Food and Drink

In the recently released S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants, there was a single entry from Australia – Peter Gilmore’s Quay Restaurant – which came in at 27th. Quay was already widely recognised as offering one of Australia’s finest dining experiences.  It has been recognized with a clutch of culinary awards – three chefs hats for nine consecutive years, Sydney Morning ...

As a special treat to ourselves while we’ve been holidaying over Easter Break, Jen and I decided to hit up Restaurant II in the city for their degustation.  They recently refurbished their building and the restaurant came highly recommended in the Queensland Food and Wine Guide, earning two stars. Our verdict?  It was a bit of a mixed bag to ...

I first read about the KFC Double Down burger about a year ago on the Internet.  It gained a certain measure of noteriety for being one of those ridiculously excessive and unhealthy American fast food meals you read about and can’t quite believe exists in this day and age.  For the uninitiated, it is a bacon and fried cheese sandwich ...

One of my favourite aspects of trying out a restaurant’s degustation is the social experience that comes with the evening.  By my reckoning, if you’re trying out a multi-course tasting menu, you’re usually eating and drinking with your friends for about four or five hours.  Over the course of that time, everyone is going through a world class culinary journey ...

I just came back from a ridiculously great weekend trip down in Melbourne.  It was arranged through a sales competition at work which my brother-in-law Dom won by a handy margin.  The prize was an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne which included an invite to the McLaren F1 VIP party.  Dom very kindly agreed to take me along. I ...

South Bank has always been a pleasant and picturesque riverside tourist trap in Brisbane but for the last few years the restaurants and cafes along the Little Stanley street strip left a little to be desired.  There was plenty of variety on offer but most of the eateries were decidedly average. That all changed in the past couple of the ...

Malt whisky and my appreciation for it has been a relatively recent development in my life.  When I was younger, I used to enjoy the occasional dram here and there but I didn’t pay it much notice and if anything, I found the strong taste a bit off-putting.  When I would drink socially, I would stick with beer. My brother ...

Jen and I recently went to Aria to try out their tasting menu.  Unfortunately it was a spur of the moment decision so I didn’t have a camera on me.  I took a few photos with my iPhone but they look pretty godawful.  So rather than posting the full seven courses in their grainy 2 megapixel dimly-lit glory, I’ll just ...

While I was over in Glasgow in August this year, I caught up with Stewart Taylor.  I hadn’t seen him for going on twelve years, since we both left the International School Brunei in ’98.  It was great catching up.  It’s easy to find things to talk about when someone asks ‘what have you been up to?’ and you’ve got ...

For Jen’s birthday weekend, we invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday night.  Jen always like to cook up a storm for dinner guests but she had to change up her game a bit this weekend as two of our friends recently switched to a vegetarian diet. Jen decided to make a ratatouille and cous cous dish and she ...