Exotic stuff!!

I often wonder if my food ravings fall on deaf (or possibly bored) ears... Like anyone with an obsession, I find that most of my conversations centre around it. When asked "How are you?" I will most often reply with an answer that has food at the core.. "I'm stuffed, I cooked for 16 last night" or "I'm great! I tried a recipe for bouillabaisse last night and it was da BOMB!" or even "I am so freakin excited, I just found a local supplier of my favourite rasa al hanout!" I have been increasingly aware that I have very little else in my life except my food obsession, and was becoming concerned that I should maybe broaden my horizons.

Until this weekend when my friend Jo asked me out on a food date.

Apparently, several months ago a series of food shops opened up at Doncaster Westfield, and Jo has been walking around the centre for months thinking to herself "pg would LOVE this!!"

So maybe those ears are not so bored, and there IS a social need to open up discourse on food, food miles, SOLE food and what constitutes GOOD food. As part of my theory on "What is Australian Food", I surmise that as we, as a society, further evolve, we move further from the food of the traditional Motherland, and are entering a phase where the food of our actual citizens becomes less of the exotic, and more of the mainstream.

Like any adolescent, we're breaking the ties with Mum and Dad, and evolving our own identity, based on the sum of our experiences. And the reality for Australia, and its cuisine, is that a huge percentage of our collective experiences are from other cultures.

Thus more and more purveyors of food and food stuffs are carrying the ingredients and the flavours of Africa, or central Europe, of Latin America, of the Orient.

And this is what is obvious in 4 shops in a pretty standard suburban shopping centre.

The first shop is Jones the Grocer. You know that Australian palates are changing, when you have a providor with a cheese room, in the 'burbs. There are various tasting stations, the presentation is immaculate, the staff are young, good-looking and knowledgeable, and the food is SENSATIONAL. Their macadamia fudge made me make a mess in my rompers, and I am not a sweet-toothed person. You can buy anything from Tartuflanghe Italian acacia honey with truffle to Jones the Grocer's own brand of lavosh. Galler Belgium chocolate to dried porcinis.

The second shop is Oil and Vinegar. As far as I can find out, it is the first of this franchise in Australia, Again, presentation is immaculate, the feature wall being covered with a dozen or so glass amphorae with different oils and, well.. vinegars in them. The amphorae are backlit, and the effect is spectacular. Forget the demise of Tastespotting.. if you want real life food porn, it's there for you in the 'burbs! They too have several tasting stations, and you can sample everything from the real aged Moderna aceto balsamico (at $35 per 150ml) to both white and black truffle oil.

The third shop is El Bazaar, a funky shop that stocks all things Middle Eastern. here you can scoop chick peas from hessian sacks, and if you close your eyes and inhale you could very well be in a souk, or the spice markets of Istanbul. The prices of their dried goods were ridiculously cheap, and with Coles only 2 shops away, this puts paid to the argument I often hear that "shopping SOLE is too time consuming. I don't have time to go to individual shops". El Bazaar has a huge range of dried fruits and nuts, and the shelves are stocked with an amazing array of fruit pastes and gels and spices and cookware. I asked the young girl behind the jump about tagines and she offered to ring her Mum to see if you could get an answer to my queries! Now THAT's service.

The final shop was the Oxfam shop where you can get everything from a "Not Made In A Sweat Shop" bag, thru fair trade quinoa to organic chocolate.

And it's at these last two places I made my purchases.

The Nabali Tree Olive Oil. (from the Oxfam shop) I have Googled for info on this product and found absolutely NOTHING. SO, dear readers, I believe I am the first person ever, to write about it. It doesn't even feature in their online catalogue.

Nabali Tree olive oil is organic cold-pressed extra virgin OO, certified USDA organic, certified Fair For Life by IMO and is a member of the Palestinian Fair Trade Association. It is a product of Canaan Fair Trade, Palestine. The label reads:

"Fruity and flavorful and legendary, Nabali Tree Olive Oil, from the native olive tree of Palestine, the ancient home of olive oil.

