the poison doughnut

Marion Godart jewellery

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:06:00 +0000

When I was in Paris, I bought a giant multicoloured disc necklace and a big red plastic rooster brooch from a cute little boutique. They were both by French designer Marion Godart. I love these two pieces a lot at the moment. My next task is to find out where I can buy more online!

Masterfoods commercial

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:22:00 +0000

Julie from MasterChef is starring in a couple of TV ads for Fountain Sauces and Masterfoods Australia. Is it just me, or are they both deeply tragic and embarrassing to watch? In the one where she tells her boys to take the bins out, one of her sons gives her this look. You know he's thinking, "OMG Mum. This is so lame. You have totally sold out and gone mad with power. I'm just doing this because the bribery money I'm getting will pay for a new PS and Grand Theft Auto 4".
And in the other ad, where she pretends to have a deep and meaningful convo with herself in the pantry, assigning various Masterfoods sauces to various future meals while pretending to be a wholesome family mum who mysteriously wears ridiculously raccoony black eye makeup while whipping up saucy chicken for lunch with Margaret Fulton. And again to you, Margaret, WTF? Haven't you got enough dough stashed away from your life of fabulous cuisine contributions? Surely you don't NEED whatever Masterfoods is throwing at you to smile at Julie Goodwin and pretend to take a bite of a pre-prepared packet sauce chicken. As if. You probably spat it into your napkin as soon as the shot was over. You wouldn't be caught dead with a packet.
Shame!

Lunch feast at La Ferme de Mont St. Michel

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:36:00 +0000

We visited Mont St. Michel. It was lovely, but crowded, hot and full of tourists. I learned during this little expedition that the Mont is the second most-visited tourist site in France, after Paris. Not surprising then that basically the whole lower half of the island and the 2 km of road leading to it is full of mostly-dodgy tourist restaurants and lame souvenir shops.
We discovered this gem of a restaurant tucked away where the tourist restos stop. It's called La Ferme de Mont St. Michel and was recommended to us by a local. It's in an old stone farm building with a pen of goats in the back yard. We turned up starving at about 1pm and didn't leave till after 3- not really your traditional four-hour French lunch, but close enough. They had a 19-euro (so cheap!) menu that we didn't expect to be as delicious as it was.
Originally we were hunting the agneau pré-salé (salt-marsh-fed lamb) that the region is famous for, but they had run out. Moules marinieres more than made up for it.

Cidre Pommeau and home-made crisps
Selection of four local terrines
Apple and pork pastry terrine
Moules Marinieres with potatoes and vegetables
Far Breton
Local cheese platter

Crunky chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:09:00 +0000

They brought this back for me from Shanghai.

Cool name, slightly less awesome chocolate.

Whitegoods challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Buying a new fridge or washer in Paris is usually a stress-free process, except when you need to actually get it into your flat.

Paris supermarket

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:52:00 +0000

Curious about what those fancy-pants Parisians have in their shopping trolley? Some of it ain't that fancy.

Frozen paella, mini-pizzas, frozen vegetable medleys

Teissiere fruit syrups, to be added to mineral water

Green mint, grenadine, glacial mint, lime, passionfruit, strawberry, blackcurrant, grapefruit

A treasure-trove of chocolatey malty milky additives.

Chicory (the French are totally into this, I think they had to have it during the war to stretch their coffee), and lots and lots of sweet hot chocolate mix (including the famous Banania)

Boudin blanc (with wine) and boudin noir (with onions).

They love chocolatey cereals. LOVE them.

Dairy goodness. No pasteurisation here, just raw-milk cheeses, varied, fragrant, cheap and calorific-terrific.

Normandy camemberts, Bridel, Lepetit, President, raclette, coulommiers, Fauquet

More fromages, and butter. Caprice des Dieux, Cremeux, Cabecou de Perigord,
Charentes-Poitoux, Chaource, Boursault, Brin de Paille, Rouy, Le Vieux Pane

The flavoured yoghurt and dairy dessert section. Enormous. Chocolate rules supreme, of course.

Fruit dairy desserts and breakfast yoghurts.

Reese Witherspoon looks terrible

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Seen the new Avon perfume ad starring Reese Witherspoon?

