Lobster shocker eases pain
The heart rending sound a lobster makes as it is boiled alive puts off many a home chef from preparing the dish for a dinner party. But now anyone can serve up a buttered lobster freshly cooked in their own kitchen, safe in the knowledge that it has been humanely killed, thanks to a British entrepreneur. Simon Buckhaven has created a machine that takes less than a second to efficiently and painlessly zap a lobster, crab or other crustacean to death. The price at 2500 ($A4500) may deter some but many an animal lover or restaurant chef will think it a small price to pay for a cruelty-free death. Plus, according to the manufacturer, the CrustaStun also makes the meat taste better.
Inside one of the little machines, a lobster takes just 0.3 seconds to die, whereas it can live for three minutes in boiling water. A crab takes even longer to die as it is boiled to death up to 412 minutes. The entrepreneur is firmly in the "Yes" camp in the old argument about whether lobsters feel pain. The Canberra Time, November 22.
Torre takes cue to sell
A famous Kew landmark with links to AFL star players has been sold. The heritage-listed Kew post office and QPO restaurant (left) sold at auction last Thursday, fetching $3.5 million. ``It was with regret that I had to sell,'' former owner Dominic Torre said. ``The job of running a business that demanded I work seven days a week and 20 hours a day was just too much.'' Torre is no stranger to the restaurant game. He founded Don Camillo's in North Melbourne, which became a haven for AFL stars, heads of business and politicians. QPO, on the corner of High St and Cotham Rd, was a hangout for Collingwood, Carlton and North Melbourne players. The new owners are believed to be restaurateurs from Camberwell and will take over on January 15. Torre, 56, denied he was selling up because celebrity chef George Calombaris, a regular on Channel 10's MasterChef, was opening a restaurant across the road. ``With George's restaurant opening soon, that'll actually improve the area. I just couldn't cope with the hours anymore,'' Mr Torre said. Sunday Herald Sun, November 22.
\
Top spots earn the accolades
Melbourne Aquarium picked up the coveted award for best major tourist attraction at the 2009 Victorian Tourism Awards at a gala dinner for more than 1100 people at Crown this week. And Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village in Warrnambool took out the Herald Sun Award for Tourist Attractions, and scored a place in the hall of fame. It was one of four tourism businesses inducted into the Victorian Tourism Awards Hall of Fame for winning their category for three consecutive years. The others were De Bortoli Winery and Restaurant in the Yarra Valley, Melbourne Metro YHA and Monreale Estate luxury cottages in the Dandenong Ranges. Other big winners were Seasons and the new Spanish Bar & Grill restaurants in Mildura, BIG4 Beacon Resort in Queenscliff, Bogong Horseback Adventures in the High Country and RACV Inverloch Resort. Tourism Minister Tim Holding, who attended the awards night, said tourism contributed $15.8 billion to Victoria's economy and provided jobs for 185,000 people.
``While most other parts of Australia have seen a downturn in tourism, Victoria is showing resilience in the face of the global financial crisis and the devastating Black Saturday bushfires,'' he said. Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne),
November 22.
A taste worth the wait
Matt Moran
The arrival of cherries is always met with great fanfare: it's become a red-letter day on the Sydney markets calendar. Each year, the symbolic first box of cherries is auctioned off, with funds raised going to charity. Now in its 30th year, the auction raised more than $50,000 this year, with $25,000 paid for the first box. Just as well this auction price doesn't affect the price we pay! It's all for a good cause, nonetheless, and a great way to herald the arrival of one of summer's most luscious fruits. American cherries show up on shelves part-way through winter but it just doesn't feel right to eat them in the colder months. They're well and truly associated with balmy summer days for me, and I'd much rather hold out for our Aussie crop. Eating seasonally and locally makes much more sense (and there's no air-miles guilt, either). In keeping with that mindset, I always hold out till a little later in the season. They're worth the wait: plumper, juicier and my favourite varieties have that beautiful burnished black-red colour. Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), November 22.
What's in a name
Gee, it would be ever so handy to have a photographic memory. Apart from making you a very popular or perhaps smart alec contestant at your local pub's trivial pursuit night, it would be useful just to remember all the synonyms for grape varieties. Anyone who thinks chardonnay is just chardonnay ought to think again. There are umpteen different names for that variety depending on where you are in the world. In Germany, it's known as weisser clevner, whereas in France, with Burgundy being the spiritual home of chardonnay, there are many different names reflecting its regional heritage and the local dialect, such as morillon in Yonne; in the Jura, it's known as melon d'Arbois. You'll thank me when the bonus point question at the next trivial pursuit gathering is "name two synonyms for chardonnay". The Age (Melbourne), November 21.
