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I had coffee with a friend on a midweek evening at  recently. It"s really peaceful there on quiet evenings, and the coffee is good.

In another food blogger recommendation challenge, Ed from Tomatom and I had dinner last month at Mamanee Thai on Smith St Collingwood, based on Ed"s experience of ordering takeaway from there and my reading of positive reviews from Hookturns and Mel: Hot or Not. They"re all right – Mamanee is excellent! Ed and I crunched our way through fat spring rolls, papaya salad and deep fried fish and devoured tender pork and vegetables. They"re BYO and there"s plenty of places to buy drinks nearby, so if you arrive without knowing that (as I did), then it"s an easy situation to correct.

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It"s exciting to see a new form of art for the first time. I spotted these three small stickers on the north east corner of the intersection of Smith St and Johnston St in Collingwood on 8 January 2010. I don"t have a camera or mobile device to read the QR codes to discover their URLs – has anyone done this? I"d love to know more about this!

Update 11 January 2010: thanks to the commenters below for providing the links. You can read more about this art project at the site of its creator, Keith Deverell....Read Full Article»

Sneakers swinging in the breeze on Smith St.

On a recent Thursday night between gallery openings and comedy at A mic in hand at Vibe cafe I tried a lamb kebab at Fitzroy Kebabs (Aydin take-away) near the corner of Gertrude St and yes it was good – lots of lamb, lettuce, tomato and a generous dollop of tzatziki.

I"ve had my third breakfast at Siyia on Smith St and am hooked now – their omelettes and panninis are beyond delicious. This time I tried the Cyprus village omelette, which contains haloumi cheese and mint. The coffee is good too, so a weekday breakfast at Siyia is highly recommended.

When you coincidentally bump into friends at Incub8r during a lazy Sunday midday passeggiata and discover that everyone is hungry, then repairing to Bebida for treats is highly recommended. It"s the kind of place where one person can have breakfast and coffee, another lunch or a snack and a glass of wine, and everything blends together beautifully. From the top down: ricotta tart, pork belly and meatballs.

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I caught up for a friend recently for a long Friday night gossip at Soul Food cafe on Smith St. I devoured some tasty nachos while she enjoyed the potato broccoli and apple soup.

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The Geronimo turtles have lost a friend who is not so helpfully dressed in a turtleneck and wearing tortoise-shell glasses.

I"m not sure what this is supposed to mean, but looking for meaning in art is so passé isn"t it?