Ugg boots, hot milo and a little grey cat

Mullumbimby, June 2011
Talking about the weather gets old quickly but it's hard to talk about anything else at the moment. When I lived in Dublin my friend used to say 'there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation'. Meaning the weather is always going to be absolutely ridiculous so it's your fault if you don't have 5 layers with you.  I think I had 4 layers on when we went for Milk and Honey in Mullum on Thursday. We came back and put the fire on which you can see Buttons enjoying here. She sits so close to it I think she'd be medium rare. The spaghetti was freshly made and delicious as always. 6.5/10

Shanghai Airport Spaghetti

Shanghai, China June 2011
Jeez a 5/10 at the airport is alright. I'm not sure if Australian airports would get that kind of score. I was dubious when I saw the kitchen equipment consisted of 5 microwaves but was pleasantly surprised. I'll be back to China again soon and will stop in at Hope Star on my way out.

Mr and Mrs Bund

Shanghai, June 2011

When I visited Shanghai 5 years ago we snuck into the hotel restaurant for a steak a couple of times. We just didn't seem to be hitting the good spots and a particular beef soup with floating bits of cow hair is burnt into my memory. This time around, the food was outstanding. We ate like kings every day whether it was chinese, indian, italian or western food. One special meal was at Mr and Mrs Bund - a well designed restaurant by Paul Pairet overlooking the Bund. The artsy meals were tiny but delicious. The middle picture is little restaurant down some stairs that had cute booths and no english (we had to act out cow vs pig). The bottom picture is Ricey ordering 5 meals ( he only ate 1) at Grape Restaurant - if you go to China, look this one up.

Chopsticks Spaghetti

Shanghai, May 2011

The Chinese are masters of imitation. They can perfectly copy something so well you can't tell which one is the original. Lucky for me this extends into italian food. The Taikang Road Art Centre in Shanghai is a grid of alleyways filled with boutiques, bars, galleries and restaurants. It's so cute, all the shops are miniature and often have little ladders leading up to an upstairs section. After eating Chinese for breakfast we felt less guilty about eating at an italian restaurant for lunch. The spaghetti was clearly made fresh and the sauce was divine. I gave it an 8 in the piccy but it deserves a 9 for sure. We went back again 2 days later.   

Real country folk

Mullumbimby, April 2011

We got a good dose of human contact over easter. One of the highlights was showing our little farm to the real country people - Mard and Ross. The things we squeal over they eat up with a big old spoon. Tales of piggin, roo shooting and thousands of acres of red dirt are a long way from our tea and scones. It was great to catch up and we took them to trusty Milk and Honey which was pounding with Bluesfest people. The standard didn't falter despite the crowds. Mard thoroughly enjoyed her pancetta and pea pasta giving it a 9/10 and my pomodoro was damn fine also - 7/10. 

Sue Ching's Spaghetti

Brisbane base soft-sculpture artist Sue Ching has made her own spaghetti and outdoor BBQ made out of felt. Best thing I've seen in ages. See more here http://sue-ching.blogspot.com/

Don Gato the Cat

Melbourne, March 2011
You roll the dice when you fly Tiger. I chanced it last minute to pop down to Melbourne and surprisingly everything went smoothly. There were other interstaters in town and much merriment followed. As usual I got a little overexcited at the amount of old friends in one place and peaked too early but by now we're all used to that. The next day we headed back to Giz's to inspect her prized capsicum plants. Much to her horror, her bumper crop turns out to be something other than capsicums...most likely weeds. Fertilised, stalked weeds. The best loved weeds in Melbourne I'd say. After this crushing revelation she kindly humoured me to some homemade spaghetti and we sat outside, staring at the capsicums/weeds. I left out some key ingredients to the spaghetti but it was a lovely all the same. 6.5/10

Milk and Honey

Mullumbimby, March 2011
Milk and Honey was brilliant yet again. Close your eyes and think you're in Italy kind of brilliant. With the right balance of fresh flavours, it's certainly making up for a few bad spaghetti's I've had along the way. This particular Thursday was St Paddy's Day. We headed into Byron for a few afternoon pints and this was the perfect way to finish things off on our way back to the farm.  8/10

Home grown, home made

Mullumbimby, March 2011

We often talk the veggie patch talk but to be honest, I know little about it. I didn't think vegetables and herbs would be so fussy. They want to sit next to a certain vegetable, don't like another one, prefer spring, only bloom once, go to flower. It's exhausting keeping up with them. I see why farmers stick to one thing. As a result, Ricey is into all sorts of thing and I tend to focus on one vegetable and make that my prized crop. At the moment it's cucumbers, they literally form overnight - very satisfying. Did you know they have spikes when they grow? As a result, they haven't been nanged on my little creatures. I've also been allocated a citrus tree that I've been pruning. I just want to prune everything in sight but apparently that's a winter thing, pff, so I've been let loose on one tree. We're not even sure what it produces - either mandarins or oranges. Either is fine by me. The pesto for our spaghetti is home made from the patch. Most meals have something from there in them, whether it's a herb, an eggplant, some zucchini, just something little. It hit the spot this particularly evening. 8/10

Hugh Mackay

Lismore, sometime during 2010

There are some really good things in Lismore. Unfortunately the kids spaghetti at The Lismore Workers Club isn't one of them. But that's not what you go Lismore for. Apart from all the 'big shops' we don't have in Mullum, there are also great vintage shops and an art deco cafe called 'Mecca' with old school booths. What drew us there on this particular day was Hugh Mackay giving a speech for the launch of his new book 'What makes us tick'. If you're not familiar with Hugh, he's a social researcher full of interesting observations. Like Seinfeld humour, a lot of what Hugh says is right in front of us everyday but we just don't see it for what it is. He used to come and speak at Clemengers when I worked there years ago. I'm glad we made the journey, even though the Spaghetti was soggy the Workers Club was buzzing. 4/10