Month: August 2009

Travel23 August

Southern Forests

After spending an incredible day attending the Mundaring Truffle Festival, S and I decided we had to see The Wine & Truffle Company‘s operations in Manjimup first-hand. Manjimup is located in the very beautiful Southern Forests area of Western Australia. By car, it’s a four hour drive. But one that is well worth it. The Southern Forests, while not as popular or as widely known (internationally) as the Margaret River region, is rich with vineyards, cute places to stay, picturesque towns, fabulous produce, and amazing scenery. It really is a gorgeous part of WA. Having always stopped at Margaret River, I was kicking myself for not having discovered this area sooner.

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Travel16 August

Mundaring Truffle Festival

Chef Alain Fabreques dishes chopped truffle over his signature truffled eggs

Last weekend, my darling wife S and I skipped town to check out a festival that we’d only recently heard about, but which we knew we simply had to attend. The Mundaring Truffle Festival, held in a small suburb just 30 minutes drive from Perth, Western Australia, is a gustatory celebration of the Black Perigord Truffle. The Festival’s official literature describes it rather perfectly: “For one glorious, over-indulgent weekend during the height of the West Australian truffle season, the picturesque hills community of Mundaring transforms into a bustling Festival village filled with truffle-themed events, an open-air produce market, the annual Perth Hills Wine Show and much, much more.” The Festival, which took place 8-9 August, also happened to coincide perfectly with Singapore’s National Day (long weekend) holiday. Perfect timing for us.

The Mundaring Truffle Festival is in its third year and while marketed primarly domestically, it is begining to attract foreign visitors like S and me. This year, the Festival attracted over 25,000 people, which more than doubled last year’s attendance numbers. I can only imagine how massive and well-attended this Festival might become over the next 5-10 years. It has the potential, if it’s growth is planned and managed well, to become one of the most exciting and leading food festivals in the region.

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Travel5 August

Mouth-watering Manila

truffled foie gras potato tempura at Antonio’s

Ever since S put together Inside the Southeast Asian Kitchen, arguably the best book on our region’s cuisine (and at the very least the only one in which all contributors were actually from Southeast Asia), she and I have been obsessed with visiting what we realized is probably the region’s most underrated but amazing food destination, the Philippines. Yes, the Philippines. Which, when you actually think about it, makes sense. This is a country whose culture has been very heavily influenced by foreign influences, especially the Spanish, Chinese, Malays and Americans. It’s only natural that elements of these different cuisines have been absorbed into the local food culture to create new (or not so new anymore) and exceedingly delicious dishes.

In addition, over the past few years, the restaurant scene in and around Manila has become increasingly exciting and sophisticated. When we published The Miele Guide‘s first edition last year, we were honestly surprised by the number of amazing restaurants from the Philippines that made it into the top end of our survey–and thrilled that one restaurant, Antonio’s, actually came out as Asia’s tenth best restaurant.

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Announcement3 August

Restaurant Month

Photo:WFP/Mark Warne Smith

This month, August 09, you can eat well while also doing your part to help others. I’ve been very proud to have helped create The Miele Guide Restaurant Month. And I hope you will all do your very best to support this initiative.

The Miele Guide Restaurant Month is both a celebration of the best restaurants in Asia and a very unique charity drive to combat hunger and poverty in the region. This month-long initiative sees 57 participating restaurants, a majority of which are listed in The Miele Guide 2008/2009 edition, offering special set menus or promotions unique to the programme. Fifteen percent of revenue derived from these special menus or promotions will be donated to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). These proceeds have been earmarked for WFP’s activities in Timor Leste, one of the poorest countries in South-East Asia.

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