HOT: Tempura Hajime, Park St, South Melbourne

Behind a non-descript door in Park Street, a little slice of Tokyo has dropped into South Melbourne.

Tempura Hajime is a tiny restaurant which only serves, you guessed it, tempura. Now I’m not such a great fan of tempura (how much fried stuff can you eat in one sitting?) but the restaurant had come with rave [...]

HOT: The Palace by Luke Mangan, 505 City Rd, South Melbourne

Since returning to Australia after two years overseas, I’ve developed a hypothesis that Australian food trends lag behind the northern hemisphere (especially the US and UK) by 1-2 years. That means that I’m expecting to see a flurry of gastropub openings in Melbourne in the near future (probably macaron specialists and ramen stalls a year [...]

HOT Alert: Week of 7 December 2009

You know those crazy spinning Frankenstein heads? That’s what I feel like right now. It’s definitely the silly season! In the diary this week:

Preview of new French hit film ‘French Kissers’ at Palace Como on Tuesday 8 December;
Aesop shopping night at their QV store on Wednesday 9 December. Join them [...]

HOT: O’Connell’s Centenary Hotel, 407 Coventry Street, South Melbourne

After a brief wander through the South Melbourne Night Markets, C and I found ourselves in a South Melbourne black hole. Both of us were familiar with daytime cafes in the area, but where to go for dinner?
Fortunately, we remembered the gastropub O’Connell’s. This beautifully restored pub is in a quiet residential area of South [...]

HOT Chat: Alex Hume of Eco Fashionista

This week’s HOT Chat comes from Eco Fashionista. Alex Hume chatted to me about fashion, living eco-conscious and being a business-owner with a young toddler.

Alex, how did Eco Fashionista come about?
Eco Fashionista was launched almost a year to the day my son Max was born. Max’s arrival (and the huge sense of responsibility that arrived with him) [...]