This week I am

thinking about pubs, spring, and cooking triumphs and disasters. And radio!Pubs first. And not only thinking about them, but positively enjoying them. I had dinner the other night at the Grosvenor Hotel, Brighton Road, St Kilda.  http://www.grosvenorhotel.com.au  I've)eaten there a number of times over the years, and it's been good, and less than good. It's now really good, thanks to the energy and talent of the publican Rabih Yanni (formerly The Point in Albert Park).It's a real pub. Trivia night, specials mid-week, all the rest of it. And pub food reworked. This is not a gastro pub, this is a pub that serves good food. Like chilli garlic prawns and chickpea fritters and lamb cigars and cured meats as starters. Pizza certainly (and very good it is). And great steaks, also available to buy to cook at home. But I'd rather sit here and eat them, and enjoy the bistro. And an excellent and not overpriced wine list. Good food, no pretensions.Oh, and there are hamburgers, of course. Also available from the drive-through burger bar. For those with small children, the children's menu is a beauty. No chips! No nuggets! Rigatoni with tomato and meatballs, perhaps?On the other side of town in the refurbished Astor Hotel in Lygon Street Carlton, with the restaurant called The Roving Marrow. http://www.theastorcarlton.com.au  That's not quite the area for a big trad pub, so the small clean-lines dining room make sense here. So does a menu composed of small dishes at small prices (under $20). Think heirloom carrots with spiced dukkah and haloumi, or oysters, or mussel pie, or roast duck leg salad with pineapple. Very suitable for the area. Great for a meal before a movie (check opening hours), good enough to stay on so you have to catch a later session.Cooking disasters? It might be something about my family. An early disaster was trying to make falafel from scratch. I have a soft spot for falafel, and would like to see them as street food/casual food instead of hamburgers or chips. I was using a Claudia Roden recipe. My older son rang me this week to ask if I remember the falafel disaster from years ago, because he had had the same problem. They simply fell apart while cooking. My sister then rang me to tell me she had tried to make falafel (from another book) and they fell apart so badly they all went out for brunch instead. I've used packet falafel even since, but I may try again. One day.Some disasters are more easily recoverable. A friend had trouble with a special fruit cake, which she had baked without adding the semolina. She brought me a slice to show me - well, not a slice, really, a crumbly mass of delicious spiced dried fruit. I suggested she mix it into icecream and freeze it, and serve it as a kind of frozen Christmas pudding. I'm waiting to hear how it goes.Years ago, when I was doing some casual catering for post-theatre suppers at La Mama in Carlton, I made an orange cake as part of the supper. I was meant to be going out to dinner before the supper, and I was in a hurry. The cake did what cakes do when you're in a hurry: it went wrong. Good cake, but it stuck to the pan and came out in pieces. No time to make another. What did I do? Mashed it up with some fresh orange juice, added a beaten egg white, folded in some cream, mixed it well and put it all in a log pan in the freezer. Three hours later it unmoulded very nicely and I served it as an icecream cake. "This is lovely!" said one woman. "Where did you get the recipe?"  I thought for only a second. "It's a family recipe. It's my Bohemian grandmother's frozen cake."Radio? Catch me on Tony Delroy's wonderful Nightlife program on the ABC. It's 774 in Melbourne. I'm on occasional Monday nights, after 11pm.  And I'll be on Cameron Smith's 3RRR show on Sunday 25 October, after midday, talking champagne.Spring is green vegetables. Asparagus, peas, broad beans, artichokes still, and still fennel. I love asparagus with eggs - poached, scrambled, soft-boiled. Or simply with orange juice. Or lemon juice. Or butter.