Month in Review - July 2009

No doubt I am not the first to discover that starting a blog is much easier than keeping it up to date. I am very good at making lists of things that I should/could write about but finding the time to do so is a bit problematic. So herewith a summary of what happened in my food life this month.

1. The end of the first Australian Masterchef series. Was I the only person who didn't really get into this? What is the fascination about food as competition?


2. On the subject of television I have had access to cable TV for the last couple of weeks and was very excited at the prospect of the Lifestyle Food channel and seeing Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the flesh only to discover that the series on offer had been made in 1999! And people pay to see this stuff? Also came across something called 'Come Dine with Me' - more food competition involving a very unlikeable crew.


3. A birthday dinner at Bird, Cow Fish -cod brandade with a salad of celery leaf, parsley and lemon followed by Coorong hanger steak with a sweet and sour garlic, anchovy, oregano, raisin and veal jus sauce. Alex Herbert is a bit of a gem.


4. Bécasse Producers Winter Forum Lunch. Introduced by Simon Marnie, food by Justin North which included Coffin Bay pacific oysters, Woodbridge smoked trout, local prosciutto, prawns from Kinkawooka (Spencer’s Gulf Prawn Fishery), duck from Cornucopia (in the Upper Hunter on the Patterson River) washed down with beer (more specifically Organic Pale Ale) from Redoak, chardonnay from Lakes Folly and coffee from Single Origin Northern Rivers. Can't wait for the next one.


5. Living temporarily in Petersham within easy walking distance of Sweet Belem and their addictive tarts.


6. Another dinner this time at Abhi's Indian restaurant with friends. This is a great local restaurant, very popular and very good.


7. Received the latest edition of the Art of Eating (number 81). Edward Behr might be a tad opinionated but there is always something thought provoking in his little magazine. And its arrival led to my perennial complaint - why isn't there a good, locally produced food magazine - of any sort? Not one chock full of recipes and celebrity chefs but one that really talks about the who, what, when, how and why of eating and food production. Think Gastronomica and even the Observer Food Monthly.

And that's it for this month

Michael Shuman and the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance.

Michael Shuman is the author of The Small-Mart Revolution which is all about how local businesses are taking on and beating the global competition. He contends that locally owned businesses are more reliable generators of good jobs, economic growth and social stability and by being innovative and creative they can take on BIG business and local communities can thrive.

I was fortunate to be able to hear him speak on 'The local food revolution: Why it is happening and how Sydney can accelerate it' at a forum organised by the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance.
To be honest until a friend alerted me to this event I had heard of neither the SFFA or Michael Shuman so the afternoon was something of a revelation.

The SFFA was formed in 2005 and aims 'to coordinate the efforts of rural producers, health professionals, community workers and community based advocates active in developing a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable food system in the Sydney region'. The forum I attended was one of several being held to provide the opportunity for interested parties to identify issues and actions that could be considered at the SFFA Food Summit which will be held on 22nd and 23rd October. The forums discussed issues under four broad headings

• access to healthy food
• planning for healthy food supplies
• sustainable agriculture
• food safety and health

In my capacity as a professional shopper and eater I felt a bit out of my depth given that most of the other attendees were rather more professionally involved in some way with local government, urban planning, community gardens, etc. etc. None the less it wasn't too hard to work out what was going on and to be able to recognise some of the important steps that need to be taken to ensure a sustainable food supply for the city.

What impressed me most was that so much of what Michael Shuman was advocating is already happening here in one way or another - the popularity of local growers markets for example is surely testament to the fact that consumers are aware of and unhappy with the stranglehold that Coles and Woolworths have on our food supply. Our gravest concern should be the fate of these suppliers who farm on the urban fringe. The farmers of the Sydney Basin (the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment on the edge of Sydney's western suburbs) provide 90 per cent of Sydney's perishable vegetables and almost 100 per cent of the state's Asian vegetables. Agriculture in the Sydney Basin is the largest industry in Western Sydney, employing around 12,000 people. We should all be doing anything and everything we can to ensure that this industry remains viable - our future depends upon it!

