One Of My Favourite TV Chefs

Jamie Oliver was at MYER on Saturday morning. M was happy to go with me. We thought we had secured ourselves a nice spot until minutes before the chef appeared when this camera guy from Channel 9 came to set up his camera on a little stage in front of us. How annoying?

Some lucky people (mostly kids) scored themselves sets of TEFAL cookware and a select group of people (winners of a competition) got him to autograph their cook books. We didn't have anything for him to sign. Even though I enjoy most of his TV shows I don't own any of his cook books but I do borrow them from the City Library from time to time. Tonight I am making Bolognaise Sauce according to his recipe.

Small Animal, Big Influence

Before I came here, I had many Aussie pen-pals and almost all of them wrote about their collection of pets. After I came here, I began to see on the news how awful ‘my people’ were in the way we would treat animals. From bears forcefully taught to dance with a rope harness through their snouts, to bears held captive in cages for convenient bile extraction, to Orang Utans kept as pets, to Whales getting harpooned for scientific purposes; Asia, a big continent was fast becoming a super bad place in my head. Then in 2003, we bought our beloved Guinea Pig and I began to become more aware of local animal cruelty in the news. Although I have no scientific evidence to prove it, I also began to notice that such cruel incidents tend to happen during school and public holidays. I find it hard to believe that such heartless people live here regardless of whether the person has been imported, born here or is someone who can trace their ancestry back all the way to the first fleet!

One evening, 7-10 days before Christmas, I sat myself in front of the TV but I wasn’t really watching it. I think I was looking at a pattern book trying to decide which patterns I should buy on Boxing Day, when I first heard the sound of elevator music and then the noise of an animal in distress. When I looked up, I saw a pig lying on its side, thrashing about with a metal bar stuck between its jaws. Because I was so disturbed by what I had seen, I only heard snippets of what the narrator said. It went a little bit like this: “Now that you know…” I wondered what it all meant. The ad appeared again the following evening. In fact, it appeared multiple times during the next evening but I have not seen it again since! I just blocked it all out by switching channels. Ironically the ad almost always appeared just before or after an advertisement for Christmas ham. The truth is that I was pretty angry at the organization responsible for this ad at first, as I thought they were ruining my Christmas, but the sight of that pig haunted me over the past two weeks. I remembered something that happened in the 90’s when I read about a foul mouthed VIP (P for Pollie) who was linked to a piggery that kept its pigs in very small pens. I sat in my bed wondering whether the ad had anything to do with the pork industry and wondered why the poor pig was thrashing about like that.

3 days after Christmas, we had to go to the library to drop off some DVDs. While we were there, I went upstairs and found these two books: “How Good Are You?” by Julian Lee and “A Lighter Footprint” by Angela Crocombe. I think I had previously picked up the second book for a quick glance in the past. Anyway what is written in these two books has managed to enlighten me on the horrible practice of factory farming. YES, factory farming is here in Australia too! I am sure there are other countries that are doing the same thing, but I really expect a lot more from Australia. Reading about Factory Farming made me want to puke as it is completely opposite to an article (Pig Birthing Plan by J Owens) that I read in the latest issue of Grass Roots - Australia’s most popular self-sufficiency magazine. This caring Tasmanian’s little farm is almost like a dream! Humans are omnivores even though some choose to be vegetarians but what have these poor animals ever done to humans for them to be treated in such a cruel and brutal way. I am realistic and I am going to openly declare that I can’t ever see myself becoming a full time vegetarian, but we are going to really try to change the way that we buy our meat products. We are now looking to buy organic or biodynamic meats, even though the shocking price tags may force us to eat less meat in future. As I write this, I wonder if Temple Grandin’s ideas have been implemented here in Australia.

It is now 20 months since our beloved Guinea Pig left us. I have written many times about the little things I have learnt from keeping a pet and even though I have always liked animals, it was the experience of keeping our Guinea Pig that has explicitly taught me true empathy for animals. In 2008, we changed the incandescent light bulbs in our pigeon hole to the energy efficient CFLs. This year, we are looking to improve the kinds of food and personal care products that we consume. Already I have changed my soap. Yes, I still use soap bars for my showers. For years after I came to Australia I did use fancy shower gels from the Body Shop because I thought they were trendy but secretly, I have always preferred holding onto a bar of soap. So I reverted back to soap and have always bought Aussie or UK made ones. Then in early December 09, I saw that Safeway now stocks the ECO STORE Goat’s Milk Baby Soap and thought that I should give it a try. I have heard that Goat’s Milk is kind to dry skin. Since it was just under $2 a bar, I bought one to try and I can declare now that I am totally in love with it. Each bar lasts about two weeks. That means that if there are 52 weeks in a year, which is equal to 26 fortnights, I will need roughly 26 bars of ECO STORE Goat’s Milk Baby Soap annually, which equals around $52 a year (except if they suddenly put the price up). The soap is apparently GE Free, New Zealand made and most important of all, the product was never tested on animals, which I hope is applicable to each of the individual ingredients listed to make the soap, and not just the finished product. Do you know that some humans in the cosmetic industry strap little animals down so that they can cruelly test the ingredients used to make cosmetics and personal care products on their eyes?

