As we near the end of 2009, my thoughts naturally turn to what might happen in 2010 in terms of general consumer trends and of course food trends in particular. Will the second series of MasterChef be as successful and influential as the first? Will we continue to see the two big supermarkets lift their game? Will more and more market gardens and farmers markets crop up and thrive in our big cities and regional centres?
Recently, market research firm Mintel has announced their predictions for the leading flavour trends of 2010. They predict that more experimental consumers will drive the introduction of new flavours in the food mainstream. Here are their culinary prognostications for the New Year.
Cardamom: I love cardamom but it can be such a strong flavor it needs to be used sparingly. I have a cardamom cake recipe I have used in the past. The spice guru Rosemary Hemphill suggests in her book Spice and Savour using cardamom with baked pears, in a honey dressing and in rice pudding.
Sweet Potato – I love it mashed with lots of butter, roasted with potatoes covered in honey and matched with pork or in fritters. It’s sad we don’t get many varieties of this wonderful root veggie in Australia.
Hibiscus - About five years ago my father-in-law started using candied hibiscus flowers in champagne. I have tried in it cocktails and in syrup form I can see it used in desserts, especially with poached fruits.
Cupuaçu – I have never heard of this but I suspect it’s another faddish super-food from the Amazon … or am I just jaded from having seen Avatar yesterday?
Rose water - I use rosewater in my strawberry and lime jam to give it a special perfume. It’s wonderful in cakes and cocktails. I have a recipe for rosewater panna cotta with fig and walnut pastries I must try out in 2010.
Latin – We really struggle with Latin food in Australia … so many bad Mexican and Brazilian places have put me off it. I remember with fondness The Rattlesnake Grill on the North Shore, no longer with us, where you could have decent south of the border food.
Spice and Savour
I have a slightly damaged but still very presentable copy of Rosemary Hemphill’s Spice and Savour.
I learned about the book – which is arguably one this country’s most important books about using herbs and spices in cooking – when I went to one of her son’s spice education classes.
Ian Hemphill owns Herbies in Rozelle, writes and teaches about herbs and spices.
www.herbies.com.au/
My copy of Spice and Savour reminds me of how lovely it is to own a book as physical object with a particular history. Sometimes a screen can’t beat pages and ink.
One the first terracotta coloured page, underneath the book’s pencilled-in price of $7.50, there is written in a different pencil and handwriting ‘Somerset Cottage, Dural NSW, 12/2/66.’
I am unsure as to whether this is a first edition, the book having been initially published in 1964. At the back of the book the resident of Somerset Cottage has left an old newspaper clipping with a recipe for pizza napoletana. I still keep this clipping in the pages.
Anyhow Hemphill’s book covers dried herbs and their uses, spices and aromatic seeds. With the usual basil, bay, cinnamon, pepper, juniper berry and mustard seed, the author includes the more exotic (by 1960’s Australian standards at least) paprika and saffron, cumin and fennel.
Each entry profiles the spice or herb and suggests some recipes to put each ingredient to best use; at times she includes medicinal uses for herbs (such as sage hair tonic).
The book has black and white illustrations throughout by Claire Simpson, who exhibits a less flamboyant but just as charming Mirka Mora-ish style.
The book contains so many terrific recipes, but there is one that particularly caught my eye, Mango Mousse using ground ginger served with shredded coconut.
This month's Vogue
This month’s Vogue contains an article I wrote on how to make friends later in life.
http://www.vogue.com.au/
The piece was half inspired by another article I wrote for Vogue this year about the art of conversation.
I am always interested to see how people change as they age and whether they open up or shut off to new experiences, ideas and people. Often we are so busy we feel there isn’t room for any new people in our lives. While I understand that feeling, I think it’s a worrying one and something I try to fight against.
As part of the research for that piece, I interviewed journalist and author Brigid Delaney, the author of the recent This Restless Life.
http://thisrestlesslife.com/
In her book Brigid interviews a whole batch of young Australians travelling the work for work, study and the next new experience. She attempts to understand the mindset of this mobile group of gold-collar workers.
Here is an extract from our interview.
V: Did you find that the issue of making friends came up in your interviews for the book?
BD: Yeah. I think it’s a lot easier than it used to be. I still find that people, at whatever age, are still keen for connections, still keen for friendship and will often renew or replenish friendship depending on their stage in life. They will keep their old friends but they might be in different careers or different family structures so as their life changes, their need for friendship changes. People who are open and want connections will make new friendships depending on their stage of life. I don’t necessarily think it stops, it is an ongoing process. You can make some fantastic friendships later in life through life changes such as motherhood or divorce – they are big ones. Once you are single again, you have all this free time and friendship is so important. People who stay with the same friendship group throughout life, it can be quite a lonely experience. Your life is obviously going to diverge at different points and you are going to need to replenish people.
V: In terms of the people you talked to for your book, whose lives are pretty mobile, what was driving them to move - work, experiences, love?
BD: Mainly work, but also postgraduate studies, where they would meet a whole new range of people, high powered, a good cross-over of connections based on work and friendship. And that would open the door to the most extraordinary lives. Those friendship groups are truly international and these people would be visiting friends’ parents in Tuscany or visiting someone who had hired a Greek Island for a holiday. When people travel they are more open to new experiences, new people. They are probably more likely to make friends away than they would at home. At home they have their habits and their structures and their routines and they may not necessarily be room for new people.
V: What does this open and mobile attitude create do you think?
BD: It creates the primacy of weak ties. It means being comfortable with people who you don’t have strong ties with. It requires the person to be social gregarious and trusting and open.
V: Does that presuppose a degree of confidence?
BD: Confident people thrive in this world. If you are comfortable about moving in and out of social groups and open to different people, you will do well.
V: What would you say to someone who says they are too busy to make new friends?
BD: People who say that should try to maybe, once a month, talk to someone they wouldn’t normally talk to, invite someone over for dinner, a co-worker who looks intriguing. I think there are a lot of riches that can come from broadening your social circle.
http://www.vogue.com.au/
The piece was half inspired by another article I wrote for Vogue this year about the art of conversation.
I am always interested to see how people change as they age and whether they open up or shut off to new experiences, ideas and people. Often we are so busy we feel there isn’t room for any new people in our lives. While I understand that feeling, I think it’s a worrying one and something I try to fight against.
As part of the research for that piece, I interviewed journalist and author Brigid Delaney, the author of the recent This Restless Life.
http://thisrestlesslife.com/
In her book Brigid interviews a whole batch of young Australians travelling the work for work, study and the next new experience. She attempts to understand the mindset of this mobile group of gold-collar workers.
Here is an extract from our interview.
V: Did you find that the issue of making friends came up in your interviews for the book?
