Having Austin around did act as a handy reminder of the unparalleled diversity of food in Melbourne. For example, I live in a suburb dominated by two of the most disparate of the world’s cuisines: Ethiopian and Vietnamese. As I wander about a market named after an English monarch, I
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street food
May 18, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 11 Comments
Queen Victoria Market Borek
May 10, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments
Northern Thai in Western Melbourne: Bonus Content
Austin Bush has been hanging out with me in Melbourne over the last week and we’ve been doing the sort of thing that food bloggers do when they run into each other: drink every single pale ale made in Australia and New Zealand; eat several times a day with no
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Apr 28, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments
French Fry Coated Hotdog vs Molecular Gastronomy
Newley spots a french fry coated hotdog, I cook a french fry coated hotdog, then friends create the sort of french fry coated hotdog that would make Herve This or Ferran Adria cry tears of simultaneous joy and fear. Austin Bush and talented chef collaborator Hock have cooked a sous-vide
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Mar 29, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 11 Comments
Dosa Hut
Dosa Hut is the best restaurant in Melbourne; at least it is if you have $6.50 in your pocket and a hankering for Indian street food, which neatly outlines the problem with picking “best” restaurants. It’s contextual. I hate recommending restaurants to people that I don’t know because I’ll get
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Mar 19, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 6 Comments
Kebab Pizza
A few weeks ago, a Swedish friend contacted me to tell me that she couldn’t believe that we never had discussed kebab pizza. I’m sure that I had discussed both of these foods with her, but in complete isolation. Someone in Sweden has popularised the notion of combining two of
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Jan 03, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 10 Comments
Backyard Pizza
Happy New Year. The great Australian side effect of Baby Boomers with too much time on their hands is the backyard pizza oven. I’m certainly not complaining. For all that grief that has been caused by Gen-X being locked out of the managerial class is now being repaid in hot,
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May 14, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 10 Comments
Bánh Mì Xiu Mai
Bánh mì xiu mai is the ultimate culinary mashup: a strange interpretation of Cantonese food in a French baguette via Saigon. The banh mi is your average baguette filled with a slap of pate, pickled carrot and stalks of coriander. The xiu mai part is utterly bewildering. Picking the xiu
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Apr 14, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 87 Comments
French Fry Coated Hot Dog On a Stick: The Recipe
I shouldn’t be left unattended in the kitchen. One thing that struck me about finding the French fry coated hot dog on a stick in South Korea was that they were doing it wrong, the sort of cultural misunderstanding that happens when one culture cooks the food of an unrelated
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