Sandy's fishing trip

On the weekend I went fishing on the bay as part of a surprise birthday party.  I think the surprise was pretty well kept except for the last half an hour when one of the guests pretty much walked right past the birthday boy as he was having coffee.  Fortunately Sandy didn't see them and the surprise was kept in tact  until he reached the boat.

The weather forecast was sounding pretty good and as we headed out from the St Kilda pier it looked like it was going to be clear with light winds.  The last time I went on a fishing trip I spent at least half of the trip lying down horizontal in the cabin feeling absolutely terrible.  I faired some what better this time around.

After about half an hour or so the skipper dropped the anchor and the fishing started.  With 15 lines out in the water I was expecting some action fairly earlier.  How wrong was I.  We had all comfortably had lunch before yours truly landed the first fish of the day, a 2.5kg snapper.  Not long after that the birthday boy landed a 3kg snapper, very appropriate.  Next was Nick with a 2kg snapper followed by the most modest of us all, Uncle Cootsie with a 2kg snapper.

By now the sun had come out and you couldn't have asked for better fishing conditions.  From the same spot on the boat I landed another snapper this time around the 4kg mark.  So far, everyone that had caught a fish had worked on the same IT project some years ago.  That statistic would not change.  Uncle cootsie managed to land another decent size snapper somewhere between 3 and 4 kg just before the anchor went up and we headed home.


After giving the smaller one away I had one decent size snapper to cook for dinner.  I decided to smoke it on the webber with a few herbs and spices.  On late notice I managed to get a couple of friends to come over to help me eat it all.  As well as the fish I made a potato and mint salad as well as a chick pea salad.  I cooked the fish for just a tad too long which is a lessened learned for next time.  The salads however got top marks.

All in all it was a great day and a great dinner.

Sporting Update

Well it hasn't been a great couple of months of running but things are looking up.  I've been for a few runs now and haven't felt my knee at all which is great.  I've managed to find a truly excellent physiotherapist in Michael Vadiveloo at the Melbourne City Baths.  He had the pleasure of informing me that my ass was too weak and that I needed to work on my glutes in order to correct a bio-mechanical problem with my running.  I've also been working hard on my calfs, a serial pest in my attempt at running longer distances.  I've missed training with the Crosbie Crew but hope to now start getting back to the usual training sessions.

In the mean time I've found a new passion, kayaking.  I started last year but I've started to enjoy it more and more.  I kayak with Vigor Kayaking and we train on Wednesday nights, Friday mornings and Sunday mornings.  I was planning on doing the Murray Marathon but that plan has fallen through unfortunately.  Will definitely want to do that at some stage in the future.  Mean while I'll be looking for some kayak events to enter over the summer.

The cycling is also coming along nicely.  I bought a new bike a couple of weeks back and loving the new smooth ride.  The bike is about 3kg lighter than my old one so going up hill is even easier now.  The bikes maiden ride was from Sorrento to Melbourne (100km) as part of the round the bay in a day event.

Stay tuned for more updates.

French Dinner Feast

Well, its been a little while since I've updated my blog.  I've had plenty of things going on and just haven't had the time (I'm making up excuses) to sit down and do my food write ups.

Last Sunday I had a great bunch of friends over to sample my French cooking.  I had tried out all of the recipes at least once and so was confident of pulling it all off without any problems.  The first dish was a French Onion soup which I have to say was better than the one I had previously done.  I was working off two recipes which felt rather strange but worked out well.  The first recipe was a little vague on instructions but the quantities seemed right and the second recipe had clear instructions but the quantities were for 12 people.  I used 8 onions which seems like quite a lot but they do shrink down quite a bit over time.  I think the key was getting the onions brown and tender.  On top of the soup I placed some croutons and my favourite gruyere cheese.

For the main I made a duck confit cassoulet.  The cassoulet has its origins in the south of France and dates back as far as 1355.  I think that makes it one of the oldest recipes I've used.  The first attempt at the cassoulet was a bit of a failure. I used smoked bacon but just added too much and the smoky flavour of the bacon drowned out all the other flavours.  So it was just as well I had a practice run otherwise it would have been disastrous.  So for my second attempt I basically stewed onions, carrots, celery, haricot beans and salted pork belly in a thyme, bay leaves, tomato paste, garlic and wine broth.  After about 1:45 I added toulouse sausages which had been browned and potatoes.  I then added the duck and sprinkled bread crumbs over the top and backed for a further 25 mins.  The potatoes could have gone in a little earlier as some of them were a little hard but all in all it turned out really well.