Canaan oilve oil is naturally organic owing to the ancient Canaanite traditions of farming that persist to this day. Canaan olive oil is produced by farmer cooperatives that are members of the Palestine Fair Trade Association. We guarantee fair prices to farmers and reinvest a portion of our profits in developing projects that serve the farming community. If you are enjoying this oil withing 3 to 6 months of pressing, you will experience the peppery hints and subtle bitter aftertones of "Zeit Fghish", a set of taste impressions unique to freshly pressed Palestinian Olive Oil"

It is a Chartreuse green, and I couldn't detect any peppery notes, but the date on my bottle says it was pressed in 2007, so I might have missed the time period and the oil is more mature. There is most definitely a bitter note to the oil, which mellows on the back palate. It is really a unique olive oil. I am planning to use it as a dipping oil with some sumac and Za’atar.



And my other purchase was from El Bazzar. Some Pashmak, or Persian Fairy Floss. The very knowledgeable young girl behind the jump (the same one who offered to ring her Mum for tips on tagine cooking) explained that this stuff is basically halva that has been pulled and stretched in a similar way to pulled noodles until it resembles fairy floss. It has a pronounced nutty taste. Actually, it tastes exactly like it sounds.. nutty and sweet.. Halva in thread form. A large box cost me $6.50, and I am going to top some hot chocolate chai with it al la Mute Monkey's Beetroot experience. The kids had some last night, atop Emmaline's Chocolate Indulgence Cookies, and some vanilla ice cream. It looks and tastes decadent and spectacular!

So forget all those anti-SOLE arguments, and get with the programme. Those of us in the 'burbs no longer have to trek to Turkisk/Greek/Viet enclaves to get our fix of "exotic" ingredients. We no longer have to brave the Nazi parking officers in Richmond, to get a Simon Johnson-esque rush. We can buy beautiful, fresh, ethical ethnic ingredients at our doorsteps, and incorporate them into our everyday cooking!

I have solved the world's energy crisis!

Yup. Little old me. Did it by observing a fact only known to an esoteric group of people within a sub-strata of the community.

Mother's of teen aged boys.

Here's how my research developed.

Last Wednesday we received our usual delivery of goodies from Aussie Farmers Direct. It included some bananas, some green apples. some red apples, some oranges, some pears, a bag of red grapes, some kiwi fruit as well as a whole passel of veggies.

On Thursday night, Lima Bean was over. On Friday night, Els was over.

I watched in amazement as these two teen boys defied scientific debate and actually converted the molecules of fruit and transported them vis some unknown process that has to do with the peculiar smell of teen boy's socks, and the rampaging hormones.

Note: 2 teen aged boys can ingest a bowl of fruit, simply by passing it, in the kitchen.

When I asked Lima if he had eaten all 4 bananas, he replies "I dunno".

And Ells and the oranges... "I dunno"

I went out to our local orchard and got a further 2kg bag of Pink Lady's, some pears and a few more bananas.

All gone within an hour of being placed in the fruit bowl.

And when the fruit did not magically re-appear again, I was hounded into handing over some cash, as the boys were "hungry".

Now, if only I can get them to transport their siblings to and from sport, and their mother to work, and get them to use their powers to spin the washing machine and "beam me up" to a Greek island, I'll be able to retire and live the life of Riley!

Just remember, when science discovers a causal link between teen aged boys and that transporter thingy in Star trek, you heard it here first.

Australian Food?

I am often asked on other food forums "What is "typical" Australian food?".. and at first thought, I am always tempted to say meat pies, lamingtons and Vegemite. But the reality is that Australian food is so SO much broader than that. Historically, Australian food prior to the 50's was linked back to England. Australia was culinary, politically, spiritually, socially tied to King and Country. Our collective subconscious was Mother England all the way.

In the 50's, with the post-war immigration boom, and more importantly, the Snowy River Project,

The workers and their families

More than 100,000 people from over thirty countries came to the mountains to work on the project. Up to 7,300 workers would provide their labour at any one time.

Seventy per cent of all the workers were migrants. They came to Australia to work on the project, attracted by the relatively high wages. At that time, soon after the Second World War, work was hard to come by in Europe.

At first, most of the workers were men who had left their families at home in Europe. Their plan was to work hard, save money and bring their families out when they could afford to.

