Good to be home

Highlight of the 2010 MFWS - Massimo Bottura & Matt Preston

Hello friends,

Spent the past couple of weeks back home in Melbourne. As soon as the wheels landed on the Melbourne tarmac, I had a great sense of feeling it is great to be home.

Food wise, it was fantastic to be home. To provide a summary of my last 2 weeks in Melbourne, I will recollect my trip by order of my top 10 food experiences:

1. Melbourne Food and Wine show masterclass weekend
2. Private room at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in Melbourne
3. Red Spice Road experience with fantastic curry, good entrees and the lamb shoulder!
4. Banquet at Gingerboy
5. Memorable breakfast at Birdie Num Nums
6. Tjanabi - Indigenous cuisine
7. Kim Chi Lunchbox - surprisingly good and cheap
8. Han Guuk Guan Korean and Chinese restauarant (also happened to be half price BBQ Monday)
9. Los Amates Mexican Kitchen
10. Tied with revamped Oriental Spoon and tapas at One Fitzroy St

I would probably squeeze the dinner party night (Chilli con carne with mango bacon salad, Mary Berry's Chocolate traybake with ganache) and homemade sausage roll night in between #5 and #6

My Melbourne trip was finished off by a lovely young thing with an amazing nose. I arrived in New Zealand, collecting my bags at the airport, when a beagle decided to endlessly jump on me. I began to panic when after a firm and repetitive "put your bag on the ground, put your bag on the ground", the harmless looking mutt decided to sit. Having watched Channel 7's border security, I knew I was likely to be in trouble when an airport hound sat down, as it is a subtle way of the dog indicating he has detected the scent of the substance he is sniffing for. After sniffing around every single inch of my bag, multiple times, I found out it was a meat sniffing dog, and he had detected the chicken curry puffs that were packed for consumption at the Melbourne airport. Good for me my stomach beat the dog to it. When I got the all clear, I packed up my innocent bag, and I discovered the food products I brought back to NZ (like dark brown sugar I can't seem to find anywhere, and various spices and food products - which were all declared thank you) had now picked up a scent which smelt awfully similiar to my late dog's rarely-ever-washed dog bowl in summer. I was strangely angry at the dog, but have now come to the more calm realisation that this beagle was a talented customs official that would have to exercise huge self control in having to do all the ground work of sniffing out meat and not eating it. Well done dog!

More detail to come in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!