BD: Yeah. I think it’s a lot easier than it used to be. I still find that people, at whatever age, are still keen for connections, still keen for friendship and will often renew or replenish friendship depending on their stage in life. They will keep their old friends but they might be in different careers or different family structures so as their life changes, their need for friendship changes. People who are open and want connections will make new friendships depending on their stage of life. I don’t necessarily think it stops, it is an ongoing process. You can make some fantastic friendships later in life through life changes such as motherhood or divorce – they are big ones. Once you are single again, you have all this free time and friendship is so important. People who stay with the same friendship group throughout life, it can be quite a lonely experience. Your life is obviously going to diverge at different points and you are going to need to replenish people.
V: In terms of the people you talked to for your book, whose lives are pretty mobile, what was driving them to move - work, experiences, love?
BD: Mainly work, but also postgraduate studies, where they would meet a whole new range of people, high powered, a good cross-over of connections based on work and friendship. And that would open the door to the most extraordinary lives. Those friendship groups are truly international and these people would be visiting friends’ parents in Tuscany or visiting someone who had hired a Greek Island for a holiday. When people travel they are more open to new experiences, new people. They are probably more likely to make friends away than they would at home. At home they have their habits and their structures and their routines and they may not necessarily be room for new people.
V: What does this open and mobile attitude create do you think?
BD: It creates the primacy of weak ties. It means being comfortable with people who you don’t have strong ties with. It requires the person to be social gregarious and trusting and open.
V: Does that presuppose a degree of confidence?
BD: Confident people thrive in this world. If you are comfortable about moving in and out of social groups and open to different people, you will do well.
V: What would you say to someone who says they are too busy to make new friends?
BD: People who say that should try to maybe, once a month, talk to someone they wouldn’t normally talk to, invite someone over for dinner, a co-worker who looks intriguing. I think there are a lot of riches that can come from broadening your social circle.
Food Blogs I Like #1
Charlotte Wood is an Australian fiction writer, a very good one so my friends tell me. She is published by Allen & Unwin and her book The Children is her one novel people have suggested I read. So basically I am saying I have heard of her but not read anything she has written … yet.
Anyhow Charlotte also has a terrific food blog – how to shuck an oyster - and I thought it would be a good one to profile as the first of my monthly ‘Food Blogs I Like’ post. Thanks to JB for telling me about it.
http://howtoshuckanoyster.com/
In her blog she has recipes of meals she has prepared and views about food preparation, discussion of the food she buys and grows, fads and trends, discussion of books and food writers, with a bit of food politics thrown in.
I liked the look of her sweet & spicy cumquat chutney as well as her citrus couscous.
Also I loved her idea that roast chicken is ‘the kitchen’s little black dress’.
Plenty of plays on words as well (leaves of class, little patty, small potatoes, you get the picture) which for an inveterate punner like me is a treat.
Looking through the pages, I am amazed at the depth of the content. Sadly I am way off this as I only get the chance to blog once or twice a week and if I spend too much writing about food it eats into my time for cooking and eating. It’s all about priorities.
On another point …
Last week my friend Hong-Im took for me lunch at Din Tai Fung, a new-ish dumpling and noodle place at World Square. It’s the first Australian outlet of what is a global chain with stores in Japan, China, Indonesia and the US.
Here is Helen Greenwood’s review:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/din-tai-fung-sydney/2008/06/27/1214472754072.html
My husband and I go to Kam Fook’s in Bondi Junction pretty regularly for the same old stuff – steamed prawn dumplings and pork buns. All good but this place is operating on another level.
The delicacy of the dumplings was unbelievable. The number of pleats in each dumpling makes them look like fancy little handbags. It is amazing how thin the noodle sac is but how resistant it is to breaking. Almost like a membrane protecting an essential organ (they did have a bald testicle like quality …) The pork ones we ordered were steamed of course with about half a tablespoon of broth in them. The crescent-shaped veggie dumplings were also great. And the red bean dumplings weren’t too sweet.
You can actually see the workers make the dumplings through a window and watching them move so exactly but swiftly is a sight to see.
Needless to say the dumplings are worth the extra cost.
Hong-Im encouraged me to use fresh ginger and vinegar rather than just soya sauce on my dumplings. Interesting how you are always more adventurous when someone is encouraging you, teaching you about food they know about and you don’t.
Anyhow Charlotte also has a terrific food blog – how to shuck an oyster - and I thought it would be a good one to profile as the first of my monthly ‘Food Blogs I Like’ post. Thanks to JB for telling me about it.
http://howtoshuckanoyster.com/
In her blog she has recipes of meals she has prepared and views about food preparation, discussion of the food she buys and grows, fads and trends, discussion of books and food writers, with a bit of food politics thrown in.
I liked the look of her sweet & spicy cumquat chutney as well as her citrus couscous.
Also I loved her idea that roast chicken is ‘the kitchen’s little black dress’.
Plenty of plays on words as well (leaves of class, little patty, small potatoes, you get the picture) which for an inveterate punner like me is a treat.
Looking through the pages, I am amazed at the depth of the content. Sadly I am way off this as I only get the chance to blog once or twice a week and if I spend too much writing about food it eats into my time for cooking and eating. It’s all about priorities.
On another point …
Last week my friend Hong-Im took for me lunch at Din Tai Fung, a new-ish dumpling and noodle place at World Square. It’s the first Australian outlet of what is a global chain with stores in Japan, China, Indonesia and the US.
Here is Helen Greenwood’s review:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/din-tai-fung-sydney/2008/06/27/1214472754072.html
My husband and I go to Kam Fook’s in Bondi Junction pretty regularly for the same old stuff – steamed prawn dumplings and pork buns. All good but this place is operating on another level.
The delicacy of the dumplings was unbelievable. The number of pleats in each dumpling makes them look like fancy little handbags. It is amazing how thin the noodle sac is but how resistant it is to breaking. Almost like a membrane protecting an essential organ (they did have a bald testicle like quality …) The pork ones we ordered were steamed of course with about half a tablespoon of broth in them. The crescent-shaped veggie dumplings were also great. And the red bean dumplings weren’t too sweet.
You can actually see the workers make the dumplings through a window and watching them move so exactly but swiftly is a sight to see.
Needless to say the dumplings are worth the extra cost.
Hong-Im encouraged me to use fresh ginger and vinegar rather than just soya sauce on my dumplings. Interesting how you are always more adventurous when someone is encouraging you, teaching you about food they know about and you don’t.
All I want for Christmas is a two for one deal ...
I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. Each year I attempt to get it finished before the first week of December so I don’t have to hurl myself into the fray of frantic shoppers in mid-December.
I also try to attempt some homemade goodies for people and so spent the weekend making blackberry and vanilla jam and strawberry, lime and rosewater jam. All the pots set but I fear the blackberry might be more jelly-like than jam-ish.
I have also been thinking back to Christmas last year, the time when Australians were starting to get concerned about the impact of the GFC on Australia. I reckon I will spend this year around about what I spent last year, although I can’t be entirely sure as I generally fail to set myself a Christmas budget.
