Merry Christmas everyone

A very introspective and bittersweet time of the year when we remember our fierce new friendships forged in Ann Arbor and wish we could be closer to everybody. It’s the same for all of you in Brisbane, London and Melbourne.

To ease the pain we eat, honouring culinary Christmas traditions as the best way we know how to feel a little bit closer to you all. Here’s a new tradition brought back from Ann Arbor: gingerbread. I picked up a packet on a whim after I couldn’t find (fruit) mince tarts anywhere, and I remember devouring it, piece by piece, curled up on the couch with my new Christmas books with the snow-covered lake just outside the window.
Our lake in Ann Arbor. A long way from the sandy feet and frangipani of a Sydney Christmas!

I didn’t have any luck finding real gingerbread in Sydney so I made my own, and now its heady perfume fills the house. It’s dense, rich and moist: sticky with golden syrup and black treacle, with the rasp of fresh ginger. Tastes perfect with a cup of green tea or a glass of Prosecco, but I’m going to crumble it into a loaf of stuffing with onion, ham, apples and allspice to go alongside tomorrow’s Christmas pork dinner with Jemima and Mark.

I love eating at Jem and Mark’s. Last month we had a decadent meal of cacciuco – the garlicky seafood stew from Livorno – because Jem was reading Michelangelo’s account of it in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Their house a real Aladdin’s cave with the ever-changing display of their latest canvasses hanging from the walls, stacks of books and journals by the squashy lounges, and an eclectic mix of great music pumping out of the living room. They truly live a creative life, and their food can take its cues from the same places their artistic inspiration is sourced. And they’re real hedonists, like me. We’re spoiling each other with food this year, and we have a long menu lined up for a full day of feasting. As well as the gingerbread stuffing, I’m making a quivering jelly made with sparkling shiraz and studded with plump strawberries, raspberries and blackberries – a Maggie Beer recipe from Maggie’s Table.

Merry Christmas, all. We'll toast you tonight with cups of chilled egg nog and Sufjan Stevens' holiday album.

And bring David Hicks home.

Sour grapes

Somewhere between five and 10 per cent of wines suffer from some sort of spoilage, usually cork taint. How many affected wines are we drinking without realising it?


Last weekend in Melbourne I tried a Yarra Valley pinot noir at one of the terrific gastropubs. The wine was glorious, tasting of dirt, rhubarb and cherry with smooth tannins, and a superb match with food. I was so enamoured that when I saw it at a bottle shop the following night, I picked it up for another go. It could have been a completely different wine. Flat and featureless, it had no obvious smell or flavour of cork taint, yet something was amiss.

Had this been the first time I tried the wine, I would have assumed it was a dud. How many times does this happen? How many good wines have been written off after a disappointing experience due to some sort of fault or spoilage?

Tastes of Melbourne

Friday night dinner at the Courthouse Hotel dining room, a gastro pub in North Melbourne near Ferg's place:

With the Walkleys out of the way, we got down to some serious eating, and this is a city which takes its food seriously. Had perhaps some of my favourite wines of the year with the Courthouse tasting menu. Not an Aussie wine among them, sadly:




Lightly cured tuna
crab and couscous salad, avocado, water vinaigrette
N.V. Larmandier Bernier Terre de Vertus 1er Cru, Champagne France

Seared Scallops
escargot with garlic cream, pancetta, potato crips
2005 Domaine Thomas Sancerre, Loire Valley France

Terrine of Rabbit
spring vegetables and pinot gris "en gelee" truffle cream vinaigrette, soft herbs
2005 Valminor Albarino, Rias Baxias Spain

Roasted Veal Loin
saffron gnocchi, peas, asparagus and broad beans, sauce noisette
Descedientes de J.Palacios Petalos Mencia, Bierzo Spain

Queso Valdeon
with accompaniments
2001 Chateau Pinsan, Sauterne France

Assiette of Blood Oranges
blood orange sorbet, blood orange and campari jelly, blood orange salad
2005 Vietti Moscato d'Asti, Piedmont Italy

Coffee & Petit Fours

Throw in Saturday breakfast and lunch at the slender Superfino on Flinders Lane - deli, provender and cafe with a menu full of generously flavoured tastes - and Sunday brunch of Eggs Benedict and a bellini at Rathdowne Street Food Store in North Carlton with its counter laden with brioches, fritatta and other treats baked on the premises, and we didn't want to leave.

Walkley night

Thanks for your hundreds of sweet congratulatory messages; they all meant so much to me. And now, finally, are the photos you've been asking for. You all saw the biffo but you would have had to be particularly keen to sit through the entire awards telecast on SBS to see us take to the stage.

Here's the official shot. Paul (the correspondent) is on the far left, Darren (my video/audio producer) and Matt (the designer/Flash programmer) are to the left of me:


And here are Darren and me with Gerard and my editor, David, as the night wore on:


And here's what we won for: The War of Ideas. (And here's what the judges said).