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Matt Skinner on Melbourne, Wine, Bars and Food. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Matt Skinner on Melbourne, Wine, Bars and Food

Melbourne wine guy Matt Skinner may be a comparatively young bloke as far as Australian wine icons go, but with a handful of wine books, an annual wine guide and a television series under his belt, he’s fast become something of an Aussie wine legend and an inspiration to young Australians developing an interest in wine and food.

What makes Matt special, aside from his impressive wine knowledge and global experience – he lived in London, where he worked as Jamie Oliver’s wine guy, and travelled all over the world – is his likeable personality and passion for Australian wines, which makes wine so accessible. If this laidback surfer and former skateboarder can be familiar with some obscure little winery in the back of beyond producing interesting pinots, then anyone can, so the thinking goes. And that’s a great thing.

We met Matt at Taste of Melbourne food and wine festival last year, after the Plumm Wine Experience, where he’d guided us through a tasting of Victorian wines, which was as much about testing out the stunning Australian-designed Plumm wine glasses as it was about the wine. We chatted to Matt about Melbourne, food and wine, his favourite bars, Victorian wines, and, um, well, skateboards.

Q. How does Melbourne’s wine and food scene compare to other cities?

A. I was born and bred in Melbourne but I moved way in 2002 to live in London for six years. Best thing I did when I was away was travel and explore other food and drink cities. I fell in love with Paris, with Barcelona, with San Francisco, and New York, but the thing the travel really highlighted for me – and during those six years I was travelling back and forth to Melbourne – was that it became really obvious that Melbourne, a city that had always lived in Sydney’s shadow, was quickly growing into its own skin. It became more evident, the more often I came back, that Melbourne was maturing, and there was this depth to Melbourne’s food and wine scene, and without sounding like a wanker, that there were layers to it.

Q. What makes Melbourne special?

A. I think we’re really lucky. We have a city that has this incredible ethnic diversity. I grew up in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs and at my primary school we had kids from Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, and various parts of Asia. It was this mad mix, and there was no room for intolerance, and if anything happened it was sorted out in the school very quickly. You look at a map of Melbourne and those ethnic communities… the city is like a heart, and there are these veins that go out to these sort of ethnic pockets around Melbourne that have became so important and I think Melbourne benefits from that. Like a lot of great food cities around the world, that’s been a really important factor, that ethnic diversity. I’d rather have ethnic food in Melbourne than London. In London I lived on Brick Lane for two years and that was some of the worst Indian food I’ve ever eaten. There are amazing pockets in London but you really have to work hard to find them whereas in Melbourne you can find them without effort.

Q. What are the other factors?

A. I think the other thing that makes Melbourne so amazing is that we pay homage to our heroes and the people that were pioneers and champions in great food and drink culture in Melbourne – people like Mietta O’Donnell and Stephanie Alexander, people who were icons – but at the same time we continue to push, prod, and innovate. Look at the way the bar scene has exploded. People are willing to create a bar out of a cupboard box in Melbourne. We’re less about spend and the cost of fitting a space out and we’re more about resourcefulness and how we can turn nothing into something. It’s like in New York, there’s this great basement bar in the East Village that you access through a phone box (Note from Eds: readers, this is Crif Dogs, which we review here). Melbourne is like that too. It is also very egalitarian. The class system is nowhere near as entrenched as it is in other big cities, like London. We’re also obsessed with food in Melbourne – sport, coffee and food.

Q. What about Melbourne’s drinking scene?

A. Melbourne has an amazing bar scene. Melbournians are incredibly resourceful. The CBD* was dead ten years ago. Rents became so expensive in the suburbs and areas where there was already a proliferation of good restaurants and bars that a lot of young entrepreneurial people came back into the city. We were fortunate that we had this great liquor licensing that allowed flexibility – as opposed to New South Wales**, though that’s changing – and we were able to take these tiny spaces and disused rooms at the bottom of lanes that were once upon a time storage areas or garages and convert them. There was just this rash of amazing bars that popped up and continue to pop up and Melbourne has just very quickly developed this culture for its nightlife and particularly its bars, especially in the CBD.

