james test

Typical. Last month I passed judgment on the World in Your Kitchen Calendar, saying that the recipes tended to be adequate and nothing more. And this month: bam! A real winner. These noodles are incredibly simple, insanely tasty and generally a damn good time. The only downside to this recipe is its lack of variety - you really need to make something to accompany it, otherwise it'd get a bit dull and veg-free. We threw together a quick tofu and bok choy stir-fry, with a few splashes of sesame oil, ginger oil and hoisin sauce to liven it up. The key to this whole meal was the bean paste I think - it added an unusual flavour: salty and slightly spicy, with the fermented beans adding something indescribable. It was wonderful. And so easy that we made it again the next night to accompany the leftover tofu mush. So I've been reconverted to the World Kitchen Calendar - hopefully the next four months will live up to September's standard. Noodles with basil 225g of flat rice...

I've been a bit unsure of the green tea chocolate and consequently it has lurked in the cupboard, half-forgotten, for several months. The first bite was intensely herbal and a little bitter. This was not at all what I wanted from chocolate! Once that subsided I was able to appreciate the subtle sweetness and the perfect buttery texture as I chewed. I surprised myself by reaching for a second piece and tripped from revulsion to compulsion once again. I still can't work out whether I enjoyed the ride. What I'm certain of is that Matt did brilliantly to include this uniquely Japanese snack in his collection of Tokyo treats.

To my delight as much as hers, Katy returned to Melbourne for the weekend as a surprise birthday gift from her boyfriend! We hastily made plans to meet at Brunetti for morning tea. I made a point of ordering the barley-based orzo that Julia recommended , and was a little stumped when asked what kind of coffee I wanted with it. I went with a cafe latte, and received a subtly nutty and sweet drink with a light coffee kick. Having now reread the wikipedia page on orzo , I'm confused as to whether there was actually coffee in the beverage or whether it's just prepared in the same range of styles (latte, long black, etc). Could that twitchy leg I developed afterwards "from the caffeine" be psychosomatic? To accompany my orzo latte, a mini bomboloni with lemon custard. The perfect little package for an early treat! ____________ Want more Brunetti? We have this and ten other visits archived here .

Among other things, our disaster dinner left a few apples and glugs of cashew cream in its wake. What struck me most about the cream was that it wasn't distinctly sweet or savoury and I wondered how I might utilise it for dessert. Here's the solution. Puff pastry squares, topped with apple slices and sprinklings of agave syrup and Chinese five spice. Baked until golden and then drizzled with cashew cream. At least as good as it sounds.

Cindy and I found ourselves at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon and, rather strangely, her thought turned to cocktails. We used to semi-regularly attend a half-priced Sunday afternoon cocktail extravaganza just down the street from where we lived in West End, but since we moved down to Melbourne cocktails have only occasionally been on the agenda . We were fairly sure that Brunswick Street had more than just Polly to offer us boozy mixed drinks, and this review of Black Pearl, offering not only fancy cocktails but also the world's best chips, gave us a destination for the evening. It's a cozy and comfortable place - at least in the afternoon. I'm not sure how pleasant it would be if it was jam packed, but when you can nab a couple of couches in the corner for yourself and chat quietly, it's a fine, relaxed venue. First things first: chips - the food menu wasn't substantial, but included a range of promising items (the feta and haloumi cigars were high on my l...

This eatery's true identity has eluded us for some time. "Tofu Shop International" registered early interest in Michael and I when we first moved to Melbourne and spotted it in our 2006 Cheap Eats guide. Now I'm not even sure that that's quite its name - the sign more accurately reads "TOFU SHOP international fine foods ". Let's just push on with the simpler moniker "Tofu Shop ", shall we? A couple of attempted visits were foiled by the fact that the Tofu Shop is closed on Sundays. As I read about their tofu soft serve ice cream in exotic flavours like rosewater, and coconut-pandan, I became increasingly keen to visit. Then there was Kristy's post about one particular staff member hassling vegans. At an all-vegetarian shop featuring tofu. What the...? There was no sign of this person, or any other unfriendly folk, when we finally tried the Tofu Shop for dinner. Instead we encountered a bench full of vegetarian dishes and a fri...

Cindy and I had cooked up some vague dinner plan, but when I caught the scent of the potato and leek soup in Radio (which, by the way, has added more options to its lunch menu and is now the clear lunch winner on my end of Gertrude), I cancelled whatever other notions we had and decided that it was time for another soup. After a bit of poking around the internet, we came up with this recipe , from Reynard's Feast, which Danika sadly appears to have stopped updating. We weren't organised enough to have faux-milk in the house, so our version ended up being non-vegan. Similarly, we were forced to resort to dried sage through general lack of planning. Regardless, this worked out excellently - the mashing of the spuds (rather than blending) makes for a more interesting consistency. So much so that I decided just to mash the cooked leek as well, which meant it retained a slight chunkiness. The mustard gave the milder flavours a bit of an edge, and Cindy topped it all off with s...