Homemade Takeaway Meal for Moosh

I cooked this meal for M to take to work last week. It consisted of three small burger patties, a few slices of zucchinis and some broccoli and carrots, plus a small dollop of Lingonberry jam. A little bit of homemade Teriyaki sauce is drizzled over the food but it didn't show up in the picture.

There used to be a Four’N Twenty pies ad on TV where one tradie declared the food inside his brown paper lunch bag as “Rabbit’s food” and his mate peered inside his own lunch and declared “Mine is still growing” before the two went to buy pies for lunch instead. I used to think that is how M would see any food I made for him to take to work. I didn’t think he would appreciate my effort but it turned out that he quite likes the meals I make for him, including this one.

I don’t think the meals I make are particularly healthy but they are certainly cheaper to make than if M had to buy his meals everyday. My frugalness did and still does to a certain extent bother me from time to time because I don’t want him to look shabby but he doesn’t seem to mind one bit. It is bizarre how he doesn’t care how others perceive him while I am still slowly learning to ignore others judgements and criticisms.

Time for Some Changes: Food

There have been gentle requests lately for me to stop using Dashi, Gomashio and Nori in our food. I love those three ingredients. The same person also asked that maybe I should make the Chicken Hotpot less often or make it without the Dashi. My Chicken Hotpot is not complete unless I cook it with Dashi. Okay, I do admit that I have been going a little overboard lately. I confess that I have been serving up my Chicken Hotpot 3 nights in a row per fortnight since mid-January. What baffles me though is that he requested that I should serve the dish less often or cook it without Dashi last Monday but then I also found him gulping down every single drop of the liquid in last Tuesday’s serving. So, does he like Dashi or not? (The liquid is made up of Dashi, Soy Sauce, Sugar and Mirin.) Another request for the hotpot is to reduce the amount of Lotus Root but that is so good though.

It looks like it is timely that I change our fortnightly menu again. I haven’t changed it since mid-January! Before that there were three changes in the period between December (08) and mid-January. From the mouth of the ‘fussy-pot’, I heard that he is yearning for comfort food. The nasty devil inside me felt like to tease by saying, “You should have married an Aussie wife like what everyone has been telling you if you want to eat wholesome Western food all the time.” Of course I didn’t say it to his face. Why would I? The truth is that M is not very fussy at all. While I can live with the same food over and over, M needs variety more than me. For example, when we used to go to Pancake Parlour, I used to order the same meal but M would try something different in each visit. At home he had been eating the same dishes repeatedly over a two week cycle since January. So, I do agree that we need a new menu.

M had been asking for his favourite soup and something with lamb. So perhaps my Chicken Minestrone and Irish Stew will be back on the new menu. The soup will replace the Chicken Hotpot but I will try to cook enough to only serve it over two dinners per fortnight. Oh, another dish that we both love in Winter is Chicken with Tarragon and Mushrooms. Now that we know that chicken is cheaper at ALDI, we can’t seem to have enough of it. LOL. I am still not sure what Asian dishes I would like to include this time. I will have to consult my cookbooks in the next few days.

Our menu always consists of dishes from both the West as well as the East. This inter-racial couple is always seeking to achieve balance in every decision we make. I admit that I am a pretty dodgy cook and I am glad that M has been putting up with my dodgy food for so long. I have seen Asian men complaining about their wives’ cooking in public. That is just awful. I have also seen one Aussie personality (some people reckon that he was quite a celebrity) who used to sell his wares on TV complaining about his second wife’s cooking after he ditched her to return to his first wife. The second wife is a youngish Asian (Thai/Filipino). When they first got together, he gave her heaps of thumbs up for everything. Anyway, as an outsider, I do not know the full story behind the fallout and I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead too. All I can say is that I am super glad that M does not put me down in public. But I still don’t understand why he doesn’t like Gomashio. So, would I be banning those three ingredients from our kitchen? The answer to that is NO. Regarding the Dashi, I will dilute it before I use it in some of my cooking. Not all dishes require Dashi. M never said anything when I used it diluted. As for the Gomashio and Nori, I will sprinkle them on my food and not his. He will just have to peg his nose while I am eating. LOL.

Only 2 Packs of Aussie Rice Left

That’s it. These are the only two packs of Australian grown ‘Koala Brand Long Grain Jasmine Rice’ that I have left. No more after this. In fact, I have been trying to save these two packs for a special event and have been eating Thai grown Jasmine rice from ALDI for a little while now. I find Aussie grown rice denser and starchier, while the Thai grown rice seems lighter in texture. That’s just my personal opinion. I heard that Aussie rice farmers were hit hard because of the drought. I hope one day they will return to growing rice when there is more access to water. ‘Koala Brand’ is still my favourite rice, but I have temporarily stopped buying because they now source their rice from Thailand. I think they did that in 2006 as well but after a while the Aussie grown rice made a comeback. So meanwhile, I will be on a lookout to see if my favourite Aussie grown rice makes a sudden return to Safeway or even Coles one more time.