It was an amazing day in the land of Parma today with me being interviewed on the 612 ABC Drive program with William McInnes.

A link to the full show this afternoon is here: https://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/peOwLeVoND?play=true

My interview is in from around the 8 minute mark through the 20 minute mark.  I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed being a part of it.

A shortened version with just my interview, I understand, will be available on the ABC website shortly: I will also post it here when it goes live.

I have been accused recently of liking to cook with flowers.  I am entirely guilty of this: I love incorporating edible flowers in my cooking.  And today I am going one step further and incorporating an edible weed.

Dream Cuisine is a patisserie with purpose! Owen’s ‘Dream’ is to create the finest laminated pastry and perfect macarons.

Not bound by the rules of traditional pastry cooking, Owen encourages his team to explore new ideas, take risks and experiment with different butters and flours to achieve the very best results. (They even source their butter from Naomi in Myrtleford, Victoria who studied butter making in Europe!)

Along with his mum and business partner, Marilyn, Owen has successfully taken their vision to the Hamlet (Little Dreams), Old Bus Depot Markets and the Capital Region Farmer’s Market.

While the Fyshwick location may not be as convenient as more central spots, it gives the team the space they need to work their magic, and is so worth the trip! (The Lavender macaron is amazing!).

Cozy and cute, Grace and Annie make you feel right at home.

The coffee is excellent and there’s…

I love Canberra, its got great food, lovely people, everything and anything is only a 20min drive away, there is no peak hour and the airs cleaner. Outside of the cold, the only thing I miss about Sydney is the cakes, sweets and pastry shops (and family of course!).

At least once I week, I’m sitting at home craving pretty looking pastries and sadly I don’t know many places in Canberra that do good sweets and! Most importantly are open on weekends or open outside of work hours (I’m talking about you Flute Bakery, why do I have to be sick to have delicious baked goods?!) I mean Canberra does have good baked goods e.g. Autolyse, Silo, Cornucopia and etc but I want a place where patisseries come first, all that savoury stuff can come later. I’ve been to Ricardo’s and its nice, sadly I don’t want to just have one place…

I had hours of late night shopping a head of me but that didn’t stop me from ducking over to the Botanic Gardens to check out their inaugural Eat Local market, where they encourage people to buy local and eat local by offering chemical and GMO free produce from the Riverina, Tumut and the Canberra region. As I drove through the front gates, I was directed to the car park on the left hand side which was a short stroll to the markets. I parked and figured I didn’t have to pay for parking because it was sort of after hours (after 5pm) and I could only stay for a short while.I was there just in time to see Costa Georgiadis officially cut the ‘ribbon’ to the inaugural Eat Local market with help from some children.I was limited to what I could purchase because I wasn’t really home over…

The benefits of oats and spelt have been glorified by the health conscious and seem to be living a new renaissance these days. How lovely to think that these have been staple ingredients in the Italian diet since time immemorial, proving once more that our traditional cuisine boasts health recipes to suit most dietary requirements. Naturally such perks are complemented by one other fundamental asset: the both impart a warm, nutty flavour to bread, making them you best allay in the kitchen. So, if you are trying to stay away from refined white bread, this recipe might be just what the doctor ordered.

INGREDIENTS, makes 1 loaf

300 gr (2-3/4 cups) of spelt flour

200 gr (1- 2/3 cups) of unbleached baker’s flour or all purpose flour

380 ml (1- 2/3 cups) of lukewarm water

1 teaspoon of dry yeast

1 teaspoon of honey

2 teaspoons of salt

1-2 handfuls…

Okay, so this post is looong overdue. This place is a bit of a regular haunt for us yet its taken me over a year to finally get around to writing about Can Tho’s tasty goodies. Back when I was living in Belconnen, I probably visited Can Tho at least once a week, since moving to Braddon, I don’t get to visit as often but it’s still my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Canberra.

Can Tho sits a little west of the Westfield and just a store or two from Goodberry’s. The store isn’t fancy or anything, and is very much like your typical Vietnamese restaurant in Cabramatta or Bankstown. There are rows of chairs and tables, some basic Vietnamese paintings and a TV at the back. Its not fancy but hey, like any good Vietnamese restaurant, you go to Can Tho for the food, not the decor. While the decor…