The work was hard and the conditions were tough. Because ninety-eight per cent of the project was underground, there was a lot of tunnelling, often through solid granite rock. Work in the tunnels was dirty, wet, noisy, smelly and sometimes dangerous. More than 120 workers died in the project's twenty-five year period.

Living conditions were also hard in the camps and towns built in the mountains to house the workers and their families. Often these dwellings were not suited to the freezing conditions. They were cold and the water would freeze in the pipes. When the workers' wives came to join them in the townships, these women had to work hard to overcome the hardships and establish communities in the strange, new, wilderness environment. When work in one area was completed, the dwellings were dismantled and moved to another area, so very little remains of these towns today.

The majority of the workers stayed on to live in Australia after the project was completed, making a valuable contribution to Australia's modern multicultural society

.

(from "Snowy Mountain Scheme: Australia's Cultural Portal")

From 1949 until 1974, Australia saw an influx of new cultures, new ideas and more importantly, new food.

The blonde, blue eyed migrants assimilated, but the Greeks, the Italians, the Turks all suffered at the hands of the White Australia Policy (itself a result of interracial tension between "Australian" and Chinese migrants in the 1850's. It was all well and good to have those "dirty wops" digging our power scheme, but to actually have them living here???

The White Australia policy is a term used to describe a collection of historical legislation and policies that intentionally restricted non-white immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1973.

The inauguration of White Australia as government policy is generally taken to be the passage of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, one of the first Acts of the new national parliament upon federation. The policy was dismantled in stages by successive governments after the conclusion of World War II, with the encouragement of first non-British and later non-white immigration. From 1973 on, the White Australia policy was for all practical purposes defunct, and in 1975 the Australian government passed the Racial Discrimination Act, which made racially-based selection criteria illegal.

(from Wiki)

It's a testament to the ingenuity and tenacity of non-white migrants, that they actually stayed, suvived and went on the thrive. And in doing so, sowed the seeds for the insanely multicultural food that is now available to us. Can you imagine Melbourne take-away without a souvki? The Manly Corso without a falafel bar?


Preceding this of course, was the indentured labour of the Chinsese migrants during the Victorian Gold Rush and the Kanak workers for sugar cane in Queensland. In Melbourne, the Chinese population survived in small, cloistered, insular ghettos in central Melbourne.

Arthur Caldwell, himself the son on Irish immigrants, uttered his infamous "Two Wongs Don't make a White" in 1947. (This quote, taken out of context, was to become the catch cry of the White Australia Policy WELL into my youth)

The arrival of Vietnamese "boat people" in the 70's and 80's saw yet another round of immigration and racism, which today translates as most Australians knowing what pho and banh mi are.

The history of Australian cuisine is the history of Australia's adolescence, the history of defining itself (ourselves?) as something separate from our "Mother" (Country). It's the history of racism. From exploitation to negation, to marginalisation to grudging acceptance and finally into mainstream society, ethnic groups in Australia have all held on to one thing. Their cuisine. And in doing so, have made "Aussie food" as varied as the iconic pie (thought to have been brought to Australia by *duh* MIGRANTS!) to Chili Crab, from the pav to Mongolian Beef.

The latest migrants to be vilified are the Somali's, but I hold out hope of mufo and baasto gelling into the Australian food psyche

And it's only very recently that Bush Tucker (traditional aboriginal food) has become mainstream. (But that's a WHOLE 'nother post!)

So, with all of this in mind, we FINALLY come to last night's dinner.

Mongolian Beef.

dry fry 1/3 cup of sesame seed until golden. Place in a mortar and grind with garlic and ginger. Add 3 chopped spring onions, 2 tablespoons of both dark and light soy and a tablespoon of sesame oil. Mix to a paste.

Take 500g of beef strips and marinate in this mix for a couple of hours. Fry off in a wok and serve on rice.

EXCEPT... (and here's where all of this rambling post comes together, folks!), because of the culinary history of Australia, here's what Furry and I did:

Make the beef up as above, serve with Hokkien (Chinese) noodles, wok-fried with onion and yellow caps (Generic Asian). Serve sprinkled with bean sprouts (Vietnamese) and hand-torn basil and coriander (Thai)



And had Blue Ribbon Vanilla Ice cream with chocolate sauce from Daylesford for sweetie!!

Australian Fusion Food at its finest!!