She looks nothing like her usual fresh glowing self. Her face seems to be a whole new puffy shape and she totters over the bridge like a 19-year-old slapper wearing her first pair of race-day heels. The shot where she looks back over her shoulder at the camera is deeply tragic. She appears to have no neck. Stumpy McGee. Check out the dark circles under the eyes in the final shot.
What happened, Reese? Did they CGI you? Do you really look like that? I know you didn't create the ad, but surely you checked it, right?
I do like the camellia tree, though. That would be nice to have in your front yard.

Roast chicken and vegetables with apricot clafoutis

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:31:00 +0000

A family summer lunch in the Champagne region.

There was home-made olive and thyme bread, roast chicken, peas and carrots from the garden and waxy potatoes. The vegetables were boiled in that French way so that they were very soft but retaining a tangy flavour.

The apricots were from the neighbour. My friend uses soy milk and almond meal in her clafoutis batter so that it is light and not soggy. This was a memorable lunch.

French Special K

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:16:00 +0000

Harrumph. Even though I am meh about cereal and especially Special K at the best of times, I still don't see why the US and Europe gets all the specialty flavours and varieties while Australia gets bugger-all.

Yes, we have the Red Fruits type, but we certainly don't have Dark Chocolate, Almond or Apple Crumble varieties.

Then again, do I really want apple-crumble-flavoured cereal?

Jelly Belly rotten flavours

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:38:00 +0000

So it looks like Jelly Belly aren't content with chocolate pudding, butterscotch and (my favourite) watermelon flavours. The latest lineup is called Beanboozled and it comes in a Russian roulette-style game box: will you get Buttered Popcorn, or Rotten Egg? Coconut, or Baby Wipes? Juicy Pear, or Booger?

I really want to buy this and try it out. What's even more creepy than the concept is that some poor work experience guy at Jelly Belly had to sit there and taste-test all those rotten flavours. Imagine that guy's day at work.

Natural Harvest recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:33:00 +0000

I have seen this cookbook with my own eyes.

10pm picnic on the bank of the Seine

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:03:00 +0000

After hours and hours of shopping and walking, we picked up a few things from the supermarket, stopped into the bakery just before they closed, and found a spot on the very crowded bank of the west end of Ile de la Cite. It was the most fun you could have sitting on concrete, throwing bread scraps to mouldy pigeons, sipping strong cider, eating dry ham, cheese and tabouli and watching the glorious Parisian sunset at about 10.30pm.

Strawberry picking in Champagne

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:05:00 +0000

We drove out to the pick-your-own vegetables place, not far from Chalons. They give you a plastic tub, and then you follow the signs to your chosen fruit or vegetable. I really wanted to pick apples, but they weren't ready yet. The strawberries were almost finished, but we managed to find a few rows tucked away down the back. When you've filled your tub, you take it into the shop and it gets weighed.

My friend Claudie used these strawberries to make a light jam: she washed them and trimmed them, but didn't hull them. She put them into a saucepan with almost an equal weight in sugar, and then simmered for about half an hour. The result was a bright-red, light, barely-set jelly with huge globes of translucent strawberry suspended within. So beautiful. Doesn't keep long, she said, but who needs it to?

Lindt sea salt chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:38:00 +0000

My friend Jem brought this rare Lindt chocolate back for me from Los Angeles. I wish it was available easily in Australia: it is to die for. The usual creamy Lindt mouthfeel, sparked off and contrasted by flakes of crunchy sea salt. Surprisingly, they don't detract from the sweetness at all. The salt enhances the flavour.

I think I will start adding chocolate to my savoury dishes, like the Spanish do.

Bushwalking at Mt Barney

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:07:00 +0000

Cheap Brisbane meals

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Courtesy of the Courier Mail.