There was only going to be one option for dessert and that was a creme brulee.  I know there are plenty of other fabulous French desserts but when else do I get the opportunity to use a blow torch.  The first attempt was fantastic except for the caramelisation of the suger.  I used plain brown suger and so it just wasn't crispy enough.  Sunday nights attempt was a bit of a reversal.  The filling didn't quite set as well as it should have and didn't have the same intensity of vanilla flavour which I really like.  On the other hand the caramelisation of the sugar was great.  I used Demerara sugar the second time around and that made all the difference.

And so that was my French dinner feast.  Thanks to all that were present for a very enjoyable evening.  It was one of the more rewarding feasts I've done.

For my next feast I will be doing Indian.  Stay tuned and check out the photos below.

Great Ocean Road Marathon

Last weekend I headed down to Apollo Bay for the Great Ocean Road Marathon.  It was the first time I had made the trip for the event and it won't be my last.  What a weekend!  The crew had a big contingent present in the 14km and 23km event and a few in the 45km event.

I headed down on Saturday morning which seemed a little rushed but got there for the 14km event with plenty of time to spare.  I hadn't run 14km in about 6 months so it was going to be an interesting run.  Everything started pretty well and by 4 or 5km was just delighted to be feeling great running again.  I don't think my time really mattered at that point.  Got to the half way mark still feeling great and caught a glimpse of Stormin' and Victoria ahead of me and so set my sights on catching them.  After creeping up behind Stormin' with about 3km to go I was starting to feel it.  I then managed to catch Victoria only for her to catch me again with about 100m to go.  With some frantic yelling from the crew supporting I managed to pip her on the line.  A big thanks to the both of them for getting me home in such a cracking time.  You guys ran really well and we all got under the hour so job well done.

After a nice hot shower and a bit of a power nap it was off to Big Kev's apartment for a crew dinner.  The place was a buzz with so many of the crew, probably over 40 of us.  Everyone had brought a plate for dinner and there were some wonderful creations.  We had everything from pancakes, cannelloni, pasta, fried rice, meet balls and soup.  There was even dessert.  Some of us had already run so we headed off to the pub for a few drinks before calling it a night.  Those of us that were running the half had an early 5am start.

In the morning we had breaky and then headed down to cheer on our friends running the half.  It was so great to see so many of us down there on the finish line cheering everyone on.  We had a decent group come through the half at around 85 mins which was just awesome.  Everyone was breaking PB's by minutes rather than seconds.  I've posted a few shots of people so check them out.  I think the highlight for me was Joanne's finish.  Well done Jo, great run.

After a relaxing afternoon reading my book and then hanging out with the chicks a much smaller group headed off for dinner.  What would one of my blog posts be without a report on food.  As an entree I had mussels in a tomato and basil sauce which was followed by ocean trout with pesto and a tomato, basil side.  The food was great and the company excellant.  It was then off to the top deck apartment for a few more drinks and a few more from a happy Grechy.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend.  It's great to be able to go away with a great bunch of people who share a passion for one of my biggest passions, running.  A big thanks to Terese for organising the accommodation.  See you all there next year.

Smoked Roast Chicken

After last week's resounding success in smoking an Australian Salmon it was time to try out a whole roast chook.  I've had this a few times with my old man but this was the first time I was going to do it.  I spontaneously decided to throw in a few side dishes that might be on the menu for my Moroccan feast in a few weeks time.

Smoking is a relatively simple process with the webber.  Soak some hickory wood chips in white wine, preferably a dry wine, for a minimum of 1 hour.  Once the coals are no longer black put the wood chips in and make sure that they don't catch a light.  If they do then put the lid on the webber and close the vents for a couple of minutes.  I cut the chicken down the spine and placed it on indirect heat with the rib cage facing down (spread eagle).  For a 1.2kg chook it took about 45 mins which was just perfect.

For the side dishes I prepared Moroccan baked peppers, Stuffed zucchine and dutch carrots.  The filling for the baked peppers was cos cos, tomatoes, carrots, onion and a mixture of spices.  I cooked the peppers for about 30 mins but could probably should have cooked it for another 5 - 10 minutes.  To prepare the stuffed zucchine I removed the white flesh of the zucchini so that the skin was just visible.  I then added onion, chilli and cheddar cheese together with the zucchini insides.  I baked the zucchine shell for about 10 mins and then added the filling until the cheese was just about to brown.  The only problem with the zucchine was the amount of chilli that I added.  It was just a tad too much and took away the flavours of the other ingredients.

