Lee Tran Lam

I ran into one yesterday and asked for the most creative coffee name someone asked for and they said Nintendo!

LOL, there were 2 reader comments about this!

“Every so often I use ‘Spartacus’ as a coffee name. Maybe 1 in 20x someone else in the cafe picks up on the joke and joins in…”

“Spartacus could be amusing but there is a strong chance a fight would break out and you'd never end up getting the coffee.”

It was also great to chat to @sukhmanikhorana.bsky.social and barista/cafe owner Rowena Chansiri for this @australia.theguardian.com story about “coffee names”.

Even famous people get their name misinterpreted (@wolfblitzercnn.bsky.social had a Starbucks order delivered to “Oof”)!

I guess this is why people use Batman or Beyonce as their coffee name!

Nice choice!

I first came across the concept of having a “coffee name” when I heard Samin Nosrat say in an interview that her “coffee name” was Sam.

She had mixed feelings about it - and so do I! But I totally understand why people use one, as the intro to my @australia.theguardian.com story explains.

Ah, thanks for your nice comment! I've definitely gone through a variety of emotions about this, and have settled for convenience (fake name!) rather than my real name. I'm sorry to hear your friend has to deal with misspellings (and a fake ID) as well! Hopefully he's found a 'coffee name' he likes!

Strong flat white for Batman: should I use a ‘coffee name’? Some people go undercover when ordering takeaway – here’s what baristas think of the practice

If you have a ‘difficult ethnic name’, you might know this feeling. Do you give your real name for your takeaway order - only for it to be misspelt or butchered? Or do you give a fake name for convenience: a “coffee name”?

I've wanted to write this for YEARS!
www.theguardian.com/food/2025/oc...

Merivale dropped from Good Food Guide Australia’s largest hospitality company has been excluded from the Good Food Guide following claims it exploited workers and prioritised VIP treatment over staff safety.

The NSW edition of Good Food Guide comes out next week. This is a pretty big development.
www.smh.com.au/business/wor...

I've read 63 books so far this year. Here's how I did it Research shows Australians are reading fewer books than ever before. One writer shares her advice on how to make reading a daily habit.

I once read just 4 books in a year. In 2025, I’ve read more than 60 – a lifetime record for me!

Recreational reading has declined throughout Australia, but I hope this story might inspire people to turn some pages. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Support Us | fbi.radio The beating heart of Sydney music.

FYI, FBi radio's supporter drive ends soon – if you can support it, that'd be amazing. It's been showcasing Sydney's music, arts & culture scence for 20+ years (it played The Kid Laroi and Flume when they teens; I recall playing Flume's demo as Harley when he was 15)!
www.fbi.radio/support

Olive Oil: Lamp fuel, criminal swag, pharmacy staple For thousands of years, we’ve used olive oil for everything: from lighting lamps to chasing bugs out of our ears. In Australia, the oldest olive trees – planted 200 years ago – are still alive today. ...

Olive oil has been used as fuel, bug repellent & it's so valuable that counterfeiting it is like drug trafficking! Influencers believe in taking olive oil shots – but should we really? Great talking to @emantzioris.bsky.social about health & history for this podcast!
www.sbs.com.au/audio/podcas...

Strange behaviour is being observed in job interviews. It’s a sign of the times The explosion of AI has turned recruitment into a minefield, where it is difficult to assess if candidates have the skills they might appear to be able to demonstrate.

I'll never understand how companies who use AI tools in recruitment to 'streamline the process and increase efficiency' are complaining that applicants are also doing the same
www.theage.com.au/national/nsw...

Absolutely - that’s why they headed to India for supplies. Also, Ango-Indian cuisine was popular in early days of settlement, too.

Yeah, it is sad that the viral photo of anti-immigration protesters eating yum cha seems to suggest there’s a massive disconnect between what they were apparently marching for and where they like to eat.

Migrants have been feeding Australia for a long time, esp. with people from China and Italy setting up market gardens (see this historical note, which mentions how Chinese market gardens produced affordable fruit & veg after a severe drought in 1892, www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/w...)

