Who will reign supreme?

Ethiopian cuisine added another feather in its cap after Dershaye, the chef at Harambe restaurant in Footscray, took out the title of Tin Chef 2009.

If you haven't heard of the illustrious competition it pays homage to the brilliant tv show Iron Chef, but pits kitchen maestros from the western suburbs against each other.

It had Matt Preston's stamp of approval - he was one of the judges.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, then get down to Footscray and pick up some of the vegetable curries using the strangely addictive injera bread. It reminds me of Spongebob Squarepants.

Those deli girls

I never used to have a lot of time for deli girls. I was a check-out chick back in the day, and when you work in a supermarket there is generally a great divide between those on the front line... and everybody else.

That all changed when I stopped in at Beaufort IGA. My Combi-driving companion and I were responsible for picking up some lunch-ables from the afore-mentioned establishment on our way to meet others for a weekend jaunt in the Grampians.

We asked Jess, the deli girl, for some meat. It took us some time to decide on the triple smoked ham (three times' the charm right?) so she really threw us a curve ball when she asked the dreaded deli question: ''How much?"

After some conferring behind our shopping baskets, we threw down this gauntlet: "342 grams."

The tension built as she sliced closer and closer to the mark. We thought we had her when the scales read 340 - but lo' and behold if the last slice she tossed casually onto the pile didn't bring the total up another 2 grams.

What a legend.

You have a baguette for a chin and a nose like the Eiffel tower

I love the French. Or, to be entirely truthful, I love French food.

Dive into gritty Degraves Street, Melbourne and you can transport yourself back to Paris thanks to Waffle On.

This hole-in-the-wall sells baguettes the way they should be sold: fresh with slathers of delicious butter and winnning combinations of filling.

I visited it for the first time last week and was careful to line up patiently, and clearly enunciate my order: ''Two orders of Le Fermier and one order of Le Normandy please, merci.''

While I wait, the French managers insult the customers. One bloke says he'll take the number 4 baguette (butter, chicken, mayo, lettuce and tomato) but with ham instead. The woman behind the counter is confused: ''So you want zee chicken and zee ham, or just zee ham?"

"Nah, just the ham.''

The man behind the counter pulls a face. "You can have zat, but it vill be de-gusting!"