Neil of At My Table reminded me of the importance of seeking out Fair Trade chocolate, and subsequently led me to a Fair Trade chocolate blog event over at R khooks . Fortunately, buying Fair Trade chocolate is just getting easier and easier for me - Green & Black's brand is now available at my local Safeway, and their Maya Gold is one of my all-time favourites. This is a dark chocolate with "spices and a twist of orange". And what better way to savour those subtle flavours than in a chocolate mousse? To extend the taste, I added a pinch of cinnamon to the mousse and tried my hand at some candied orange rind to garnish. Unfortunately my hand is not so adept at the gentle folding that gives a mousse its light, airy texture. I ended up with some fairly dense dessert cups but the rich, buttery texture was still thoroughly enjoyable, especially when teamed with the chewy strips of rind. I won't effusively recommend the mousse recipe si...

Now that winter's rhubarb has been ticked off , on to spring and asparagus! The pretty green vege was my main target on our market trip (though obviously I was distracted by some impulse buying along the way...). I had this salad from stonesoup in mind for them - I can get into quite a stodgy comfort-food rut during winter, but I was sure this perky mix of blanched asparagus and lemony dressing would get me on track for some lighter, fresher eating. It's a nice segue at least, with buttery avacado chunks still providing some richness. Although Jules intended this as a side for fish and chips, we found that a large bowlful made for a most satisfying recovery dinner after our cheesy lunch . A rarity among salads, I was really looking forward to a second run of this one for lunch the next day. Unfortunately the asparagus ribbons aren't looking their best by then, so try to eat them freshly blanched if you can. Green and gorgeous spring salad 2 bunches asparagus 120g ba...

On Saturday we rode (and walked) our bikes to the markets in the morning, and still Michael and I wanted to soak up those last few rays of spring sunshine in the afternoon. So off to the park with books and a blanket we went. Trouble is, there was a little rumble in my stomach and Sweet Source in our direct path. It's difficult to believe that we've lived so close to Sweet Source for the past year and I've not visited since our first weekend . Even their attempt at serving me a beef pie shouldn't have put me off that long! The tiers of cupcakes in all shades of pastel are a little twee, but there's no denying the delicious looks of their sweet and savoury baked goods. I picked out a slice of ruby grapefruit frangipane tart ($5) and it proved to be a winner. The almond frangipani is sweet and cloud-like and there's a shiny glaze on top, but what makes this tart a real gem is the genuinely bitter grapefruit segments that bring it back to earth. Sweet Sourc...

Even though we have a number of tasty new posts to publish, where's the beef? will be distinctly quiet for the next 24 hours. We'll be minimising our greenhouse emissions and joining the Big Switch Off . The challenge is to go 24 hours without using any electricity, gas or battery-powered devices from 8pm tonight, October 6 through to 8pm October 7. We're going to cheat just a little and keep our fridge running, but there'll be no lights, no TV and no internet. What we do have to look forward to is a walk into the Treasury Gardens for a community event of food, stalls, live music, comedy and speakers. Also, look to the city tonight as the Arts Centre and Giant Sky Wheel switch off. The level of energy usage that we accept in our daily living is really not sustainable, and it's ultimately more important that we try to reduce our habitual energy consumption. If you haven't already, consider requesting green power from your energy supplier.