Shanghai Village Dumpling

Melbourne’s Chinatown – stretching along Little Bourke street between Swanson street and Spring street, this area of Melbourne is hard to miss. The heritage buildings that line the street, off shooting lanes, nooks and crannies are contrasted by the sometimes overwhelming array of bright neon signs, hanging lanterns and ceramic beasts.

Despite having worked and studied close to this area for a number of years, I am unfamiliar with this area of Melbourne’s culinary offerings. This is mostly due to the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese food. The only exception to this? Dumplings (oh, and Peking duck).

A (Somewhat Belated) Review – Heston Blumenthal at Home

Part mad scientist and part culinary genius, Heston Blumenthal is well known throughout the world for his creative and daring approaches to cooking. As a poster boy for modern molecular gastronomy and kitchen chemistry, his imagination and passion chips away at the wall of sterile facts that surround the world of food science.

Blumenthal produced his first of many cookbooks, Family Food: a New Approach to Cooking, in 2000. Six years later he produced his second and most famous book, Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection. Throughout In Search of Perfection, Blumenthal attempted to find the ‘perfect’ way of cooking classic dishes such as fish and chips and black forest gateau. The following year he produced Heston Blumenthal: Further Adventures in Search of Perfection, in which he continued the explorations begun in his previous book. In 2008 The Big Fat Duck Cookbook was published, giving the public a glimpse in to the kitchen of the so called ‘real life Willy Wonka.’