In this respect I am pretty typical, according to poll Ipsos did in October of this year.
We polled 1045 Australians and ask them the following:
To what extent, if at all, will you change your Christmas spending this year compared with last year as a result of the current economic environment?
48% of respondents said ‘the same’.
There were some big spenders in the sample, with 5% reporting ‘a lot more’, and 12% ‘a little more’ (remember last year’s Christmas sales were better than expected …).
23% reported ‘a little less’ and 11% ‘a lot less’.
Consumer sentiment is certainly up compared with the beginning of the year and our most recent round of fieldwork showed consumers generally believe we are over the worst of the GFC.
And yet other research has predicted gloomier results this Christmas.
http://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/aw/economics-research/er20091116BullAusConsumXmasSpending.pdf
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/christmas-cheer-in-short-supply-20091116-ihcn.html
Why might this be the case?
Well, we have been saying to our clients that despite the fact consumers aren’t focused on the GFC, that doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned about cutting costs. Indeed many feel there have been important lessons to be learned from the entire GFC experience, particularly in the area of over-the-top consumption and credit card debt.
Not to mention the fact consumer may well be in savings mode for bigger purchases like cars, home renovations and holidays, plans that may have been shelved this year but put back on the agenda in 2010.
It could be shaping up to be a merry but frugal Christmas.
I also try to attempt some homemade goodies for people and so spent the weekend making blackberry and vanilla jam and strawberry, lime and rosewater jam. All the pots set but I fear the blackberry might be more jelly-like than jam-ish.
I have also been thinking back to Christmas last year, the time when Australians were starting to get concerned about the impact of the GFC on Australia. I reckon I will spend this year around about what I spent last year, although I can’t be entirely sure as I generally fail to set myself a Christmas budget.
In this respect I am pretty typical, according to poll Ipsos did in October of this year.
We polled 1045 Australians and ask them the following:
To what extent, if at all, will you change your Christmas spending this year compared with last year as a result of the current economic environment?
48% of respondents said ‘the same’.
There were some big spenders in the sample, with 5% reporting ‘a lot more’, and 12% ‘a little more’ (remember last year’s Christmas sales were better than expected …).
23% reported ‘a little less’ and 11% ‘a lot less’.
Consumer sentiment is certainly up compared with the beginning of the year and our most recent round of fieldwork showed consumers generally believe we are over the worst of the GFC.
And yet other research has predicted gloomier results this Christmas.
http://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/aw/economics-research/er20091116BullAusConsumXmasSpending.pdf
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/christmas-cheer-in-short-supply-20091116-ihcn.html
Why might this be the case?
Well, we have been saying to our clients that despite the fact consumers aren’t focused on the GFC, that doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned about cutting costs. Indeed many feel there have been important lessons to be learned from the entire GFC experience, particularly in the area of over-the-top consumption and credit card debt.
Not to mention the fact consumer may well be in savings mode for bigger purchases like cars, home renovations and holidays, plans that may have been shelved this year but put back on the agenda in 2010.
It could be shaping up to be a merry but frugal Christmas.
Kylie, pork and 'free range'
This morning I took my feverish but bored daughter for a walk across Sydney University and a quick visit to Eveleigh Farmers Markets.
http://www.eveleighmarkets.com.au/
Like so many food markets they are a mixture of stuff you can get at any top end deli and stalls selling produce from actual, you know, farmers. As my friend James (who has just moved up the street) commented, they aren’t exactly like the Victoria Markets or the Adelaide Central Markets, but they are a decent start.
Anyhow, I procured a baby chino with marshmallows from the Toby’s Estate stall to keep Sofia occupied as I poked around. Walking in front of one stall I heard a voice say to me “Your daughter has just tipped her drink all over herself”. Indeed she had and the observant individual was none other than the gorgeous Kylie Kwong.
I asked her why she was at the markets and she said she was there to help her friends from Perfect Pasture, who supply her with her pork for her restaurant.
It seems Kwong has had some bad experiences with pork suppliers in the past.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/how-kylie-kwong-got-it-wrong/2009/11/10/1257615040211.html
What a champ that she fixed the issue and now seems to be working directly with Perfect Pasture to spruik their offerings.
Anyhow, while my daughter happily sat in a pool of marshmallow froth, I chatted to the lady from Perfect Pasture – Miriam - about their farming processes and their wonderful produce.
The whole issue of how free range and organic gets marketed to consumers is a serious issue. (Note that in his book, How Good Are You? marketing journalist Julian Lee covers this whole issue in some depth).
It seems that the suppliers that take ‘free range’ and ‘organic’ seriously go to an enormous amount of effort and expense. Those who cut corners are damaging the image of the entire sector. They profit from the label and any good will around the issue. If they are exposed as not being truly organic or free range the revelation simply feeds strong consumer perceptions that they can’t trust food claims. This is sometimes used as justification by consumers to continue to buy conventionally produced foods or simply block out any questions or queries around how their food is produced.
We encounter these issues time and again in the research we do on food for Ipsos Mackay.
I still believe that organic, free and cruelty free products need to be supported. I buy as much of them as I can find, trust and afford. But we have to start asking more questions of the people who make and sell us our food to ensure integrity in claims about ‘organic’ and ‘free range’.
One of the great things about Eveleigh is now I have made a connection with a producer and when I see their products I can buy them without any niggling doubts about authenticity.
For more on Perfect Pasture see:
http://pastureperfectpork.wordpress.com
I bought $10 worth of the most wonderful fennel and pork sausage, which I sliced and served with apple paste and crackers, a side of roasted balsamic and thyme tomatoes and a salad of avocado, cucumber, lettuce, walnuts and orange segments.
When Daniel and I were in Florence – too many years ago – we enjoyed a very simply entrée of fennel sausage, pecorino and bread at a restaurant we stumbled across with our friends Pete and Sarah. This sausage came very close to that!
http://www.eveleighmarkets.com.au/
Like so many food markets they are a mixture of stuff you can get at any top end deli and stalls selling produce from actual, you know, farmers. As my friend James (who has just moved up the street) commented, they aren’t exactly like the Victoria Markets or the Adelaide Central Markets, but they are a decent start.
Anyhow, I procured a baby chino with marshmallows from the Toby’s Estate stall to keep Sofia occupied as I poked around. Walking in front of one stall I heard a voice say to me “Your daughter has just tipped her drink all over herself”. Indeed she had and the observant individual was none other than the gorgeous Kylie Kwong.
I asked her why she was at the markets and she said she was there to help her friends from Perfect Pasture, who supply her with her pork for her restaurant.
It seems Kwong has had some bad experiences with pork suppliers in the past.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/how-kylie-kwong-got-it-wrong/2009/11/10/1257615040211.html
What a champ that she fixed the issue and now seems to be working directly with Perfect Pasture to spruik their offerings.