Q. Let’s talk about Australian wine and particularly Victorian wine.

A. Victorian wine is going through a really buoyant time. I think there are a number of reasons why. One is the state of exports at the moment. The Australian wine industry is probably going through one of its toughest periods, due to the slow market in the UK and US, plus the strength of our currency. We copped a lot of negative press from the wine media in the US and UK three years ago, which all came at the same time. It’s really interesting because when they both started criticizing Australian wine, on both sides of the Atlantic, the momentum really grew. Australia had built its reputation overseas off these kind of clean, clinically well made wines, that spoke of where they were from – this warm, sunny place – were gave value for money, and escaped the regional red-tape that governed so many European wine-producing countries where you need to know about law to know what wine varieties were permitted to grow in what area. But that has also been our Achilles heal as well, because now people are conditioned to thinking that that is what all Australian wine is like and tastes like.

Q. But what’s the reality?

A. Well the reality is, particularly in Victoria, that our wine has never been better, the diversity has never been better, and the quality that we’re producing wines at has never been better. For instance, there’s this phenomenal group of guys called The South Pack. They are a little body of winemakers from around Victoria who are all small artisanal producers who don’t have the money to market themselves individually, so piled together as a consortium to market themselves as a group and they travel around the country doing tastings and you get to try all their wines. They’re doing mental stuff that really bucks the trend of conventional wine making with conventional varieties. They’re doing a lot of interesting stuff – a bit of natural wines, a bit of experimenting with non-indigenous varieties to Australia – it’s exciting times. The unfortunate thing for these guys is that they aren’t better known outside Australia, but they never have any trouble selling their wine here in Melbourne. There is so much love for these guys and so much support for them that what little wine they make sells out very quickly.

Q. What will it take to persuade people as to how great Australian wine is? 

A. There are people out there trying to sell the regional mix and tell people about our wine diversity, but it will take a while to fix as the damage that was done was so huge. In a short space of time they were able to undo a lot of hard work that many of us had done over the years to promote Australian wines. The ‘in the know’ people know how good Australian wines are. In a lot of good wine regions around the world, there’s been a lot of cross-pollination where someone from say Ribera del Duero or Rioja in Spain has worked in the Yarra Valley, so they know. But they’re the educated ones. It’s the general consumers – when they think of Australian wine all they think of is Rosemount Estate and Jacob’s Creek – who need to be educated.

Q. What wines should visitors to Melbourne try?

A. Because of our southerly location, in Victoria we do great Chardonnay and Pinot, and also Shiraz, but a cooler style of Shiraz. That’s where we’re having our biggest impact. That said, around the periphery there’s all kinds of great stuff happening. In Heathcote, you’ve got Kim Chalmers, who is part of the Chalmers family, and they’ve planted a vineyard where they’re growing Alma Negra, Nero d’Avola, Primitivo, Nebbiolo, and Sangiovese – all these weird and wonderful things that they’re pushing and experimenting with. You’ve got phenomenal Riesling from down in Henty in really southern Victoria. You’ve got Crawford River. There’s amazing Cabernet from some producers out in the Yarra Valley who have got the older vines. Then you go up to the northeast of the state to Rutherglen and they’ve got these phenomenal old fortified wines, which is such an important part of our wine history. I reckon Victoria is probably the most diverse wine producing state in Australia and I think the most exciting. One of our strengths in Australia is that our history is short. So, who are Australians? Australians are anybody and everybody, and that transcends through our food and wine.

Matt Skinner’s Picks: Wine

Jamsheed, Yarra Valley
A young guy called Gary Mills is producing amazing stuff here.

Garagiste Wine, Mornington Peninsula
A fairly new producer and one of my favourites.

Mount Langi Ghiran, The Grampians 
Dan Buckle is a young guy who is making some killer wines.

Ocean Eight, Mornington Peninsula
They’re doing terrific wines down there on the Mornington Peninsula.

Syrahmi, Heathcote
This a phenomenal label from the Heathcote wine region.

Greenstone, Heathcote.
Also from Heathcote, this is really great as well.

“There’s heaps of good stuff happening,” Matt says, “And the thing about these guys is that most don’t own their own vineyards; they’re young, they entrepreneurial, they’re buying in fruit from other vineyards, but they try to manage those vineyards through the year, so they might lease the plot of land and borrow someone’s winery to make the wines as well.”

Matt Skinner’s Picks: Bars

Siglo 161 Spring Street Melbourne
Beautiful rooftop bar – really opulent – they provide you with lovely blankets, so you can sit out there in the middle of winter, and there’s a great drink lists.

