Category Archive: FOOD
Flower Drum Endures – Thank God
(17 Market Lane, Melbourne) May, 2022 Mrs. Appleyard says to Mademoiselle in Picnic at Hanging Rock that Bournemouth was “a delightful place. Nothing changed…ever!” The Varnished Culture says the same for Flower Drum, tucked away in the heart of Melbourne, just off Bourke Street. We have been coming here for years, whenever commitments bring us to Melbourne. Melbourne has become problematic. Its great high style now looks like Srebrenica after the Serbs finished with it, or Paris churches after the Jacobins. A smoking ruin of a one-party state, where everyone is tolerant of lies, the citizenry does not expect government…
Continue Reading →Stuffing One’s Face in Brisbane
November 2021 The Varnished Culture spent a (very) warm week in Brisbane sampling, inter alia, some of the very nice eateries. From restaurant to cafe, Brisbane serves good food in elegant settings and a relaxed mode. Here’s a sample. Otto (Shop 1, River Quay, Sidon St, Brisbane, Qld) Very posh. A short walk through the steamy riverbank gardens and then seats in the bar with delicious cocktails (a “Sicilian Sunset” – Vodka, Limoncello, Lemon sorbet, Vanilla and soda; and an “Arancia Sour” – Johnnie Walker Black, Lemon, a Chinotto reduction and whites). Then in to lunch. There we encountered some…
Continue Reading →Roadrunner
A film about Anthony Bourdain (Directed by Morgan Neville) (2021) Famously rockstar-level restaurateur, best-selling author (Kitchen Confidential), martial arts expert and prolific television host, the subject of Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain was no doubt a wildly successful man. As we have come to expect from biographical documentaries, this level of achievement means that he must also have been deeply unhappy. And often unkind. One of his friends is reduced to tears recalling Bourdain telling him, “You’ll never be a good dad”. Bourdain’s two marriages, to a childhood sweetheart and a restaurant executive, failed, in part because he was…
Continue Reading →Some Plague Recipes
The “A. J. Ayer” Self-eating Welsh Rarebit Ideal for slimmers, anchorites and philosophers. Eats itself before you can touch it. Comes with a side “Plato” self-eating egg and “Leibniz” self-eating salad. Later, with a “Heraclitus” self-eating apple turnover and a hot cup of “Descartes” self-drinking tea, you can sit back and read or just untie grandfather while your lunch eats itself for you. Preparation: Remove rarebit from oven, egg from pan, salad from chopping board. Serve. Slow Fishcakes Finally! Fishcakes that really give you time to eat them. No more dashing off the plate. Slow Fishcakes just lie there and…
Continue Reading →We Love Lucy’s
Lucy’s El Adobe Café, Melrose Avenue, Hollywood We were stuffed. That is, exhausted and footsore. Having walked from Hollywood Blvd; having traversed the entire Hollywood Cemetery; having found that there’s no easy way from there to Paramount Studios except to walk another few miles, even though it is adjacent; having found that there’s virtually nowhere along Melrose to sit and eat, we chanced upon this place with the modest sign and modest exterior, just over the road from Paramount. Our luck was in. This was a great little Cantina, and the signed photos of stars all over the walls bore testimony…
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