Markets. Hot, cramped, full of cheap crap and vendors poking and prodding you. The mere thought of them gives me the hershey squirts. And this is just those in Balmain in Sydney. Ben Tanh and An Dong markets in Saigon …
Category: Bars
Hoa Vien Brauhaus and a clip from an AK47
Good friend of the botf, Scrote, would be proud of me today. While visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels I had the pleasure of loosing a clip from an AK47. I am not a gun freak by any measure but there …
Tenterfield – Peter Allen country
The late George Woolnough, worked on High Street, lived on Manners. 52 years he sat on his veranda, making his saddles. So sang Peter Allen in his ode to the place of his birth. Peter Allen wrote some great songs …
Zai Jian Zhongguo
After five years in Beijing and approximately three and a half years as BotF’s North Asia correspondent this will be my final blog in such a capacity. The responsibility the BotF Executive has bestowed upon me is one I have …
Boundary Road Flying Fortress and Martinborough Hotel
Just a short 60 minute drive from Wellington is Martinborough. Although it’s just a short drive, there’s the Rimutaka Hill to conquer first. It’s a real challenge for those who aren’t good car passengers with a history of car sickness …
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4 Pines Keller Door Spice Rack cask series and vale Rubber Duckie
Over the years, the 4 Pines Keller Door has released some beers with some weird and wonderful ingredients. Chocolate Seaweed Porter, Porky Pig and Fig, Banana Bread and Espresso, Apple and Blackcurrant Crumble, Black Forest (cake) Imperial Stout and Cherry …
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Sweating gold sovereigns
Your correspondent’s day job enables me to visit the birdcage at the thoroughbred races at Flemington in Melbourne once a year. For those who may be unaware, this is the annual look-at-me fest that occurs in a roped off section …
Slow Beer and East of Everything
It’s been great to get out into Melbourne’s inner-city suburbia again, and BotF’s occasional Melbourne guide and inductee Cam covered himself in glory with his latest two selections. His two choices on this particular evening really showed why Melbourne is …
Bar Nacional and a trio of Spanish beers
Most of the time, when this correspondent is in Melbourne, he schleps it down in whatever the opposite of the Paris End of Collins Street is. For a long time it has been a barren place, which has had the …
Manly Phoenix at the Steyne and White Horse Lager
The 2013 edition of the Melbourne Cup was shaping up to be a shocker. I was crook, there was no free lunch to be found in these expense challenged times and we couldn’t even get the television to work on …
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back of the ferry 