Words and Flavours | Melbourne food and book reviews

Referencing the self

2012-03-26T13:55:00.002+11:00

I've come across a lot of self-referential fiction of late - lots of writers writing about writers. John Irving's Widow for One Year manages to feature, and sample, for novelists in the one book, and spends many of its several hundred pages ruminating on whether writers should be able to imagine their stories and characters or whether they routinely fictionalise their own experiences as a form of

The old divide: 'Melbourne' by Sophie Cunningham and 'Sydney' by Delia Falconer

2012-01-09T14:38:00.002+11:00

Publishers New South are producing a series of books, penned as memoirs or love-letters to the author's hometown. Having read Sophie Cunningham's Melbourne late last year, I was intrigued to contrast and compare her highly personal journey through the city, and its mix of anecdote and history, with Delia Falconer's homage to my former hometown, Sydney. I read many reviews of Cunningham's book

Butchering realism

2012-01-07T19:32:00.002+11:00

I think Jamie Oliver should be knighted. Sure, he's long since lost the affability of The Naked Chef days, and his insistence on calling every woman he meets darlin', regardless of age or race, is annoying to say the least. But he gets food. And he gets that Britain has a wonderful food culture, both indigenous and imported, and has devoted his career to convincing people of that fact. I believe

'The True Story of Butterfish' - Nick Earls

2012-01-02T18:21:00.003+11:00

Nick Earls writes what he knows. He's obviously learnt a few new things in recent years. The True Story of Butterfish introduces a new protagonist: rather than a member of the medical fraternity, Curtis Holland is a former rockstar. He's producing albums now and divides his time - and technical descriptions - between music software and cooking. All familiarity is not lost, however. He lives in

Bimbo poster

2012-01-02T17:54:00.001+11:00

I bloody love this poster, used at Bimbo Deluxe for their special needs pizza:

Sewing and reaping

2011-11-28T16:20:00.003+11:00

Mr Fothergills - an Australian seed retailer - has an 'ad' in this month's Gardening Australia magazine. I put ad in inverted commas as it's quite clearly designed to look like an article, with no branding on the page but plenty of text. The text focuses on two things: that Australians, on average, don't eat enough vegetables; and that part of the reason for that is their high cost. The ad

Vitamin WTF

2011-11-20T14:47:00.006+11:00

VitaminWater are going all out with a new set of billboards advertising VitaminWaterZero, an improvement on VitaminWater10 because it's low calorie. That's a relief, cos all those calories in water have been bothering me...Let's wind back a step here. They are advertising low-calorie water. Water. The stuff that comes out of the tap, made up of hydrogen and oxygen, rather than a bunch of

Fructose free III - at what cost?

2011-11-06T13:00:00.003+11:00

I give great credit to Sacs in Westgarth. Formerly the wonderfully named Silly Yaks, this cafe and foodstore serves a full range of food suitable not only for a coeliac diet, but also for those avoiding fructose.A range of breads, pasta and ready meals are available from the freezer, and the cafe offers pies, pizzas and sweets, all marked out as FF or GF. They even offer tarts with forbidden

Where's your kitchen?

2011-10-27T14:51:00.004+11:00

An intriguing part of the cafe boom around Brunswick is the forebearance of installing a kitchen. It's a pretty vital part of the food-service industry, but many venues go instead for a food-preparation area of grill and sink behind the counter, with as much bench space given to the coffee machine and its accessories.The breadth of cafe options in the area owes thanks to that decision - it is, of

Cheap as chips

2011-10-17T16:59:00.005+11:00

Down at Bridie O'Reillys, Friday nights are a bargain...for them. How does only getting a fifth of your meal sound? (Maybe one of the loads of 'give aways' is the chance to win the other 80%...)Click on the pic to see in larger detail.

Hungry City - Carolyn Steel

2011-09-12T17:01:00.004+10:00

I've rarely enjoyed the pleasure of a non-fiction book that brings together so many of my favourite themes for consideration.I came across Carolyn Steel as the presenter of the keynote address for this year's State of Design festival. Steel is an architect by trade, but some years ago started researching how the design of our cities reflects, is influenced by and (especially in modern cities)

'Small World' - Matt Beaumont

2011-09-01T10:03:00.007+10:00

In 2000, Matt Beaumont published e, a novel written entirely in email exchanges between the employees of an ego-drenched London advertising agency. Its humour and observations would appeal to any fans of The Gruen Transfer. I've followed his work since that first novel had me chuckling and referencing for days. Where There's a Will continued the vein of comedy, but added a more bittersweet twist

Not so supermarket

2011-08-17T16:14:00.003+10:00

Is there nothing supermarkets can't offer? Along with an astonishing special (who doesn't need five pairs of tissues at once? And how happy is this guy to be offering them?), they're also helping out with basic maths. That's right, five boxes for $5 equals...$1 a box. A division worthy of its exclamation mark. Thanks Woolworths. Only question is, how will I fit them on my bike?