I wonder how many protesters at the recent anti-immigration rallies knew that the colony was saved by Indian food?

This is from a story I wrote for Gourmet Traveller in 2022. Even from the earliest days of settlement, Australian food wasn’t as bland or monocultural as you’d first think.

Review: This condiment is ‘one of the best things I’ve tasted this year’ Al Amara grinds its own fresh tahini from pure sesame on site every day – but there’s much more to this bakery.

The tahini at Al Amara is freshly milled and "could be measured in ripples: it drips rapidly and is always in escape mode". It's spectacularly nutty and "has more complexity and character than entire bookshelves". I wrote about this Iraqi bakery for Good Food:
www.smh.com.au/goodfood/syd...

Crumbs at the Slophouse There was a man at the ice creamery the other day and I cannot stop thinking about him. He looked about 50. No family in tow, indeed no other travelling friends or acquaintances in sight. From his pe...

"Maybe you will build those toxic – emotionally, spiritually, environmentally – simulacra engines and suck up all the water and tank the energy grid w/ the demand for the worst art ever made." @squigglyrick.bsky.social takes on AI slop (unlike AI slop, it's ace) rick-morton.ghost.io/crumbs-at-th...

Revealed: Israeli military’s own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000

83% of people killed by Israel in Gaza are civilians, according to the Israeli military's own data. This "is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars"
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Does Australia’s biggest contribution to global dining come from ... McDonald’s? Here’s what makes our Macca’s stores stand out among 50 global outlets.

From Engadine Maccas and beyond: I talked to Gary He about his acclaimed McAtlas book. He's visited McDonald's in 50+ countries, including Australia (home to Melbourne's Art Deco Maccas, the McCafe, the infamous Engadine site & the worst thing he ate on his trip, LOL) www.smh.com.au/goodfood/eat...

Returning on the train from the Sydney March for Humanity, Free Palestine protest and they are still turning people back on the bridge

Me: "So which country should @aoc.bsky.social go back to?"
Mick Mulvaney: "She's an American citizen."
Me: "So why did Trump tell her to go back to her country?"

I asked former Trump WH chief of staff Mulvaney if he ever challenged his then boss on his racist tweets.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wolq...

A group of journalists working at AFP said this week that “without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die”.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Weighing just 10kg at 14 years old: 'Major starvation' takes hold in Gaza In a ward of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, multiple children and some adults can be found emaciated from the lack of food. Doctors say the rate of death from starvation is rapidly rising.

“Musab al Dibes is 14 years old, but looks like a small child … His weight has dropped from 40 kilograms to 10 … The Gaza Strip is suffering from a major catastrophe in terms of food. There is no food, no milk, no meat, no fish, no legumes, nothing” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Israel blocking aid from Gaza is creating ‘chaos and death’, say humanitarian groups Letter signed by agencies including Doctors Without Borders condemns Israeli military attacks on Palestinians

Israel blocking aid from Gaza is creating ‘chaos and death’, say humanitarian groups
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza In my homeland, where we used to cook and celebrate together, my relatives are eating animal feed to keep from starving.

Also, Mosab Abu Toha's "My Family's Daily Struggle To Food In Gaza" for @newyorker.com rightly won a James Beard award – the audience for his story deserves to be huge and planet-wide.
www.newyorker.com/news/essay/m...

A Gastro Obscura Guide to Sydney Wattleseed pudding, Vegemite-braised ribs, and more freewheeling fusion in the harbor city.

Last year, I wrote a Sydney dining guide for Gastro Obscura's Feast. The series covered 9 cities (from Lagos to Penang) and has just won a James Beard media award for Dining & Travel! Congrats to @dianahubbell.bsky.social, Anne Ewbank and Sam O'Brien on the win!
www.atlasobscura.com/articles/whe...

It’s a favourite topic of mine also, LOL - hopefully we might get a chance to talk about it in the not-too-distant future!

I really enjoyed hearing your insights on this - and how the Greek definition is about so many aspects of life (like ‘who you eat with’ or even ‘cook with’), rather than just cutting out certain foods. It seems like a good approach to thinking about food!