I recently spotted this vege burger recipe on melbedggood.com and tagged it 'cause it utilises two foods that have been languishing in our pantry for a while: bulghur and peanuts. With its nutritious ingredients list and oven baking, I was curious to see how these patties would measure up in taste and texture to other recipes we've tried. They have a pleasant nutty flavour and the bulghur doesn't make them too heavy, as I feared it might. However, the patties didn't hold together quite as well as I'd hoped they would. I wonder if a bit of extra oil on the baking tray would help? I also took Mel's advice in making some barbeque sauce to plonk on top - gold! The recipe requires only a quarter of an onion, so I slow cooked the remaining three quarters in rings as an additional topping. It was a thoroughly enjoyable meal, though not a serious threat to the household reigning burger champion, the chickpea cutlet .

Lest you think that it's all virtuous breakfasts , golden vegetables and effortless treats in our kitchen, let me tell you about our latest cooking failure. For some time I've been wanting to try making my own gnocchi. Keen to enjoy it while the weather's still cool, Michael and I used a spare Saturday to pick out a recipe , buy a cheap potato ricer and some groceries on Sydney Rd and set to work. Along the way we decided to invite my aunt Carol to share dinner with us - it's been a while since we last had a meal with her . This was a team task, and Michael and I worked together well enough. We got started long before Carol was due to arrive but the hour-long baking that the potatoes required set us back. We'd chatted and prepped and drank for a good hour with Carol before we had the little pillows pictured above, ready for cooking. Sadly, cooking transformed them into this: We called for pizza. Pathetic as out not-cchi were, Michael and I weren't too embarras...

31/12/2012: Robbies Stein has closed down. After a delicious but modestly portioned breakfast at Minimo , Michael and I spent a couple of hours running errands along Sydney Rd. Before hopping on the tram back home, it was too tempting to stop at Robbies Stein for a small, late lunch. This turned out to be a cracking idea - unbeknownst to us, Robbies (I wish they'd use an apostrophe) offers a range of 'grazing plates'. Even better, there are plenty of vegetarian ones. How to choose between polenta, gyoza, dukkah-spiced eggplant chips, haloumi, crumbed olives, dips? Well, part of the choice was made for us because twistedbrick particularly recommended the hand cut chips ($6.50). (Because otherwise, me ordering chips? Never happens. *cough*) They were fine specimens indeed. You could serve these without a dipping sauce and they'd still impress. As it was, I was happy to give them their dose of aioli. But would you, could you, believe that those fabulous chips w...

Cindy and I invented some excuse for a Saturday breakfast on the town - I can't even remember what it was, maybe we were out of milk. Anyway, I did some quick internet research and convinced Cindy that we should go somewhere new. And that somewhere was Minimo. Minimo isn't quite part of the whole Sydney Road scene in Brunswick, it's just a little bit north of the trendy bits. And Minimo's not entirely trendy - it's low key and relaxed, with lots of big windows and a fairly large open kitchen plonked in the corner. The menu is basically divided in two: eggs and French toast (there are some beans and things tacked on to the end, but the eggs and toast are the real focus). I spent a while pondering, before settling on the tapenade: two poached eggs, mushroom and capsicum tapenade with sour dough. Of course as soon as I'd made my choice, the waitress came over and reeled off two stunning sounding specials: some sort of purple roesti with poached eggs and the e...

Despite being stranded in the US South , Cindy kept her finger on the Melbourne food pulse and sent around an email reminding me of The Age's Winter Restaurant Express - a week-long promotion where some of Melbourne's fanciest restaurants offer two-course lunches with a glass of wine for just $30. We'd visited Oyster the last time this kind of promotion was on, and been just slightly underwhelmed by the vego dish on offer. We were wowed by Cafe Vue's vego work at their cocktail night , so we had high hopes that Bistro Vue would come through for us this time around. We turned up a little late, and were worried that we were going to be hurried through the meal so we weren't in the way of the second lunch sitting. The restaurant didn't seem too busy, but we still felt a little pressure from the staff to get ourselves in and out fairly quickly. It took some of the fun out of the whole meal, but it was at least half our fault so it's hard to be too upset. Th...

