My article ‘Changing Places’ – first published in Sydney’s Child Magazine (and syndicated in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth’s versions), April 2013:
(Click image to enlarge)
{Writing} Article published in the Child Magazines
Devoured & discovered {9.04.13}
Cafes
+ Latest café crush: West Juliett in Enmore. Opened a few weeks back, the café is in a similar vein to Cornersmith or Bread and Circus, with a focus on natural, high quality, seasonal ingredients. The coffee’s great, the space is airy and white with large windows and a few industrial/vintage touches, and the staff are lovely. New favourite.
Music
+ Speaking of crushworthy things…Gold Fields is a JJJ Unearthed band from Ballarat who are on the verge of wonderful things (they just played SXSW, toured the US and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, hello big time). The good news is they are touring Oz in June and… I have tickets! Cannot. Wait.
Food
+ Local Mexican eats: La Lupita in Canterbury is the pop-up restaurant belonging to the Al Carbon taco food truck crew. On a nondescript stretch of seen-better-days Canterbury Road amongst boarded up shopfronts, the restaurant has a casual, fun, converted garage feel, with charcoal grilling action, delicious tacos and the occasional mariachi band! See their FB page for when they’re open as it’s different each week.
Wellness
+ Coconut oil is being espoused everywhere in health and wellness blogland right now, though it has some critics divided by its purported health benefits. Never one to shy away from a superfood trend I’ve jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon lately – so far I’ve used it in stirfries, to cook popcorn with and to roast sweet potato in. The taste and fragrance is delicious and if it does what it says on the tin so to speak, I’m a coconut oil convert.
Also loving…
+ the last days of sunshine at Bondi Beach + ferrying to Bundeena + Manu Chao live at the Enmore + drinks at Waterhorse + eggs benedict at Excelsior Jones (with magic ingredient – celery salt) + contemplating whether your 30s are ‘do or die’ (scary!) + Mad Men’s return + chlorophyll water + Hobart travel plans
How about you?
{Sydney cafes} If you like Cornersmith, The Grounds and Sideways….
+ If you like Cornersmith (Marrickville), try Fleetwood Macchiato (Erskineville) – another small space with serious coffee, delicious, seasonal food and an emphasis on fresh, homemade and locally sourced ingredients. Like Cornersmith, the menu is quirkier than most, so instead of say, a bacon and egg roll, you can order a smashed egg roll with seasonal ingredients (on the new Summer/Autumn menu, it’s soffrito, tomato, basil and mustard aoili, and you can add their good quality ham or chorizo). The vibe is cool and laidback, with rustic/industrial decor like old metal school chairs. And despite being ‘cool’ the service is really friendly and unpretentious which is so refreshing.
+ If you like Sideways (Dulwich Hill) try Excelsior Jones (Ashfield). On the inner west’s outer reaches, Excelsior Jones straddles the Ashfield/Ashbury border, and is also a stone’s throw from Dulwich Hill, Summer Hill and Hurlstone Park. It’s in a very residential pocket with no cafes or shops in sight – it must be such a welcome relief to those in the neighbourhood (and a boon for the owners!). Just like Sideways, it’s in a converted corner convenience store and all light and bright with lots of glass. It serves delicious Five Senses coffee and top-notch cafe fare – see this week’s review in Good Food for more.
+ If you like The Grounds of Alexandria, try Bread and Circus (also in Alexandria). Tucked away in a post-industrial building housing a very busy Campos cafe (across the road from Alexandria’s Dan Murphy’s), Bread and Circus is all about seasonal, organic, quality ingredients, much like The Grounds. It’s a little on the ex-y side (think $9 for a smoothie) yet the quality of every little ingredient and detail is evident. It’s gorgeous. At the moment you have to get a takeaway coffee from the adjoining Campos cafe to bring to your table, but on the weekend we were informed they will be serving their own coffee very soon – which if it’s anything like their great food will be worth going back for.
Hmm… wonder what other neighbourhoods are crying out for a decent cafe? Can you think of any?