For a somewhat impromptu Sunday dinner I was rather pleased.

Autumn Break

For the autumn break I headed down to Marlo, Cape Conran and Lakes entrance.  Marlo is just over 4 hours drive East of Melbourne and is most known for being the town that sees the snowy river meet the ocean.  I stayed at the Marlo Ocean Views camping ground and I won't be going back.  I found the campsite to be overcrowded and the staff generally unfriendly.  The town itself is not particularly close to anything exciting with most of the highlights being to the east.  I spent an uneventful afternoon fishing at Point Ricardo where the only thing I was catching was a nasty headache.

I've been wanting to start reading the book On Food and Cooking for a while and the trip provided plenty of quality reading time.  The book is written by Harold McGee and its purpose is to bring a touch of science into the kitchen.  Given I studied organic chemistry at Uni I was looking forward to seeing how I could resurrect some lost knowledge.  It's all been good timing as I've recently started watching Heston Blumenthal's amazing cooking adventures.

Then it was off to Cape Conran which turned out to be much more interesting and exciting.  My headache had gotten a lot worse so I wasn't really in the mood for a lot of walking which is a shame because the walks in that area would be amazing.  So back to some fishing it was and this time a lot more eventful.  I managed to land a 47cm, 2kg Australian Salmon which was pretty cool.  Its the biggest fish I've ever caught and probably the best tasting.  More on that later.

After gutting the fish and putting it on ice I headed to Lakes Entrance where I stayed the night in a beautiful Bed and Breakfast called the Goat and Goose.  I was very warmly welcomed by the host Joy and had a good chat over a cup of tea.  I highly recommend a stay and I'm in no doubts that I will be back there in the future.  All in all a very enjoyable and relaxing break.

Monthly Dinner Report - Peruvian Feast

Last weekend was the second of my monthly dinner parties.  The night was inspired by my trip to South America in 2009 where I visited Peru and Bolivia.  One of the things I remember most about the trip was the food safari's that a few of my travelling buddies and I undertook.  We took particular interest in the local bakeries where I was pleasantly surprised to find a high quality of pastries.  One of the delicious cookies that we found was called alfajores.  Each Alfajores contains two shortbread like cookies put together with dulce de leche in the middle.  Dulce de leche is a form of caramelised condensed milk.  The other pastry of choice was empanadas.  See my recent post on empanadas.  The final inspiration came from the meal I had in the little town of Puno which is right on lake Titicaca.  For dinner I had a fresh water trout with ceviche as an entree.  So for dinner I prepared ceviche and the empanadas as entrees, rainbow trout escabeche as the main and alfajores as the dessert.

I was really happy with how the food turned out.  Surprisingly the highlight for me was the fish.  I made the ceviche with sea perch, lime juice, chilli, garlic, salt, pepper, onion and coriander.  The rainbow trout was marinated in lime juice, salt and pepper then lightly battered.  I was most impressed with my judgement on how long to cook the trout for, 2 mins on either side and that was it.  The trout was garnished with a peruvian salsa and accompanied with potatoes and corn.  For info on the actual recipes click here.

The trickiest part to the dinner was going to be the alfajores.  Making the biscuits was relatively straight forward with the only odd ingredient being corn flour.  I'm assuming that because corn is so abundant in Peru it was favoured over wheat based flour.  Dulce de leche can be made in roughly three different ways. One of those ways is to put a can of condensed milk into the oven at low temperature for around 5 hours.  This may seem like the easiest way but if the temperature gets a little high then BANG you get condensed milk everywhere.  I opted for the "reduce on the stove" technique which requires continuous stirring for 45 mins.  I did manage to slightly burn the mixture but overall it came out pretty well.

All in all it was a very enjoyable meal with good company.  Now to decide on what to cook next month.

Glenelg Kayak Trip

For the March long weekend I went kayaking down the Glenelg river with several of my kayaking friends.  The trip kicked off at camp Camperdown with a lazy swim and a not so lazy run for the energetic ones amongst us.  If you haven't been to camp Camperdown before you are really missing out.  Perched on top of a hill overlooking the beautiful Lake Bullen Merri the property is perfect for a weekend of exercise and/or chilling out.  The hearty home cooked lasagne was a great way to finish the day and energise us for the paddling ahead.

