Spatula, Spoon and Saturday blog

Kat 2008, Spatula, spoon and Saturday, weblog, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://www.spatulaspoonandsaturday.com/>


Spatula, Spoon and Saturday


 Spatula, spoon and Saturday is one woman's personal Melbourne-based food diary giving full reviews of each eatery, and at times including recipes, of weekend meals with family and friends. The reviews are clear, well written and insightful from the author's personal eating experience for each eatery visited. High quality photographs adorn each review depicting the food and venue under review. The photographs alone tell a story but can almost overpower the review due to their size and quantity. The reviewer's blog has been included in the popular urbanspoon website and its associated smartphone application. Each review gives details of the eatery, food consumed, price, overall ambience and feel as well as service recieved. The blog is well indexed with seperate indexes for recipes, reviews by eatery category (cafe, restaurant, Melbourne CBD lunches, etc) and most importantly for this project, by cuisine. As a place to gather ideas and inspiration for multicultural eatries to try, on a budget, Spatula, spoon and Saturday would be a great place to start, and to keep coming back to read new reviews and blog entries. J.S.

Top 5 the best of Melbourne

Atkinson, F (ed.) 2008, Top 5 the best of Melbourne, Fairfax Books, Pyrmont, NSW.

Top 5 the best of Melbourne from the The Age's A2 Top Five column contains, not surprisingly, the top five recommendations in over seventy-five categories ranging from healing foods, breads, hot chocolates, doughnuts, creperies, kid-friendly cafes through to butchers, greengrocers, bookish bites and bookshop cafes. More importantly other top five lists included cover Middle Eastern suger hits, tastes of Africa, Korean specialists, sushi bars, Thai dishes, tapas stops and native Australian bush foods, giving a selection of the multicultural cuisines available in and around Melbourne. The contents pages lists all categories and each category is spread over two pages. Each category contains the reviewer's name, a colour photograph best illustrating the cuisine and a brief review of the top five for that category. Each listing contains the name of the eatery, address and phone number. The reviews are brief and may only refer to one individual dish as ordered by the reviewer. As each category has been compiled by a different reviewer, the feel and style of the reviews vary from category to category but still give an overview of the cuisine and venue being reviewed. It is recommened to use this guide in combination with another source, such as the urbanspoon website or phone applications, to gain greater details such as pricing, variety of menu and service as these are lacking from Top 5 as although the reviews certainly identify quality multicultural cuisines available in Melbourne their overall suitability for being budget friendly is not indicated. The Age's weekend A2 Top 5 column is seen as an authoritive and independent source for food related reviews with contributors to the column including Matt Preston of MasterChef fame, although none of the entries contained in Top 5 the best of Melbourne are by this celebrated reviewer. J.S.

Taste of Georgia

Georgia is a country located in South-Western Asia, bordering the Black Sea, between Turkey and Russia.

The Georgian cuisine is diverse and quite distinctive, including elements of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and European cookery traditions.
Taste of Georgia is one and only Georgian cafe/restaurant in Melbourne. You will find here dishes with various combinations of lamb, pork, eggplant, onion, garlic, tomato, coriander, walnuts and pomegranate prepared in grills, stews or as part of fresh salads.
Khachapuri is traditional Georgian cheese stuffed bread and is very delicious.

Chebureki is grilled minced meat sprinkled with sumac and onion slices, wrapped in a thin lavash like bread.

Khinkali is beautifully twisted knobs of dough, usually stuffed with meat and spices (served boiled or steamed). The traditional khinkali includes meat, but can be also filled with mushrooms and cheese/curd.

Badrijan Nigzit is roasted eggplant strips, served flat and topped with walnut paste, garlic, herbs. Sweet and savoury, it’s one of my favourites.

Shashlyk, probably the most famous Georgian meat dish, is fire roasted chunks of pork, lamb  or chicken marinated in authentic sauce adding irresistible flavour to it.

Tabaka is crisp chicken served with a thinned pkhali paste made from spinach, walnut, garlic and herbs. Another unique Georgian sauce is tkemali. Taken in small doses alongside cheese, khachapuri, or meat, this sour plum sauce is considered to be a cleanser.

Bon Appetite!
V.O.