Links to devour {Feb 2013}
Personalising your blog, writing advice and the perils of photographing your food – just a few of the things I’m currently devouring online…..
+ Branding and design extraordinaire Nubby Twiglet addresses ‘How can I share more of myself on my blog?’ This is a question many bloggers grapple with (including me) and it can be scary to put more of yourself out there for anyone to read. But it is true that blog posts of the more personal kind make for more compelling reading. I feel like I used to write more openly about myself and my life in my former blog and that devoured has a more detached, distant voice. I really want to take some of this advice on board to try and personalise my blog a little more!
+ I’m sure every food blogger and social media meal-sharer in Australia cringed after reading Tim Ross’ piece on MamaMia basically paying out taking photos of your food! It’s true that everyone seems to be a food critic these days in some shape or form, and while some people might take it too far (standing on chairs?!) I don’t see what’s wrong with taking an indiscreet picture or two of a restaurant meal, whether it’s to instagram it or to accompany a review on a blog, or even for inclusion in a feature for a website or a magazine. I actually like to look at other people’s photos of food, for inspiration on what to cook or to help decide what’s next on my restaurant radar. I do feel self concious taking food photos though (more-so in Sydney than I used to in Asia, where noone seemed to mind!) and do it a lot less these days, especially as I’m more word-oriented and my food photography leaves alot to be desired! But that’s just me. To everyone else, keep the food photos coming!
+ Writer Allison Tait has started a great series on her blog Life in a Pink Fibro called Starting Out, where freelance writers share their tips and insights on writing for a living. Anna Spargo-Ryan writes about working out what kind of writer you will be, timely for me as I feel a bit all over the shop at the moment, one minute doing corporate writing, the next, travel features for the web. Then, embarking on fiction for adults while also trying my hand at children’s picture book writing. It’s like I want to do it all and I’m not sure if I can, or if I should just pick one avenue and concentrate purely on that. Megan Blandford offers some sound advice on making a career out of freelance writing, with some hard truths about pitching and rejection (the scariest part of any writing journey), and Karen Jane Charlton questions whether you need to do a course to be a writer.
Also:
+ The best 10 cafes in Sydney’s inner west {via Concrete Playground}
+ Paperman is a short and sweet Oscar-nominated animation set in 1940s New York {via A Cup of Jo}
+ Inspiration for healthy, easy snacks to make {via In Spaces Between}
{Vietnam} 5 great places to eat in Hoi An
Inside Mai Fish
Cha gio at Mai Fish
Bun thit nuong
First published on Travelwire Asia, 16 January 2013
By Liz Ledden
THE historic Vietnamese coastal town of Hoi An has long been regarded a food-lovers’ hotspot. A wealth of fresh, local ingredients fuses with centuries of foreign influence, from traders to colonialists to modern-day expats, to form a truly dynamic eating scene.
Hoi An’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed Old Town is awash with excellent eateries from the simplest of street food stalls to sophisticated small bars and trendy restaurants. Local delicacies like cao lau and white rose grace many a menu, and the fresh local seafood is a must. Here are a few places to sample Hoi An’s memorable cuisine:
Mai Fish
The latest restaurant from Duc and the crew from Latino/Vietnamese fusion restaurants Mango Rooms and Mango Mango, Mai Fish opened in late-2012 as a nod to the owner’s Vietnamese heritage. The menu here offers a round-up of classic Vietnamese dishes, albeit prepared and presented with attention to detail a notch above most local eateries. There’s an open kitchen, several rooms featuring vintage Asian décor, and a pervading sense of style. The cha gio are light and crispy, and the bun thit nuong (pork with rice vermicelli noodles) is flawless.
45 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai
Hai Scout Café
A stalwart of the Hoi An dining scene, and for good reason, Hai’s has a welcoming, casual atmosphere with outdoor seating in an enclosed courtyard. The menu features the greatest hits of local cuisine from grilled meats to soups to spring rolls, with some Western standards thrown in for good measure. A standout is the freshly grilled bo la lot, or beef wrapped in lot leaves, prepared on the restaurant’s outdoor barbeque.