Anyhow, while my daughter happily sat in a pool of marshmallow froth, I chatted to the lady from Perfect Pasture – Miriam - about their farming processes and their wonderful produce.
The whole issue of how free range and organic gets marketed to consumers is a serious issue. (Note that in his book, How Good Are You? marketing journalist Julian Lee covers this whole issue in some depth).
It seems that the suppliers that take ‘free range’ and ‘organic’ seriously go to an enormous amount of effort and expense. Those who cut corners are damaging the image of the entire sector. They profit from the label and any good will around the issue. If they are exposed as not being truly organic or free range the revelation simply feeds strong consumer perceptions that they can’t trust food claims. This is sometimes used as justification by consumers to continue to buy conventionally produced foods or simply block out any questions or queries around how their food is produced.
We encounter these issues time and again in the research we do on food for Ipsos Mackay.
I still believe that organic, free and cruelty free products need to be supported. I buy as much of them as I can find, trust and afford. But we have to start asking more questions of the people who make and sell us our food to ensure integrity in claims about ‘organic’ and ‘free range’.
One of the great things about Eveleigh is now I have made a connection with a producer and when I see their products I can buy them without any niggling doubts about authenticity.
For more on Perfect Pasture see:
http://pastureperfectpork.wordpress.com
I bought $10 worth of the most wonderful fennel and pork sausage, which I sliced and served with apple paste and crackers, a side of roasted balsamic and thyme tomatoes and a salad of avocado, cucumber, lettuce, walnuts and orange segments.
When Daniel and I were in Florence – too many years ago – we enjoyed a very simply entrée of fennel sausage, pecorino and bread at a restaurant we stumbled across with our friends Pete and Sarah. This sausage came very close to that!
What's in your repertoire?
In the last two days I have been doing a lot of radio commenting on a report called “Last Night’s Dinner”.
The report is available here.
http://www.mla.com.au/TopicHierarchy/News/MediaReleases/What+did+you+have+for+dinner+last+night.htm
And see the following link for a news story on the report:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26363511-421,00.html
We know from this report and many others we have done at Ipsos Mackay that despite being surrounded by food inspiration, when it gets down to it most cooks rely on a revolving repertoire of tried and true, somewhat traditional meals.
According to the study, commissioned by the Meat and Livestock Australia, our top four meals are (in this order): steak and veggies, roast chicken and veggies, spag bog and beef stew.
Why are we so traditional? Lots of reasons I believe. First of all everyday cooks tend to enjoy the kinds of meals they ate when they were children and so old food habits die hard. Also if you are cooking for children you want meals that you know are easy to prepare and have worked in the past, so you are driven by what’s familiar and reliable. This tends to work against any desire to experiment wildly with new ingredients and techniques.
It seems the weekend and special occasions are when everyday cooks are prepared to get a bit crazy in the kitchen. If something works and the family likes it and it is not too time consuming or expensive to prepare, then it might be added to the repertoire.
What’s for dinner at my house tonight? Well, those people who know me know that it’s always something a bit different every night but tonight I am out doing some research so Sofia will have a fish and veggie braise with mashed potato and Daniel will have orange and chilli pork with broccoli and rice. I will have a cheese sandwich.
The report is available here.
http://www.mla.com.au/TopicHierarchy/News/MediaReleases/What+did+you+have+for+dinner+last+night.htm
And see the following link for a news story on the report:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26363511-421,00.html
We know from this report and many others we have done at Ipsos Mackay that despite being surrounded by food inspiration, when it gets down to it most cooks rely on a revolving repertoire of tried and true, somewhat traditional meals.
According to the study, commissioned by the Meat and Livestock Australia, our top four meals are (in this order): steak and veggies, roast chicken and veggies, spag bog and beef stew.
Why are we so traditional? Lots of reasons I believe. First of all everyday cooks tend to enjoy the kinds of meals they ate when they were children and so old food habits die hard. Also if you are cooking for children you want meals that you know are easy to prepare and have worked in the past, so you are driven by what’s familiar and reliable. This tends to work against any desire to experiment wildly with new ingredients and techniques.
It seems the weekend and special occasions are when everyday cooks are prepared to get a bit crazy in the kitchen. If something works and the family likes it and it is not too time consuming or expensive to prepare, then it might be added to the repertoire.
What’s for dinner at my house tonight? Well, those people who know me know that it’s always something a bit different every night but tonight I am out doing some research so Sofia will have a fish and veggie braise with mashed potato and Daniel will have orange and chilli pork with broccoli and rice. I will have a cheese sandwich.
The New Wolf in Chef's Clothing
Further thoughts provoked by looking through my odd cookbook collection.
Browsing through a second hand bookshop one day I discovered a real gem of a cookbook from ‘the bachelor kitchen’ genre. Entitled The New Wolf in Chef’s Clothing, this recipe collection looks like a kids cartoon book. It is in fact a step-by-step cooking guide in which the central protagonist is a cartoon wolf (a reflection of the predatory lothario hidden in every male).
Written by Robert H. Loeb, a former Esquire cook and drink editor and published in 1958, the book is dedicated by the author to: ‘my father, and my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father, right back to Adam, all of whom spent their lives as the passive victims of feminine culinary caprice’. Ah, here is cooking as Adam’s retribution against Eve’s original sin. Adam is tossing that apple right back in Eve’s face in the form of a tarte tatin. Indeed, Loeb says the purpose of his book is ‘to liberate the male, to unshackle him from the role of refrigerator vulture, pantry pirate, from being a parasitic gourmet forced to feed on the leftovers of female cookery’.
The book’s focus is on entertaining, wooing women through cookery and booze concoctions, BBQing, meat dishes and canapés to have at soirees of various kinds. No everyday cooking, no cooking for the kids or in-laws or meals to impress the boss. Menus are graded according to type of date (and I don’t mean the central ingredient in a sticky pudding). If she’s athletic, make her the mignon et béarnaise, if she’s an indoor type, the lamb chops etc, All gastronomic foreplay until Mr. Wolf settles down with Miss Wolf, who will promptly take her place at the stove, transforming the bachelor kitchen into domesticated space.
This book is wonderful and makes me laugh. The men’s cook books and new bloke cooking shows of today are vastly more sophisticated in their approach than The New Wolf in Chef’s Clothing. Today’s bachelor kitchen is not untouched by feminism. Indeed both Jamie Oliver and a celeb chef like Bill Granger do deal with family cooking and cooking for kids. Granger in particular projects an image of a competent dad in the kitchen, serving up every day meals to his wife and kids with his phosphorescent smile and unbesmerched white t-shirt. Ian ‘Hewy’ Hewitson is another example, albeit one that appeals more to the mature cook, whose dishes are primarily everyday fodder for the busy family.