Day 1 started early with breakfast followed by the three hour drive down to Moleside.  We arrived at camp one around midday had lunch, setup camp and got ready for our afternoon paddle.  For most of us the plan was to do a 10km out and back paddle upstream towards Pines Landing.  However, one of us wasn't paying too much attention at the pre departure meeting and decided to go downstream instead only to realise that he should have caught up to the group after a 1km but hadn't.  For the rest of us the paddle up to Pines Landing was an enjoyable slow paced affair.  As we took in the stunning cliffs to our right and dodged the tiger snake crossing the river we became acquainted with the craft that would take us 50km downstream to Nelson.  As we reached the turn around point we were reunited with our lost paddler.  After a short break and all paddlers accounted for we returned for home where a refreshing swim awaited us.  The return journey saw a considerable lift in the pace.   Could this pace be maintained in the following days or were we all just foolishly dreaming?

We returned to camp around 4pm where we took to the water without our crafts for a refreshing swim.  A few of us had the pleasure of witnessing the directors backside which from memory was not in the official trip notes.  The lads did however score some bragging rights when the director failed to properly exit the river via the 1 metre high jetty.  We won't let him forget about that one in a hurry.  A hearty dinner awaited the group accompanied by the remaining beers and the high quality cask goon.  The weather so far had been kind and that was too continue for the rest of the trip.  After finishing our banana and chocolate dessert we retired to the comfort of our tents for the night.

We awoke on day 2 to another beautiful morning.  After breakfast and a short trip to Nelson to drop off the trailer we started our long day in the kayaks.  The first leg would take us to Pittchards, around 10km, where we stopped for morning tea.  The fruit cake was a real hit.  Not sure if this was due to the unknown amount of alcohol present.  Accompanying the fruit cake was a stash of nuts and home grown apples from camp Camperdown picked by yours truly.  After a short stop we were back in the kayaks ready to paddle the next 8km to lunch at Georges rest.  We arrived for lunch around 1pm and had paddled 18km in around 2 1/2 hours which was pretty good going.  Another round of tuna and salad wraps was on the menu for lunch followed by a bit of stretching.  The director must have been proud.  We started our last leg for the day just after 2pm.  The 12km journey would test our strength and endurance.  It's fair to say that the standout performances of the day so far went out to the girls.  After a nasty fall on her bike earlier in the week Rachel's dogged determination and strong will was out for all to witness.  The group finally arrived together as one at Pattersons's for the predicted time of 4:12pm.  

After a long day of paddling a few us went for a swim and then took a walk up along the cliff which gave awesome views over the campsite to the river below.  So far we had eaten quite well and day three's dinner was no exception.  We had a Moroccan casserole with dehydrated vegetables, salami and cos cos.  For dessert we polished off four decks of chocolate.  We deserved it.

The start of day 3 was another pearler.  The outside temperature was just cold enough for an eary fog to develop over the river.  After packing up all the gear we took off at the scheduled time of 9am for our 3 hour journey to the finish at Nelson.  The pace was nice and steady with only a short break at the 12km mark inside South Australian territory.  With the end only 8km away we were all eager to paddle on to the finish.  With 500m to go some of us decided it was a good idea to have a race to the end while the sensible ones took the steady as she goes approach to the finish.  After packing up the gear and loading the boats it was back to camp Camperdown.

Overall, it was a great weekend spent with a great bunch of people in a beautiful part of Victoria.

Peruvian Empanadas

For my next monthly dinner I've chosen Peruvian as the cuisine.  At this stage it looks like the menu is going to be as follows.

• Lemonada (lemonade peruvian style)
• Ceviche (seasoned raw fish)
• Empanadas (see photo)
• Trout escabeche
• Alfajores (short bread with sweet filling)

So I decided to trial the empanadas first.  Empanadas are basically a short crust pastry outer with a seasoned mince filling.  I ran out of time to make the pastry myself so resorted to frozen short crust which worked out rather well in the end.  Short crust pasty is actually one of the easier pastries to prepare so didn't really need the practice.  The mince filling was onion, shallots, chilli, sweet paprika, ground cloves, cumin, olives, roughly chopped boiled egg pieces and sultanas.  As you can see by the photos the pastry pattern to close up the empanadas varied quite a bit.  I had a friend over for dinner and she definitely had more finesse when closing them up.

Stay tuned for more trials.

Monthly Dinner Report - Greek

Last weekend was the first of my monthly dinner parties. Overall I think it went reasonably well. The cuisine was Greek and my inspiration came from the cooking class I went to a couple of weeks back and a Greek cook book my sister gave me last year for xmas.