98 Nguyen Thai Hoc
The Central Market
Hoi An’s Central Market has been revitalised in recent years to offer a more hygienic, orderly take on street food classics than most local markets. Easy to navigate, each stall has a clearly marked sign with the name of the dish and the price, with most around the 20,000 dong mark. Sample crispy banh xeo (two for 20,000 dong/US$1) – a delicious pancake wrapped around pork, prawns, beansprouts and fresh herbs, doused in condiments of your choice.
Tran Quy Cap
Lien Thao food stall
A string of humble food stalls can be found across the river from the Old Town, grouped under an awning. At Lien Thao, the calamari with lemongrass wrapped in banana leaf is a taste sensation, at a fraction of the price of most of Hoi An’s restaurants. On the night we visited the atmosphere was low-key, with mostly Vietnamese patrons grabbing a quick bite to eat on their way home from work. Expect friendly and prompt service, and delicious dishes best eaten communally.
Nguyen Phuc Chu Street
Le Banyan
Hoi An’s restaurant scene is not only centred around the Old Town – its beaches feature some of the town’s best cuisine. An Bang Beach offers a chilled out alternative to busier Cua Dai Beach. Its row of beach shack eateries are a mix of Vietnamese seafood restaurants and foreign-owned offerings, from an Italian pizzeria to some laidback French places that attract a loyal following from Hoi An’s expat crowd. The paradisical Le Banyan offers tapas-style dishes combining French and Vietnamese influences, with some of the best using delicious local seafood. There’s a green grassy lawn overlooking the beach, a pool table by the well-stocked bar, and bamboo daybeds that lend themselves to lounging. Be sure to order the grilled scallops and the excellent chorizo.
Far left, An Bang Beach
Cool Campsie find: Snow Monkey frozen yoghurt
Fro-yo seems to be a food trend that won’t die. When we were living in Saigon a couple of years ago frozen yoghurt stores arrived with a vengeance, suddenly appearing all over the city. Now they’re popping up in King Street, Newtown, and other random Sydney spots, like Campsie! After a Malaysian lunch at Albee’s Kitchen (think ginormous serves of authentic laksa and stir fried noodles with sambal and seafood) we came across a cool frozen yoghurt cafe called Snow Monkey nearby. There are fake palm trees, table tops made of surfboards, a collage of colourful pictures drawn by its pint-sized clientele and there’s even a slippery dip inside. A quite generous ‘small’ scoop of fro-yo is only $2.50, with flavours including pomegranate and mango, and it’s 50 cents for a topping ranging from virtuous fruit to more junky options. Snow Monkey reminds me of the unique, quirky little places you stumble across in cool neighbourhoods in southeast Asia, like Bangkok’s Siam Square. If you happen to eat at Albee’s (and if you’re looking for a Malaysian fix, you should!) it’s a sweet little spot for dessert afterwards, sliding optional.
Snow Monkey, 270 Beamish Street, Campsie, tel: 02 9789 0227
New in Dulwich Hill: The Hub House Diner
The Hub House Diner is the much anticipated new kid on the Dulwich Hill block, who are luring in the punters with their funky signage, hung so promisingly for a month or so pre-opening. (Yay – something new! And cool! In Dulwich Hill!). With the kids in tow we headed there for dinner on the weekend, but despite arriving early (like 5pm) the buzz of the new meant it was already quite full, not only with families but couples ranging from 20-somethings to 60-somethings – a diverse crowd for a wonderful melting pot of a suburb.
The food is American-style diner fare – burgers, wings, sliders, tacos and the like. We tried the popcorn chicken, small fried morsels of good quality chicken served in a cute metal bucket with sides of fresh, crisp coleslaw and an aoli dipping sauce. Salty, fried comfort food – it disappeared a little too quickly. We also shared some fries, pork sliders and fish tacos – all good, but all in need of a little hot sauce boost, which the friendly staff assured us we should just ask for next time (we will!).
