A big thank you

It's been a funny old week, hey. I haven't written anything on the blog despite having quite a backlog of places to write about because, much like other Melbourne food bloggers, the thought of prattling on about fancy food when the bushfires are causing so much destruction so close to home made me very uncomfortable. (And to be honest I'm getting cross about the way the media coverage of the bushfires is relentlessly wallowing in tragedy - the tone of it is starting to feel like exploitative "grief porn"... but I can't get enough of the koala photos!).

My work has been really great about facilitating our donations to the bushfires appeals as pre-tax salary sacrifices, and organising for us volunteer lawyers to provide pro bono legal assistance to bushfire victims. For those of you who (like me) are fans of First Dog on the Moon's cartoons, Crikey is offering one of three (personally signed!) FDOTM cartoons for $25, with all proceeds split between the Red Cross and Wildlife Victoria bushfires appeals - or for a premium donation of $100 you can request any cartoon from the FDOTM back catalogue. For my donation I've chosen one of my favourites, a cartoon entitled "The Death of Capitalism", in which the role of Capitalism is played by Kevin Rudd's cat. :)


I'm spending the weekend in NSW so the restaurant review backlog will have to wait a little while longer. In the meantime I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the lovely lovely lovely Melbourne Gastronome reader at Penguin who, after reading my pleas for guidance re my fledgling herb garden, sent me this fantastic book about herb gardening!!!! It arrived today and is written by Jekka McVicar, six times Chelsea gold medal winner and respected organic herb gardener and, according to the front cover, Jamie Oliver reckons "Jekka is amazing ... she is the queen of herbs!"

So once again thank you to you F, you're a complete legend for giving me this present and I look forward to implementing some of what I will learn within its pages. I'll keep you posted on my progress! :)

Finally, what do we think of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival program this year, apart from the fact that most of it is very very very expensive?

"Global Financial Crisis? What Global Financial Crisis?! Let them eat Pierre Hermé cake!", etc etc.

But, yeah. I'll be having one of the Restaurant Express lunches with the Ladies Who Lunch at Bistro Vue (it'll be my first Bistro Vue visit!), I'm shouting Dad and me an Oysters Tasting Class at Cumulus Inc and b-f-K and I are going to the Spanish Sparkling Sunday at Council House 2. Despite my infamous dinner at Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons, I was thinking of dipping my toes back into GAS by also attending the Roman Block Party on closing night - is anyone else thinking of attending?

And of course my dream event at the festival would be the Degustation of the Decade, Teage Ezard's ten course degustation celebrating the ten years of ezard, revisiting his old and new best dishes. He's my all-time favourite chef and the dinner sounds AMAZING but with tickets at $275 a head even I find that ridiculously, obscenely, prohibitively expensive!

An aside on stats and search terms

I first installed a free stats counter on Melbourne Gastronome in November 2007. I now use both StatCounter and Google Analytics, and both of them are useful in different ways. I don't worry about my stats too much (given the Melbourne-centric nature of the blog it will only ever be of limited interest to those elsewhere, and anyway I'd much rather have a small number of engaged readers than try to entrap vast numbers of unsuspecting and uninterested web surfers), but the data can often make for interesting reading.

In addition to letting me know which other websites are linking to the blog, and the labels function by which one can track visitors by their IP addresses (a special shout-out to my very loyal readers at Eastern Energy, Roseby Rosner & Young and SBA Lawyers!), I like to occasionally check out which of my pages are popular, and what search words readers entered into google to find me.

By far the most popular individual post on melbourne gastronome is this one about the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book, often found by readers via the facebook group I set up, or through google searches like 'birthday cake book from the 80s', 'duck cake with chip beak' or 'jelly swimming pool cake australia'. As ever, I'm delighted that so many people love the book too. :)

The top five venues whose reviews on my blog have been the most popular are Cumulus Inc, Auction Rooms, D.O.C., Chinatown Dumpling (though it's clear from the google searches that some of those readers are looking for Camy's Shanghai Dumpling instead) and Gill's Diner.

The fact that Cumulus Inc and Auction Rooms top the list is even more impressive given the number of people who get the names wrong when googling them! But then I suppose google tends to still find results in spite of typos and spelling errors. Many people search for 'the auction room cafe' or 'auction house', and don't get me started on the Cumulus spelling variations (Cumules, Cumlus, Cumulos, Cumulas, Cumulis, Cumulous, Cumilus, Cummulus and Cumuls have all somehow made their way to me... I must admit though that I did like 'Cumules Ink')!

Poor old Gill's Diner/Dinner/Kitchen/Cafe/Cafeteria/Bakery/Alley/Place/Bar/Pantry and Bouzy/Boozey/Boozy/Boozie Rouge have the same problem. I too get the odd Melbourne Gastronomy/Gastranome/Gastrome/Gourmand search.

Looking at the google search words that have led people to the blog is often hilarious. For example (and I stress that all of google search words in this post are genuine!):
- 'mushroom pyjamas'
- 'cocktail pickled eggplant'
- 'donna hay crap book'
- 'rather super gosh'
- 'kangkong poems'
- 'indonesian mariachi band'
- 'macaron macaron the song'
- 'north melbourne gardening nazi'
Anyone want to start a band called Mushroom Pyjamas, or North Melbourne Gardening Nazi? My fellow bloggers, what are some of the stranger search terms that have been used to find your blog?

