stonesoup by request: a shopping guide

 

cherry tomatoes straight from my garden: mum would be proud.

Blogging is such a self indulgent activity. I mean week after week, for almost two years I’ve been sitting down and writing about whatever takes my fancy. From dinner with Alain Ducasse to my journey to start eating and actually enjoying bananas to sharing my family’s tradition of fake Christmas, it’s been pretty much me, me, me. And to be honest, the thought to change this would probably never have entered my small mind had it not been for a comment left a few weeks ago by a lovely sounding girl called Charlotte.

See Charlotte has a problem. Her foodie brother-in-law has just moved to the harbour city and wanted to get shown around town. And while I’m sure Charlotte would be able to teach us all a thing or two about food shopping in the inner west she was feeling a little lost about being a tour guide around the eastern suburbs. So she put the shout out via a comment on stonsesoup.

My first thought was to email her and tell her to pick up a copy of my mate John Newton’s top little book ‘The Foodies Guide to Sydney’ and at the same time throw in a copy of the Good Food Guide  – which I still think is an excellent idea. But then I also had the thought that it was time that stonesoup had a shopping guide.

Since last weekend when I was lucky enough to go a bit crazy at the South Melbourne markets with my dear friend the lovely Missy Helgs, I’ve been thinking about my food shopping habits and how I miss the interaction and one-stop-shopping convenience of a good market setup like those in Melbourne or the good old Central Markets from my Adelaide and Barossa days. While there is access to the best of everything in Sydney, it tends to be spread across town so that you’re looking at more of a four or five stop shop.

So my friends I give you the stonesoup shopping guide (see the top left corner for a link). It’s very much a work in progress so please feel free to email or leave any recommendations as a comment. Now that my work takes me way out west on a regular basis I’ve been expanding my food procurement circle beyond the Eastern Suburbs (hello Haberfield bakery) so wherever you are feel free to share….all good things.

ps. And to save me from total self absorption if there is something that you’d like me to write about pls drop me a line and let me know. Good ideas can come from anywhere.