16: Food Blog: Grab Your Fork

What inspires you to write a food blog?

I love food so it allows me to indulge in my ultimate passion and the joy it brings. I photograph it, write about it, and then share it with people all over the world.

I love how food blogs are incredibly interactive and social - how ongoing comments and input from readers provide a broader and more diverse picture about a restaurant or recipe I've posted. And I also love how my blog gives me an excuse to order and eat more - purely research purposes!

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From rare apples and pears to wild mushrooms and kale, hundreds of seasonal ideas for late summer suppers

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What sort of posting really gets your readers excited (good or bad)?

It's not always easy to predict which posts will get the most reaction, but it tends to include foods that are either unusual, expensive or excessive! Examples, in order of popularity, would include: eating silkworm pupae at a Korean restaurant or a lunch at Becasse with fresh Black Perigord truffles dug up only the day before, and a manic five-stop dessert crawl in two hours.There was also a fair amount of buzz when I was flown to Wellington, New Zealand by Wellington Tourism to experience their first ever food festival.

Which cookbook can you not do without and which chef is your hero/heroine?

I have a bookshelf filled with cookbooks yet I usually look to the internet when searching for a recipe. However, it's hard to go past Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion. It's an Australian classic that is more a reference book on ingredients with detailed information on how each is grown, seasonality, how to store it, preparation and cooking tips, and a range of recipes.

I think there are hero chefs in home kitchens everywhere - I can now appreciate the resourcefulness of my mother who always managed to creatively turn fridge leftovers into delicious dishes on a budget.

Share a seasonal recipe with us...and a tip for a local restaurant?

I adore pears and this upside-down pear and macadamia cake is easy to make and always wins over the crowd.

Restaurant-wise, I have a soft spot for the cheap and cheerful and always recommend Jasmin in Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west. The decor is a mesmerising mix of rendered wall paint, stucco paintings and marble and the food - zingy tabouleh, smoky babaghanoush, tender charcoal chicken and the crunchiest falafel in Sydney - is incredibly fresh and ridiculously cheap.

Tell us something about food from your part of the world?

Sydney abounds with an incredible range of fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood. It's such a multicultural city, too, and we're lucky to be able to feast on so many different cuisines, especially the flavours of South-East Asia. I love that our best eats include a meat pie with mushy peas from Harry Cafe de Wheels, fresh flaky Malaysian roti made right before your eyes at Mamak and the collagen rush of a tonkotsu ramen from Gumshara using a stock made from 120kg of pork bones. I often receive emails from people asking about Sydney's best eats so I compiled my own list of Top 10 Sydney Eats for Tourists.

What would you eat for your last supper?

There are few things more beautiful than a freshly opened Sydney rock oyster. Its briney sweetness transports you straight to the sea. I'd have to continue the raw seafood theme with lots of sashimi. Dessert would be pavlova and then maybe some Roquefort blue cheese on a thin ginger biscuit.

Which other food blogs do you read regularly?

I tend to focus on Sydney and Australian food bogs; we have so many talented writers and photographers among us and it's been exciting to watch the local food blog scene explode since I first started in 2004. There are too many to list here, but I'd suggest anyone interested in Sydney eats to check out my Complete List of Sydney Food Blogs.

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