Sometimes the googled phrase poses a question. I've tried to answer some of them below:
- 'melbourne fish market like sydney fish market'? Alas, no.
- 'explain: peking duck with pinot noir'. What is there to explain? They just taste really great together.
- 'abbortsford [sic] convent is it haunted'? Only by Handsome Steve.
- 'siglo bar melbourne for ladies?' - um sure, I guess. But gentlemen appear to be equally comfortable there.
- 'which cafes and bars that serve eggplants chips in collin st melbourne'? Dunno about Collin(s) Street, but I had some once at Blue Train.
- 'can my hamster eat yellow bananas' and 'can my hamster eat kangkong'? I have NO idea about hamsters. The only reason the word appears on my blog is because Hungry Hamster left comments!
- 'how to make a wizard of oz fondant cake with photo'? Fondant is cheating! It looks fake! The original Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book would never approve!
- 'seamstress, hako or bar lourinha'? Eh, you can't really go wrong with any of those three in my experience.
- 'how to pronounce adriano zumbo'? I believe it's pronounced "rrraowr".
- 'how much is the pay at tutto bene restaurant'? Not the sort of thing one plasters on the internet, really...
- 'location of the vegetable market of the french film paris by cédric klapisch'? Hmmmm, very specific question. I'd say it's up near the 19th or 20th, judging from the view.
- 'melbourne cup opening times auction house north melbourne'? Call 9326 7749 and ask! Tell them Claire sent you.
- 'how much corn flour do i put in mahalabia'? Two tablespoons.

Sometimes the google search phrases get a little surreal:
- 'enoteca blood bank model marketing companies'
- 'power of the atom quest can't find burke'
- 'a heavy lamp floating in the air in the middle of the night in melbourne'
- 'funny stories about radicchio di treviso' - I don't see anything particularly hilarious about leaf vegetables, but if anyone does have any radicchio di treviso jokes or anecdotes, it would be totally awesome if you shared them with us in the comments.

Sometimes the google search phrases are just WRONG:
- 'sexs tub bouzy'
- 'loin?, melbourne king street'
- 'sexual perversion bodybuilders'
- 'hot little chocolate 18 year old'
- 'dad shags bride on wedding day' (oh by all means, come to melbourne gastronome for all your icky incest fantasies)

In addition to the google searches for 'melbourne gastronome' and 'melbournegastronome', both of which spiked following my quote in an article in the Epicure, there are a few unusual ones:
- 'melbourne gastronome bleak' (um, anyone care to explain this one?)
- 'blog melbourne restaurant review female lawyer' (someone I met through the law firm but who couldn't remember my name, perhaps?)
- 'paris end melbourne gastronome' (I wish! Alas I'm mostly stuck down the other end)
- 'melbourne gastronome pimms' (someone knows me far too well)

And a few more favourites to finish off:
- 'her name is claire from australia melbourne' (hint: you might want to narrow your search parameters, there are quite a few of us)
- 'i have come to clean ze pool' (devastatingly, there is no clip of this on youtube)
- 'ingredients with an apostrophe'
- 'la clique bathtub guy' and 'spiegeltent man in the bath' (again with the rrraowr)
- 'massage by indonesian people only in melbourne and suburbs'
- 'amelie quotes sack of grain'
- 'burnley cremorne not real suburbs' (my housemate and I will just have to disagree with you on this one)
- 'professional "customer service" "friendly but not familiar"'
- 'fashion that looks like a mushroom'
- 'melbourne dinner good shit'

Impromptu meal for four at Panama Dining Room

(The) Panama Dining Room
3/231 Smith Street, Fitzroy (map)
9417 7663

It was a few weeks ago and best-friend-K and I were strolling through Fitzroy in good spirits, having seen Slumdog Millionaire at the Nova. I was chattering away to b-f-K about how I'd been chattering away that afternoon to housemate DJ about Gigibaba, the hot new Turkish restaurant on Smith Street. I hadn't been there yet, but had been tantalised by reviews of it on Fitzroyalty and in the Epicure.

When who should we run into but DJ, his dining companion P in tow. "Ha! Where are YOU off to sweetheart?" "Sweetheart! We're off to Gigibaba." "Of course you are sweetheart. Us too! But we can't seem to find it."

With absolute minimalist signage and a narrow shopfront, Gigibaba was indeed tricky to locate but the four of us found it eventually. Alas, I was thwarted for a second time in my attempts to visit Gigibaba - it was nearly 9pm on a Tuesday night but the place was jam packed and the waitress said would be an hour's wait. Nyet!

We had an emergency housemate meeting. Where to go? I think it was b-f-K who suggested Panama Dining Room, an establishment where I've had several vodka and tonics in my time but had never before eaten.


