Best BBQ'ers?!

So who in the world would you guess are the best on the grill?

The aussie's claim to have the title - you are born and there is the grill..."shrimps on the barbie"...

The american's claim to have the title - southern bbq, carolina bbq, slow cooked briskets...

Find out below who this writer thinks is the best and I will have to say, one of my favorite restaurants in Sydney, Porteno, definitely supports this article.

Happy reading and bbq'ing!

Article:

Best Barbecuers

Porteno

www.porteno.com.au

7th Most Expensive

Sydney is climbing the most expensive places to live ladder. Up two places from the prior list is may

be the 7th most expensive to live but it is the 2nd in domestic buying power of citizens.

See article below from today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Sydney now seventh most expensive city

August 17, 2011 - 1:55PM

Sydney is now the seventh most expensive place to live in the world, a report says.

Oslo, Zurich, Geneva, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Tokyo are the only cities with higher living costs, according to financial services firm UBS.

The rankings, published in the annual Prices and Earnings report update on Tuesday, are calculated by comparing the cost of an average "shopping basket" of 122 goods and services.

It's not all bad news for Sydneysiders, because with high living costs come higher wages, UBS found.

Sydney finished second in a table ranking the domestic buying power of its citizens. This ranking is calculated by comparing wages in each location with living costs.

In 2010 Sydney was 12th on the list of most expensive cities and in 2009 it was 38th.

"Sydney continues its storm to the top of our rankings, now holding seventh place," the latest UBS report said.

"To some extent this development can be explained by the Australian dollar's continued appreciation against both the US dollar and the euro.

"However, Sydney is just one of many cities that have seen a jump in their rankings."

UBS found some US cities had fallen in the cost of living rankings, with New York slumping to 14th, if property rental is excluded.

In recent years New York has been ranked in the top 10 of the most expensive cities.

"This can be attributed to the general depreciation of the US dollar versus the world's other currencies," the UBS report added.

London slumped to 15th place on the list, compared with 10th in 2010.

Sydney is the only Australian city included in the latest UBS rankings.

AAP

About Time

It is about time that someone has challenged the Australian system regarding pricing of goods, especially music, books and fashion. It is absolutely amazing to me that I can purchase items from the US, ship them to
Sydney and that find that same shoe in the store and I still have saved money.

Example:
iTunes
Current single download in the US 1.29 in OZ it's over $2.

Books:
Two for $40 specials in the windows and these are not hardback books.

The parity and strength of the Australian Dollar versus the Greenback is really highlighting this issue
as Ozzies are are doing more online shopping at US and UK sites.  The Australian retailers have not
grasped the power of online shopping and are crying out that online shopping will shutter their doors.
It may but it won't be because of shopping overseas, it will be because they are not competitively priced.

Read more here:
Aussies Ripped Off by Retailers

Ozzies Amoung Happiest

Interesting article worth a read - even though pressures on economy and households, Ozzies still are
happy with their lifestyle.

Australians Among Happiest, OECD Lifestyle Index Shows .

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Like a Shag on a Rock

As you can image this phrase lesson today, put us into a fit of giggles at the office when one of the joint managing directors asked me if I knew what a shag was? Obviously the conversation went down hill each time he tried to say something using the word "shag"...

THIS is what a "shag on a rock" is:

THIS is the "shag that got away":

Images courtesy of Google Images

Resistent To It's Charms

Original and new flavor Cheesybite (gross!)

This is funny!
So apparently, today's kids are not such big fans of Vegemite!
Kraft produces this "gem" of a product and is now going to make a "milder" version as an introduction for those newbies to the food paste. It is to be called "My First Vegemite".

Kraft Bows to Wimpy Little Vegemites

As we do not have, to my knowledge that is, this spread in the US here's an appetizing description:

The paste is a dark brown (think molasses coloring) spread that smells and tastes like salty yeast.
The spread is put on sandwiches, toast, etc. With toast many versions include butter. First spread the butter and than the vegemite. I have had a tasting with lots of butter and little vegemite. I have had with little butter and a little more vegemite. Still not a fan I have to say.

