UPDATE!!!!!!: POSTPONED until the 19th & 20th of July due to the severe storm front coming through this weekend.

Apologies for that: much soul searching and resolving 'not to do that again'. Thanks to all those who asked. Recipe over the fold.

Details at Leda Swan's Site and make sure you RSVP 30th of June in order to reserve your place at the winery.

Hello to the winter issue of SPICE - the screed on feed, the tome on pome, the beat on meat, the journal on kernels; focalising on localising, writing on biting, looking at cooking, illuminating ruminating; less British than Delicious, less monthly than The Monthly, less dead than the Bulletin, and less Princess Mary than anyone.

Fantastic stuff to get you through winter: Marg Johnson's multivariate - they lemon, they lime, they coconut; donuts by Balthazar - but first you have to eat your Jamie Morgan braised abalone with soba noodles and beef fillet with mushroom croquette; Jude Blereau shops well, early and often; Verity James finds that oranges are not the only [citrus] fruit; Vince Garreffa convinces us that a complete bone-in beef blade cut is a great idea; knives are made like puff pastry; cows get the lazy susan treatment; abalone are looked behind; food miles are countered; the wines of the Frankland Valley are explored; chefs are followed to the Great Southern and much more in all that's tasty, clever and good here. Look for it with the Sports Dietitian and the Docker's arm on the cover.

Subscriptions are here. Back issues are here. Advertising is here. Widely available in newsagencies across Australia and overseas and also at the following stockists.

Prima Fresh Market (Stirling) -new!, Kakulas Sister (Freo), Wine Liasons (Freo),Fresh Provisions (Bicton, Claremont, Mt Lawley), Mondo Di Carne (Inglewood), Princi's (Beaconsfield) [new!] The Home Provedore (Freo, Claremont), O2H (Nedlands), Super IGA (Nedlands) [new!], The Grocer (Nedlands), The Herdsman (Churchlands), Lady Kitchener (Claremont), Black Duck Gourmet Pantry (Albany), Blackwood Kitchen (Bridgetown), Seashack (Esperance), Get Stuffed Olive Company (Gingin), Loose Produce (Como), Margaret Riviera (Cowaramup), Picobello Patisserie (Bicton), Swansea Street Markets (East Vic Park), Boatshed Markets (Cottesloe), Gourmet Centro (Subiaco), Vanilla (South Freo), Angelo Street Markets (South Perth), Food for Me (East Vic Park), Kailis Fishmarkets (Leederville), Clayton's Quality Meats (South Perth) Kitchen Warehouse (Osborne Park), The Beaufort Street Merchant (Mt Lawley), Rising the in the Yeast (Myaree), Love Me Tender Butchery (Palmyra), Crave On (Leederville), Matters of Taste (Bicton), Deli Di Mondo (Attadale), George Street Merchants (East Freo), Malibu Fresh Essentials (Safety Bay), Cape Kitchen (Busselton), Margaret River Venison (Cowaramup), Chilli Hot Kitchenware (Dunsborough), Taste of Balingup (Balingup)

Education Humanities Common Room, Murdoch University 6pm–8pm
Each session $50 (except First Food, $30). Includes finger food and wine.
$200 for all five.

So you think you have Food Issues? (Wed June 18)
Food is always political. This session will consider contemporary food issues including:
GM food, organic food, fast food Vs slow, sustainable foodways, obesity and hunger.
Guest Speaker: Sally Paulin, Lecturer in Sustainable Development, Murdoch University

Eat my words (Wed June 25)
From Madeleines to matzo balls, food evokes like nothing else, except perhaps music.
Be prepared to eat and write.

Sacred food (Wed July 2)
Food plays a central role in the great sacred rituals and festivities of the world. Explore them.

Oz food (Wed July 9)
What is Australian Cuisine? Indigenous cooking, bush tucker, Mod Oz or fish and chips? And we’ll talk about vegemite, lamingtons, pavlova . . . and what ever happened to chokos?
Guest Speaker: Grant Stone, of ABC TV Can We Help fame.

First food (Sat July 12)
Indigenous Heritage Consultant Noel Nannup will take us on a tour of Wireless Hill and speak about bush foods and their role in Aboriginal life.

Bookings required. Contact felicnew[AT]bigpond[DOT]net[DOT]au or 9331 5134

More good stuff to go to for a great cause [see below]. Aid is getting through and is ongoing necessity with this season's rice crops wiped out.

Now with John Butler!

[photographer Flavio Rosa and wine writer-artist- projectionist Jason Boudville at the Kurb Gallery's Fair Trade Art Exhibition]

Happy World Fair Trade Day! Lot's of information at Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand.
Counteract outrageous corporate piss-taking with some fair trade coffee and chocolate.
Get on over to the Bakery ARTRAGE complex on 233 James Street Northbridge from 5-11pm on Sunday the 11th (take Mum!). $10 entry (kids free) for bar, stalls, food, coffee, and entertainment.
And on Friday May 16th theres a wind-up at the Oxfam Perth store at 872 Hay Street 7pm - entry by donation.

