Australia Day in South Korea

Chalk up another success for a Yamba export.

No, Yamba prawns were not on the menu when the Australia Chamber of Commerce celebrated Australia National Day at the Grand Ambassador hotel in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Friday.

But, another Yamba product, in the shape of Wayne Golding, whom The Korea Herald described as ""an Australian culinary wizard", prepared the feast. Golding is executive chef at the Grand Ambassador.

Golding told The Korea Herald that he wanted everyone to feel that they were eating a traditional Australia Day meal.

Participants were greeted with a Down Under theme as cabanas decorated one side of the room and Aussie favorites like fish and chips and meat pies were served. No day marking the country’s birthday would be complete without a good old fashion Aussie barbeque.

Paul Matthews provided this review of Golding for 10mag.com :

When I step into The King’s Premium Live Buffet at the Grand Ambassador Hotel, I’m overwhelmed. Confronted by mountains of seafood, roast ducks and a walk-in dessert cabinet, I want to dig in straight away. But I resist, since the main attraction here is Australian Executive Chef Wayne Golding, who has transformed this thirty-five-year old restaurant into something extraordinary.

Hailing from the small town of Yamba in New South Wales, Golding started out in his father’s footsteps as a fisherman. He worked nights on the boats and studied during the day. After flirtations with carpentry, metal fabrication and architecture, he turned to the kitchen, rising up the ranks at a breakneck pace. From Yamba, he went to Sydney, then onto Dubai and Hanoi, before he found himself at the Paradise Hotel in Busan and his Korean career really began. He has been living here for the past seven years and has been working at the Grand Ambassador since 2009.

He is committed to making King’s the best buffet in the country, and he is bringing some exciting new ideas to the dining table. At King’s, everything is “live,” meaning that instead of lukewarm trays filled with congealed sauces, you can expect your food freshly cooked to order in front of your eyes. He has assembled a crack team of chefs to assist him, including a Chinese station complete with a dim sum expert, a roast meats master and a wok specialist. He has also ensured that seafood fans can get oysters all year round and that all the produce at King’s is the freshest it can be.

It wasn’t always that easy to source exotic fresh ingredients in Korea, and Chef Golding remembers when he used to have to scour the department stores in order to source the best products available. However, his job is a little easier now and he has even managed get a supply of fresh shrimp for the restaurant. As a fisherman’s son, he knows that there’s a big difference in taste between fresh and frozen.

The King’s Premium Live Buffet is in good hands with this Yamba boy, who knows the importance of “live” food and treats his customers to one of the best hotel buffets in Seoul.

Credits: The Korea Herald and 10mag.com

Member for Clarence says, "I didn't lie"

Chris Gulaptis, the Member for Clarence, says a group claiming he'd said the O'Farrell Government had set aside $300 million for a new Grafton bridge either misunderstood what he was saying or didn't understand the budgetary process.

"If they think I have lied to them I apologise for that, but I certainly didn't lie to them," he said. [Daily Examiner, 31/1/12]

Seems the message sent from the mouth of the MP and the message that arrived at the ears of members of the group was not one and the same thing. Who do you believe?

Read today's Daily Examiner report here.

By a modest margin Australian electorate wants Gillard Government to run full term

The Essential Report 30 January 2012:

This report summarises the results of a weekly omnibus conducted by Essential Research with data provided by Your Source.
The survey was conducted online between the 25th and 29th January 2012 and is based on 1,033 respondents.

Click on table to enlarge

The big fella explained with a little help from trick cycling

Found at comicsreporter.com

On the subject of verballing - just how stupid does Meeja Tart Abbott and Poodle Pyne think Aussie punters are?

“I’ve been verballed!” cries Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. “He’s been verballed!” cries Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne. “Julia dun it and the police should help us make political capital out of this!” they both yell in the meeja.

So what do we have here as the basis for a politically motivated police investigation into who said what and when?

On Thursday 26^th January 2012 one of the Prime minister’s media advisers was allegedly informed by a journalist of what Abbott said about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s relevance and future. It is possible that the journalist expanded on these remarks.

The advisor informed a union official, stating where Abbott was attending an function. The official in turn informed another at the Embassy and also pointed to where Abbott could be found.

People at an Australia Day event at the Embassy reacted and attempted to confront Abbott at The Lobby restaurant shortly afterwards.

Police appear to have been called to the rowdy demonstration at around 2.30pm.

Accepting the dubious proposition that Abbott really was verballed (and leaving aside the possible involvement of his own media advisers), who did this alleged verbally first?

Was it members of the Prime Minister’s staff?

Nah, it was the mainstream meeja that the Leader of the Opposition so assiduously courts– and here’s the visual evidence which was online on the 26^th January beginning at 10.35am with what was probably an item drawn from the the Australian Associated Press news feed:

Snapshot of Perth Now AAP report at 10.35am on 26th January 2012
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Snapshot of Sky News report at 1.03pm 26th Jaunary 2012
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Snapshots of The Telegraph online AAP report at 1.35pm on 26th January 2012
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So before either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott arrived at the restaurant for the National Emergency Services Medal ceremony, an inflammatory version of Abbott's remarks had been spread across Australia coast to coast - without any help from prime ministerial staff.
And all the Coalition political spin in the world won't change that fact.

* Thanks to Clarencegirl for the snapshots

Member for Clarence careless with the truth

 Today's Daily Examiner's front page reports:

Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has either lied to The Daily Examiner or to the Concerned Citizens Group in relation to funding for a second Grafton bridge.

CCG member Lynne Cairns said Mr Gulaptis had told her and three other members of the group, at a meeting on December 7, that the O'Farrell Government had $300 million set aside for the new bridge. Her claim was backed by fellow CCG members Kim Dahl, Sue Hillery and Lynne's husband, Bob.

But, fielding questions from The Examiner on Friday, Mr Gulaptis emphatically denied he made such a revelation.

"There's funding for planning ... but there's no funding set aside in this budget," he said. "Our commitment is that it will be physically started in this term (before March 2015).

"I apologise if people have misunderstood."

Mr Gulaptis said he understood if the community was sceptical about the bridge being started anytime in the near future, considering Bob Carr made a similar promise in 2002.

"But we will have an option in place by the middle of this year, Bob Carr didn't have that, so we are well on our way."

Various members of the CCG, a group opposed to a new bridge coming into central Grafton, also expressed disappointment at Mr Gulaptis' apparent shift in stance on the issue of where the new crossing should be.

"Before the election he was emphatic that all the heavy traffic needed to be moved out of town and now he's saying it should be left to the experts," Mr Dahl said.

"He's really mucked us around with his position," Mrs Cairns said.

Mr Gulaptis said he would not speculate as to which option the RMS would select as the preferred route but said each one required further technical investigations.

He said there was no point speculating on the options unless you were a technical expert.

Source: The Daily Examiner, 30/1/12

Let Steve Cansdell take his lumps in silence

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The Daily Examiner published an opinion piece last Friday suggesting disgraced former Nationals MP for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, should keep a low profile.

Something that is not likely to happen as it seems Cansdell has plans to re-enter politics and is rumoured to have his eye on the federal electorate of Page, which is currently held by Labor's Janelle Saffin.

I suspect that keeping public accolades (like the tribute dinner) coming is not something his lawyers are averse to either as Cansdell faces the possibility of having to answer before the courts for his admitted wrongdoing.