For next time, the burgers sound amazing, and the word is out on their delicious brunch offerings. The Hub House is a breath of fresh air in a rapidly gentrifying suburb, home to some good cafes but still lacking many decent places to eat for dinner, bar a few pizza and Asian joints. And they’re licensed, with some interesting Greek wines a refreshing inclusion on the drinks menu. Happy days.
The Hub House Diner, 404 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill, tel: 02 9518 1887
{Vietnam} Hoi An holiday, and a case of shopping regret
It already feels like a lifetime ago, but a few weeks back I was sunning myself in beautiful Hoi An, hitting up An Bang Beach’s bars at happy hour, indulging in massages at Na Spa (how I wish there was one in Sydney – with the same prices!) and feasting on bo la lot, banh xeo and fresh spring rolls galore.
Hoi An is like the ultimate happy holiday land – it’s bright and colourful, there are long stretches of beach dotted with traditional round fishing boats, street vendors hawking delicious eats and a stunning mix of architectural gems spanning centuries of French, Chinese and Japanese influence. There are patisseries, cafes, wine bars and restaurants serving up amazing yet cheap Vietnamese food, and of course, there’s the shopping.
Hoi An has a long tradition as a trading town, though instead of trading silk for spices with visiting merchants, it now whips up tailor-made creations for backpackers and other modern day nomads in all their guises. Along with clothes and shoes, you can even have jewellery custom-made. If the never ending strips of tailor shops are too much (or you have done the tailor thing to death already) there are several, mostly new, interesting, unique places to shop. One of my favourites was a small store on Le Loi Street called Yee’s Leather which sold really cool, colourful leather pieces from handbags to iPad cases, and some cute clothing. One ‘Hermes orange’ bag, a red leather cuff and a colourful swirly skirt later and I now have a typical case of shopping regret, wishing I bought just one more bag.
Other more boutique-style offerings which have sprung up since I last visited Hoi An are Metiseko, a fashion store using beautiful, organic fabrics with a Japanese bent, and avAna, a chic ode to the fashionable wanderer, with Vietnamese, Indian and Arabic influences and lots of resorty, floaty ware and chunky silver jewellery (shopping regret no. 2 – a pair of silver snakeskin-look ballet shoes on the nothing over $10 shelf. Because I somehow can’t recognise a bargain when it slaps me in the face). For general homewares, textiles, gifts and jewellery, a longstanding favourite is the feelgood Reaching Out Fair Trade Store & Workshop. Alot of the items are handmade onsite by disabled locals, and you can even pop out the back and see the artisans in action. Which brings me to shopping regret no. 3 – a stunning sterling silver chain with a leaf-shaped silver pendant. Would have been perfect with, well, everything.
But for everything I didn’t buy there was something I did! One of my favourite purchases were some brightly coloured fabric lanterns, handmade by a sweet couple who run a stall just around the corner from delicious eatery Mango Mango, on the ‘other’ side of the river from the old town. Our five lanterns were less than US$10, the perfect things to adorn our back deck for a colourful Christmas with a touch of Asia nostalgia.
P.S. If you’re heading to Hoi An and do decide to go down the tailor shop route, here are a few tips from my old blog that may help!
{Cafe Crush} Reuben Hills, Surry Hills
Reuben Hills ticks all the cool cafe boxes – Surry Hills location, industrial-style fitout, seriously good baristas and a menu of zeitgeisty Latino/Americana style eats. Instead of boring old cafe standards the dishes here are all interesting and enticing sounding. The crab tacos are bursting with the fresh flavours of seaside Mexico, while the nachos with chorizo grits are a richer, heartier take on a Tex-Mex favourite. For dessert there’s the highly understated sounding ‘dog’s breakfast’, an icecream sandwich (think a thick wedge of vanilla icecream encased in chocolate brownie slices) served with a generous curl of delicious salted caramel. All importantly, the coffee here is strong yet smooth. Swoonworthy!
