Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant - Marrickville

Photo: Lorraine Elliot 2009

Most people who think about eating Vietnamese in Marrickville think of the famous Bay Tinh Restaurant in Victoria Road - it's usually packed.

Next to the Bay Tinh is is the usually not packed Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant.

I've often wondered what it was like, but have not yet been brave enough to try. Why I would be coy about eating goat I don't know - I've eaten plenty of 'mystery' foods in my travels around the globe and it's really not that unusual. After all I could cheerfully eat Goat cheese and drink goat's milk until the goat's come home...

Yesterday I stumbled across a review of this restaurant on a Sydney food blog - Not Quite Nigella.

The reviewer and blogger, Lorraine Elliott, gives it the thumbs up.

My question for you all is this: should we be farming and eating more small livestock animals such as goats rather than cows?? (Do goats have less impact on the environment? Are they cost effective? Nutritional? What does Goat meat taste like with Diane Sauce?)

My next question is: does any body want to join me for some goat??

Turnbull attacks Abbott on climate change

If the battered and compromised ETS legislation wasn't such a serious issue all this drama in Federal politics at the moment would be down-right entertaining.

Malcom Turnbull has taken a very public swipe at Tony Abbot - calling the new leader of the opposition's stance on Climate Change "bullshit".

In a blog posting today, Turnbull has critisiced Abbot's statements that you can cut emmisions at no cost.

"First, let's get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.

To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.

Somebody has to pay.

So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, "bullshit." Moreover he knows it."

He goes on to deride the lack of policy on climate change, and says he will cross the floor to vote for the Government's ETS legislation.

"Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted."

Food Connect - From the Farm to the City

From February 2010 FoodConnect will be starting to deliver pre-ordered boxes of fruit and vegetables from local growers to Sydney households.

Food Connect was established in Brisbane in 2004 by Robert Pekin, a dairy farmer and developer of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects. Pekin had a vision for a community shared agriculture enterprise that could develop a local and regional food system for South East Queensland. Food comes from farmers living within a five hour radius of Brisbane who are 'encouraged' to farm using the most sustainable methods possible.

Now the successful model is in the process of being replicated in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Bellingen, Coffs Coast and Wollongong.

The Sydney franchise is looking for buyers and 'City Cousins' - who if I understand correctly are volunteers who act as area co-ordinators and distributors. (The web-site says there is a 'rewards system' for City Cousins but doesn't say what it is - they should get a free box of veggies for all that hard work if you ask me.....)