The menu was

Mains

• Olive bread
• Roasted capsicum with chorizo
• Eggplant and fetta salad
• Greek salad
• Lamb and spinach phyllo

Dessert

• Triangular chocolate cheesecake

The preparation started quite late and so I was late in preparing everything which was a little annoying.  Won't do that again.  I think I've now mastered the olive bread which is great because it seems to be a winner.  

On a tangent I went to the SBS Food Journey today and watched Gabriel Gate cook duck and crepes.  One of the things he said was important in being a good cook was to try a new dish every month and two cook the dish 3 or 4 times in order to master it.  I was rather chuffed with that comment given that that's exactly the intention behind my monthly dinners.  It's worth noting that Gabriel is a fantastic presenter and I highly recommend you go to one of his demonstrations whenever you have the chance.

The roasting of the capsicum and eggplant was better the second time around as I left them on the coals longer and so they ended up cooked all the way through.  I think I've also now gotten the hang of phyllo pastry.  The pastry for the lamb came out brown and crispy with only a little softness in the middle where the filling was concentrated.  Could have added more spinach as the filling was a not quite thick enough.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any photos which I plan to correct the next time around.  The other sad news is that this Month's dinner is going to be shifted to the first weekend in April as I've just run out of weekends in March.

Greek Tapas

Last week I went to a Greek cooking class at the South Melbourne Market. The ladies from Greek Food Odyssey were friendly and informative. It wasn't a hands on class but rather a demonstration class with plenty of delicious samples to taste. For $50 (which was a last minute discount) it was well worth it.

My two favourite dishes were the Thracian hot eggplant salad and the Spetsofai (Greek sausages in a capsicum, tomato wine sauce). For me the thing that makes these two so delicious is the roasting of the capsicum and eggplant on hot coals (my webber). Both were relatively easy to make the only tricky bit was timing the roasting of the vegetables.

For the eggplant salad I peeled the roasted skin and cut it so that it opened up flat on the serving plate. Then I drizzled balsamic vinegar and finely chopped garlic over the top followed by a sprinkling of fetta cheese and a generous amount of continental parsley. For the Spetsofai I browned onion and sliced greek chorizo. Then added tomatoes and a generous drizzle of red wine followed by the sliced roasted capsicum. To garnish I added a sprinkling of parsley. I also barbecued some pork spare ribs which is not exactly Greek but oh well they tasted great.

It's really satisfying to got out and eat something and then come home and pretty much replicate the dish with the same flavour. The lucky guests for my first monthly dinner will be having both Greek dishes.

Lamb Roast with Lemon Meringue Pie

After last weekend's extravaganza I decided so get back to something more simple and traditional. And what could be more simple than the Sunday lamb roast. I quite like the way Jamie Oliver prepares his vegetables so was inspired to do the vege's Jamie style. It was my first attempt at roasting something on the webber and I've now discovered that I really don't like the current brand of charcoal I'm using. They take ages to heat up and the heat they produce is not as good as heatbead. It took an hour to cook a 1/2 kg roast when it really should take about 45mins. A glass of KWV cab sav was a nice addition.

For dessert it was the family's traditional lemon meringue pie only this time I would try a baked version. For the pastry I made pate sucree (sweet pastry). This turned out much better than last time mainly due to the tiny holes that I put in the pastry before cooking it. The filling was relatively simple. Heat lemon juice, water, suger and cornflour until it starts to boil. At this point the filling goes through an amazing transformation where by it changes from a runny milky texture to a think transparent texture. You then furiously add butter and egg yolk until its all mixed in. I've had a few failures with the meringue before but thankfully this time was pretty good. The only thing I'll do differently next time is leave the pie in the oven (whilst off) a little longer to ensure the meringue hardens a little more.

A Great Weekend Of Food

I turned 30 last year in December and decided to delay having a birthday bash as December is a particularly poor month for organising a party. It also gave me plenty of time to figure out what I wanted to do. In the end I decided to host a party at my place and provide all the catering minus any alcohol. Well, last Sunday was the day and I was really happy with how things turned out.

