Julie and Julia, and boeuf bourguignon

Any self respecting food blogger knows all about the ones that 'come good'; the bloggers that go on to write about their love of food and actually get paid for the passion.


I've have books by Clotilde, David, Adam and Pim (and Steve, though not strictly a food blogger), I read the mainstream media articles written by local bloggers and cheer on our community's victorious moments at regular get togethers.

So it's with the same interest that I keenly accepted an invitation to the latest instalment of these victories; a food bloggers story being made into a book, that then gets made into a movie...

No doubt, I am the marketing trifecta when it comes to the Julie and Julia movie.
Chick - check.
Foodie - check.
Blogger - check.

So I guess I was destined to love it and I did... well actually I loved it more when I, as a good blogger, (not one of those naughty, unresearching ones that all the boring people talk about) did my due diligence looking at examples of both Julie and Julia's work. Initially, watching Meryl Streep play Julia Child all I could see was a frumpy version of the Devil not wearing Prada, and then that thought morphed into an annoying drunk drag queen that likes to grunt. I was disappointed by her strange acting...UNTIL I watched this and this and this. Now I think Meryl is a genius, close to the god like status Dan Aykroyd has in his interpretation but you'll need to see the film for that clip!

I was fortunate enough to watch the film in the luxury of a big fat lazyboy style arm chair while eating Julia Childs recipe for boeuf bourguignon with creamy mash and sipping Red Claw Shiraz. You can to with a special deal at Victoria Village Gold Class, check it out here.

If you are even half as keen as me when it comes to foodie things, I know you will enjoy it immensely. I think I need to see it again just to pull out all my favourite quotes and scenes... who doesn't remember with excitement their first comment?

Thank god for Melbourne markets

I'm still sorting through various holiday photos and found this doozy from my last visit to New Zealand.

Yes, a single celeriac for NZ$13.31!

The week before our trip I had made a celeriac remoulade at home in Melbourne and was craving it again, until I saw this celeriac at a supermarket in Christchurch.

The main sign noted that it was a product of New Zealand so the crazy price just doesn't make any sense. Its $10 more expensive than the celeriac I had brought in Australia.

No wonder none of the kiwis I spoke to knew what celeriac was, I bet these headed to the supermarket rubbish bin eventually once they were too old for sale.

Who would buy this... for $13? Just crazy.

Crunchy, spicy fish - Thailand

I've been jet setting about a bit lately and have finally taken the time to go through the huge amount of photos I have on both my camera and iPhone - as I suspected 80% of them are of food!

One of the photos I was excited to find was this fish we ate at a beach front restaurant on Phi Phi Island, Thailand. We loved it so much we went back two days later and had it again.

The fish is what they were locally calling 'seabass'. The delicate white flesh was filleted on one side away from the bone frame, yet still attached, then fried until crunchy on the outside yet translucently perfect in the middle.

The proverbial icing on the cake was the spicy salad on top; prawn pieces, shredded carrot, chinese celery, cashew nuts, green apple (to our surprise!), shallot, coriander and chilli. Dressed in your typical Thai hot, salty, sweet and sour flavours.

This was complimented with what is a more Chinese inspired dish of fresh shiitake mushrooms with choi sum and lots of garlic.

I wish I could eat both these dishes again now. Right now.

Reflecting on these and many other photos, I can't help but notice the beautiful and complimentary plates the dishes were served on. Often, the casual places we ate at the plates would be more perfunctionary bordering on ugly and chipped, this type of thoughtfulness you only usually find at the best of places, not were lunch and drinks for two costs $30 Aussie.

It was evident that there was love in that kitchen and we could taste, and see it.