Yet another unreality food show has hit our Australian telly screens. My Kitchen Rules, where teams representing five states vie for the title of most-self-confident but not-quite-expert home entertaining maestros. People showing off to each other isn't exactly my idea of fun cooking viewing, but hey, maybe there's something to enjoy in it.
I feel myself drawn inexorably to baking projects that have no end, just a rocky path of discoveries, flops, experiments, successes, flops… Not content with macarons and pasteis de nata to add girth and grey hairs to my existence, I started playing with canelés de Bordeaux about a year ago. Why? Why? The lure of something that absolutely required expensive copper moulds and beeswax must have clinched the deal.
For lovers of food knowledge, the Larousse Gastronomique is an indispensable book… and I recently slaved over a feature for The Gastronomer's Bookshelf about the new edition and the history of the various versions. Meanwhile, co-editor Mark has prepared a Year-end Countdown with a pile of interesting books you might like to know about, starting with baking and Christmas.
Everyone who knows me well enough to welcome me into their home on my travels knows that I eat one thing for breakfast. It verges on religion. If I stray from the one true breakfast, I am punished with bad moods and heavy stomach (or growling hunger). What's more, perhaps unusually for something so mundane, I'm quite faithful to one brand…
Many Australians are aware that the US behemoth Costco, bulk retailer extraordinaire, opened its first warehouse in Melbourne recently. Costco has received more than a bucket of free promotion through all the media attention it got (and I guess I'm not helping). I've been to Costco in the US and wanted to see what the Australian experience would be like. It's striking how a novelty in one context (me being a tourist in the US) feels so different and unwelcome on my home turf.
I don't think most Australians have any particularly awareness of the conditions for livestock animals in Australia. We hear occasional stories from overseas and can, of course, read books such as Fast Food Nation or The Omnivore's Dilemma to get even more of an idea. We know that chickens lead an awful life in battery farms, but what of pigs and other animals in Australia?
Once upon a time there were no supermarkets. Imagine! Few people who have grown up in Australia have known or remember a life without sheds filled with neat aisles of groceries and the ka-ching! (or bloop!) at the checkout. Some of us now regard supermarkets as fairly evil, but we are still largely dependent on a lifestyle with supermarkets close to the core.
Duncan Markham is a Melbourne writer and editor. He thinks far too much about food and needs at least six meals a day in order to feel whole. More...
