Fortnightly round-up (11 April)

There has been a spate of food stores adjoining cafes/restaurants opening in the last few months: think Albert Street Food & Wine, and the Mini Marche at Hardware Societe. Now Southern Thai cafe Middle Fish has also started stocking Thai ingredients that they use in their dishes for you to take home (I was particularly taken with the Police Dog Brand tins). Bubbly proprietor Pla is only too happy to explain to you how the products are best used.


Speaking of Middle Fish, their kang tai pla (Southern style anchovy curry, $15.50) is the breakfast of champions.


Coming soon to a blog near you: an article about lots and lots of different small batch gins and tonics (here's a sneak preview). It's taken a long while, but I've nearly finished it. I've been reading some gin literature as part of my research, and have particularly enjoyed The Bartender's Gin Compendium by Gaz Regan, and Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason by Jessica Warner.


The organic bento at Kappaya Japanese Soul Food Cafe at Abbotsford Convent. Strongly recommended.


Some happy snaps of Easter culinary highlights: Mum's hot cross buns, served at our traditional Good Friday Champagne Breakfast;


Paola's chicken brodo with handmade agnolotti (stuffed with crispy pancetta and roasted peas), served at Sunday lunch;


céleri rémoulade (quite possibly my favourite salad of all time. OF ALL TIME!);


and a rather scary looking flourless chocolate cake. Who needs Easter eggs?



Links of Note:

- Mel wrote a great post about the ethics of restaurant food blogging on Fooderati. I really wish all bloggers would abide by these principles - the bad apples that don't give the rest of us a bad name. I like too that Mel included some advice for restaurants as well: don't encourage bad behaviour by courting it!

- Food blog ethics aren't just confined to the "dining out" blogs: the vexed issue of recipe copyright keeps cropping up on "dining in" blogs. Local bloggers Green Gourmet Giraffe and Confessions of a Food Nazi have written about it, noting that the author of Lambs' Ears and Honey has posted a follow up post to the original one that sparked the controversy.

- Squid Ink, L.A. Weekly's food blog, posted a neat Venn diagram showing L.A.'s idea of Mexican food vs what Mexicans really eat.

- To score [wine] or not to score: that is the question, writes Tom Hogan on I Love Riesling.

- Keen to relive the MFWF? Dining Nirvana wrote a wrap-up of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, including a handy list of blog posts by other bloggers reviewing MFWF events: part one, part two.

- Gorgeous post on Fox's Lane about a community cider pressing day.

- DineSmart 2011 raises $352,328 to fund 91 Community Projects. Bravo to all who donated/fundraised, especially to Chin Chin for their Victorian champion fundraising effort!

- BOOKMARK: Eater's The 38 Essential New York Restaurants, April '12.

- Peruvian food in Surry Hills? Yes please. From A Table for Two.

- Also drooling over photos of new Sydney restaurant Sixpenny on The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry. I'm heading up to Sydney next month: now taking suggestions on where I should eat and drink...