While I spent a month away from my workplace, Elise kindly volunteered to organise the seminar schedule in my absence. As I checked my email on holiday and at distant conferences, it was always reassuring to spot one of her friendly messages to the group and know that all was running smoothly. It's said that one good turn deserves another, and in my workplace good turns are usually edible. So as a small gift of thanks, I whipped up a batch of crunchy chewy chocolate clusters for Elise. This time I used dried strawberries, almonds, coconut and a sprinkle of orange blossom water. The orange blossom water didn't contribute much at all, but the strawberries were lovely. It's lucky that I had only a limited supply of chocolate, or there wouldn't have been any strawberries left for my porridge !

In the almost-four years that Michael and I have been vegetarian we've not come up against much resistance. Yet I've been surprised at the number of otherwise broad-minded people I meet who screw their noses up at vegan food. "I had a vegan biscuit once and it was revolting !" proclaimed one inner-city Melbournite a couple of months ago, dismissing the entire lifestyle on this fragile basis. It irks me. Though there's a sizable portion of non-vegan foods in my diet, I've eaten (and cooked ) countless wonderful vegan meals and treats without any sense of deprivation. This is probably why I was so interested in the Vegan Bake-Off organised to launch Leigh Drew's new cookbook, Vegan Indulgence . I wasn't particularly set on winning - I just wanted to check out the variety of vegan sweets made in ordinary kitchens and contribute something modest to the spread. Because really, how difficult could it be to make a good vegan biscuit? I set to work on a...

08/01/2014: Jaipur Curry Bar has now closed its doors and neighbour Red Pepper has expanded into its space. On Saturday night we were after a quick meal in the city before heading to MIFF . I took the opportunity to complete the Bourke St trio of Indian restaurants by visiting Jaipur Curry Bar. Nestled between Green Pepper and Red Pepper , the setting straddles the two - tables are very much cafeteria style but some effort's been made to colour and decorate the walls. Interestingly the menu includes beef, though goat is more dominant. Jaipur initially scored points for actually having the mango lassi that was advertised on the menu. Entirely for the sake of comparison, I ordered the malai kofta with two naans again ($9). The naan was pretty good but the curry was the least of the three - an average dumpling in a one-dimensional but rather hot gravy. Michael was faced with the difficult decision of choosing between five vegetarian paneer dishes; his kahari paneer ($8, with...

Edit 11/03/2016: Fitzroyalty has declared Birdman Eating to be closed. When we first moved to Melbourne and I started working on Gertrude Street I remember being very disappointed that Organic Gertrude, given high praise in our Cheap Eats 2006 guide, had left Fitzroy before I'd arrived, for more remote digs out at Fairfield. Still, it didn't take me long to discover the Vegetable Connection on Brunswick Street for my fresh fruit and veg needs. And then my disappointment was completely washed away when Birdman Eating appeared in Organic Gertrude's vacant premises. I got to work agitating for a visit straight away, but for some reason (the 20 minute walk and lack of direct tram featuring highly I'm guessing) I could never convince Cindy to head in for a weekend breakfast. Luckily, Cindy pays a lot more attention to Melbourne foodbloggers than she does to me, and when Mary raved about it (although she was hardly the first ), Birdman suddenly appeared on Cindy'...

For most of my life, the Brussels sprout has been more a myth than a vegetable. Children and former children seem almost to rejoice in their hatred of it. I suspect that my mum was one of their number and thus never cooked them for me - I probably reached adulthood without even knowing precisely what a Brussels sprout looked like. I suppose their green leafy layers and relation to the cabbage are not great selling points to the corn-and-carrots crowd, but I think these compact little bundles are actually quite cute. I count myself lucky that I'm only just getting to know them now, after a solid decade of developing a real appreciation for vegetables. This way I can say easily and without prejudice that I like Brussels sprouts just fine! I'm not on any one-person crusade to raise awareness of the Brussels sprout. Plenty of other keen cooks have been enjoying it for years. It was actually a collaborator at work who first extolled to me the virtues of lightly steamed sprou...

I'm currently harbouring a crush on rhubarb. It's like the best bits of red cordial and jube lollies without that chemical edge and soapy aftertaste. I assumed it couldn't get better than the rhubarb and ginger pudding I baked last year, but I was mistaken. Not only does rhubarb get better, it gets easier! With the few stalks remaining after the muffins , I tried my hand at a compote. A quick scan of the internet had it looking simple enough - I didn't rely on a particular source, though I did imitate Lucy's sprinkle of rosewater once the cooking was over. Wow. That extra fragrance, that extra complexity, lifts rhubarb to a new plane! I spooned it generously over porridge, carefully rationing it out for each mouthful, savouring every last drop of the sweet-sour syrup. And now that I've mentioned porridge, it deserves a few words of its own. Though I could probably make my own mix more cheaply, I bought a packet of multi-grains (oats, wheat, triticale, r...