Cookie rooftop bar 252 Swanston Street Melbourne
This is my favourite bar. It’s on top of Curtin House and it’s phenomenal because you have this incredible cityscape around you. It’s a cool place to go and drink because there’s always a mixed bag of people, and that’s the thing I love about Melbourne, that you can always talk to someone from the west when you’re from the south.

Von Haus 1A Crossley Street Melbourne
I love this one too. It’s a great little space, and it’s typically Melbourne – you have to work hard to find it.

Madame Brussels 63/59 Bourke Street Melbourne
It’s kind of high camp. There’s astro turf and everyone’s wearing tennis whites and drinking cocktails. It’s another rooftop, a space that would be terrible as anything else, but is amazing as Madame Brussels.

Meyers Place 20 Meyers Place Melbourne
Another one of my favourites, on the same street where the waiter’s club is, it’s a bar that has no name. Designed by the Six Degrees architects, it’s one of their bars. It’s been there for 15 years, but it’s still great.

Sister Bella 22 Drewery Place Melbourne
A great bar that you have to look really hard to find, on a lane off a lane, which is such a Melbourne thing.

Croft Institute 21 Croft Alley Melbourne
This bar is really amazing, with a sort of speakeasy feel, deep in the bowels of Melbourne.

Matt Skinner’s Picks: RESTAURANTS

Cumulus Inc 45 Flinders Lane Melbourne
My favourite restaurant in Melbourne. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it’s an example of what Melbourne does best.

Mamasita Level 1, 11 Collins Street Melbourne
It’s great fun, and it’s open really late.

Izakaya Den 114 Russell Street Melbourne
A great Japanese spot, in the basement it’s also hard to find.

Bar Lourinha 37 Little Collins Street Melbourne
Another of my favourites. It’s owned by Matt McConnell, brother of Andrew’ McConnell (who owns Cumulus Inc). There’s an old Spanish woman in the kitchen. You can sit up at the bar and eat or there are a few other areas, and it’s also open late.

Movida 164 Flinders Street Melbourne
The original one is still the best. It’s small and I like their small tapas plates.

*CBD or central business district is what Aussies call their city centres or downtown areas.
**New South Wales (of which Sydney is the capital) is the state immediately north of Victoria.

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About Lara Dunston

A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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Comments

  1. Ryan at Travel and Graphs says

    May 13, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    What an interesting guy. His passion for his craft comes through very clearly in every answer he gives!

  2. Lara Dunston says

    May 16, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Thanks, Ryan! I think that passion is what makes him so likable and so successful – it’s contagious. Thanks for dropping by!

  3. Jeremy Branham says

    May 19, 2012 at 6:32 am

    I’ve never considered Australia as a big wine region (although it seems most countries produce wine of some sort these days). However, it apparently is getting quite a following. Good to know about the wines and the region. I will definitely try it out when I get there.

    Would it be OK to sample a few while watching the Australian Open (my favorite tennis tournament)? :)

  4. Lara Dunston says

    May 19, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    Hi Jeremy – Australia is actually one of the world’s top wine producing countries and top wine exporters – it’s been in the top 10 for a long time, and depending on the year (drought years it’s lower) and which statisticians you believe, it’s generally between #6 and #9, closely following the USA.

    That is quite extraordinary considering the size of Australia’s population and the strength of the economy/currency, which makes Aussie wine expensive to produce and costly compared to other wines.

    For many years, the #1 selling wine in the USA (I think it’s currently at #2 or #3) has been an Australian wine called Yellow Tail. Although that particular brand probably doesn’t exemplify what Australia does best. (Many would consider that a massive understatement.)

    And it’s not a new wine producer either – grape vines were brought of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788 and (after some failed early attempts) was first sold successfully domestically in the 1820s, winning its first international award in 1822. Queen Victoria was serving Aussie wines in 1844 apparently and they were winning awards in France in the 1870s and 1880s.

    So, yes, you definitely must get to the wine regions when you’re here – there are some brilliant wine regions in almost every state and they’re all beautiful too – and do some wine tastings.

    As for the drink to sip at Aussie sporting events, it’s usually ice cold beer – unless, it’s the horse races, and then bubbly is the go!

    Thanks for dropping by! :)

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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

#recipe #recipes #vietnamesefood #cambodianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #ricenoodles #rice #noodlebowl #meatballs #igfood #igfoodie #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #writingacookbook #writingacambodiancookbook #patreon #patreoncreator #grantourismo
It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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