Catering for a party with 26 guests would prove to be quite a challenge but thankfully I had enough for everyone with just a little bit left over. Preparations started on Friday night with an ingredients breakdown in numbers (like MS Excel) followed by a grocery shop at Coles. I had planned to make one dessert on Friday night but was too buggered and so went to bed early. Saturday morning started with a flurry. I planned to make three desserts, nanaimo bars, peppermint crisp cheesecake and a lime and coconut sorbet. I had made the nanaimo bars and the cheesecake before but was going into unknown territory with the sorbet. Things didn't exactly get off to a good start when I poored to much milk into the custard mix and had to throw it all out and start again. By midday I had completed most of the three desserts.

After visiting a friend for a bit and then completing a fresh food shop it was time for the marinade preparations. For the main meat selection I planned to make chicken tikka skewers, chicken tandoori drumets and moroccan lamb skewers. For something different I bought some Boerewors (South African sausage) as well. All the preparations went well and leaving the meat to marinad over night turned out to be a winner. For snacks the plan was to make baked vegetable samosas and pork spring rolls. So the last task for Saturday was to make the fillings for the samosas and the spring rolls. By 10pm I was buggered and called it a night.

Sunday started early with the main objective to have the olive bread and the three salads done by 11am. The three salads were a dill, capsicum and tomato past salad, a chickpea salad and a greek salad. I had only made the pasta salad before so it was going to be a challenge to get the other two done in quick time. 11am went past and I had only finished two of the salads. This was the trigger to put the call out for reinforcements. I had planned for one of my friends to come over a little earlier to help out but soon realised that more were needed. By 12 I still had to roll the spring rolls and samosas, make the skewers, finish off one of the desserts, prepare the BBQ and put out the cheese and crackers. With the extra help everything was pretty much completed by 2pm which was when the first guests were expected to arrive.

Slowly but surely everyone started turning up and by 3:30 or so we were tucking in to all of the tasty food. I was a litte surprised about the items that people seemed to enjoy the most. The olive bread was a big hit and the greek salad seemed to go down quite well. It was really great to see everyone there and as the day got on I had more time to catch up with everyone. Out of the desserts the lime and coconut sorbet was a real hit and a big thanks to one of my friends for bringing over a pavlova as well.

After a long day I was completely hammered but it was definitely one of the best birthdays I've had. I really enjoyed cooking for everyone and was happy with how all the food turned out. I can't say I'll be catering for 26 people again in a hurry but I'll definitely do it again in the future. The only downside is I have no photos to post. Oh well next time.

Thank You Gerry Harvey

Earlier this month Gerry Harvey went public about his distane for overseas online retailers being exempt from GST for purchases under $1000. Even though I'm on the internet quite a bit I had never really considered buying products online for anything other than computer equipment. The GST exemption debate that Gerry Harvey became quite vocal in inspired me to have a look online for products other than computer equipment. What I discovered has now changed the way I shop. It's probably also been influenced by a fellow colleague who before xmas was getting a delivery almost every day from online purchases.

Mr Harvey is claiming that overseas online retailers have an unfair advantage because their products don't incur the 10% GST. He also claims that this is one of the reasons that Australian retailers had a lack luster xmas sales period. On point number one it does seem a little unfair that no GST is charged. This does give overseas retailers an unfair advantage. The tough question is how do you go about charging the GST for overseas purchases. It would be costly and time consuming to process every package coming into the country in order to apply a GST amount.

On point number two. From my recent experiences people are not choosing to buy online because of a 10% price difference, they're choosing to buy online because the prices are often 30% to 40% cheaper. If you don't believe me here is a list of purchases that I've bought lately with the price differences. The OS prices include shipping. Clearly the difference between these items is more than 10%.

Product	Price in Aus	Price OS	% diff
Rock Band 3 with Pro drum set.	$299.95	$229.95	23%
On Food And Cooking	$70.95	$33.56	52%

One of the reasons why prices are more expensive in Australia is because global companies see us as a specific channel with which they can choose to inflate prices. I've been looking into buying a mountain bike recently and have been researching bikes online. One of the bikes I've been looking at is a Specialized Rockhopper. On the Specialized website the retail price for Australia is $1299AUD where as the US price is $799USD. Given the AUD is almost at parity with the USD you would have thought the prices would have been a little closer. I'd expect shipping to be somewhere around $100 and GST to be $80. Even taking this into account the bike is still over $300 more expensive in Australia.

I hope this inspires you to consider online purchases in the future. My advice to Mr Harvey is start making prices in Australia comparable with OS prices if you want people to consider buying products from your store.

My cooking challenge

So, I've been pretty busy in the kitchen over the last couple of months. One thing that hasn't quite felt right is the fact that no one has been able to benefit from all the work except me. Well, I hope to change that.

