House Cooling Mermaid

Today I received a beautiful gift from my friend and neighbour Marg. We have been neighbours and pals for about 5 years now, and often share an even beverage in our respective pocket handkerchief sized yards in the inner city.

My partner and I  decided to throw in inner city life, for one on the coast where we can grow our fruit and veg and generally chill out a bit more. It's got its advantages, it's got its disadvantages, but on balance we love it. So we have finally severed our residential ties with the city and sold our house. Up in the big smoke to pack up our goods and chattels, Marg and I were having one of our said evening beverages when she gave me this:

Isn't she absolutely gorgeous? Marg said she needed a home closer to the sea.  Thanks hon, she will be much loved, and used often. Here she is in the big smoke waiting to go south and wiggle her tail in the ocean.

Happy House Cooling to Me or But what's it got to do with food, Part 1)

What can I say? I'm moving away from my beloved house of 12 years. While packing up, and  trawling around my fave blogs, I found this at A Beautiful Mess, who found it at Anthropologie. It's from print artist Sarah Ball from Natchez, Mississippi. I had to have it as a memory. (Good justification, huh)

What's it got to do with food? Well, I'll eat while wearing it, and probably drop my dinner down its front. That's what.

Bamboo shoot pong

There's something about the odour of bamboo shoots I just can't stomach. Don't know why but every time I have them, I get a whiff before putting them in my mouth and that whiff puts me right off. I googled it, as you do, to see if I was alone or not. It appears I'm not the only one. I don't have an aversion to strong smelling food, but there's just something about them that turns my stomach. There's a whole lot of people here who also don't like it.

My latest run-in with them came while test driving the Marion's Kitchen's Green Thai Curry. It was all going swimmingly. The curry paste was fragrant, the dried additions were zingy... And then the pouch of bamboo shoots had to go in. I'd never actually realised before that it was THAT SMELL that I didn't like about quite a bit Thai food. I did what Marion told me and added it. Didn't rinse them, just put them in, but somehow now they are overriding all the other deliciousness I had before.

I'm not having a go Marion, honest, I think what you've done is great. Much nicer than anything else out there, but oh god, I desperately wish I hadn't added that pouch of BS. Water chestnuts? Maybe. But really, I don't think Marion's kit needs that fourth pouch. The product is good enough. Make it a vegetable suggestion, but please, don't make it compulsory.

Food trucks be damned ~ Half baked potatoes and some taco's (sic)

Random is right. Oh for fuck's sake, Sydney. The government sanctioned, highly licensed, let's do it by tender for the good of the city, food truck. You've missed the point. And I quote "Trends evolving into concepts." What a load of rubbish. Does this city have an original idea in its head? Remember Harry's Cafe de Wheels. It was our first food truck, and now the same city has ensured there's not a wheel in sight at Harry's.

Everybody in this video appears to be preparing their food in a restaurant kitchen. Oh, of course, that would be the audition. Not a food truck in sight. So is the city providing the truck? And good luck with parking in this burg.

And you know, it's not about NYC, it's actually about immigrant groups in LA finding a way of serving inexpensive but good food to folks of their homeland, or if they're not from the homeland, at least they like eating.  And they were convenient. The trucks were regularly moved on. It was kind of secret, it was about exploration, and throwing caution to the wind, and finding something 'other'. And finding great inexpensive food.

Will an Ethiopian/Sudanese/Greek/Maltese/whatever cabbie feel good about going to one of these places? Can they afford it? That's who these things should be for. Jeez, remember the kebab/donut van.

This all looked pretty My Food Truck Rules to me. Thank god there's an app. And I'm so pleased it has the impramateur of the Daily Tele. Phew.

But rest assured, all will be okay. Apparently the city has a Late Night Economy Manager. And the people who have chosen which food trucks will be parked on the bike path are mainly journalists. We are in safe hands.

Don't get me wrong. Food trucks ~ go forth and multiply. Take loaves and fishes into the 'burbs. Park outside the local Meriton building on Friday night, but please don't become an overpriced restaurant on wheels in George Street or the Rocks, or you've missed the point.

Will the trucks be going any further west than Chinatown? Nothing should be over 10 bucks. And please, could the Late Night Economy Manager  ensure that the apostrophe in more than one taco is removed!

Melbourne, at this point, is laughing its head off. Sorry for the rant, but I hate to see a good thing dumbed down.

We are not alone

It seems to me that the most printed three words in the English language must be "Made In China" (MiC if you're texting) or "Product of China." Not just traditional Asian food products and non-edible items, but just about everything ~ food, appliances, clothing ~ being the big three. I certainly try and avoid many Chinese foodstuffs, particularly after the great melamine in the milk episode which until  this very moment, I didn't realise included Cadbury's Eclairs! And in the realm of chain store clothing, it's almost impossible to find an item that doesn't contain those three words, including our 'very own' Bond's. And for crying out loud, it appears that even eBay has been overrun with products located in China. (Beware the postage rort.)