Battle for the Barossa
The cradle of Australia's artisan food movement faces a new threat on the horizon - urban sprawl. Necia Wilden reports. If you want to see the new Barossa Valley, ask Michael Voumard to show you around his garden of Eden, five biodynamic acres near Rockford Winery in Krondorf. Thin, black-haired and intense, Voumard is talking nineteen to the dozen, affectionately mimicking the locals' patter, as he leads us past rows of spiky artichoke bushes to a young family of white mallard ducks busying themselves by a creek. Suddenly, as one, the parents look skywards. Dutifully, so do we, craning to see a speck of a hawk wheeling high above. "Now, how did they know that was there?" Voumard asks in wonder at the mysteries of nature. All 80 birds here, ducks and rare-breed hens, roam freely during the day and are secured at night, the very model of modern, environmentally aware farming. Voumard says he uses "negative energies" to keep the foxes out, which sounds a bit loopy. But not one bird has been lost to foxes since he introduced the bully-boy treatment two growing seasons ago, five years after moving here from NSW - where he was a chef at top Sydney restaurants MG Garage and Fuel - to work as both gardener for Rockford owner Robert O'Callaghan and cook at his invitation-only winery lunches. The Australian Magazine, November 21.
Spain set to reign in dining
By this time next year, Brisbane diners should be au fait with manchego, pimento and bacalao. Spanish cuisine is poised to be the flavour of 2010, with three Spanish restaurants set to open over the next few months. December will see the much-anticipated launch of Ortiga, at the old Isis Brasserie site on Brunswick St, as well as Peasant at the Petrie Barracks and Granada in South Brisbane. ``Spanish has a pared-back style of eating and an obsession for quality raw produce which has been of growing interest to diners here,'' Ortiga's owner Simon Hill said. ``It's not dull and boring like fine dining can be in the UK or France. There's an element of fun and sociability that's appealing.'' Ortiga, under Spanish chef Pablo Tordesillas, will have a rustic tapas-style bar upstairs with a more modern Spanish style of eating downstairs. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), November 21.
Easy way is not on the menu - Revamped eatery shuns shortcuts for organic focus
Most chefs are lazy, according to Kym Machin. The chef at Urbane restaurant, which re-opened quietly on Thursday night reckons that too many chefs are guilty of taking shortcuts. ``Even in the top-starred restaurants, they buy in ready-filled pasta and portioned fish; even their sauces. What warrants them being awarded for their food, then?'' he said. The acclaimed Urbane, which Mr Machin co-owns with partners Drew Patten and Andrew Buchanan, had been closed for six months for a refurbishment. It will be Brisbane's first certified organic restaurant. In another first, Urbane is joined by Brisbane's first laneway bar. The Laneway is entered via Spencer Lane, which has been transformed from a grotty back street, along with baby brother The Euro, with its bistro-style food. ``It's been extraordinarily time consuming,'' Mr Machin said of the process of organic certification and his search for organic produce. ``But I wanted to get back to basics.'' Mr Machin is buying entire beef carcasses direct from the farm, which he said was not only cost effective but allowed his apprentices the opportunity to learn how to break down a beast. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), November 21.
Feasts from the past are again on the menu
Bernadette ``Bubbles'' O'Shea has written a book about some of the great feasts of all time. Kings and emperors share the glossy pages with dictators and rock stars devouring champagne and fine food. Yet one of the highlights of Champagne & Chandeliers: Grand Dining Celebrations (Hardie Grant, $120) is a meal that never took place, a make-believe banquet that elBulli chef Ferran Adria of Spain prepared for Pablo Picasso at O'Shea's request. O'Shea, who has tasted and promoted champagne for 25 years, matched Adria's food creations with French fizz. She said she wrote to Ferran requesting a menu befitting Picasso and reminding him that the great painter frequently holidayed on the beach not far from elBulli, which many hold to be the world's best restaurant. No doubt Picasso would have delighted in Adria's plates of food, which resemble works of art. Adria took a year to respond to O'Shea but when he did he offered a tasting plates menu including game meats canape, suckling pig tails, razor clams, abalone, black sesame sponge cake with miso, lemon yoghurt with gin, veal tendon, polenta gnocchi with coffee and saffron yuba (dried bean curd skin), horchata (milky Mexican rice drink) with black truffle and pine nut chocolates. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), November 21.
