Paper Palate

The February 2007 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller (AGT) has a stunning zucchini and feta tart with cherry tomatoes on the cover - but the thing that stands out is the bowl of olive oil, which, to me, is an absolute statement of summer.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, Australian Gourmet Traveller (AGT), is always going to be six months out of season, so the In Season feature just serves to irritate - especially when this month they’ve focussed on summer berries!

However, there are plenty of recipes to tempt the cook into the kitchen - the baked goat’s curd and lemon tartlet from South Australia’s Star of Greece looks like it could easily grace a winter table, and the Masterclass features an aubergine, spiced onion and goat’s cheese salad which was a stellar accompaniment at a recent dinner party.

One of my favourite monthly features is Perfect Match, where a dish and a varietal are matched. This month it’s a smoked trout salad (with beetroot and horseradish) with marsanne. Throughout the food section of the magazine there’s plenty of emphasis on building a menu and matching drinks with the food, and AGT always had a good spread of dishes so you are hard pressed to find something you wouldn’t like to eat. Unfortunately, in England at least, you may find some ingredients that Australians take for granted that are a little tricky to locate - but if you can persevere (or make a canny substitution) it’s worth it.

Travel wise, this month AGT covers Istanbul, cheap London hotels (surely a bit of an oxymoron there?), Mildura in Victoria, Australia (yes, all those pictures of sunshine are a bit hard to handle!), Miami and luxury cruises.

Now - I just need a couple of days off work to track down some Patagonian toothfish!