Per Wikipedia, vegemite is manufactured as a by-product from the brewing process - used brewer's yeast. I think I'll just take the other by-product - a beer!

Here is a great page on the history of vegemite including a funny anecdote of the product being banned in the US.

Wiki - History of Vegemite

An Afternoon Snack & Reflection

A Koala from the Cohunu Wildlife Park in Perth.

What's a graham cracker?

I think I may have just about heard it all tonight!

Friend Rebecca, the one who helped throw Spooktacular 2010, is Australian. She also likes to cook and bake. Following the Halloween intro to Martha Stewart's website, she told me she has been looking at a lot of her receipes. 

I received a message today from Rebecca asking me what graham crackers where? Really?! 

There is no such thing as a graham cracker here! They have Teddy Grahams for goodness sake.

So of course I took to the laptop straight away and had a conversaton with Google. 

The closest equivalent is a "digestive biscuit" or wheatmeal biscuit. Digestive biscuit (or cookie) I've had. Close but not the same flavor. You may not miss if used in a cookie crust for a cheesecake but I'm not feelin' this one knowing what the taste and texture of a graham cracker is...

Amazing!

Oh, but if you were wondering, yes, Martha has her own receipe for graham crackers too. Here you go:

NGREDIENTS Makes 20. 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for working 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1/2 cup untoasted wheat germ 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks) 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar 2 tablespoons high-quality honey

DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flours, wheat germ, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter, brown sugar, and honey into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture, and mix until combined. Turn out dough onto a floured surface, and divide into quarters. Roll out each piece between 2 sheets of floured parchment paper into rectangles a bit larger than 9 by 6 inches, about 1/8 inch thick. Using a fluted pastry wheel, trip the outermost edges or each rectangle, and divide into three 6 by 3-inch rectangles. Pressing lightly, so as not to cut all the way through, score each piece in half lengthwise and crosswise, to form four 3 by 1 1/2-inch crackers. Stack parchment and dough on a baking sheet and chill in freezer until firm, about 20 minutes. Remove two sheets of dough from freezer. Pierce crackers using the tines of a fork. Transfer to large baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake, rotating halfway through, until dark golden brown, 8 to 9 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes; transfer crackers to wire racks to cool completely. First published

Copyright 2011 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/homemade-graham-crackers

Worst Australian City Poll

Interested article; especially considering it took a friend today 30 minutes to go one mile down Military Road.

Sydney the pits, say its own residents

January 22, 2011 - 1:05PM

Sydney has been branded Australia's worst city - by its own residents.

Despite its obvious charms, ranging from the iconic Opera House, the beautiful harbour and ready access to numerous beaches, Sydneysiders say their city is the pits.

They hammered its natural environment, schools, housing, cleanliness, cultural integration and road network, ranking it bottom of the nation's eight biggest metropolises.

Adelaide is the nation's best city, followed by Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Hobart, Brisbane and Darwin, according to an Auspoll survey commissioned by the Property Council of Australia.

The survey quizzed 4072 people across the nation about the cities they live in.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally hit back at the findings, sarcastically questioning why more people don't live in Adelaide.

"I did a bit of a survey myself this morning and I checked the population figure," she told reporters on Saturday.

"The population of Adelaide - a little bit over 1.2 million people. The population of Sydney - a bit more than 4.5 million people. I think those figures speak for themselves.

"Adelaide is a great city but if it's so fantastic why aren't more people living there?"

But Property Council chief executive Peter Verwer reckons Sydneysiders are on the money.

Although he admitted the results can be read just as much as a verdict on politicians as the cities themselves.

"I don't think Sydneysiders have been overly harsh here, I think they've been realistic," he told AAP on Saturday.

"Sydney has been consistently on the slide since the (2000) Olympics.

"The reality is people in Sydney are sick of broken promises from politicians when it comes to things like infrastructure and transport."

Sydney was ranked a little higher for its entertainment options, finishing second behind Melbourne.

Its climate was ranked third best.

Mr Verwer said he hoped the results would "shock governments into action".

AAP

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-the-pits-say-its-own-residents-20110122-1a0dn.html