'Little Sister' - Aimee Said

2011-08-09T17:00:00.000+10:00

Al Miller is in Year 10 and living in the shadow of her pretty, popular, super-talented, super-respected older sister Larrie, who's about to do her Year 12 exams. Using this simple, and common, story basis, Aimee Said has crafted a young-adult novel that covers an admirable number of areas of teenage angst, from identity to popularity to sexuality, in a plot that is both modern and believable.

Monsieur Truffe and friends

2011-08-09T11:05:00.009+10:00

Monsieur Truffe: 351 Lygon St, Brunswick East; (03) 9380 4915 Kumo: 152 Lygon St, Brunswick East; (03) 9388 1505 The Resurrection: 135 Lygon St, Brunswick East (no phone) What's happening in Brunswick East? Everything, seems to be the answer. This isn't the first time this blog, and many others, have talked about the changes to the northern end of Lygon St. In the five or more years I've

Libertine

2011-08-04T22:44:00.001+10:00

500 Victoria St, North Melbourne; (03) 9329 5228 Degustations really are gourmet at its best. The first time I settled in for a degustation I couldn't wrap my tongue around the pronunciation. True, I was in Italy, and struggling to keep up with the emphases as I grappled with languages across Europe. We drank Montepulciano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano, appropriate as that was the very town we

'The Hippopotamus' - Stephen Fry

2011-08-04T11:52:00.000+10:00

Recently I had cause to answer the question: who do you rank among the cleverest minds of our time? It's one of those frustrating enquiries, for which you know you've come across candidates, but put on the spot it can be hard to come up with a good answer, one that doesn't seem trite or obvious.A day or so later, the perfect answer came into my mind: Stephen Fry. He is, irrefutably, a clever man.

Are you mad about Harry?

2011-08-01T14:43:00.004+10:00

HP VII 2...sounds more like a printer model than a movie. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) was released, I made no effort to organise to see it. I felt my patience had been exhausted by the franchise, and I had never reconciled my cynicism at them splitting the last of the movies into two parts.I've wondered many times why I found that decision so insupportable. While I assumed

'The Tipping Point' - Malcolm Gladwell

2011-07-26T16:49:00.004+10:00

Non fiction has crept into my reading habits, seemingly of its own volition. It's partly come from maturing interests - wanting to know more about the social issues I believe in than what comes from media and conversation.Although it's the medium I mostly write in, I don't always enjoy reading it, and often find it frustrating. The genres of non fiction are just as diverse as those of fiction,

New York - American classics

2011-06-20T13:10:00.014+10:00

The great thing about travelling to New York is that you're not really in America. It's historically one of the most liberal regions in the country, and New Yorkers will tend to introduce themselves as such, not as Americans. The various boroughs and neighbourhoods of the city are so delineated they're like individual states within a small country. Small in size only, though - if New York were

New York - food shopping

2011-06-20T12:34:00.012+10:00

Travelling in America for the first time is like experiencing a walk-through guidebook that explains references from TV shows and movies. Not that I saw a Twinkie while I was there...I still don't know what that is. Or the joy of Pottery Barn. But I did have graham crackers sprinkled over a frozen yoghurt.Seeing Whole Foods supermarkets put me in mind of Reality Bites: (Lelaina to Troy): 'Oh Troy

New York - brunch

2011-06-19T19:16:00.012+10:00

They love to brunch in New York. And when I say brunch, I mean something more than just a snazzy word combination to describe a mid-morning meal, something more than ordering off the breakfast menu late in the day.Most cafes have a completely separate brunch menu, available only at set times on the weekend, normally something like 11-4. In most cases, the menu also covers cocktails - often one (

New York - pizza

2011-06-19T18:47:00.009+10:00

I'm sometimes surprised at how habitually SG and I eat pizza when we're away. We make it and/or order it at least once a week when we're at home but even so, whenever we're travelling, it comes up on the food menu pretty quickly.We tried three pizzas in New York. We started on our first night, languishing under the burden of jetlag and envying the rest of the city their enthusiasm for Friday

'Crossing to Safety' - Wallace Stegner

2011-05-17T12:45:00.004+10:00

Who is Wallace Stegner? He's a twentieth century midwest American writer, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He's renowned in Utah, where he grew up, and commemorated at the west-coast university where he taught creative writing with a writing award.But he's not an author who has received much attention in Australia. Crossing to Safety was his last novel, released in 1987, a full fifty years

Fructose free II: good and bad

2011-05-16T16:15:00.003+10:00

On a low-fructose finding trip to the Organic Wholefoods during the week, I had a win and a loss. The winner was this bread:Part of the Ancient Grains range, it's made from barley flour. It took a bit of research to confirm this as fructose friendly. It didn't come up in a lot of lists, which either meant I shouldn't be eating it or it just wasn't common enough to be counted. Interestingly,