This years challenge is a monthly 3 course dinner party at my place. Every month I'll organise to have 3 to 5 people over to enjoy a meal which will be from a specific cousine. I'll aim to do a dinner from a cousine only once. I'm thinking the list will be something like French, Spanish, Moroccan, Italian, Greek, Peruvian, Persian, Indian, Thai, Malaysian and Japanese. A few friends have mentioned running something similar so there may be some intertwining of groups which is all the more merrier. Will open up the invites to friends of friends to spread the food love a bit more.

At this stage I'm looking to host the first dinner on the 26th of February. Who's keen? Since I'm having a birthday bash in early Feb I might try and get people who couldn't make it to that to come over for the first one.

Paella

My parents were down from Brisbane this weekend and seemed to enjoy their xmas present which was a night at the tennis. It was a pretty busy weekend. We started with breakfast at Q11 which is one of my favourite breakfast places. Mum and Dad had a mexican quesadilla which mum described as one of the best breakfasts's she has ever had. I had a tortilla which was quite different and nice and spicy. We then headed down to Inverloch where I had a kayak event on followed by a speedy return to Melbourne in order to get them to the tennis on time.

Sunday was again all about food. In the morning I bought a new webber BBQ (to be used on the 6th) and a paella pan. I've made paella a few times but each time its come out more like risotto than a paella. This time round, however, I was sure that it would be different. In both previous attempts I've used a recipe from Gabriel Gaté and Frank Camorra (Tour De France). This time round I used a recipe from Carlos Lopez. Paella is remarkably simple to make but oh so tasty. I should point out that this was the first time I'd cooked since getting my new knifes. Oh my buddha, what a difference a good knife set makes. The end result was pretty good. I could have had the temperature up a little bit more but the paella was definitely not a risotto this time around.

Croissants

Sometime in November last year I set out to learn how to make French pastries. My first challenge was chocolate eclairs which turned out to be rather hard and after 3 attempts I finally got it right. As a result, I developed a healthy respect for pastry chefs. I love croissants (I love most pastries to tell you the truth) but after reading a croissant recipe in a book my sister gave me I became a little less enthusiastic about attempting to make them. Fortunately, my enthusiasm levels took an upward trend after my Mum got me a French pastry making DVD for xmas. And so today was my first attempt at making croissants.

I didn't get started until early afternoon which was not great as temperature plays a pretty big part in the process. Making the dough was really easy, although it would have been nice to have had a mixer with a kneading instrument. Making the dough into pastry is a little involved so I'm not going to go into too much detail. The temperature was a bit of a nuisance as the pastry got sticky very quickly after removing it from the fridge. The DVD showed a number of different styles of croissants so I tried 3 of them, chocolate croissant, raisin brioche and the traditional plain croissant.

Overall, I was really quite happy with the outcome. Definitely have some improvements to make in the process. I think I could have let the dough rise a little longer the first time round. On hot days the fridge is your friend so leave the pastry in there a little longer. I also need a bit of practice cutting up the pastry and rolling the croissants. Will be taking the goodies into the office tomorrow. Hoping for a thumbs up.

First Pasta Salad

I've pretty much decided which salads I'm going to make for my little get together in February. I haven't made any of them before so I thought I better try them out first. One of them is going to be a pasta salad. Its kind of got a Moroccan theme to it but I got my ideas from a few different recipes. The basic ingredients are Fusilli pasta, cherry tomatoes, green capsicum, spring onions, dill, ground cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon. It was pretty simple to make and I was pretty happy with the outcome.

I made quite a bit so had plenty of left overs. The following night cooked up some chicken in small cubes added the pasta and presto, a hot chicken pasta for dinner.

Faith in Humanity

As I write this post the residents of Brisbane are preparing for some of the worst floods the city has ever seen. I've been on the phone to mum and dad getting the latest updates on what's been happening. I've also been following the situation on the ABC. An ABC reporter was on location in Caboolture (just north of Brisvegas) covering a story on a family preparing their house for possible flood damage. What struck me was that there was a guy, who did not know this family at all, giving them a helping hand. He didn't want his name disclosed and when asked why he was helping his response was something like "when someone needs a helping hand you give them one".

When black Saturday occurred in Melbourne back in 2009 we saw an amazing outpouring of human generosity and good will. My housemate at the time had volunteered to join some colleagues up in Alexandria. I ended up joining them for a day. I'm sure there are plenty of similar stories. When the Asian Tsunami hit Australians made a significant contribution to the relief effort. I had a mate of mine, who is an engineer, request to be on location to help out.