So how to avoid it, if that's your inclination. Well, food's not too hard. Keep anything processed to a minimum. Be vigilant around fresh food labelling. And I'm not singling out China here. I don't want an American lemon for crying out loud! Australian laws require fresh fruit and veg to display country of origin.  It gets tricky when  you're buying an Australian manufactured product made from "local and imported ingredients".

Clothes ~ a no-brainer, buy vintage. It's cheaper, cuter, and utilises an existing resource. A lot of the labels will still be intact, and you'll be able to find out what CITY it was made in. Whatever your style, you'll be able to do it. And if you think you've got no style, I guarantee you'll find it.

I have nothing against something being from somewhere else, per se. Let's face it, an exquisite bohus jumper from Sweden, is all the more beautiful because it comes from well... Sweden. But therein lies the difference. Provenance.  I will seek out Vietnamese fish sauce (it's different to Thai fish sauce) and when I find it, I rather hope it was produced in Vietnam. And curry powder. Happy for it to be made in India.  Hey, happy to buy oyster sauce from China. Provenance.  (As an aside though, I've always wondered by some clever dick didn't start making it here in Australia when our oysters looked too ugly for public consumption one year.) But orange juice, where sometimes the only Australian component is the bottle and the water. What's with that? I just went through my pantry reading labels, and now I'm curious as to exactly what "Product of Australia" actually means...

Now I know, courtesy of the Victorian state government:
‘Product of Australia’ means that significant ingredients must come from Australia and most of the processing should happen here too. A ‘Made in Australia’ statement may only mean that the food was ‘substantially transformed’ here and that a certain proportion of the production costs were incurred here. These definitions are currently under review.

Hmm, that last sentence intrigues me. Are they 'under review' in a good way? And what are those unempirical terms 'significan' and 'substantially transformed' mean?

Or should I just put this away, forget about where it was made, and concentrate on HOW it was made? Treatment of labor force, safety in workplace, right to organise. It's a minefield I tell you. And if I'm going to be a good citizen, more research is definitely required.

Killing a number of birds

So here's what happens when you get randomly generated advertising combined with bullshit spammy promotions. (I include this post on this blog because spam used to be considered food). While playing a word game via facebook, these two images popped up on the bottom of my screen.  How random! And how hideous. And there' s probably not even an actual person responsible. What is one supposed to do with it?
a.  Make a donation before taking off on the luxury scoff-fest cruise,
b.  See if said luxury cruise is available to the Horn of Africa
c.  Hope like hell cruise captain doesn't have mullet, is a coward and flirts his away across the high seas.

I think b, don't you. The luxury cruise to the Horn could be then attacked by pirates, money and food taken from ship could assist hunger crisis, and cruise ship line could think about whether to pay ransome for mullet-headed captain.

Back to the Future?

Ingredients, techniques and products I can live without in 2012

Basil-fed snails
Popcorn shoots
Aero shots ~ a breathable  Caffeine and Vitamin mix in an inhaler in packing that a cross betwen an asthma inhaler and a bullet.

The first from Volt ink, the second in Gingerboy, the third, a product I think the world might be better off without

And I never want to hear the word sous-vide again!

The Futurist Cook Book is starting to look not so silly after all. Let's face it, it's only a matter of time before  Diabolical Roses (Red roses, battered and deep-fried) turn up on a menu or Master Chef... Proposed as a side dish or contorni, I can actually imagine them as a desert or sweetmeat, in a fine tempura batter with icing sugar and a rose petal confit on a big white plate... NO, what am I saying. Further interrogation of La Cucina Futurista is definitely required. A Futurist dinner party may be in order. Oh, the irony.

Gingerboy's pantry

I am just in the process of indexing gingerboy for for eat your books and am up to the Crispy Yellow Curry-Marinated Garfish with cucumber and cherry tomato salad, which I am advised serves four as part of a  Shared Plate meal. So let's face it, this is not a grand main course, you'll want to be cooking a couple of dishes like this. But it has THIRTY-SIX ingredients, count them 36! I'm sorry, that's just plain silly. Even one of the cocktails has 10 ingredients. Somehow, I don't think I'm  going to be cooking much from this after all. And the combination of the book's design, which I had thought was mysterious, is now starting to appear plain old menacing.

UPDATE:  I just need to vent....

This book is going to be the cooking equivalent of Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time... Everyone's going to have it and no one's going to use it. It is SO obtuse!

You know the sort of book... Take a cup of the marinade on page 262, add it to a pork fillet, then make the salad which also has components from pages 260, 282, 127... You get the idea!

Already one recipe has 36 ingredients... including popcorn shoots. I mean, really!