get your hands dirty

I went to a great pizza place recently, Pizza E Birra in Surry Hills.


Tasty food, great company and impeccable service. One thing annoyed me though about this restaurant, everybody was eating this deliciously thin based pizza with a knife and fork.
I'll admit one thing, I began the meal with some cutlery, i'm not a total grub I do understand etiquette. But when I got sick of trying to saw the crust with a blunt knife I threw etiquette out the window and picked the pizza up with my hands. Topping was falling off, but I didn't care, to me my taste buds enjoyed that pizza more than anyone else's that night.


I'm Italian so I feel the right to be able to be able to eat one of our national treasures with my hands and two at that when slices are big. I can assure you nobody noticed me eating like this, they were too busy massacring their pizza slices with a knife and fork.


Some food is just meant for your fingertips.

• Lebanese food lamb, kafta, baba ghanouj, also my territory is eaten with fresh lebanese bread, we barely use those silver utensils in our full faired feasts.
• Traditional Indian cuisine, curry and rice picked up with their own version of flat bread, or even just their hands, I'm not kidding the food tastes amazing for it.
• Ribs, you need a knife to cut down the rack but unless you have a heavy duty grater you are not going to get any meet off the bone without messing up your hands.
• Pizza, obviously

All i'm saying is some foods don't require cutlery, but don't throw your manners out the window

Happy tasting

a gourmet day

Following the release of Australian Traveller's "100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences" I felt it was my job, nay my duty to experience each and every one.

How incredible that would be, I thought, to go through this list formed by a team of experts, Australian geniuses such as Maggie Beer, Matt Moran and Jacques Reymond and indulge.

Dreaming got the better of me I must say, which it often does and time and money weren't even a thought, I could and I would do it all.

But thankfully I have realists in my life, who do understand that my appetite gets the better of me. I've been told more times than I can count that my eyes are bigger than my stomach (not just metaphorically either- they're big).

These "realists" care a lot about me, one in particular who whisked me away on a foodie adventure. He does the research, the driving and pulls out the cash, what a man!

The adventure began with number 4, a meal so simple - Fish and Chips on the beach. So we set out in search of THE beach and because I couldn't make it all the way to Phi Phi island with Rainbow Trout and vinegary hot chips - customs would be a nightmare, we opted for Balmoral, officially my favourite fish-and-chips-on-the-beach location.

A yummy salad, the smell of vinegar and the crunch of a great battered fish - perfection.

Mosman's newest deli Fourth Village, was the next stop a delicious foodie haunt complete with deli, bakery, fromagery and cafe. A bit of brie, some antipasti and fresh bread and we were off, not quite sure where our adventure would take us next.
Well actually, I was very sure we were off to Woollahra, home to number 2 on the list Victor Churchill. Known as the Bvlgari of Butchers, this up-market meat market lives up to the hype.
The set-up is amazing, their cut of the day is under constant surveillance inspired the 2008 Louis Vuitton window display. But you need to experience it for yourself. A delicious Croation style smoked prosciutto and Calabrese salami with paprika and we were to home to feast on our goodies.

I knocked two off the list day, 98 doesn't seem so impossible.

http://www.australiantraveller.com/component/content/article/4572