[Facebookers! get yourself to WA Fair Trade Collective for further details]

4pm-8pm Thursday 1st May at the Perth Town Hall (cnr Barrack and Hay)
Tickets: $20 at the door, which includes a tasting glass.

There's more information at the Bickley & Carmel Valleys Tourism Association website or you can download a detailed PDF of the event here.

The Winner of the Calphalon Chef Skillet and Karahi wok was J Copeland.

[post continues with conditions]

This year's César Award (French Oscar) for Best Picture went to Abdellatif Kechiche's Secret of the Grain. Luna Palace Cinemas are kindly offering some double passes to Spice readers.

Set in the rustic port of Sète, Secret of the Grain is the story of Slimane, whose growing dissatisfaction with the shipyard job he's had for the last 35 years prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym (played to great acclaim by the stunning newcomer Hafsia Herzi). A grand film about ordinary people, Secret of the Grain is a slow-burning drama drenched with humanity (and - naturally - some mouth-watering meals), in the tradition of Babette's Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman. Starts Thursday 10th April at Cinema Paridiso & Luna on SX

There are 5 double passes available and all you have to do is be the amongst the first to email info [at] lunapalace [dot] com [dot] au and put ‘Spicy Film Giveaway’ in the subject line and include your postal address in the body.

First off is the subscription prize of the Le Creuset kettle and the Coquelle. The cool thing about the Coquelle is that it was designed by Raymond Loewy, who is the, THE, man of 20th design. If you don't know him, then spend a good half an hour or so familiarising yourself his work here, so you can chat about your new cast iron pot while making a cuppa with your new kettle (assuming you subscribed to Spiceand then went on to beat the not unreasonable odds to win).

Also, if you call into Pronto Butchers in Monument Street, Mosman Park with your copy of Autumn and spend more than $20 on some of their free range and organic range of meats, you get a complimentary gourmet sausage pack. A nice little roulade of lamb with sun-dried tomatoes and feta set me back a little over that last Friday and fed four happy people.

Next, win a Gold Medal Gift Pack including a decanter, a drizzler and a dipping dish and 4 (4!) litres of fabulous Kalamata oil from Olio Bello in Margaret River. Just send your name and contact details to spice@oliobello.com or phone 9492 8394.

Finally, local cooking school owner Nico Moretti is offering a $10 discount on the RRP to Spice readers on lovely new cookbook "Cooking Passions". I'll be taking mine away to read and most likely cook from this Easter. You can order by contacting they can contact them on 9228 0507 or email nico@urbanprovider.com.au.

Hello to issue 10 of Spice and Autumn. Hello also to Antonio Vilaca of Ampohoras Bar, who's gracing our cover this issue. Amphoras is one of the count-them-one-hand freshly enlicensed small bars in Perth; Wally Graham covers the story. Also Jude Blereau starts her four part series on how (and why) to eat sustainably. Sophie Zalokar profiles Pemberton. Pigs- raising them well and how to have them ready to go for dinner. Molokan tomato growers from Manjimup. Cheffing at an aged care facility. How to sharpen knives and what to look for in getting the best hot water form espresso machines. Ha-Lu restaurant does our seasonal and caterers Comestibles and Beau Monde have at it with some exquisite amuse bouche. Not forgetting 33 local Semillon Blanc and SSBs with tasting notes that has had me looking in the fridge with a heavy heart every time there's not a bottle sitting there, wrapped gently in drops of cool moisture, stelvin closure telling me I don't even have to bother with a corkscrew [sound of door slaming, footsteps down path, an engine starts]

And there's still more. Widely available in newsagencies across Australia and overseas and also at the following stockists.

Prima Fresh Market (Stirling) -new!, Kakulas Sister (Freo), Wine Liasons (Freo),Fresh Provisions (Bicton, Claremont, Mt Lawley), Mondo Di Carne (Inglewood), Sealanes (South Freo), Princi's (Beaconsfield) [new!] The Home Provedore (Freo, Claremont), O2H (Nedlands), Super IGA (Nedlands) [new!], The Grocer (Nedlands), The Herdsman (Churchlands), Lady Kitchener (Claremont), Black Duck Gourmet Pantry (Albany), Blackwood Kitchen (Bridgetown), Seashack (Esperance), Get Stuffed Olive Company (Gingin), Loose Produce (Como), Margaret Riviera (Cowaramup), Picobello Patisserie (Bicton), Swansea Street Markets (East Vic Park), Boatshed Markets (Cottesloe), Gourmet Centro (Subiaco), Vanilla (South Freo), Angelo Street Markets (South Perth), Food for Me (East Vic Park), Kailis Fishmarkets (Leederville), Clayton's Quality Meats (South Perth) Kitchen Warehouse (Osborne Park), The Beaufort Street Merchant (Mt Lawley), Rising the in the Yeast (Myaree), Love Me Tender Butchery (Palmyra), Crave On (Leederville), Matters of Taste (Bicton), Deli Di Mondo (Attadale), George Street Merchants (East Freo), Malibu Fresh Essentials (Safety Bay), Cape Kitchen (Busselton), Margaret River Venison (Cowaramup), Chilli Hot Kitchenware (Dunsborough), Taste of Balingup (Balingup)

*or if you're already living there