A nice compliment
 

I'm not usually one to bang our own drum (there are enough drummers around), but I couldn't help noticing this comment by the well-travelled New York chef Anthony Bourdain:
"I love Australia in the same clumsy, half-informed way that so many Americans do. I tend to view it (along with Glasgow) as one of the world's premier bullshit-free zones."

Isn't that nice?, I thought. But then I started to worry that, given the increasing flood of bullshit we put up with, the rest of you must be suffering badly.

Despite being a good friend of the great Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda, Mr Bourdain claims that he likes nothing quite so much as sitting on the wharf polishing off a "tiger' meat pie from that Sydney landmark, Harry's Cafe de Wheels. I've eaten at Tetsuya's once and it was exquisite fare, although the indigestion I got when I saw the bill took the gloss off the evening a little. As did the rather sniffy sommelier. I was tempted to recycle that old line - "Listen, if you're so superior, why are YOU serving ME?"

If one of Harry's pies gave you heartburn, at least it could be inexpensively fixed with a packet of Quik-Eze.

Love Athony Bourdain's comment!!On a Tetsuya note- I rang Tetsuya's when they were in Rozelle to book for my partner's bday. Booking was for 5 weeks in advance. Phone was answered by a person who told me only 4 weeks in advance bookings could be taken. (Sounded Irish to me). Harry's seafood pies in Newcastle, NSW right opposite the water are the best pies we've eaten-bit of vinegar and off you go.

The best pies in the world were made by Nifty Nev on the Nebo Rd out of Mackay, Q'ld. I've sampled many a Harry's Cafe de Wheels pie and they don't come close to Nev's, who I fear may no longer be with us - I searched in vain for him last time I had to visit Mackay. He woodfired the pies out of a stove in the boot of an old Holden - the health dept and fire brigade didn't seem to mind, or maybe they just couldn't catch old Nifty.

I've somehow missed Harry's pies in Newcastle, Lyndie. (For overseas readers, Newcastle is a small-to-middling city a couple of hours north of Sydney, gateway to the Hunter Valley wine region, total population I think something over 300,000.) Before my daughters moved there I still had the old "Steel City" image in my mind, but of course the steelworks closed, and it's changing. The downtown area has some nice old Victorian buildings, there's a couple of good "cafe strips", and the surrounds, ocean and lakes, are beautiful. And it's still definitely a bullshit-free zone.

Regarding Anthony Bourdain, I did leave out the "however".... Speaking of the restaurant scene he notes that "a few methane clouds are beginning to form"

He goes on, "One can be forgiven ... for thinking that an inexplicably overpraised multi-storey operation in Melbourne serving tuna in banana sauce and lamb adrift in pureed raspberry is a sign of the apocalypse."

The article in question was published on 25 Feb in a supplement to the Sydney Morning Herald, the (sydney) magazine. (No, don't ask me what the parentheses around "sydney" are for.) It doesn't seem to be published on their web site, unfortunately. His main theme is that he's increasingly being drawn away from fancy chef-driven concoctions to honest, traditional fare - hence the reference to Harry's Cafe de Wheels.

Neil,
Since you are reading the monthly magazine in the Herald (i understand as the local rag down there is only good for that outside dunny) did you happen to see the wonderful article on the penultimate page.

It made a powerful and overwhelmingly persuasive case for moving the national capital to where it belongs...Sydney.It put canberra in a proper and accurate perspective re sydney.

As the yanks say about cleveland....Canberra .."the mistake by the lake"

No, I didn't get that far into that glossy yuppie publication, but given my frequent complimentary views of Sydney I'm a little surprised that its denizens are still so insecure that they feel threatened by the existence of an alternative power centre. I'll definitely read it, though it sounds like the usual crap.

For overseas readers, I should explain that "Canberra-bashing" is a product of Australians' national inferiority complex.