And yet the whole idea that men need to be enticed into the kitchen with the promise of danger, fun and sex is still something that persists in food media aimed at men.
I know a lot of men who cook would disagree with me …
Browsing through a second hand bookshop one day I discovered a real gem of a cookbook from ‘the bachelor kitchen’ genre. Entitled The New Wolf in Chef’s Clothing, this recipe collection looks like a kids cartoon book. It is in fact a step-by-step cooking guide in which the central protagonist is a cartoon wolf (a reflection of the predatory lothario hidden in every male).
Written by Robert H. Loeb, a former Esquire cook and drink editor and published in 1958, the book is dedicated by the author to: ‘my father, and my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father, right back to Adam, all of whom spent their lives as the passive victims of feminine culinary caprice’. Ah, here is cooking as Adam’s retribution against Eve’s original sin. Adam is tossing that apple right back in Eve’s face in the form of a tarte tatin. Indeed, Loeb says the purpose of his book is ‘to liberate the male, to unshackle him from the role of refrigerator vulture, pantry pirate, from being a parasitic gourmet forced to feed on the leftovers of female cookery’.
The book’s focus is on entertaining, wooing women through cookery and booze concoctions, BBQing, meat dishes and canapés to have at soirees of various kinds. No everyday cooking, no cooking for the kids or in-laws or meals to impress the boss. Menus are graded according to type of date (and I don’t mean the central ingredient in a sticky pudding). If she’s athletic, make her the mignon et béarnaise, if she’s an indoor type, the lamb chops etc, All gastronomic foreplay until Mr. Wolf settles down with Miss Wolf, who will promptly take her place at the stove, transforming the bachelor kitchen into domesticated space.
This book is wonderful and makes me laugh. The men’s cook books and new bloke cooking shows of today are vastly more sophisticated in their approach than The New Wolf in Chef’s Clothing. Today’s bachelor kitchen is not untouched by feminism. Indeed both Jamie Oliver and a celeb chef like Bill Granger do deal with family cooking and cooking for kids. Granger in particular projects an image of a competent dad in the kitchen, serving up every day meals to his wife and kids with his phosphorescent smile and unbesmerched white t-shirt. Ian ‘Hewy’ Hewitson is another example, albeit one that appeals more to the mature cook, whose dishes are primarily everyday fodder for the busy family.
And yet the whole idea that men need to be enticed into the kitchen with the promise of danger, fun and sex is still something that persists in food media aimed at men.
I know a lot of men who cook would disagree with me …
The cost of food
In August of this year, Ipsos Mackay released a report entitled We Are What We Eat. The report is based on a series of 16 group discussions with Australian men and women ranging in age from early 20s to mid-70s, conducted in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Wollongong, Geelong and Bunbury in July 2009.
One of the many findings from that report was that Australian consumers believed that they pay more than they used to for food and more than they should.
The not-so-humble lamb chop seemed to be a litmus test for how much food prices have shot up. Older consumers in particular recalled that the lamb chop used to be a cheap cut for family dinners whereas now little French-cut lamb chops are as expensive as anything, more like dinner party fare.
In the context of this report, who did consumers blame for these increasing costs? Well, the lack of supermarket competition for one.
The following story shows consumer perception may have some justification with new OECD figures showing Australia has the fastest rising food prices of any major developed nation.
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,26323275-5017313,00.html
As this story shows, Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, an academic at UNSW in business law and taxation, agrees with consumer sentiment and blames the lack of competition in the supermarket sector.
Perhaps more concerning than rising food prices is the growing consumer perception that it is cheaper to eat fast and unhealthy food than it is to eat healthy food. More than taste and convenience, it now seems economically rational to opt for bad pizza and burgers over home cooked, healthy dinners.
One of the many findings from that report was that Australian consumers believed that they pay more than they used to for food and more than they should.
The not-so-humble lamb chop seemed to be a litmus test for how much food prices have shot up. Older consumers in particular recalled that the lamb chop used to be a cheap cut for family dinners whereas now little French-cut lamb chops are as expensive as anything, more like dinner party fare.
In the context of this report, who did consumers blame for these increasing costs? Well, the lack of supermarket competition for one.
The following story shows consumer perception may have some justification with new OECD figures showing Australia has the fastest rising food prices of any major developed nation.
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,26323275-5017313,00.html
As this story shows, Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, an academic at UNSW in business law and taxation, agrees with consumer sentiment and blames the lack of competition in the supermarket sector.
Perhaps more concerning than rising food prices is the growing consumer perception that it is cheaper to eat fast and unhealthy food than it is to eat healthy food. More than taste and convenience, it now seems economically rational to opt for bad pizza and burgers over home cooked, healthy dinners.
Buon Appetito Your Holiness
A few years ago I started collecting quirky cookbooks and books about food. One prized possession is a book by two Italians, Mariangela Rinaldi and Mariangela Vicini called Buon Appetito, Your Holiness: the Secrets of the Papal Table.
http://www.arcadepub.com/book/?GCOI=55970100093110
The book is a history of what popes have eaten since St Peter, but also includes some historical and biographical information about each Pope, their time in power and the society they ruled over.
Unsurprisingly, I particularly liked the section on Pope Joan, who does not feature among the official list of Popes but m,any argue was Pope nonetheless from 855-858. She, of course, posed as a man during that time, but was undone when she gave birth to a baby boy right in the middle of a religious procession, after which she was stoned to death.
Some say this was all a fabrication – there was no Pope Joan. Merely a story to dissuade cross dressing or women aspiring to the heights position in the Catholic Church?
According to Rinaldi and Vicini, Pope Joan loved exotic, flavoursome and spicy dishes and these elements are at work in one of the recipes they include in her section ‘Pope Joan’s Fruit Salad’ The salad contains, among other things, dried figs and dates, pistachios and walnuts, honey and kirsch served with yoghurt or whipped cream.
The book stops at John Paul II. His section includes a lot of polish dishes naturally.
What might a section on the current pope involve?
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802029.htm
The story here above covers the menu for Pope Benedict’s 81th birthday, which sees him bypass German food for Italian cuisine from the Emilia-Romagna district of Italy.
This blog post from the US covers another dinner celebrating the Pope’s 81st birthday, less emphasis on Italian cuisine here.
http://www.cakehead.com/archives/2008/04/menu_suggestion.html
If I was cooking for Pope Benedict, I know exactly what I would serve him.
A piece of my mind.
http://www.arcadepub.com/book/?GCOI=55970100093110
The book is a history of what popes have eaten since St Peter, but also includes some historical and biographical information about each Pope, their time in power and the society they ruled over.
Unsurprisingly, I particularly liked the section on Pope Joan, who does not feature among the official list of Popes but m,any argue was Pope nonetheless from 855-858. She, of course, posed as a man during that time, but was undone when she gave birth to a baby boy right in the middle of a religious procession, after which she was stoned to death.