A Healthy Diet

Archimbaldo perhaps took the idea of you are what you eat a bit far! Generally speaking what you had for dinner is not written all over your face – unless of course you have very messy eating habits. However, it can be a bit of a surprise to review not just what you eat every day but how much of everything you consume. Keeping a food diary is a worthwhile if somewhat tedious undertaking. What is even more alarming is to compare your daily intake with what the dieticians would have us believe is a normal healthy diet. What made me stop and think was the suggested quantity of vegetables we should be consuming each day.
The recommendation is 5 – 6 serves of different vegetables every day. Now a serve of vegies consists of ½ cup of cooked vegetables, dried peas, beans or lentils or 1 cup of salad or raw vegetables. So we should be eating 3 cups of cooked vegetables or 6 cups of salad each and every day. That means, for a family of four, preparing 12 cups of different cooked vegetables every day or preparing a whopping 24 cups of salad!
I think the first thing to do is go out and get a compost bin or a worm farm, if you don’t already have one, to cope with all the peelings and trimmings! This quantity of vegetables also involves a lot of shopping and preparation – trust me, I know. To say nothing of the extra time involved in simply eating your way through this amount of vegetation! Our family diet has had to shift from meat served with vegetables to vegetables served with meat - which is of course exactly what the dieticians are aiming at.
An added complication is that with most of the family either at work or school during the day most of these vegetables have to be consumed as part of the evening meal. Presenting at least three different vegies every night can be a bit of a challenge. One thing I have started doing is serving the vegetables as a separate course such as an entrée of salad or a platter of vegie antipasto (grilled eggplant, capsicum and zucchini with roasted tomatoes and perhaps a bit of fetta or goats cheese). The next step is to start growing our own but first of all we need to have a garden.
Watch this space for further progress with the healthy diet.

To market, to market

Last week there was an article in the newspaper which talked about the changes supermarkets were making to attract more customers. Apparently only 60 percent of Australian consumers shop in supermarkets. This statistic came as something of a surprise. Where do the other 40 per cent buy their toilet paper?
It appears that the marketing genii at the major supermarket headquarters have decided that shoppers like the market atmosphere and so they are setting about creating that atmosphere in the local shopping centre. To do this the supermarket is being transformed – wider and shorter isles, better displays, even bringing butchers and fishmongers back into the stores.
Who do they think they are going to fool?

As it happens my local supermarket is one of those flag ship stores where these changes are being introduced. Having changed the layout of the store every week for a month or more the customers now wander the albeit wider isles in a daze unable to locate anything much. Thankfully the aisles are also full of uniformed helpers who are unfailing cheerful and do indeed seem to know where to find things. When I asked for polenta I was told various brands were located in no fewer than four separate convenient locations. Yesterday shoppers were greeted by a very happy chappy in the meat section extolling the virtues of the sausages he was cooking alongside a sign which proclaimed that butchers would be back in-store from next week.
I have to admit to being old enough to remember the last time butchers were in-store at supermarkets. Behind the meat counter you could see the ‘butchers’ cutting the meat and laying it out on the little black trays and then wrapping it in plastic. On the meat display there was a bell you could ring and a real person would come out of the preparation room to talk to you. The big advantage of this set up was that if you only wanted two chops and all the pre-packaged trays held eight chops you could get someone to pack up what you wanted. And let’s face it the reason most people shop at the butcher is not just the personal service but because they desire to buy what they want in the amounts they require.

Apparently the aim of the supermarket management is not just to recreate the market atmosphere but also to re-invent the conversation that buyers have with the stall holders in the market place. Is being able to talk to the man who wraps the meat in plastic the same as talking to the man who raised the lambs, slaughtered them and then drove the meat to the market to sell it to you? Surely talking to the man who unpacks the boxes of tomatoes and arranges them on the display is not the same as talking to the man who grew them. What chance that my conversation with the in-store butcher will be stimulating enough to sustain me through the wait at the checkout?

And could any supermarket hope to re-create the atmosphere of a market? In so many ways the supermarket is the antithesis of the open market and was surely created to be just that. Food markets are noisy and crowded, sometimes a bit smelly, often very messy. The market changes from day to day and week to week – the stall holders change, the weather changes, new products appear and disappear, seasonality is everything and many items are often available in limited amounts. Markets offer the opportunity to compare quality and prices, to taste products, to chat to growers and to meet friends, share a coffee, be entertained by real people rather than mesmerised by piped music and bombarded with incomprehensible announcements. There is a sense of fun and entertainment and surprise associated with shopping for fresh food at the market in direct contrast to the predicability and uniformity of the supermarket.

