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A new source of truffles: Western Australia
Filed under: Farming, Australia  If you're unfamiliar with these disgusting-looking fungi called truffles, there's a good reason for that. Truffles are among the most expensive foods in the world, along with caviar and saffron. Up until recently, though, they could only be grown in Italy, Spain, and France.
That's all changing, though. Over the last ten years, farmers in Western Australia have been working growing the precious mushroom and they've finally succeeded. The truffle producers are understandably proud of their achievement: they say that several other places have tried and failed to grow truffles.
The farmers are predicting a crop...
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"It tastes like beef and smells like beer"
Filed under: Beer, Australia, New Products, America 
Depending on your preferences, you probably found this title either deeply appealing or really disgusting.
If you're a dog, hopefully you felt the former, because this new product is designed for the furry set: Dog Beer. A company in Australia has concocted a brew specifically for Fluffy. It's non-alcoholic, but company owner Elise Schumacher claims it tastes just like normal beer. Apparently, she came up with the idea after she saw her own dogs, Louis and Vuitton, leaping up to catch drops of beer.
Some customers are paying up to five bucks per bottle...
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Cadbury does not own the color purple
Filed under: Business, Chocolate, Australia  Yesterday, I brought you a story about a victory for Ferrero Rocher. Well today, here's a victory for the little guy.
There's been a five year court battle between Cadbury and an Australian chocolate maker, Darrell Lea. The international chocolate giant claims that it owns the color purple as far as packaging and marketing chocolate is concerned. Cadbury says that Darrell Lea, who uses purple for "its store signage, uniforms and products was too similar to its own and confused customers."
There are only so many colors, in all reality. There...
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Kids are too fat for carseats
Filed under: Culinary Kids, Australia, Trends, Health & Medical  Childhood obesity isn't just a US problem -- it's a global epidemic.
In Australia, children are so fat that they don't fit into their car seats (the source article calls them "booster seats"). Researchers in Melbourne found that of the children who meet the height requirement (i.e. are short enough to sit in a car seat), 40% of them are too heavy.
Yikes.
And what's even more alarming is that parents are putting their kids in the car anyway using the regular seatbelts, which could do more harm to kids than...
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In honor of Leap Day, some frog love
Filed under: Candy, Australia, Newspapers  It's Leap Day, and zoos and animal organizations across the world are kicking off "Year of the Frog," which aims to highlight the impact of global warming and pollution on our amphibian friends. In honor of the cause, here's a rundown of some notable frog-themed foods (though nothing containing actual frog, that seemed a bit crass):
Freddo Frog - An Australian treat since the 1930s, this chocolate cartoon frog is made by Cadbury and comes in different flavors and fillings. Weird note: I bought an aquatic frog from the pet store when I was seventeen and named him Freddo,...
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The worst food in America comes from Outback Steakhouse
Filed under: Dinner, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Vegetables, Dairy, Beef, Cheese, Australia, Condiments, America, Comfort Food 
It's official. The Worst Food in America is not the Pizza-Crepe-Taco-Pancake-Chili Bag that was famous for about 30 seconds a couple of years ago. First of all, the PCTPCB doesn't actually exist, and second of all, the Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing from Outback Steakhouse, which does exist, has made its way to the top -- er bottom, as it were -- of Men's Health's list of the
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What to do with 24,000 peaches
Filed under: Fruit, Australia, Food Oddities, New Products 
What do you do if you happen to have a bountiful harvest of 24,000 peaches?
If you're BMF Sydney, you create a sculpture of a naked woman in the middle of Sydney, Australia. The sculpture is "Ella," the peachy interpretation of Ella Baché's new skin care line with the slogan, "Skin Good Enough To Eat." Whether you'd actually want to eat skin care products out of the bottles is up to you. Let's hope that BMF Sydney does something useful with those peaches afterwards.
[via: Neatorama]Business, Australia, Meat What do you do if you're in the Australian outback and have a feral camel problem? You start a camel meat business, of course. That's what Garry Dann did. He started Territory Camel to help deal with the feral camels in the area, and he's even begun getting feral camels from other parts of Australia brought to his processing plant. This has the added benefit of employing large numbers of indigenous people.
Territory Camel mainly makes camel steaks and sausages. For now their products are sold only in Australia, though Mr. Dann is trying to get tier 1 accreditation...
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"Tip" of the day
Filed under: Restaurants, Australia  Talk about a great tip! Imagine being a server at a local eatery and getting a $600 tip. That's what happened to a waiter in Sydney, Australia when Bon Jovi dropped in for a bite.
The band and some crew were in Sydney for a show. They popped in to a local restaurant called Manta where they reportedly ate all the lobster and mud crab in the house.
The house certainly could not have minded the business and the server, Tristan Tomlinson, certainly did not mind the reward. He said that Mr. Bon Jovi was pretty laid back, not demanding. I guess...
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Dessert Wine Notes: Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley 2006 Botrytis Semillon
Filed under: Wine, Lush Life, Australia, Raves & Reviews, Happy Hour, America, Liquor Cabinet  Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley 2006 Botrytis Semillon is 12.5% abv. / 25 proof and bottled at 13.5 brix. According to Aussiewines.com the Botrytis affected fruit was picked on the 26th April, sourced solely from the Peter Lehmann Semillon vineyard on the banks of the River Para. Chief winemaker Andrew Wigan declared 2006 the best vintage for botrytis development that he has ever experienced. The vintage conditions were perfect. Weather in the latter part of the growing season gave ideal conditions for the natural development of Botrytis on the...
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