Some say this was all a fabrication – there was no Pope Joan. Merely a story to dissuade cross dressing or women aspiring to the heights position in the Catholic Church?
According to Rinaldi and Vicini, Pope Joan loved exotic, flavoursome and spicy dishes and these elements are at work in one of the recipes they include in her section ‘Pope Joan’s Fruit Salad’ The salad contains, among other things, dried figs and dates, pistachios and walnuts, honey and kirsch served with yoghurt or whipped cream.
The book stops at John Paul II. His section includes a lot of polish dishes naturally.
What might a section on the current pope involve?
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802029.htm
The story here above covers the menu for Pope Benedict’s 81th birthday, which sees him bypass German food for Italian cuisine from the Emilia-Romagna district of Italy.
This blog post from the US covers another dinner celebrating the Pope’s 81st birthday, less emphasis on Italian cuisine here.
http://www.cakehead.com/archives/2008/04/menu_suggestion.html
If I was cooking for Pope Benedict, I know exactly what I would serve him.
A piece of my mind.
The shifting mind and mood of Australians
Twice a year, Ipsos Mackay research (of which I am the director) conducts its Mind & Mood study, which is a snapshot of what Australians are thinking and feeling and provides n insight into changing trends and potential shifts in future attitudes.
Hugh Mackay, the found of Mackay research, started Mind & Mood in 1996 and they have been conducted annually ever since. This year we decided to do them twice a year – once just isn’t enough.
And indeed the mood in March of this year, when we did our first Mind & Mood, was significantly different than the mood in September. In March all the talk across the wide variety of affinity groups we conducted was about the GFC and job insecurity. In the September fieldwork, the GFC was barely mentioned.
For more information about the content of this recent report, see George Megalogenis’ story on the front page of The Australian yesterday.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26283950-601,00.html
His op ed provides some interesting analysis.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26283230-5013592,00.html
How can we go from doom and gloom to ‘what recession’ in under a year? Well, the endless optimism of Australians might be part of it. Our continuing sense we are lucky, blessed to be living here. But also low unemployment rates and until recently low interest rates have had something to do with it. If things continue as they have since mid year I predict Australians will look back at 2009 as the year we dodged the bullet.
Hugh Mackay, the found of Mackay research, started Mind & Mood in 1996 and they have been conducted annually ever since. This year we decided to do them twice a year – once just isn’t enough.
And indeed the mood in March of this year, when we did our first Mind & Mood, was significantly different than the mood in September. In March all the talk across the wide variety of affinity groups we conducted was about the GFC and job insecurity. In the September fieldwork, the GFC was barely mentioned.
For more information about the content of this recent report, see George Megalogenis’ story on the front page of The Australian yesterday.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26283950-601,00.html
His op ed provides some interesting analysis.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26283230-5013592,00.html
How can we go from doom and gloom to ‘what recession’ in under a year? Well, the endless optimism of Australians might be part of it. Our continuing sense we are lucky, blessed to be living here. But also low unemployment rates and until recently low interest rates have had something to do with it. If things continue as they have since mid year I predict Australians will look back at 2009 as the year we dodged the bullet.
How not to cook porcini
In October 2006 we were visiting Siena for a week of Italian classes and staying in a very cute apartment with a basic kitchen and a spectacular view over the rooftops of the town.
I was dying to cook with porcini and so we went to the weekly market to pick some prime specimens for a simple dinner of pasta with porcini, mixed herbs and pecorino.
I made the fatal error of washing the porcini rather than cleaning them carefully with a soft dry brush and so they were soggy, albeit tasty all the same.
Referring to the orange bible, Stephanie Alexander says that “the best rule with mushrooms is to prepare them as little as possible”, with no need to wash or peel either wild or cultivated mushrooms. She suggests simply wiping away dirt with a damp cloth.
Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers in their second River Café Cookbook suggest the soft dry brush method and have a wonderful recipe for wood-roasting whole porcini with thyme and pancetta and garlic.
In their Tuscan Cookbook, Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander argue that porcini need to be inspected closely as the stems can be wormy; good mushrooms should have “firm and dense stems” with “a smooth rather than chalky texture”.
I can’t tell you how long I have been washing and peeling mushrooms, not so much the exotics or the browns but the normal caps and buttons. I will cease and desist and the next time I am in Tuscany will know how not to cook porcini.
I was dying to cook with porcini and so we went to the weekly market to pick some prime specimens for a simple dinner of pasta with porcini, mixed herbs and pecorino.
I made the fatal error of washing the porcini rather than cleaning them carefully with a soft dry brush and so they were soggy, albeit tasty all the same.
Referring to the orange bible, Stephanie Alexander says that “the best rule with mushrooms is to prepare them as little as possible”, with no need to wash or peel either wild or cultivated mushrooms. She suggests simply wiping away dirt with a damp cloth.
Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers in their second River Café Cookbook suggest the soft dry brush method and have a wonderful recipe for wood-roasting whole porcini with thyme and pancetta and garlic.
In their Tuscan Cookbook, Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander argue that porcini need to be inspected closely as the stems can be wormy; good mushrooms should have “firm and dense stems” with “a smooth rather than chalky texture”.
I can’t tell you how long I have been washing and peeling mushrooms, not so much the exotics or the browns but the normal caps and buttons. I will cease and desist and the next time I am in Tuscany will know how not to cook porcini.
Bologna's food markets
Our increasing interest in farmer markets in both urban and regional Australian is a development to be applauded (albeit I agree with Gay Bilson when she writes in her book Digressions (p. 289) that “this popularity has been partly hijacked and turned into the weekend hobby of ‘culinary tourism’.”). There are markets and there are collections of stalls flogging overpriced cupcakes and jars and packets of stuff easily bought at your local IGA.
The markets in the gastronomic mecca of Bologna were something I had been dying to see. I had memories of Bologna from visits there as a child but didn’t appreciate its significance as a centre for food until I was an adult. For a terrific description of Bologna’s food history see John Dickie’s Delizia: The Epic History of Italians and Their Food and his chapter on Bologna in the 1600s). For a review of Dickie’s book see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/19/houseandgarden.features
My dream was realised in October 2006 when my husband and I spent two days in La Grassa, just wandering around and eating and looking at the food shops and stalls. The photos of just some of the bounty in their central markets are posted with these words.
I am sad to say I am not a huge mortadella fan so we stuck to sweets and tortellini and visited the same enoteca in the evenings for a glass of local wine and a sample of their free afternoon snacks, which would often suffice for our evening meal after a day of grazing and lunches.
Bologna isn’t a tourist trap. When we were there we felt like the only visitors walking the streets, which was a welcome relief after stepping over counterfeit handbag hawkers in Florence.