When I go to buy my toilet paper and toothpaste I do want them to be on the same shelf and in the same place especially given that I can buy all the toilet paper and toothpaste I need for a month in one visit to the supermarket. I’m choosing and buying food almost everyday. Hunting and gathering takes up a lot of my time. I don’t see why it should be reduced to a chore when I could be enjoying the experience.
I can’t say that I am anticipating the return of the butcher to the supermarket with the same excitement as my trip to the market this weekend.

All these photographs were taken in the Campo dei Fiori, Rome.

Sunnybrae - Saturday Lunch

The first time we ate at Sunnybrae was destined to also be the last because we had managed to book for the weekend before George Biron was due to close the for want we then thought would be forever. Happily George and Diane have reopened the restaurant but getting there has become more of a challenge because we now live in Sydney. However there is no eating challenge which can’t be overcome!

Just outside Birregurra, a short drive from Geelong through beautiful countryside, Sunnybrae is my idea of paradise. George and Diane have restored a little 1860s cottage for their home and added a huge kitchen and cosy restaurant surrounded by a garden which grows many of the ingredients used in the wonderful long lunches they serve at the weekends. The atmosphere here is warm and homely - as it should be since all that separates the diner from George’s lounge room is the kitchen. The big windows in the dining room look out on to the garden, the walls are lined with George’s food books and Diane’s artworks, the menu is handwritten and features the best of what's available locally which George can source on the day. It is just like going to lunch with friends except that none of my friends can produce food quite like this.

We started with a Roman-style broth with drizzled egg and parmesan served with potato bread - one of those deceptively simple dishes that only work because of the care put in to preparing the broth. What I like most about George’s food is that there are always a few surprises, flavour and/or texture combinations which make you stop and think. Here the food is not just about demonstrating the ingenuity and skill of the chef and there is no pretentiousness or artifice. Rather the menu is about the ingredients and demonstrates George’s enthusiasm and curiosity and intelligence.

So we get to try tarama with fennel and garlic salad; a fresh cheese, lightly smoked in the wood oven with young carrots; Spanish-style jamon; tomatillo guacamole with pomegranates; and celeriac, parsnip and leek strudel with an anchoiade.

By the time we’ve sampled all these delights a stroll around the garden is pretty much mandatory. It is one of those early winter days Victoria does so well – still and grey, slightly damp, cool but not cold – and the vegetable garden is resting, getting its strength back ready for the spring. On this weekend there are also two private parties in the two other rooms adjacent to the main restaurant so there are quite a few others wandering in the outdoors with their wine glasses. On a sunny afternoon it would be perfect to spend a bit of time in the courtyard (with the wood fired oven and the barbecue) or sitting on the verandah contemplating the landscape.

Refreshed we settle back for the main dish of slowly braised goat shanks with chestnuts and quinces served with potatoes baked with garlic and thyme and a salad which incorporates succulents from the garden – rock samphire and Aptenia cordifolia (which is one of those things I’m sure you would recognise if you saw it). There were other dishes available for those not keen on goat but if goat was what George thought we should try then it was good enough for me. And good it was – tender and juicy with that indefinable something that tells you that these are not lamb shanks. For me the salad was a bit of a revelation. Here were the fleshy leaves of plants I have growing in the garden for decoration and here we were eating them!

The dessert list was extensive – seven choices in all including a cheese plate. I can never go past quinces – pot roasted, served with bay leaf and honey ‘panna cotta’ and a quince ice-cream – my other half can never go past rice pudding – saffron rice pudding with mandarins and a nectarine and lime ice-cream.
Lunch started at 12.30 and it was 5 o’clock before we waddled out to the car to make our way back to Geelong!

This sort of dining is more than the sum of its parts – the comfortable, relaxed, not-all-the-chairs-match atmosphere; the friendly, attentive service; the thought and care which goes into the food preparation and sourcing the range of tastes and ingredients; the obvious enjoyment of all the patrons - these all add up to something that is more than just a very enjoyable lunch. You come away feeling that you have been part of something, learnt something, shared a little bit of George’s passion.
And you can keep in touch with George’s passion through his blog .His recent posting (A Winter’s Tail, Tongue and Cheek 23 June 2009) is a perfect example of his approach to food. Next on my wish list is to spend more time in Birregurra, have lunch with George at the weekend and then attend one of his cooking classes on Monday.

Food Inc.