The places to go to get a quality meal for under $10:

Tan Thanh
Inala shopping precinct

Govinda's (vegetarian)
CBD

Oliver & Co. Gourmet Groceries and Deli (wood-fired pizzas)
South Brisbane

The Vietnamese Restaurant
Wickham St, Fortitude Valley

Balti Express (Indian)
Fortitude Valley

Alibi Room (special deals on Tuesdays)
Fortitude Valley

Quality meals for under $15:

Mizu (Japanese bento)
Teneriffe

Top Noodle
Sunnybank

Silver Charm Thai
Fortitude Valley

Buzz Bistro
Fortitude Valley

Jakarta Indonesian
Fortitude Valley

Quality meals for under $20:

1 degree bar and dining
CBD

Crosstown Eating House
Woolloongabba

1889 Pizzeria
Yeronga and Petrie Terrace (Barracks)

Mu'ooz Eritrean Restaurant
Moorooka

Barolo
CBD

Paris absinthe shop

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:12:00 +0000

You know I've talked about absinthe before: now here's the store in Paris dedicated to the green fairy.

Don't ask me where it is. All I know is that's it's in the Marais somewhere.

Seaside lunch in St.Malo

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:25:00 +0000

Remember the trip to St. Malo? Pirate country? There was actually a proper lunch in there somewhere. We ate at Le Lion D'Or (The Golden Lion)- a tourist trap if there ever was one, but this time, not a bad trap to be in. They were doing a 18 euro lunch menu. I had the six oysters, and the roast chicken. It came with chips and salad each in their own little glass cups, another cup of light chicken gravy, and the half chicken was nicely presented on a cast-iron Staub tray. My German friend had the gratin de morue. I admit that I have never tried mashed cod bake, but she said it was very light and tasty. Of course we had cider, as well.

Breakfast at Grind

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:38:00 +0000

We went to Grind for breakfast, while we were up at Noosa for the Jazz Festival a couple of weeks ago. It's on Gympie Terrace at Noosaville. Out of the selection of breakfasty places along the terrace there, this one was the second-most busy. We had the omelette, the poachy with mushroom and tomato jam, and the eggs benedict. Good verdicts all round. The hollandaise on my eggs though... foamy and buttery. It's supposed to be like mayonnaise, people: it takes time and effort to perfect a hollandaise. It's not just whisking some butter and yolks together, it's creating a thick emulsion that leaves a silky ribbon behind the whisk.

I guess it's my own fault for consistently choosing the eggs benny when I know that hollandaise is a problem for a lot of breakfast cooks. If I didn't love poachies so much I'd go the omelette or even the classic bacon and hash browns, but there you have it. Good coffee though.

White on white birthday cake

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:24:00 +0000

This was for my cousin's 21st birthday party.

I made cupcakes with pound cake mixture combined with vanilla and lemon zest, then filled the cases with plain white icing. I used large silver cachous from Spotlight for decoration. Then I piled them up onto a silver cakeboard and decorated with a white and silver feather butterfly (also Spotlight.) The marshmallows were partly structural and partly pretty. The cakes were glued lightly together and to the base board with a plain white icing: the marshmallows were also glued in place and served to hold some corners together. I really like the white-on-white thing and this could be really good in a similar vein for Christmas.

Make money from being an opininated git

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Holiday critics' cash for comment

THE SWITCHED-ON TOURIST: David Carroll September 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian

AMERICAN travellers have a reputation for being rather loud. But in the online world, it seems, we Australians are the ones who really enjoy being heard.

Research company Forrester claims that more than one-quarter of Australians active online regularly post content on the internet, such as videos, blogs and holidays snaps (putting us ahead of the US, where about 20 per cent of online adults are so-called creators). Even more of us, 35 per cent, apparently are critics who post reviews or contribute to online forums.

If you enjoy bagging shoddy hotels, praising good tour operators or just passing on helpful travel tips, then consider sending your work to one of the growing number of websites that will reward you for your efforts.

There are plenty of sites that pay for written reviews, including Helium (www.helium.com), Review Stream (www.reviewstream.com) and Associated Content (www.associatedcontent.com). And if you enjoy creating videos in your hotel room -- um, let me be more specific -- of your hotel room, then consider uploading your film to Tripr.tv (www.tripr.tv).

These sites entice contributors with a wide variety of payment models. Some offer a set fee for your review, video or slideshow, some link earnings to the number of people who read or view your work while others operate a combination of the two. Generally, once you've earned a specified amount you can use an online payment system such as PayPal to download your money.