The markets in the gastronomic mecca of Bologna were something I had been dying to see. I had memories of Bologna from visits there as a child but didn’t appreciate its significance as a centre for food until I was an adult. For a terrific description of Bologna’s food history see John Dickie’s Delizia: The Epic History of Italians and Their Food and his chapter on Bologna in the 1600s). For a review of Dickie’s book see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/19/houseandgarden.features
My dream was realised in October 2006 when my husband and I spent two days in La Grassa, just wandering around and eating and looking at the food shops and stalls. The photos of just some of the bounty in their central markets are posted with these words.
I am sad to say I am not a huge mortadella fan so we stuck to sweets and tortellini and visited the same enoteca in the evenings for a glass of local wine and a sample of their free afternoon snacks, which would often suffice for our evening meal after a day of grazing and lunches.
Bologna isn’t a tourist trap. When we were there we felt like the only visitors walking the streets, which was a welcome relief after stepping over counterfeit handbag hawkers in Florence.
Would you like a side order of resentment?
A few months ago I was chatting to journalist Julian Lee about something and used the term Schadenfreude. This quickly led into a discussion about how much we love the term but he made the funny and apt comment that it sounded more like a German cake than an emotional state. I then became fixated on the idea of creating a cake and calling it Schadenfreude Torte.
I googled the term and sure enough some smart person has already invented Schadenfreude pie.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/09/26/how-to-make-a-schadenfreude-pie/
A sliver is satisfying but too much can be hazardous to your health.
I googled the term and sure enough some smart person has already invented Schadenfreude pie.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/09/26/how-to-make-a-schadenfreude-pie/
A sliver is satisfying but too much can be hazardous to your health.
Riot over oatmeal
Tuesday saw me flying to and from Melbourne and avoiding work by reading The London Review of Books on the plane.
The 8 October issue has a review by James C. Scott of a book about Henry Ford’s ambitious but failed attempt to establish a rubber plantation in Amazonia.
See here for more information about the book, Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia.
http://us.macmillan.com/fordlandia
Grandin’s thesis, according to the review, is that two factors brought about the demise of Fordlandia early in the project’s history – the recalcitrance of the workers (the candangos) and the harshness of the tropical environment.
In terms of management’s conflict with the workers, apparently there was a riot on 22 December 1930 sparked by what the reviewer describes as a “trivial” incident. Let me quote from Scott’s review:
At first, common labourers had sat at one end of the dining-hall, foremen and craftsmen at the other, and each group has been served by waiters. Then, at the suggestion of a supervisor … a cafeteria system was instituted, meaning that the men had to queue for their food. As the workers waited in the stifling heat, someone shouted: ‘We are not dogs that are going to be ordered by the company to eat this way’.
Everything in the dining hall was then smashed by angry (and we can only assume hungry) workers, who then moved on to destroy the powerhouse, the office building, the garage, the sawmill, radio station and so on. Most of the Americans at the site escaped on an emergency launch and provincial troops were called in to quell the riot. Says the reviewer, “Fordlandia staggered on, but it never really recovered.”
Later in the review we learn that what was on offer for Fordlandia workers to eat was not their usual fare but the kind of food Henry Ford considered to be nutritious (healthy workers make more efficient workers …). Whole wheat bread, unpolished rice, canned peaches and oatmeal.
I understand why the workers rioted. After a long morning of work, standing in line in the heat for oatmeal seems like anything but trivial.
It’s clear that Ford didn’t truly understand the ways in which food – what we eat and how it is served to us - is so essential to our happiness and wellbeing. Had he served the workers what they wanted to eat in the manner in which they wanted to eat it, showed some understanding of their culture and their needs as human beings, maybe Fordlandia would not have been sacked.
The 8 October issue has a review by James C. Scott of a book about Henry Ford’s ambitious but failed attempt to establish a rubber plantation in Amazonia.
See here for more information about the book, Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia.
http://us.macmillan.com/fordlandia
Grandin’s thesis, according to the review, is that two factors brought about the demise of Fordlandia early in the project’s history – the recalcitrance of the workers (the candangos) and the harshness of the tropical environment.
In terms of management’s conflict with the workers, apparently there was a riot on 22 December 1930 sparked by what the reviewer describes as a “trivial” incident. Let me quote from Scott’s review:
At first, common labourers had sat at one end of the dining-hall, foremen and craftsmen at the other, and each group has been served by waiters. Then, at the suggestion of a supervisor … a cafeteria system was instituted, meaning that the men had to queue for their food. As the workers waited in the stifling heat, someone shouted: ‘We are not dogs that are going to be ordered by the company to eat this way’.
Everything in the dining hall was then smashed by angry (and we can only assume hungry) workers, who then moved on to destroy the powerhouse, the office building, the garage, the sawmill, radio station and so on. Most of the Americans at the site escaped on an emergency launch and provincial troops were called in to quell the riot. Says the reviewer, “Fordlandia staggered on, but it never really recovered.”
Later in the review we learn that what was on offer for Fordlandia workers to eat was not their usual fare but the kind of food Henry Ford considered to be nutritious (healthy workers make more efficient workers …). Whole wheat bread, unpolished rice, canned peaches and oatmeal.
I understand why the workers rioted. After a long morning of work, standing in line in the heat for oatmeal seems like anything but trivial.
It’s clear that Ford didn’t truly understand the ways in which food – what we eat and how it is served to us - is so essential to our happiness and wellbeing. Had he served the workers what they wanted to eat in the manner in which they wanted to eat it, showed some understanding of their culture and their needs as human beings, maybe Fordlandia would not have been sacked.
I heart MasterChef
In July of this year Ipsos ran a poll that showed that the first series of MasterChef had a significant impact on the (reported) behaviour of Australians in the kitchen.
An overwhelming 61 per cent of people Ipsos polled agreed that watching MasterChef encouraged them to be more creative when cooking meals at home.
For more information on these results see
http://www.ipsos.com.au/knowledgecentre/news/090723.aspx
I was slow to become a fan of MasterChef but by mid-series, I was a full-blown devotee; ironically, perhaps, we planned our evening meals around the show.
As part of the recent Brisbane Writers Festival, I was on a live Radio National panel with chef and author Gay Bilson and novelist Marion Halligan. For photos and podcast see:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2009/2674092.htm
The issue of MasterChef came up in that panel discussion; neither Gay nor Marion were fans. I was a bit of a coward and remained silent as they savaged the show.
Gay was particularly concerned about how cruel the MasterChef kitchen was and how disparaging they were about ‘domestic cooking’.
I could definitely see her point. However, compared to shows like Dance Your Ass Off, MasterChef was positively warm and cuddly. I guess it all depends on how au fait you are with the conventions of reality TV.
I haven’t been able to see more than one episode of Celebrity MasterChef but I think it is somewhat less compelling. I am waiting for series two next year to see if they can pull it off again.
Until then, I am cooking a few dishes from the MasterChef repertoire include Chris’ tiramisu with double chocolate stout.
