Two days ago I posted a story containing one of my habitual rants; how Brisbane Thai restaurants can’t seem to break from the pop’ classics and actually dish up some excitement. 24 hours later I was, quite literally, eating my words. The rant was catalysed by a visit to Temple Thai in Milton. It’s a …
BYO – remember that? Restaurants that provided food, service, a location and ambience and you brought a bottle of wine from home or the local bottlo. A usually modest fee was charged for the use of glassware etc and everybody was happy. Well almost….The problem is selling food alone in often high end venues with …
Wasabi: some folk reckon it’s the hardest plant on the planet to raise outside its native environment in the cold mountain streams of Japan. As a cash crop itt is ridiculously valuable and a few folk have worked very hard to simulate conditions to grow viable numbers of the plants: check out http://www.shimawasabi.com.au/ to see …
I recently flew out of the Brisbane heat and its 90% humidity, was in the air for one hour and ten minutes and stepped out into 12 degrees at 2pm. Ah Canberra in the summertime…..and this was all before the great frosty leadership spill! I went down there to see my son and fill his …
Being a gnarled old Craft Beer journeyman, I have participated in numerous Craft Beer & Brewery launches in various capacities. I’ve organised them, agonised over them & analysed the success or failure of them afterwards. A couple of weeks ago, I was very privileged to attend the launch of the Noisy Minor Brewing Co & …
Are you a Brisbane boy originally? No, im originally form Byron Bay, I moved to Brisbane the first time in 2003. How long have you been a chef? I started washing dishes at 16, and doing some work for my cousins restaurant in Byron. What has your career highlight been so far? I was lucky …
Imagine a rehab that reserves Wednesday nights for beer and pizza and Cider and Sliders are on offer all day and into the wee hours on Thursday. Gamblers and plastic surgery addicts may find this unusual treatment method successful but I’m not so sure about those of us who love our food and drink a …
What is it with these Nordic types & their obsession with brewing Craft Beer? In the past half dozen years or so Breweries seemed too have emerged from this part of the world and put their own unique spin on Old & New World beer styles. Today names like Amager, Evil Twin, Mikkeller & Nogne …
Would you expect to find excellent Tapas in a part of China that was ruled by the Brits for more than 150 years? I think not! But the worldwide Tapas craze has certainly washed over Hong Kong shores. The unsurprisingly named “Tapeo” in Hollywood Road exemplifies all that is great about the Spanish version of …
We thought it would be a cold day in hell when good food came to a food court. Enter New Shanghai in the Queens Plaza, a welcome change to the hackneyed line up of existing fast food joints. And probably for that reason, on any given day, you need to be prepared and willing to …
What’s in a name? If you want to call your dog Jaws it’s probably wise to choose a bull-mastiff over a poodle. And if, for example, you named your restaurant ‘The Steak & Kidney Pie’ there’d be a fair expectation that such a pie would feature on your menu, and it would want to be …
When Tony Harper opened Anise, just off the corner of Barker and Brunswick Streets in New Farm in 2000, he attracted a cult-like following of locals to corporates and everyone who was anyone in the wine scene at the time. With just 17 seats (then, now 20) its not hard to look busy and with …
As food and wine writers, we are rarely far from the abundance of the furtive fruitbowl of a country we are so fortunate to inhabit, but one thing we always could use more of is good adjectives. I favour ‘gorgeous’ and ‘delicious’ (sorry) when I like something while Tony Harper and ‘terrific’ have become quite …
It’s hard to believe that it has been a decade since the first ever Noosa Food and Wine Festival but this year marks the 10th Annual event and it is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet. International chefs confirmed this year include Carlo Cracco, Andre Chiang, Mauro Colagreco and Yoshihiro Narisawa. Ben …
Welcome and thank you for dropping by the first post for Foodzine! Briefly, this site will feature reviews of restaurants, wines, beers and other drinks, worthy ingredients as well as industry news and issues and the odd opinion piece. We will have regular contributors and also invite submissions from the industry and the public on relevant topics. …
Let me say right from the outset, the sole purpose of my visit to the Green Beacon Micro Brewery was the beer. Yep. I was here for the beer from the latest addition to Brisbane’s Craft Beer scene. I would quite happily sit on a broken milk crate in a vacant lot as long as … Continue reading »
Reblogged from the food and wine report: Would you expect to find excellent Tapas in a part of China that was ruled by the Brits for more than 150 years? I think not! But the worldwide Tapas craze has certainly washed over Hong Kong shores. The unsurprisingly named “Tapeo” in Hollywood Road exemplifies all that … Continue reading »
Bear Republic Brewing Co is based in Sonoma County California & has been brewing their fine ales for the past 18 years. Sonoma County is traditionally wine country, this Craft Brewery can hold its head high when it comes to comparison with the regions better known product. Their Racer 5 IPA is a classic example … Continue reading »
Pony on Up….Tony Harper is a bigot…… Continue reading »
This is a story in three parts – the Pony only imagined, based on PR, hearsay and my own bias; the morphed Pony thanks to a phone call based on a booking enquiry and the final tale following a late night visit. It begins with a part of me I don’t really like to acknowledge: … Continue reading »
I had a bloke from a major wine company drop in a while back. He was showing four new products for summer – four crisp, dry Aussie whites that had been inexplicably infused with all sorts of rubbish. Lime, strawberry, mint, cucumber and so on. He said the winemakers who landed this task were ‘very … Continue reading »
If homely European food is your thing take a trip up the narrow wooden staircase behind the main dining room at Pearl Cafe and you’ll find one of Brisbane’s best kept secrets. Diners gather around the dimly lit main island (which is used for prep during the day) on stools or on the expansive zinc … Continue reading »
