Not Quite NigellaThe cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @

Sex, Earth & Old Socks: The Search for the Elusive Black Truffle!

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:00:32 +0000

Sex. Earth. Dirty laundry. Old socks. A male swine’s sexual scent. These are all words or phrases that have been used to describe truffles (tuber melanosporum). Truffles, and I mean the mushroomy type and not the chocolate type (also worth pursuing) are a relatively new addition to the Australian scene especially when compared with the [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

A Birthday Dinner For Two Under the Velvet Canopy!

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 08 May 2011 19:00:40 +0000

Good Monday Dear Readers and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mums for yesterday! I hope you all had a wonderful day I actually had my birthday yesterday on Mother’s Day which is something that happens every seven years or so. Every year for my birthday I try and stretch out the celebrations as [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

The 13 Desserts of Christmas Provence Lunch!

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:00:35 +0000

Myriam: the pied piper of chocolate “It’s a Provence tradition where for Christmas Eve dinner, you eat thirteen desserts” my friend Myriam said and I have to confess that I scarcely heard anything after that. You know that I love dessert – this blog is pretty much a testament to my utter love of them, and [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Table 4 Ten & Dining At A Bank Vault!

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:00:45 +0000

When most people go to a bank, it’s not for anything particularly exciting. It’s usually something rather mundane such as depositing or withdrawing money and usually involves waiting in a queue for ages only to have your hard earned cash whisked away from you. So when I alight on Elizabeth Street outside the ornate marble [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

The World’s Best Chef Rene Redzepi, The Opera House, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:00:31 +0000

I was coughing, spluttering and the warm Spring weather had turned colder. I was dying to go to the Opera House to hear Rene Redzepi speak and I was clutching my invitation with a frail hand and whilst the mind was willing, the flesh was weak. I was chatting to my friend Liss from Frills [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Iron Chef Dinner 2010, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:00:30 +0000

The golden ahem … black ticket! I look around and survey the crowd standing outside the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom. There’s not a single Chairman Kaga outfit in sight. Despite this lack of frills and puffy shirts, there is excitement in the air as about 300 eager diners holding a ticket enter the waiting area for [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Peter Gordon Lunch at Longrain, Surry Hills

Not Quite Nigella — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:00:57 +0000

Or I could subtitle this story as “Mr NQN’s favourite restaurant meal” such was his adoration for the food served to us this day. ” Look, he’s actually cooking here!” I grab Mr NQN’s arm when I see the familiar curly grey flecked hair of New Zealand export to London Peter Gordon. I mean I [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Ferrero Rondnoir Dinner of Discovery & Q&A with Tobie Puttock!

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:00:55 +0000

“Oh they’re just photographing the celebrities over there” the smiling hostess says “So you can go that way” she says pointing in the other direction. I laugh, yes we’re not famous and apparently the left side is for the celebrities and the right is for the non celebrities. At tonight’s Ferrero Rondnoir event is Jade [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Breakfast On The Bridge, Harbour Bridge, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:00:24 +0000

The Golden Ticket! I mean the Green Ticket… The queue at Milson’s Point Queue entertainment It’s 5.47am and I’ve already been awake for almost 2 hours. Whilst I’m a mixture of barely coherent and half present, I’m also extremely excited. For this morning, starting at the ungodly hour of 6.30am Mr NQN and I are [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

World Chef Showcase: Rock Star Chefs & Chefapalooza

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:00:00 +0000

This past weekend, for the first time ever, Sydney hosted The World Chef Showcase. When I first heard about this Chefapalooza I was excited to be invited to it and chose to attend Saturday’s World session featuring many of the world’s rock star chefs. I’m not simply using that as a trite term but some [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by: