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.

Lygon St.: stories and recipes of Melbourne's melting pot

Harden, M 2008, Lygon Street: stories from Melbourne's melting pot, Murdoch Books Australia, Millers Point, NSW.

Background reading for foodies giving an insight into a true Melbourne melting pot of the famous Lygon Street in Carlton, Lygon Street is a well-researched, insightful and in-depth historical study of the multicultural history of the street and the businesses and eateries contained there. Lygon Street is both an interesting read from a cultural point of view and a culinary delight with recipes often passed from generation to generation or by an establishment was best known for. The reader is shown a diverse array of businesses as well as individual personal stories interviews from those who grew up in the area. As a reference tool, used more for background reading and insight into the influence of our migrant heritage Lygon Street makes for fascinating reading and leaves the reader with a desire to walk the length of the street, sampling the plethora of foods available. Although no actual reviews are given, prices nor current standing of the businesses this book is a delight for foodies wishing to know the history of the multicultural background in relation to food as is found along famous Lygon Street.  At 359-pages this is quite a sizable book complete with bibliography for further reading and an index at the back referencing all businesses and individuals mentioned through its pages as well as all recipes shown in bolt text. The content lists chapter headings with food related titles as the book flows from the street's earliest history through to current day. Filled with historic photographs, portraits and lush colour pages of food. Found in a library's cookery section (641.5099451 HARD) Lygon Street is more a biography than a cooking book, a biography of a street best known for its multicultural background and with it the eateries contained there to. 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.