Restaurant menus hard to swallow
Restaurants are like tectonic plates—a combination of stability and ruin. They provide opportunities to appear suave, debonair and socially smooth. Or clumsy, klutzy and that awful combination of lost and pretentious. Do you wait to be seated by the maitre d', or do you march up to the table of your choice and sit? Do you rise to examine the wines on offer, or do you wait for the sommelier, alias the wine diva, alias the wine waiter (but don't call him that) - if they have one - to proffer the over-priced wine list? But the greatest pitfalls lurk in the menu. Shame on the diner who, in front of a partner they are trying to impress, has to ask the waiter for translations into everyday English of this or that outre delicatesse from the (possibly badly spelt) menu in various non-English languages. ``But m'sieur, zat iz ze testicles of ze lamb, prepared in a jus of wine and orange. M'sieur . . .'' - the eyebrow raised a millimetre in just detectable incredulity - ``. . . iz not familiar with zis delicacy of Haute Provence?'' ``Oh, of course one is familiar . . . have it on the barbie every Saturday with the blokes from football . . . '' But it's not even a matter of recherche dishes. Danger lurks in the entree. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), November 21.
It's last orders for the boozy pub prank
An Alpine pub that encouraged patrons to skoll shots off a ski and promoted a drinking game called ``Jagerbomb Dominoes'' has been ordered to stop after one of its customers was taken to hospital from drinking too much. The Snowy Valley Resort in Jindabyne is one of six pubs that have been forced to cut promotions this year because they encouraged binge drinking -- while countless more have done so voluntarily at the request of licensing inspectors. The others include a Marsfield hotel which served cocktails in teapots for patrons to drink from the spout and a Wagga Wagga pub that sold ``goon juice'' -- cheap wine -- in jam jars. A hotel in Ultimo had a six-hour happy hour while a Hamilton restaurant served alcohol in yard glasses and jelly shots in syringes. The six premises had refused an earlier request from Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing inspectors to voluntarily end their practices -- which most hotels comply with -- forcing the agency to issue a written directive. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), November 21.
Keppel resort plan lives on
A company whose plans to redevelop Great Keppel Island Resort were rejected by the federal Environment Minister will submit a revised plan. The developer, Tower Holdings subsidiary GKI Resort Pty Ltd, says the revised plan will be ``significantly scaled back'', although it is not revealing details. The company says that the resort's buildings will have a minimal footprint and the entire resort will be low-rise. Environment Minister Peter Garrett last month rejected the $1.15 billion plan, which included a resort with up to 2000 villas, apartments and hotel rooms, a golf course, marina and retail complex. GKI Resort has committed to renewable energy, a sustainable water supply that does not involve using groundwater, and recycling of all water for reuse in the resort. The company claims there will be substantial dedicated conservation areas, and no adverse runoff into the marine park or wetland. Capricorn Tourism chief executive Alain Chamberlain said the closure of Great Keppel Island resort for so long was having a negative impact on the local community and its economy. The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), November 22.
Boomer spree starts $10bn travel boom
They were the original backpackers and, despite their ageing bodies, baby boomers are still travelling just as much as their Generation X offspring. They are discovering previously inaccessible parts of the world and injected more than $10 billion into the Australian economy in the past year. Latest figures from Roy Morgan Research show nearly 74 per cent of Australians born between 1946 and 1960 took a holiday in the year to September. In comparison, 69 per cent of Gen Y took a holiday over the same period, 65 per cent of Gen Z and 63 per cent of pre-boomers. Convenor of the inaugural Baby Boomer Tourism Summit in Sydney, Leigh Kealton, said today's boomers had the time and money to travel. He said while they were off getting married and having children many new areas, such as Eastern Europe and South America, had opened up to travellers. ``We can go to lots of places we couldn't before,'' he said. ``We're also revisiting places in slightly more comfort than we did when we were younger. Baby boomers don't necessarily want to go on bus trips. Many . . . want to have an experience which is a little unusual rather than just going to see the Eiffel Tower because they are in Paris.'' Sunday Mail (Adelaide), November 22.
Tassie makes a bid for gay tourist dollar
Tasmania has become the only Australian state or territory to make a list of gay-friendly holiday destinations. In just one decade the state has gone from being one of the least tolerant to one of the most accepting of gays and lesbians, leading travel site Hotel Travel Club says. The state recently claimed second spot in a list of the world's top-10 emerging gay destinations. The list showcases those cities and regions which have not traditionally been associated with gay travel. No other Australian destination makes the list. Other destinations include Nova Scotia, Lisbon, Nashville and Mexico City. Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman Rodney Croome welcomed the listing, saying it will encourage national and international tourism to Tasmania and will benefit the local tourism industry. Hobart Mercury, November 21.