Whether it be a suburb of Caboolture, a region of Victoria or a country in South East Asia disasters like the current Brisbane floods always seems bring out such incredible human spirit. I might be being slightly patriotic but I do think in general Australians punch above their weight when it comes to responding to such events. And for the majority of us our motivation is free from religious, political or personal biases and views. In one way or another we belong to a community and when our community is in trouble we respond with passion, generosity and good will. This seems to be part of our make up and instinctive way of behaving in the face of adversity. It's events like these that give me faith in humanity.

Summer In Melbourne

I bought a new Canon PowerShot SX10 before heading over to Africa last year. I don't really know much about photography so figured it couldn't hurt to start learning. On average I don't think my photos from Africa were particularly great. Some of them were pretty good but there weren't too many that really stood out and made me go wow (from a photography point of view).

The weather in Melbourne was pretty good last week so headed down to Port Melbourne to get to know my camera a litte better. I basically fiddled with all the settings for an hour and took a ridiculous amount of photos. Here are some of the photos I quite liked. Hmmm, I'm a little afraid of how boring they may be to some people.

Rest of the Photos

Evolution Of Human Skin

I watched a documentary the other night about the evolution of skin color. I had always thought that evolution was responsible for the differences in skin color among humans but didn't know the extent of the evidence.

Skin color is determined by the concentration and type of melanin found in the skin. So why do people from the northern parts of Europe have light skin and people from east africa have dark skin. Well, melanin is produced by the body to protect us from harmful UV radiation. It is then not surprising that when you overlay a chromatic distribution of skin color with that of UV radiation you get a 90% match. Essentially those humans living in high UV radiation areas have a higher concentration of the melanin type which causes dark skin color. When humans started migrating away from the equator around 120,000 years ago the amount of melanin required for protection was less. This is why people from the northern parts of Europe have fair skin.

In order to show that human skin color evolved over time scientists had to prove that protection against UV radiation increased the reproductive success amongst humans. Whilst working in WA Dr Nina Jablonski discovered a link between UV radiation protection and reproductive success. Folate is a chemical which is important for embryonic development and also for sperm production. It is also very susceptible to prolonged or intense UV radiation. So humans which are exposed to high levels of UV radiation without the necessary protection have a lower chance of reproductive success.

UV radiation isn't all bad for humans. Type b UV radiation is essential in the production of Vitamin-D. This was discovered at the turn of the last century when there was an epidemic of rickets amongst children in the UK. So humans living in areas with lower levels of UV radiation needed to absorb more radiation in order to produce Vitamin-D. What's also interesting is that African Americans living in the northern parts of America have been found to have high levels of Vitamin-D deficiency. In this case they are not getting enough UV radiation because there skin is so good at blocking it.

The final and most impressive piece of evidence was the discovery of a specific genetic mutation which suppresses melanin production. The discovery was first found in a small fish and then the same mutation was found in Europeans with fair skin. The significance of the discovery was not fully realised until the discovery of a similar mutation in the DNA of a Neanderthal. Neanderthal's share a similar ancestor to the modern day human, migrated from Africa to Europe and were fair skinned. This discovery shows that the skin color of both Neanderthal and modern day humans evolved in the same way.

What a great doco. Thanks SBS. If you want to watch the whole thing go here.

Baked Spring Rolls and Summer Greens with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

I caught up with one of my good friends from Canada between xmas and new year. She unexpectedly bought me a xmas present which was the White Water cook book. In 2009 I travelled back to Canada for some awesome skiing action. Three of us went on a road trip which I have to say was probably the best road trip I've ever done. We didn't care where we went so long as there was new snow. As it turns out we only had one day with no new snow. Our first stop on the trip was to a town called Nelson. Nelson is to skiing what Byron Bay is to surfing. Just outside of Nelson there is a small ski resort called White Water. It is here that we discovered the best ski food in Canada. So good is the food the head cook made a cook book.

I decided to cook the baked phyllo spring rolls and the summer green salad with honey balsamic vinaigrette. I've previously had mixed results with phyllo pastry but this time I got it just right. No tears, no holes and no uneven cooking. The salad was also pretty good. I had to caramelise pecan nuts which is something I hadn't done before. Overall I'd say it turned out pretty well. Big thanks to Kim for the cook book.