Imagine taking Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin with you to the supermarket and then buying him lunch at the local drive through take away on the way home. Having shown him what you were eating what would he tell you about what you are?
Any day in the newspaper we can read about what our diet is doing to us as individuals – obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, bowel cancer, even the mental health of our children, all linked to what we put into our bodies. Tell me what you eat and I will tell you that you are fat and unhealthy.
But what we eat has far wider reaching and more insidious implications. What we eat also tells us what we are as a society. What we eat reflects our values and defines our culture. And if you are concerned about what those values are you should go and see Food Inc.
Essentially the words of Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma) with pictures, Robert Kenner’s film aims to ‘lift the lid on the food industry’ by exposing the greed of the huge corporations who bring us the food we eat with, he contends, the collusion of the USDA (The United States Department of Agriculture) and the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration).
Kenner sets out to demonstrate that the food industry puts profit ahead of the health of consumers, the livelihood of farmers, the safety of workers and environmental concerns by considering a wide range of issues associated with food production including the omnipresence of corn syrup in the food chain, how the animals we eat are raised and killed, genetic engineering, cloning and food contamination.
Schosser and Pollan both appear in the film along with Joel Salatin (who farms poultry and pigs in the Shenandoah Valley and features in The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and individuals who do try to make a difference – the mother whose son died from eating contaminated hamburgers and now acts as a lobbyist, the seed cleaner who in his own quiet way tried to take on Monsanto, the family that simply can’t afford to eat healthy food and the organic yoghurt manufacturer who has converted WalMart. There are also fairly graphic scenes of how meat is processed which won’t appeal to the squeamish or the vegetarian.
Whether this is a good documentary or not is open to discussion but I would hope that it will bring the issues raised by Schlosser and Pollan to a wider audience and make more people think about the choices we make when it comes to the food we eat. And perhaps more importantly make people realise that there are choices to be made. It can’t be denied that the industrialisation of food production has changed the world we live in. Eating, the food we choose to eat and the food available to us, have always had political and social implications but it is worth remembering that we do get the opportunity to vote three times a day.
This is a very American film and of course all the examples and statistics refer to the USA. If you have read Eric Schlosser's book you will know that some of the things he talks about - fast food chains sponsoring school canteens for example - simply do not happen here. But that isn't to say that they couldn't. What is happening here in Australia? What effect has fast food had on food production here? What do you know about GM crops in Australia? Who controls meat processing in Australia? What do you know about the effect of mining operations in the Hunter Valley on local food production? Do you know who manufactures the food you purchase at the supermarket? Don’t assume that Food Inc. won't/doesn’t happen here.

link

Cuisine du Moi

Cuisine du Moi is the title of a new publication about Gavin Canardéaux (pronounced Canadew). Subtitled ‘True stories and original recipes from the world’s most authentic chef’. Canardéaux’s life and work have been recorded by Ben Canaider and I went along to hear Ben talk about Gavin at the recent Sydney Writer’s Festival.
Gavin began his illustrious career with Thai food at ‘Nylon Thai’ in Sydney and now has a signature restaurant in New York (Cuisine du Moi), another in London (Lad Gav) and amongst other roles he is the Honorary Governor of the Stationary Food Movement, consultant Chef de Chef at the United Nations and founder of the charity Children without Seafood. He sees himself as an innovator in taking chefs away from the kitchen and into the media.
At his restaurant in New York where, once through the trap door entrance, the interior boasts Louis XIV cutlery, a rainforest feature wall, airline chairs and an open toilet next to the open kitchen, diners can demand to see the fresh degustations in their tanks before purchasing them at a modest €150 for 150g. Gavin is committed to promoting the consumption of more amphibians. His London restaurant on the other hand is a charity fund staffed by disabled life prisoners from Mozambique, an idea which Gavin intends to franchise around the world. Devoted to seeing chefs drag themselves out of the food and wine section and into the main stream media Gavin’s food philosophy revolves around the 4 S’s - seasonable, sustainable, semi-fresh and seriously overpriced.
I haven’t read the book myself but those who have thought it was very clever and very funny. Ben’s creation does carry at least a semi-serious message – why should these so-called ‘celebrity chefs’ be allowed to get away with it? And why does their audience keep coming back for more? I think part of the current trend towards food that is easy and fast and has a minimal number of ingredients is in some ways a backlash against the pressure home cooks feel to produce family meals which look and taste like something out of a 5 star restaurant. Restaurant food is not home cooking – no one has the gadgets or the ovens or the staff at home for a start. And if we did we wouldn’t need to eat in restaurants. I wish I had thought to ask Ben for Gavin’s take on 4 Ingredients!