Other sites offer the ability to earn points, which then can be redeemed for vouchers or products. A good example is Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com), where reviews generate so-called GO Points, which can be converted in Australia for gift certificates. You start earning points as soon as you register and post your first piece.

One of the latest sites to pop up, Simonseeks, is pursuing a slightly different approach. Started by super-rich online entrepreneur Simon Nixon, the site is aiming to attract one million unique visitors a month and its user-generated destination guides (of which there are already more than 1500) are an important part of its strategy.

Visitors can search for guides based on destinations, themes or budget and rate them on quality and relevance, withthe most popular enjoying more prominence.

What's interesting about the Simonseeks concept is that it's willing to reward contributors whose guides encourage consumers to book a holiday component. Every time a reader takes the next step by clicking through to an affiliated site product and making a booking, Simonseeks splits the commission revenue it receives 50-50. It also shares display advertising revenue with review writers.

It's not the first website to turn reviewers into salespeople; Tripr.tv also pays a fee to video-makers when their work results in a hotel booking. But Simonseeks is certainly the most ambitious venture of its kind. Between now and December, for example, the site is giving away pound stg. 20,000 ($39,000) worth of prizes to people who post great reviews.

Theoretically, as some of the sites eagerly point out, the amount of money you can make contributing reviews is unlimited. In reality, don't quit your day job as you'd need to be posting content that regularly captures the attention of tens of thousands of readers just to eke out an uncertain existence.
Still, there's no harm in earning a little spending money for your next trip.

Beautiful, fragrant tea

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Scents and Sensibility

London's best parfumer has opened an inviting tea salon, reports Susan Kurosawa
September 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian

A TINY salon-style setting at the rear of a shop in ever-so-posh Mayfair is the venue for London's most fragrant place to take tea.

Lyn Harris has one of Britain's best noses; this young French-trained parfumer has gained a reputation for her range of unusual fragrances -- she even produces a perfume based on the sharp smells of the salt marshes of Normandy -- and she has branched into the aromatic world of tea leaves.

Harris says drinking "rare and beautiful teas has always been an essential luxury" for her. So combining a discerning palate with that fine nose, Harris has collaborated with a leading "teasmith", Tim d'Offay of Postcard Teas in Mayfair, to source a selection of black, white and oolong teas from "the finest tea gardens in the East".

She has blended these precious leaves with her favourite comestible natural essences, including bergamot and warm spices, to create the Fragrant Tea by Lyn Harris range of three blends, which was launched in September last year in her Miller Harris stores. The beautifully packaged teas seem to have acquired a natural home alongside fragrances, candles, single-note oils and bath and body unguents. Surely anyone who walks into a Miller Harris store must instantly twitch their nose in joy.

On a spring morning I take tea with Harris at her serene Bruton Street flagship store. There are just a few tables in a setting of bentwood chairs, banquettes and fabrics with buttercup-yellow botanical prints. From Royal Albert porcelain teacups of the flowery design best used by dainty ladies I sample her three signature blends. No milk or sugar entertained, of course, as such additives sully the pure taste.

She tells me that experimenting with food-grade versions of her perfume ingredients, such as bergamot and rose, started "as a fun thing". We start with bergamot, Harris's bespoke version of classic earl grey. "Pure bergamot can be too harsh," Harris says, so she has added tangerine vert and, "to give it a final twist", the base has "a pinch of vanilla". The tea is so deliciously heady it's hard to know whether to drink it or dab a bit behind the ears.

We progress, via baby cupcakes with rose icing, to Petales, which has a core of white tip oolong tea from Taiwan and geranium bourbon from the Reunion Islands off the west coast of southern Africa. In itself that sounds like an aromatic recipe but Harris has tempered the blend with notes of vanilla from Sri Lanka and rose absolute from Turkey. It is like drinking a bouquet.

Third in this epicurean range is Fume, a smoked variety that I imagine could be a cross between my favourite teas, russian caravan and lapsang souchong. It is and it isn't; Harris has used vanilla bourbon from Madagascar and cinnamon and cardamom from Sri Lanka blended into a black tea smoked over cinnamon wood. Now I am out of the garden and into the spice dens of the Orient. It is simply delicious, like a smoky, complex chai elevated to a sublime level.

