My affection for the Middle East is well know, after all, I have lived here for most of my thirties and now my forties. I have a special affection for Lebanon. Perhaps the only country where, at 11pm, a nice, quiet restaurant will turn into a full blown nightclub. I asked a Lebanese friend about this once. He was blunt. “You know the history of Lebanon. On any given day we could be invaded, attacked or whatever. So why not party?” Words to live by I say. Their food, or food from the Levantine region is some of the most complex and interesting in the world. Drawing from the Middle…
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Homage to Fromage
Like Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster and finding a decent coffee in the US, I believe I have unearthed the ultimate urban myth – a Frenchman who doesn’t like cheese. I have a friend, Dom, who must be the only real Frenchman in the history of Frenchiness…who does not like cheese. For him it’s not the taste, but the smell that he finds off putting. Despite this character flaw, he has am amazing sense of humour and will tolerate the consumption of even the stinkiest cheese in his presence. Which I recently did…at length. Dom and his wife Laila joined me for one of my weekend jaunts to Oman with…
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The Big Cheese – Italy Arrests Mozzarella King
Apparently it sometimes doesn’t pay to be the “Big Cheese” as Italy’s “Mozzarella King” recently found out. Police in Italy on Tuesday arrested the head of the country’s biggest buffalo mozzarella cheese maker and seized assets worth 100 million euros ($US123 million) on suspicion of links to organized crime. Giuseppe Mandara, who once called himself the “Armani of Mozzarella” in an interview, is thought to have been linked to a Naples mafia clan. So much for blessed are the cheesemakers… Big cheese: Italy cops arrest mozzarella king over mafia links
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Say cheese – My 15 Minutes of Fame
I recently had my 15 minutes of blogger fame when I was interveiwed by the fab people at The Blognerds We talked about cheese and life after I finish my 365 cheeses… You can read the interview here: Interview With Life on the Wedge
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Heavy Breathing – I Just Want (Brin) D’Amor Cheese
Well before this blog came into beng, I would frequent the cheese counter of a food hall within a hotel in Doha called La Cigale. I would spend Friday afternoons, and a good chunk of my earnings from several jobs, there. But as happens, familiarity bred contempt. I went there too often. I started to notice they weren’t taking care of the cheese. The staff weren’t as helpful. And we fell out of love. Actually, if I am pressed, I do say the main reason I stopped going was that the valet parking there is rubbish (white girl problems anyone?). But, in a fit of nostalgia (homesickness and missing people),…
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Oh Deer…Is Cheese from Bambi the Next Big thing?
Bambi has a lot to answer for. Inspired by the Donkey Milk Cheese phenomenon, some guys in New Zeland think they have hit upon a sure fire money making. Scientists and a cheese maker from Oamaru in New Zealand have produced what they believe may be the world’s first cheese made from the milk of farmed red deer. What’s more, laboratory tests have identified unique bioactive compounds in red deer milk that they say could improve the immune system of humans. You can read more about it by clicking the link below Deer milk cheese offers health benefits
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What a Raclette…But I am Still Fondue of You
When I was a youngster living in Sydney’s west, it wasn’t the culinary melting pot that it is now. On my last visit home, the main drag of Merrylands’ restaurant count included Vietnamese, Turkish, Lebanese, Chinese, Thai and a couple of others. Nearby Parramatta is even more diverse. But in the 1980s in Parramatta, there was a restaurant called inexplicably Pinkys (the only name more inexplicable was the Foo Doo Chinese up on Sherwood Road, but that’s another story). And at Pinkys, the only thing on the menu was fondue and lots of it. Melted cheese in all its glory. I never actually went to Pinkys and it is long…
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Feeling blue…Stilton left in the cold by younger generation
I love a blue…cheese that is. But this article makes m think that those Gen X kids need to man up and enjoy the greatness of Stilton. Pfft. Stilton sales tumble
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Vive Le Reblochon!
Am I the only person on earth (the far reaches of Bhutan not counted) who hasn’t seen Les Miserables? My love for most things Gallic is well and truly on the record. But, I mean, I WANT to, but the whole “Anne Hathaway is Annoying” business kind of gets in the way. So instead of watching Anne sobbing on screen, I decided to have my own little French Revolution this weekend in the most unlikely of places – Muscat, Oman. It’s one of my favorite places in the world and has a pretty heavy French influence. There is even an Omani French Museum charting the relationship between the two countries…
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Kofta-esque Fantasy – Show Me the Curry!
I will go to great lengths to get my hands on a cheese dish, regardless of its availability. This is what happened on my recent trip to Mumbai. I had been craving Malai Kofta, a vegetable and cheese dumpling in a creamy curry sauce, from the minute I booked my ticket to Mumbai. What I didn’t count on was this amazing dish being from a different part of India. And we all know how justly parochial Indians are about their cuisine. Luckily for me, the chef at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai where I was staying knew how it make it. And the results didn’t disappoint. Kofta are balls made from…