Newly arrived in Melbourne from London and Sydney, P loved the incognito Melbourneness of walking up two dingy flights of stairs to double doors opening onto a vast space, featuring restaurant tables, bar tables, pool tables, floor-to-ceiling Play School arched windows and light fittings made out of repurposed desk lamps and laundry baskets.


Between the four of us, we decided to share three entrees, three mains and three desserts. P had put in a vote for the ink dressed cuttlefish, salt cod and green gazpacho ($17.50). I only had a small taste of this one, but P adored it.


Next up were the Moorish lamb shank pastries, served with tahini aioli, barberries ($16.50). I hadn't had barberries since I'd had the freekeh salad at Cumulus Inc, so was keen to try these. They were delicious - wish we hadn't been sharing them four ways!


Of course, once I saw that there were goats curd stuffed zucchini flowers ($17) on the menu I knew I had to order them. They'd been fried in a tempura-like batter and came with a baby beet salad garnish and mustard fruit dressing.


For the mains, we ordered the grilled marinated Thirlemere chicken, served with a quinoa and corn salad, cumin yoghurt ($28). Love quinoa, but I'm not convinced corn was the right match for it. But the chicken had a nice smokiness on the skin, and notice how nice P was in his attempts to provide better reflected light for my photo!


A dish which I wouldn't have chosen but I turned out to quite enjoy was DJ and P's choice, the Coorong mullet, served with a bouillabaisse garnish, fennel and panisse cubes ($29). Loved the chickpea from the panisse cubes contrasted with the flavoursome mullet.


B-f-K's choice was the twice cooked spinach yoghurt souffle, which came with vadouvan spiced vegetables ($25). Again, not something I would have chosen, but I'm so glad b-f-K did - it was delicious. Loved the hot yoghurt, and the vegetables had just the right amount of bite to them.


I selected the (delicious) salad: heirloom tomato and basil salad with cabernet dressing ($7.50).


We'd all left room for dessert. Devastatingly, we were told that the kitchen was out of chocolate éclairs, but luckily there were lots of other lovely desserts to choose from (as well as an excellent sounding cheese list, which I intend to try on some future visit). Dessert #1 was a chocolate and sherry trifle with praline ice cream ($12.50). It all sounded a bit Miss Marple to me, but tasted great (especially the praline).


The dessert I was least convinced with was the lemon verbena brulée, served with roasted apricots and pistachio crumbs ($12.50). The reason this one didn't work for me was because I really don't like the taste of verbena - I used to have a verbena aromatherapy candle and soap, so to taste the verbena made me feel like I was eating perfumed soap. The others liked it though.


I saved the best one til last: the Valrhona chocolate fondant, with poached cherries and mascarpone sorbet ($12.50). I'm not much of a chocolate fiend, but boy oh boy, was this dessert good - the fondant all melty in the centre and tasting fantastic with the cherries. The mascarpone sorbet was outstanding!


All in all, it turned out to be a most enjoyable evening with rather fabulous food. There were lots of trendy ingredients on the menu, but I thought that almost all of them were used in interesting - not tokenistic - ways. Worth it, if only for that chocolate fondant!

Bye bye Greenhouse and a food blogger reminder

Ah Greenhouse, it was fun while it lasted, n'est-ce pas? The woman I spoke to at bttb said that given Greenhouse's success, there are many different ideas currently floating around to bring it back someday, so hopefully we'll see the return of Greenhouse in some shape or form at some stage in the future.

Oh, and for all food bloggers out there - especially those whose blogs are either brand new or long dormant - a reminder that the Melbourne food blogger picnic and BBQ, organised by Duncan, Sarah and Thanh, is on this Saturday (see details and leave an RSVP message here). I'll be going to an art class later on that afternoon (burlesque life drawing!), but will be at the picnic for a few hours at least. I have no idea what to bring - looks like someone has already nabbed the idea of fancy mini quiches, dammit! What to make??

Melbourne weather: the week ahead

I think the wonderful First Dog on the Moon has accurately summed up my feelings regarding the Age online weather forecast for the next seven days in his latest cartoon.

Our back courtyard faces north and west, with very little shade. Maybe I'll bring the fledgling herb garden inside for a few days so the plants don't burn to a crisp?!

(Oh, and a huge thanks to all the kind souls who have offered me gardening advice. Will be putting some of your creative ideas into practice soon!)

Fledgling Herb Garden: aaaaargh!

Okay, so, barely two weeks ago my fledgling herb garden looked like this:


And now it looks like this:


Readers, I beseech you in the name of all that is good and pure in this world: WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY MINT??


I have NO idea about this gardening malarky. Is it a disease? Is it a swarm of invisible aphids or locusts? Is it a Very Hungry Caterpillar??


I took some photos after dark with the flash, in the hopes that the identity of the culprit may be clearer. If you feel so inclined, please click on any of the photos and then click on "All Sizes" to zoom in.


Whatever the evil bastard is, it has also had a go at molesting my basil. Not even my docile innocent little sage was spared!


I currently put nothing on the herbs except water... do I need some sort of pesticide??? PLEASE HELP!

(On the plus side, the parsley and chilli plant seem to have been spared, as has the Vietnamese mint which is getting taller and taller each day.)