Also have become a fan of Matt Preston on facebook and just bought his essay collection yesterday; loving it so far.
An overwhelming 61 per cent of people Ipsos polled agreed that watching MasterChef encouraged them to be more creative when cooking meals at home.
For more information on these results see
http://www.ipsos.com.au/knowledgecentre/news/090723.aspx
I was slow to become a fan of MasterChef but by mid-series, I was a full-blown devotee; ironically, perhaps, we planned our evening meals around the show.
As part of the recent Brisbane Writers Festival, I was on a live Radio National panel with chef and author Gay Bilson and novelist Marion Halligan. For photos and podcast see:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2009/2674092.htm
The issue of MasterChef came up in that panel discussion; neither Gay nor Marion were fans. I was a bit of a coward and remained silent as they savaged the show.
Gay was particularly concerned about how cruel the MasterChef kitchen was and how disparaging they were about ‘domestic cooking’.
I could definitely see her point. However, compared to shows like Dance Your Ass Off, MasterChef was positively warm and cuddly. I guess it all depends on how au fait you are with the conventions of reality TV.
I haven’t been able to see more than one episode of Celebrity MasterChef but I think it is somewhat less compelling. I am waiting for series two next year to see if they can pull it off again.
Until then, I am cooking a few dishes from the MasterChef repertoire include Chris’ tiramisu with double chocolate stout.
Also have become a fan of Matt Preston on facebook and just bought his essay collection yesterday; loving it so far.
This recipe calls for blood ...
My friend and colleague Zoe Sadokierski and I are currently working on our second project together.
See here for Zoe’s blog and examples of her amazing work.
http://zoefolio.blogspot.com/
Zoe and I collaborated on a contribution for a collection called Hair, part of the Trunk series edited by Suzanne Boccalatte and Meredith Jones.
http://www.boccalatte.com/?p=345
I wrote about my wild and unkempt hair, that I don’t have serious, newsreader hair and hence certain assumptions are made about me. I have posted Zoe’s fabulous illustrations for that piece.
Our second collaboration will be submitted for inclusion in Trunk’s second volume entitled Blood and will look at the question of blood – human and animal – in cooking.
I have been researching the history of blood in food, everything from ancient Sumerian recipes with human blood to Italian sweet blood and chocolate sausages and Polish duck blood’s soup. Zoe is thinking up magical ways to present the text, using some editions from my obscure cook book collection as inspiration.
Here are some quirky facts on blood taken from Stewart Lee Allen’s, In The Devil’s Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food.
Malaysians have been known to suck the blood from a freshly decapitated rattlesnake … apparently it is a natural aphrodisiac.
Haiti’s 1804 slave revolution began with a voodoo ceremony that climaxed in the drinking of a pig’s blood.
Members of Kenya’s Masai tribe are known to drink the milk and blood of cows mixed together.
I need to fact-check the first two but I have seen a documentary on the Masai that showed the process of taking blood from a live cow for drinking purposes.
Susie Orbach on our bodies
In the November issue of marie claire you will find an interview I did with the famous feminist and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach. Jackie Frank approached me to interview her as part the magazine’s reporting on their recent survey of Australian women. I jumped at the chance to talk to Orbach, having read both Hunger Strike and Fat is a Feminist Issue at university.
In her latest book Bodies Orbach returns to familiar territory exploring the pressure on both men and women to be perfect and design our bodies as perfect through everything from extreme dieting to surgery.
For my full article buy a copy of the magazine and see http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/marie-claire/ for more information about the issue.
Here is a snapshot of my interview with Orbach.
RH: The marie claire survey of Australian women found that nine percent reported that they were happy with their body and actually reading your book that sounds a bit high. Nine percent sounds like quiet a positive number considering the intensity of body shame and distress in our society. So when you hear a statistic like that what do you immediately think?
SO: I think it’s so crazy because you can say to me ‘that sounds quite high’, and I can think, yeah, it does sound quite high. But really, I mean we should be getting the result the opposite way but we’re not. The reality of only nine percent of women feeling ok in their body means that three kids in a primary school class or a secondary school class are feeling ok and all the rest are obsessing and upsetting. It depends how you look at that statistic. We’re so used to how awful the situation is.
RH: You say in your book, that we’ve normalised this level of body discomfort.
SO: You have to ask another series of questions to that nine percent, which you know might yield very unpleasant results. But we don’t want to go there because we really want them to feel ok about their bodies.
RH: Another thing reading your book and also looking at the survey marie claire did, there seems to be quite a broad spectrum of body distress, everything from the ‘if I had the money and the opportunity I’d re-haul my whole body with cosmetic surgery’, to what I call the ‘couple of kilo syndrome’, which is the ‘I’m fine but if I just loose five or six kilos’.
SO: I think that is a very common one actually. I mean that’s the ordinary madness, right? If I could just lose a couple of kilos somehow everything would be alright and then when people look at themselves [in] pictures five years ago they think. ‘I look gorgeous not ugly’. But they didn’t feel it at the time because they were still in the ‘if only I could have lost five kilos’ [state of mind].
In her latest book Bodies Orbach returns to familiar territory exploring the pressure on both men and women to be perfect and design our bodies as perfect through everything from extreme dieting to surgery.
For my full article buy a copy of the magazine and see http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/marie-claire/ for more information about the issue.
Here is a snapshot of my interview with Orbach.
RH: The marie claire survey of Australian women found that nine percent reported that they were happy with their body and actually reading your book that sounds a bit high. Nine percent sounds like quiet a positive number considering the intensity of body shame and distress in our society. So when you hear a statistic like that what do you immediately think?
SO: I think it’s so crazy because you can say to me ‘that sounds quite high’, and I can think, yeah, it does sound quite high. But really, I mean we should be getting the result the opposite way but we’re not. The reality of only nine percent of women feeling ok in their body means that three kids in a primary school class or a secondary school class are feeling ok and all the rest are obsessing and upsetting. It depends how you look at that statistic. We’re so used to how awful the situation is.
RH: You say in your book, that we’ve normalised this level of body discomfort.
SO: You have to ask another series of questions to that nine percent, which you know might yield very unpleasant results. But we don’t want to go there because we really want them to feel ok about their bodies.
RH: Another thing reading your book and also looking at the survey marie claire did, there seems to be quite a broad spectrum of body distress, everything from the ‘if I had the money and the opportunity I’d re-haul my whole body with cosmetic surgery’, to what I call the ‘couple of kilo syndrome’, which is the ‘I’m fine but if I just loose five or six kilos’.
SO: I think that is a very common one actually. I mean that’s the ordinary madness, right? If I could just lose a couple of kilos somehow everything would be alright and then when people look at themselves [in] pictures five years ago they think. ‘I look gorgeous not ugly’. But they didn’t feel it at the time because they were still in the ‘if only I could have lost five kilos’ [state of mind].
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