Harris has been working on her second range since my May visit and she will launch a further three blends this month. The trio consists of bigarade, a full-bodied breakfast affair of second-flush Assam perked with Sri Lankan vanilla, while Violette, as its name roundly suggests, fuses this flower (and blackcurrant buds and green mulberry leaves) with the "sweet muscatel notes" of second-flush darjeeling.

The third, Sauvage, uses rare Tong Mu Mountain tea blended with accents of rosemary, French lavender and "the sweet, malted notes" of pekoe.

Harris is widely considered the leading independent parfumer in Britain and in her domestic laboratory has been experimenting for more than 10 years; she set up the Miller Harris brand in 2000 and regularly releases new fragrances. Her latest is Fleurs de Bois, which she says has been inspired by "walks through the secret garden in London's Regent's Park". The scent is green and woody, like dewy grass on a cool morning. Like her teas, its smell is utterly transporting.

Fragrant Tea by Lyn Harris costs pound stg. 16 ($31) for a 50g caddy; refill, pound stg. 9.95. The Miller Harris Fragrant Tea Room is at 21 Bruton St, London W1J 6QD (off New Bond Street, near Mayfair and Piccadilly). Open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5.30pm. The new Fleurs de Bois perfume costs pound stg. 70 for 100ml eau de parfum; Miller Harris also designs bespoke fragrances for clients. Products are available online. More: www.millerharris.com.

My Cookbooks Online

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:52:00 +0000

A good idea... this site searches the cookbooks that you already own, works out which recipes you can make and in what quantity, then gives you a personalised shopping list so you can hit the shops.

You need to sign up for it, but I think that if you are the kind of person who really can't be arsed trolling through your cookbook library for every little thing (preferring instead to search online...like I do) then this could be a godsend. Just tell it what books you have and it will make your life easier. Can't argue with that.

American candy in Brisbane

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:06:00 +0000

Used to be that you had to order your American candy fix from specialist shops online. But now, not so. There are a plethora of places in Brisbane now that stock classic US chocolates and candies, like Junior Mints (Seinfeld!), Hershey's (although they've been here for a while), Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, Almond Joy , Twizzlers, Red Vines and so on.

This isn't much of a list, but here are some places that I've seen American candy for sale:

Blockbuster video stores
The corner store near the Swann Road roundabout at St Lucia

The candy place upstairs at Westfield Carindale, near The Body Shop

The Nut Shack, James St Markets

The Fig Tree Deli at Camp Hill

The Quik-E-Mart at Coorparoo
The Spar convenience store on Oxford St, Bulimba. They have Baby Ruths, Butterfingers and also Cherry Coke, Grape Fanta and Dr Pepper

Many small corner stores and so on.

So at this stage, it seems to be mostly independendents deciding whether or not to stock these imports. Once the supermarkets get on to it, that will be the end of you, Cadbury.

Personally, I have a weakness for Reese's range of peanutty goodness, and I also love me a Junior Mint. They are definitely sweeter than I prefer, but there's something about that processed, artificially-flavoured, fake-butter flakiness: that melting mouthfeel, that down-home all-American combination of innocence and bravado that appeals.

And while I'm on the topic, Oreos. Lame American TV ads ("My mom says...gulp... chocolate isn't good for dogs") and dodgy Aussie ripoffs ("Bachelors!!") aside, they really are a perfect companion to a tall frosty glass of cold milk. Every time there's an Oreo packet in the office, they last for a maximum of three minutes before the sound of contented munching breaks out.

Ready to freak out? Here's the ingredients in an Oreo:

SUGAR, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE, MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL AND/OR PALM OIL AND/OR CANOLA OIL, AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SALT, SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER), VANILLIN - AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CHOCOLATE. CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.

Yeah, but whatever. I'm sure it's all that alkali-processed cocoa that makes them taste awesome, right?

Strawberries and cream cake

noreply@blogger.com (Pinky) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:06:00 +0000

I forgot about this cake: it was one of the six I had for my birthday. The parents made this simple one: two plain sponges, thickly whipped cream, fresh strawbs and icing sugar. Divine.