Friday, November 4, 2011 at 9:53AM 
Yet another fantastic set of reviews from our Book Club! Our book? 'Silence' by Rodney Hall.
Seems like most of our readers loved the exquisite character of the language used in the book, and on the whole enjoyed the stories brought to life by Rodney Hall.
Check out the reviews and let us know what you think!
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 11:02AM 
Benjamin Gilmour's Paramedico definitely gave our book reviewers a fascinating look into the tireless and often harrowing world of ambulance officers around the world.
On the whole, most found the book a fast-paced, at times gory, at times heart-warming read that definitely gave readers a much better appreciation of the work done by these brave men and women.
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:35PM
Another round of fantastic reviews from our readers! Judith Armstrong’s War & Peace and Sonya definitely proved to be a challenging yet ultimately rewarding read for most of our reviewers – many were convinced they wouldn’t like it initially, but as they progressed through the book were strangely surprised that they could not put it down!
There seemed to be quite a lot of opinion on Sonya’s characterisation – some reviewers found her detached and cold, where others found her dedication to Tolstoy both admirable and almost heartbreaking.
Definitely a book worthy of debate in anyone’s reading group! Read the reviews here – we’re always keen to hear what your bookies have to say!
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 12:03PM We made it! The final dish in our cooking challenge!!!
And after a full year of cooking our way through Stéphane Reynaud's 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat, could there be a more suitable way to end our French cooking challenge than a plate of freshly fried frogs' legs?
We even managed to sign up our very own French team member to prepare them for us, the lovely Hélène from Upside Down Cooking. Alas, when the time came to frog it up, Hélène was disappointed to find that no frog leg was to be found in all of Melbourne.
Not easily discouraged, we brought in Shannon, 365 hero and gastronomic adventurer, who had tackled his fair share of difficult projects during this challenge. Surely he could source the elusive ingredient. Or could he??
Over to you, Shannon!
"I spoke too soon... Just when I thought I was done with the 365 challenge, I was at the last minute called up to cook up frogs' legs.
I've only eaten frogs' legs once, and didn't hate them, so I was actually quite looking forward to trying them again.
But first things first - where do I buy frogs legs? Now, working at leading food publisher, I have plenty of wonderful people with expert food knowledge to draw on. After asking where in Sydney can I purchase frogs legs they all told me Chinatown. Any specific place in Chinatown? Nope, just Chinatown.
I conscripted a few work pals and off to Chinatown we went for lunch and then frog leg hunting. In and out of Chinese supermarkets discovering tins and jars of, well pretty much everything you can thing of - except frogs legs.
We went in to one supermarket which was like a mecca for Asian ingredients. Surely, we'd find frogs legs here! Sadly no. 'We used to sell them, but not anymore. Try Cabramatta'.
Surely I would find frogs legs in Cabramatta, given the French colonial influence on Vietnamese food (for more on this check out Luke Nguyen's new book Indochine out in November!).
So two days later I headed out to Cabramatta to finally lay my hands on some prized frogs legs. After a big bowl of pho, I headed into the many Asian grocers that grace John Street. 
Devastatingly, no frogs legs. After a mad social media call-out, we were informed that it's illegal in Australia to sell and cook them. Sounds bollocks to me, but quite possibly the case.
So, unfortunately, after a year of cooking every recipe out of Stéphane's book, we encounter a hurdle at the very last step.
It's not all bad though: I did find the ultimate in Asian supermarkets in Chinatown, and will be heading back there as soon as possible!"
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 12:01PM We are inching closer to the conclusion of our 365 challenge - on the second-last day of our year-long quest, Fiona is dishing up a great family story:
"Any excuse to go to the fish markets. And poke around in rows of iced-up, squishy dead things, the slime gleaming on their skin.
The first octopus I pointed out weighed close to eleven kilos, and had suckers on its tentacles the size of an espresso cup. I settled on two much smaller beasts, with floppy heads like deflated balloons.
Seafood is disgusting. I love it.
There’s a joke in my family from a baby octopus salad that we ate when my sister was ten. She chewed on one, and pronounced the flavour nice, but said she didn’t like ‘the testicles.’ So I wanted to cook warm octopus on Father’s Day.
But started off with trouble. Poaching the octopus piece in herbed water was amazing – the water slowly reddened into something that looked like a beautifully aged wine. But it left my kitchen smelling like the bottom of a bait bucket. For days.
And then this happened. Dear Moet, harbinger of kitchen doom. Those bubbles go straight to the head.
We ended up throwing the now-marinated critter on the barbecue – Monsieur Reynauld would likely hate us for it, but let’s just call it Modern Oz, or Fusion Cuisine, and be done with those shenanigans. I forgot to save the sauce.
But goddamn, it tasted good. Tender, crisp along the outside, salty and smooth. My sister even nibbled on a tentacle."
