Valentine's Day 2018

Did you send your love a dozen red roses on Valentine's Day?

Flowers have always been favourites when it comes to that special day for lovers, also known as a money-making opportunity for florists, chocolate, lingerie and jewellery shops.

According to tradition, roses symbolise love, tulips say believe me because I love you, orange blossoms mean eternal love and primroses mean they can't live without you.

Sometimes, though, a floral gift doesn't have the desired response.

Merry Christmas 2017

A Wok on the Wild Side would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In the words of the festive tune, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas when the leg of ham is in the fridge, when I put cranberry sauce on my shopping list and I wonder if mango sorbet will go well with Christmas pudding.

Hopefully I will wake up early enough on Christmas Eve to get the largest oysters for dinner and prepare a vegetarian alternative to turkey and ham for my vegetarian daughter.

Taste of Melbourne 2017

You can win a double pass to Taste of Melbourne 2017! Read on.

Where cuisine and culture collide.

This is the theme for this year's Taste of Melbourne which moves to its iconic new home at the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s Yarra Park.

Celebrate this annual food and culture feast at the start of summer from 30 November to 3 December 2017!

Congratulations to the six lucky winners of the CocoEarth  Liquid Coconut Premium Oil competition. They are:

Rhondda Fahey

Cheryl Richter

MJ Grosvenor

Joe Mercieca

K Fitzgerald

Joseph Then

All six recipients were delighted to receive a bottle of CocoEarth coconut oil each.

MJ Grosvenor said she was already a dedicated user of it, as it results in the most delicious flavour in her food.

Mother's Day 2017

If your mother is an avid reader, here are some gift ideas for Mother's Day.

Hippy Days Arabian Nights

By Katherine Boland

Published by Wild Dingo Press

This memoir by artist Katherine Boland is a rollicking good read.

Katherine follows her heart and her dreams with gusto, not stopping to consider the "could haves" or the "should haves."

She arrived in Australia as a child with her family on the 10-pound Pom scheme.