mmmm….tasty

One of things I really like to do is eat, particularly very, very good food. Fortunately Fuzzy shares this hobby, so we’ve eaten at some spectacular places:

• The Square - a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in London
• Est - At the Establishment Hotel in Sydney
• The Hind’s Head - Heston Blumenthal’s traditional pub in Bray, UK

The main issue we have in our eating hobby is our complete inability to plan months in advance - which is generally what is needed to get a table at any of the really top flight restaurants. We got lucky with The Square - because they’d had a last minute cancellation; Est we did for our wedding anniversay - so we knew months in advance that we’d want to eat out on that night, and the Hind’s Head we managed to book online (although we missed out on our first choice -the Fat Duck)

So we had three restaurants that were on our list of places to try - the aforementioned Fat Duck; Cafe Sydney - as much for the views as the food - and top of the list Tetsuya’s.

Well - last night we managed to cross Tetsuya’s off the list.

One of the people I work with had a reservation for last night, which for a variety of reasons she was unable to make. Rather than cancel it, she asked around to see if anyone in the office would like it. So Fuzzy and I leaped at the opportunity.

So - at 6:30pm - all dressed up we presented ourselves at the restaurant for the meal of our lives. It was a 12 course degustation mebu - with accompanying wines…

1. Cold Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice Cream
2. Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar
3. Leek & Crab Custard
4. Sashimi of Big Eye Tuna with Wasabi & Ginger Vinaigrette
5. Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon & Fennel Seasonal Green Salad
6. Ravioli of Queensland Spanner Crab with Tomato & Basil Vinaigrette
7. Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel
8. Twice-Cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Caper & Olive Jus
9. Grilled Wagyu Beef with Lime & Wasabi
10. Comte with Lentils
11. Apple Sorbet with Apple Jelly & Mont Blanc
12. Chocolate Terrine with Mascarpone & Cognac Anglaise

It was all fantastic - and for my money a better meal than we had at The Square. The highlight for me was the smoked ocean trout with caviar - although the wagu beef was also pretty amazing.

It did cost an arm and leg, so you wouldn’t eat there if you’re even slightly concerned about cost - but for a once in a lifetime experience it was worth every cent.

Ethical Digital PR - is there such a thing?

I’m hoping to find out at breakfast next Friday at this event put on by the Public Relations Institute of Australia New Technology Committee

(disclaimer - I am a member of this committee)

Although I’m a member of PRIA and the New Tech/New Media Committee I personally find the whole “using new media for PR” somewhat problematic - I mean one of things I personally like about the interwebs is that there seems to be very little PR that isn’t clearly identified (and usually obvious by how little they ‘get it’) on the occasions when someone does try astroturfing they usually get found out pretty quickly and humiliated. (Hi Wal-mart - I’m waving at you!)

So I’m interested in what Steve and Matt have to say about the topic - if you’re in Sydney on the morning of May 2 - you should consider coming along.

Friday timewasters

The Rather Difficult Font Game

This is a great game if you actually are a bit of a font geek (as I am) I managed a not terribly impressive 30 out of 34

How many of the elements on the periodic table can you remember?

(I got 54 out of 118)

Do bloggers own passion?

From SilkCharm

DEFINITION: Bloggers - write about what they are passionate about. Journos - write about what other people are passionate about

It’s interesting that this has bubbled up today - given the news reports about the blogger dying at the keyboard. Passion is great - but not at the expense of your life.

Of course as someone who theoretically has a bit of a bit of a foot in both camps I’m not sure it’s an entirely fair definition - if you look at some of the highly successful gonzo journalists, Hunter S Thompson, Tom Wolfe, etc  you could probably argue there was a fair bit of passion there.

Tom Wolfe in an article in the Wall Street Journal said

One by one, Marshall McLuhan’s wackiest-seeming predictions come true. Forty years ago, he said that modern communications technology would turn the young into tribal primitives who pay attention not to objective “news” reports but only to what the drums say, i.e., rumors.

And there you have blogs. The universe of blogs is a universe of rumors, and the tribe likes it that way.

Favorite blogs: Mr. Wolfe, “weary of narcissistic shrieks and baseless ‘information,’ ” says he no longer reads blogs.

Of course the writing standards for blogs are lower (heck - anyone can play!) so I guess there’s less need to be able to defend, define and explain your passion; or even write well about it.

The best thing about badly written blogs of course - is that one doesn’t have to read them, but then the same is true of a well-written but essentially dull story.

So in answer to SilkCharm

Do you want “objectivity” - stories filtered, nay watered down, for public consumption? Or do you want “passion” - stories spoken from the heart complete with emotional tugs, tirades and misspellings? Is there a place for both?

Me? I want it all. I want stories with passion - without emotional tugs, tirades and misspellings.

And anyone who regularly reads the Guardian - knows it’s possible.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is the the german word that roughly describes taking guilty pleasure in the misfortunes of others.

This of us who work in and around the Australian stockmarket - but aren’t wealthy enough to be heavily invested have been enjoying this particular sensation for a while as the market has been “correcting”

And then it got even better.

A small stockbroking company Opes Prime, collapsed, and, as it did it was revealed that, thanks to some interesting lending practices people, who thought they had regular margin loan facilities have now discovered they don’t actually own *any* of the things they thought they owned. A number of quite high profile people have been caught up in the situation - including former Sydney criminal lawyer Chris Murphy. (Full coverage and analysis can be found on the Business Spectator site).

So what has happened is that a bunch of people who thought they were smarter than average, who thought that the regular way of making a buck was beneath them, and that only saps wouldn’t leverage themselves(1) to the hilt to make more money, have just discovered what my Gran always used to tell me.

“If you can’t afford to buy something - you probably shouldn’t buy it.”

And the rest of us are enjoying their painful learning process.

(1) Leverage themselves = borrow money and hope no-one asks for it back.

Boycotts and Sport

The word “boycott” comes to us courtesy of the Irish land war in the 1880’s.

Today, it’s mostly being used in reference to the Beijing Olympics, and the concept that because of China’s poor record on Human RIghts/Environmentalism/Pretty Much Anything, Governments and athletes should boycott the games.

Leaving aside the whole debate about it’s just a bunch of over-trained, over-specialised naked apes performing for the amusement of the masses, it’s unlikely that any government is going to have the cahones to actually go through with a boycott.

Which means it’s up to us.

So, I personally will not be watching any broadcast of the Olympics, further I will not buy, or recommend any product from any Olympic sponsor, I will also happily tell people why I am not buying, and encourage them to  join.

We might not be able to stop the Olympic Games in Beijing, but we can make it expensive for them.

The 2008 Olympic Sponsors are here.

From around the web today

Japanese boffins believe they may have developed a means of reversing cirrhosis of the liver among rats and perhaps people, in a development with far-reaching consequences for professional cricketers, hellraising movie stars, layabout drunks, politicians, economists, Catholic priests, journalists and others whose jobs require them to drink heavily.

And
Flying Spaghetti Monster statue at Tennessee courthouse

See into the future

Search the internet tomorrow using G’day

Made me chuckle…