I’m mad for Northern African and Middle Eastern flavours at the moment. Well, not really at the moment, for quite a while now. Ever since I was lucky enough to attend a five-day cooking school in Morocco. Well, even before that – I would hardly have travelled all the way to Morocco if I wasn’t pretty sure I liked the food. But that certainly sealed the deal. I loved the communal way of cooking (everybody’s dinner cooked in the basement fire of the local hammam (bath house)) and the delicate spices that became robust dishes and flavours.

So when we featured Egyptian cuisine for our At the Table feature this month, I knew I’d be cooking it for the blog. Call me daggy, but I’m a big fan of mince and always have a kilo or two in the freezer. Just in case. So I was pretty much set for the kobeba – beef and cracked wheat slice. I was intrigued by the fact that this dish is beef, with a beef stuffing – a case of “too much is never enough”?

It’s a simple dish and as I was cooking, I got into the mood by listening to Natacha Atlas – my favourite Arabian-fusion songstress (she was born in Belgium to parents of Moroccan, Egyptian, Palestinian and British background, speaks at least four languages, and has used all of them in the course of her career. Basically, awesome). Her version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You is fabulous and as the kobeba went into the oven, I was shimmying with the best of them.

China and Russia vetoed a resolution on action against the Syrian regeime at the UN Security Council. (AAP)

Ambassador Susan Rice was unhappy when she walked out of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday.

The veto imposed by Russia and China to condemn the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests had irked her.

Ambassador Susan Rice was unhappy when she walked out of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday. The veto imposed by Russia and China to condemn the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests had irked her.

“Let me begin by speaking directly to the Syrian people,” she told media after the vote. “The United States stands with you, the Syrian people, and we will not rest until you and your bravery achieve your basic, universal human rights, to which all human beings are entitled.

There is a way to avoid the incessant news and gossip surrounding federal investigations and high-profile doping cases. Simply go bush, writes Anthony Tan.

While the cycling world waited with bated breath over the decision to acquit or convict Alberto Contador, I realised, rather belatedly, there was a subset of us who simply didn’t care.

The weekend before last, I was immersed in the Apple Isle for the Pure Tasmania Wildside, a four-day mountain bike race held on the island’s rugged though beguilingly beautiful west coast.

Thanks to my now infamous profile (courtesy Mike Tomalaris) and my equally notorious Prussian Blue jacket (courtesy Paul Smith), I get asked a lot of questions. At Wildside it was no different – but with one exception: not a single competitor (and there were 469 of ‘em) asked me about Contador.

Mel Gibson’s new movie is getting an innovative release in the US, a model that will probably be replicated in Australia. 

A few years ago the notion of a Mel Gibson movie bypassing cinemas in the US, instead premiering on a satellite broadcaster, would have seemed far-fetched, another sign that the superstar’s career had hit rock bottom.

Yet his latest film, Get the Gringo (formerly How I Spent My Summer Vacation) is launching in the US on DirecTV on May 1, potentially reaching nearly 20 million homes.

Rather than being regarded as another setback in the actor’s chequered career, the initiative is being hailed by some commentators as a bold move which could help create a new paradigm for releasing films in the US and, eventually, in markets including Australia.

Director Steve McQueen and actor Chiwetel Ejiofor take on the true story of Solomon Northup, and Russell Crowe has his pick of new projects.

There’s something irresistible about a cinematic partnership between a director and their favoured actor. The connection between the person behind the camera and the one in front of it can be electric, and the body of work that eventuates can be evocative and lasting. Think of Robert De Niro as the explicit side of Martin Scorsese’s psyche in the 1970s and 1980s (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy), or Anna Karina bringing new life to the screen as the muse for Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s (The Little Soldier, A Woman is a Woman, Alphaville); these are exchanges between artists where every close-up is freighted with significance.

[ Watch interview with Anna Karina ]

It’s too soon to attribute the same worth to a current collaboration, that of English filmmaker Steve McQueen and the Irish actor Michael Fassbender, but their two films together – 2008’s Hunger (screening Wed, Feb 8 at 9:35pmon SBSTWO) and this month’s Shame – have both been major works with outstanding performances by the latter, firstly as the I.R.A. hunger striker Bobby Sands and then as a tormented New York sex addict. Now McQueen is preparing to shoot his third feature, and Fassbender will appear as one of the leads.