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General information.

Catching up with the locals

Midnight, Northbridge

It’s probably about time I linked up some of the other great local gastro blogs I’ve been reading lately, and that have dropped into my radar. I don’t do enough of it.

Each of these blogs are doing good things, and i find it really encouraging that more people want to start blogs up and share the ideas, recipes, and restaurant tips with the rest of the world. I especially like the fact that people talk about the local scene and what’s going on around them, rather than just bake cupcakes and let other people drool over them. I get the most value out of blogs are locally focused, but with global appeal.

If I’ve missed anyone you think I should have listed, then feel free to drop a link in the comments. For the most part though, it’s blogs I read that are based in Perth, mostly about food, and updated semi regularly.

And so to the list…

Beaufort Street Bloggers : Join the crew as they traverse their way from the start of Beaufort St to the finish, eating at every restaurant sequentially along the way. They’re doing a great service to the greater Beaufort St region and I personally commend them for having the balls to eat at a number of places I would run a mile from.

Palate : Jennifer’s blog is just starting up but looks the goods so far. She gets out to a bunch of local restaurants and scores invites to swanky dinners, which is something I could get used to as well. hint hint people.

Tannic Teeth : Jason is a local wine writer, and when he’s not out doing photography or projecting lasers onto things, he’s the in house wine guy at Spice Magazine. His blog is about restaurants, cafes, and wines he’s tried lately. He does perm his hair, but I don’t hold that against him.

Beyond Beeton: Rachel, who I’m not sure I’m giving anything away by naming here, is taking a leaf out of Mrs Beeton‘s book, and applying her ethos of household management to the modern age. A well fed house is a happy house after all.

And then the old timers (blog wise, not chronologically)

Ace High Wine: Max is a wine writer and semi professional (is that accurate Max?) poker player, having pulled off some great wins recently. He samples a great many wonderful wines and when he’s not too busy meeting deadlines, posts them up on his blog.

Cafe Grendel : My coffee counterpoint and seeker of truth in all things caffeinated. Grendel does a much better job of me lately at getting around the traps and finding good coffee. He also ruminates a lot more than I do, which I think is a good thing. The world needs more rumination, and it’s what blogs are about.

Wino sapien : Edward is my favourite wine blogger, and not just because he swaps small goods for bottles of Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier. He’s been steadily amassing a wealth of wine related knowledge and tasting notes for some years now, and I can always rely on him to have something new and interesting and different to try. If my wine cellar looked anything like this, I would be a happy man.

Spiceblog: When Anthony isn’t running a magazine or changing nappies, he posts tantalising recipes and photos to his blog, with teasingly skant information on how to do it yourself…which I probably couldn’t anyway. His blog was amongst the first ever food blogs in Australia, and is still a wonderful read.

City of Churches, State of Wine-o’s

Sun on the vines

So we’re headed to Adelaide. City of a thousand churches, and capital city of the state which is home to some of the finest wine producing areas in the world.

So I’ve been hitting up every person I can think of for tips about good restaurants in the city, as well as any memorable winery experiences they’ve had when visiting areas like the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Adelaide Hills.

So far on the list of restaurants is :

  • Good Life Organic Pizza
  • Apothecary
  • Melting Pot
  • Bridgewater Mill

and wineries:

  • Glaeztner
  • Rockfords
  • D’Arenburg
  • Nepenthe

and too many more to list…

So for the readers of this blog who may have spent some time and had some great food and wine in South Australia, please drop me a comment or email with your suggestions. We’ll be there for roughly a week, so I doubt we’ll have time to do all the things even on this list, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Look forward to a round up of the more memorable moments when we get back !

Sorry all round

Dear readers,

Just a quick note to apologise for the recent ups and down on this site, which is having a few growing pains at present while I look for a new server to house it on. So if you’ve had trouble getting onto the site recently I apologise, and hopefully will have it sorted out soon.

In the meantime, here’s a shot of my lovely sister who recently got married.

My Sister - The Bride

And here’s the first few experimental shots taken mostly by Sharon with our new Holga camera. Very cool :)

W.A Barista Championships

Heart

Just passing on a message here folks. The W.A Barista Championships are nearing, very close in fact. So here are a few of the details from the man himself, Ben Bicknell of the W.A Barista Academy, who is a representative of AASCA, and organiser of the competition.

W.A baristas, this is your chance to show your skills and get some great insight on the only competition that will give you access to compete in the Australian and World barista championships.

Get on down and get involved !

Hi,

Bringing you the latest event on the Coffee Industry Calendar of WA:
The official W.A. heats for the AASCA Australian Barista Championships!!

This is just a quick message to give you the initial information about the AASCA WA Barista Championships (WABC). If you are a coffee distributor, coffee roaster or just know of other people who may be interested in this event, feel free to forward this email on.

This year the WABC is moving to a bigger, slicker and more accessible location of the City of Perth Town Hall (crn of Barrack and Hay Street).

The event will be held over two days on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of March. An information session consisting of a general run through, tips for the competitions and the opportunity to practice on the competition espresso machine will be held around a week before the competition (possibly Sunday 25th February). Additional practice sessions may be available throughout the week preceding the competition.

Any resident within Western Australia is eligible to enter. The winner of the WABC will secure their place in the AASCA Australian Barista Championships on April 29th, the winner of which will represent the nation at the World Barista Championships in Tokyo, Japan later in the year.

The WABC is an independent competition run by the AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association (AASCA), a national non-profit organization. See www.aasca.com for more details.

If you would like further information, would like a copy of the rules and score sheets or would like an application form, visit the AASCA website: www.aasca.com. Also, feel free to either give me a call on 0439 511 881, email me at ben@baristaacademy.com.au or alternatively email AASCA at enquiries@aasca.com.

Further information about the event and prizes will be forthcoming.

Cheers,
Ben Bicknell
______________
Secretary for the AASCA Australian Barista Guild
W.A. Convener for the AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association

Commencing ego stroke

This is my official “thanks to the academy” post for my recent success in a little online food photography competition called Does My Blog Look Good In This (DMBLGIT). I hosted DMBLGIT a couple of months ago to great success, and just last month Annie of BonAppgeek did an equally fantastic job of organising it, made even better by the fact that I won something :)

So I was fortunate enough amongst some excellent competition to come away with awards for Aesthetics and Originality for my little inadvertently grainy experiment called “Meanwhile In Italy…”, which is funny because I’ve never been to Italy, but I’m sure it looks something like this somewhere tucked away in a little cafe.

meanwhile in Italy...

So thanks again to Annie for organising and to the judges for thinking me worthy of something. However after noticing a trend from my competition two months ago, and also from last months, I am totally making pistachio covered truffles next time… :)