Posts made during July, 2010
Human limbs for dinner anyone?
Friday, July 16th, 2010
I’m involved in a project at the moment that’s all about weird restaurants around the world. It’s been a lot of fun (and a little scary) researching them and, if all goes well, it will be a lot of fun (and a little scary) going to them in person. And boy, there are some wacky folk out there not only opening these wacky restaurants but actually dining at them. My favourite so far is Hospitalis restaurant in Riga, Latvia where they serve hearty Latvian dishes and cake topped with realistic-looking body parts such as fingers, noses and tongues. The food is served (or hand fed if you’re in a straight jacket) by scantily clad nurses on gurneys and operating tables. The restaurant provides diners with cutlery such as syringes, tweezers and scalpels to devour their meals and guests are treated to disturbing dinner entertainment including… (read more)
Lunch with Captain America.
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
It’s not easy to find an ‘American’ restaurant. This might seem hard to believe when on just about every suburban street corner is a McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut or Hungry Jacks (Burger King). But then again, you wouldn’t classify any of them as real ‘restaurants’ – or that they serve real ‘food’ for that matter. I wanted to take my American girlfriend Beth to an American restaurant in Melbourne for July 4th, but when I did a search on the net there really wasn’t much to choose from. There was T.G.I. Fridays (just an upmarket McDonalds really), Hollywood Palace (turned out to be a Greek restaurant) and a handful of ‘diners’ serving hamburgers and apple pie. In Melbourne you can dine on local cuisine at Laotian, Afghani, Eritrean, Somalian, Nepalese, Mauritian, Burmese, Iranian… (read more)
Brrrrrrrrr!
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
The last few days in Melbourne have been cold (that’s a pic of me walking to my flat yesterday), including the coldest day in two years where the mercury didn’t quite make it to 10°C (50 fahrenheit). We do complain about the cold here in Melbourne (well, my mum and dad certainly do), but it’s not really that cold. The coldest overnight low we’ve ever had was -2°C (27 fahrenheit). That’s nothing. My girlfriend Beth comes from Minneapolis, Minnesota where it’s often below zero for more than three months of the year (as in it doesn’t get above zero at all in that time!). The coldest day recorded in Minneapolis is -41°C (-41.8 fahrenheit – celsius and fahrenheit actually catch up at -42). And it’s regularly gets to -30°C… (read more)