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Monday, December 31, 2012

where's the best, these 16 months?


It's been more than a year since we updated our where's the best? page and, in the spirit of end-of-year list-making, we decided today was the day to get caught up. In that time we've chomped our way through more than a dozen veggie restaurants in Berlin, I blitzed Toronto (ten restaurants in six days!), we continued to discover wonderful cafes and restaurants in Melbourne and, in probably the eating highlight of the past year-and-a-bit, we worked our way through the entire Cutler & Co dessert menu.


Cooking-wise, it was another year of Ottolenghi. We made at least ten more of his recipes this year - the black pepper tofu was probably my favourite - and held an Ottolenghi-themed feast with friends. Otherwise we've been heavily motivated by the contents of our fortnightly veggie box. When we get a cabbage we've been turning to okonomiyaki or white beans and cabbage, and when a pumpkin arrives we turn to miso curry pumpkin, piquant pumpkin pie or herb-crumbed pumpkin wedges

Melbourne bloggers continue to inspire us too - Steph at Vegan About Town has added Nonya chicken, dan dan mian, chocolate cheezecake and caramel slice (with a little help from Johanna GGG) to our repertoire, Carla led us to cauliflower and caramelised onion tart, black sticky rice and tempeh bacon, while Lucy's palm sugar fried tempeh has us shallow-frying regularly and the surprise mint choc-chip icecream from In the Mood for Noodles is high on our dessert list. We were inspired to make coconut bacon by local veg cafe New Day Rising, but leaned heavily on Johanna GGG for the recipe.


Spicy Peruvian 'cheese' sauce, crepas de huitlacoche con salsa de chiles poblanos and eggy quesadillas were our contribution to the Hispanic fever that's swept Melbourne's food scene, while we branched out a little further with these Brazilian carrot cakes. Cindy also tweaked a few old favourites to make them vegan friendly, inventing her own secret blend of herbs and spices for Kentucky fried tofu and taking the eggs and dairy out of French toast. The ice cream maker didn't get quite as much of a work-out as in years gone by but this date, rum and pecan ice cream was a dessert highlight. 

We've continued to explore Melbourne's cafes, adding Cafe Lua, Wide Open Road, New Day Rising, L'atelier Monsieur Truffe, Milkwood, Grace, Elceed, Small Victories and Brother Alec to our favourites. Two places we've loved for years wowed us with expanded options more recently - Mankoushe with their fantastic cafe and Monk Bodhi Dharma with their Friday dinner menu. 


A couple of classic mock-meat places disappeared (the EBC and the Mercy Seat) but were more than adequately replaced by South, Ren Dao and Madame K. For pubby kind of food, we've dived into Brother Burger & the Marvellous Brew and The Beaufort, while Shanghai Street Dumpling was probably the best value place we discovered this year. Middle Fish, Mad Raven Pizza Deluxe, Market Lane mushroom burgers and Kaprica all do okay on a dollar:deliciousness ratio as well. At the other end of the scale, we had tremendous fancy meals at Movida Next Door and Attica and loved the mid-priced wonders being served up by The Moor's Head, Mamasita, Chin Chin and Easy Tiger.

Along with the couple mentioned above, we lost Indya Bistro and Robbies Stein from our favourites list, while Circa, the Prince has been transformed completely since we visited.

Somewhat surprisingly 2012 has been our least productive blogging year - we'll end up one short of 200 posts for the year. Twitter has taken up some of the slack, and we're continually amazed by the wonderful people we've met and become friends with via the web. Here's to a big 2013!

16 comments:

  1. I know you said this is your least productive blogging year, but I still bow down to the abundance of blog posts you've created this year!

    Happy new year, and here's to a great 2013!

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    1. Happy New Year, Sarah! I reckon 200 posts is alright too, but it's mucking up Michael's graphs. :-P

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  2. Wow that is overwhelming but I am glad to see that we have managed to get to some of your favourits - wide open road and cafe lua are ones that we have enjoyed recently - but still so many places and recipes to explore! Happy new year

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    1. Happy New Year, Johanna! And congratulations on out-posting us. :-D

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  3. Thankyou for another entertaining year of your blog. I've been following it for 3 or so years (I think) and continue to appreciate it. Thankyou, Craig

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    1. Thanks, Craig! Glad to be of service. :-)

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  4. I also want to say thanks. You guys are my favorite food blog, not many blogs out there combine wit, inspiration & zero advertising. Love you guys.

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    1. You are too kind, Lyf! We plan to keep on keeping on. :-)

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  5. 200 posts would be a massive blogging year for me.

    Can you add stroopwafels to that list of things to experiment with? Stroopwafel tofu cheesecake?

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    1. Mmmm, I could totally go a stroopwafel tofu cheesecake! Just add sugar and beat 'til fluffy. :-D

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  6. It's been a wonderful year knowing you! thanks for all of your tireless research towards deliciousness (and.. alcohol).

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    1. Aw, it's been fun hanging out, Worbit! Let's research more together in 2013.

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  7. Fabulous post, congrats on another big blogging year!

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    1. Thanks for your support and retweets, lisa! They always seem to expand our audience a little. All the best for a massive 2013.

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  8. Congrats on another great year of blogging, it certainly didn't feel like you dropped off the pace! 200 posts is a tremendous number, it's fantastic that you keep up the momentum after such a long time in the blogging game. I'm looking forward to your posts in 2013! :)

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    1. Thanks, Mel! It's great to see your blog back in action for the new year too. :-)

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