misgabi

We get alot of really cringeworthy local advertising on television, usually with the small precocious children of the owners of the business telling us that "their dad is best". I imagine that apart from the ads our television is similar to the US except we only have five channels (apart from pay tv that has 40odd - like Lifestyle (food etc), History, Discovery (so I get to see A Cook's Tour), movie channels (including Hallmark, and lots and lots of sports channels. We seem to get lots of american ads that they dub australian accents over but I can't think of many ads like those you describe. Australia seems to go more for sportsmen and women saying how good some food is, or how good it is for you. (although the ones with the aussie swim team members eating cereal in a house flooded with water - like at the bottom of the pool took a while to get used to!!) I will make note tonight whilst I watch commercial tv how many ads are food related. Al Dente I finally got it!! I have just had a diet coke and a handful of cashews whilst I typed this. Almost lunch time.

We used to as kids - there would always be a roast on Sunday night. We have started having a roast on Sunday's again recently (when the boy is not working) as he loves cold roast in sandwiches to take to work for the next few days. He also loves cold roast pumpkin for some obscure reason so I have to cook extra so there is some cold in the fridge I had a croissant for breakfast this morning as the bakery had just taken them out of the oven and they were still hot I had butter and rasberry jam on it and am now trying to pick the little flaky bits out of my keyboard (note to self - desk is NOT the place to eat croissants)

I arrived at work this morning to discover Shiewie had tagged me by PM simply because nobody had done a foodblog from Australia before. This week will not be a typical week of eating because husband is on afternoon shifts (2.00pm until 11.30pm) so will be raiding the fridge whilst I am at work an eating everything I was planning to cook that night!! We are currently experiencing Spring (an exceptionally chilly one at that) following on from a drought. I should explain that I live in country NSW (New South Wales) at state of Australia in a city of about 60,000 people half way between Sydney and Melbourne (each are about 4 1/2 hours drive away) so we don't get quite the variety of restaurants, markets, food quality etc that you would find in either of these cities. That said, we do have an excellent farmers market once a month, have a great butcher and fabulous wines!! A girl could do worse. Being a food blog I suppose I should mention food. Had I known I was being tagged I would have had something more exciting for dinner I had steamed asparagus spears with a poached egg and parmesan cheese on top (actually to be truthful there were two poached eggs just to make sure I had enough runny yolk to be scooped up by the asparagus.) I made a poor mans tart for dessert by using frozen puff pastry cut into a circle and thin slices of fresh mango arranged on top. Sprinkled with dark brown sugar and cooked in a hot oven. I ate this with whipped cream into which I had mixed some crushed fresh ginger (I love ginger and mango together!) Later that night whilst I watched a stupid film on tv I had some pistachio nuts and finished off the bottle of charddonay. Am going to find something to eat for breakfast from the bakery now

Shiewie, did have steak with the boy - found some great scotch fillet and pan fried it with garlic. Have converted him to pak choy which I blanched and then tossed through the pan juices. Then we made really mashed potato with lots of garlic to go with it Guess I'll have the fish tonight when he is out! What is a string hopper

Does it seem weird Shiewie that you are working (and eating) whilst the others are all asleep. After you post do you feel like no-one is reading your blog? Is the seaweed cooked? Is it something like the Malaysian equivalent of crisps? Have picked up some pak choy and will have it with steamed fish and rice for dinner. (husband will no doubt insist on steak!! )

Your dinner sounds great Shiewie. Quick question - you mentioned blanched pak choy. Do you have this plain once blanced, more as a green on the side or is it dressed in any way. We are getting more and more variety of asian greens in our supermarkets and I usually just steam lightly and eat with oyster sauce (when asparagus is not in season!). Maybe I should expand my view of these greens.

Your dinner the other night sounded fabulous. Just as a matter of interest (from an Australian) do you get much fresh dairy or other food from Australia? How does it compare price and quality wise with the local fare? I remember when I lived in Port Moresby we used to hang out for Tuesday's when the dairy arrived from Australia and there would be an assault on the shops as soon as it arrived to stock up for the week.

Hi Guys, buckets of jealousy here from Australia (just a "bit" far to come even for a "pig pickin") Please post more pictures, I too am living vicariously through them. My sister currently has an exchange student from down your "neck of the woods" and she tells me she would pay the airfare for good hushpuppies and pig pickin and thinks we should have flown over!! Instead we have elected her chief cook and bottle washer for our own down under pickin (she says she cannot cook but will email her mother for recipies etc!!) looking forward to this. Hope you all have a great time and tell all of us unable to attend just "how good" it really was!

Being new to egullet I thought I would post here in what is one of my favourite forums. What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Grew up as a middle class australian, born in the mid 60's. Was meal time important? Yes, very. Our family always ate the evening meal together and you had to have a damn good excuse not to be there. We always ate around 6.30pm on weekdays and a little later on the weekends (after Dad had watched the news on television). The tv was then turned off and nobody was allowed to read at the table (a rule I hated as I had a book in hand at all times - even walked to school reading) and we all discussed the days events. Was cooking important? My mother was a really, really atrocious cook (as I have mentioned in other forums) and the cooking did not become quite so important until I took over at about age 10. Then it seemed to be not just important to be but all consuming. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? No penalties as such, more a sharp look or reprimand. I was always in trouble for having my elbows on the table!! Who cooked in the family? As mentioned above I took over the cooking at about 10 after telling my mother that the roast chicken she had cooked for dinner was "wrong" as she had not made it the same way as my aunt. I should mention that my aunt was my cooking idol. Having lived all over the world every time we went to her house we got fed the most amazing food. Falafels, spring rolls, "real" curries and I would sit in the kitchen and be shown how to make all these foods. Needless to say that the food coming out of my mothers kitchen was nothing like this and I could not understand why. My mother said that if I thought I could do better I should give it a try and see just how difficult cooking for a family of 5 was. I did take over and never relinquished my role as chief cook in the family. I loved the fact that I got to decide what we would be eating, looking through recipie books and learing to make everyones favourites. I won't say there weren't disasters (some of that 70's food was hideous before you even began) but I loved the experimenting side of it too. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? We ate out a great deal. My parents were very keen that we taste all different types of food (just because my mother could not cook it didn't mean she did not like eating it!). I seem to remember that none of my friends went out nearly as much as we did - or to "proper" restaurants. I remember being really dissapointed at age 12 when we were told we were going out for seafood with another family and ended up with fish and chips (their idea of a seafood meal) - my idea of seafood was natural oysters and lobster. I used to horrify my friends at school telling them that I had tried smoked eel or snails the night before (and enjoyed them). Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over?? Never, my broter and I always used to serve and help out (and of course I would cook) when mum and dad had guests. My aunt used to say the only reason to have kids was to put them to work! She used to call us Slave One and Slave Two. When did you get that first sip of wine? Around 12. I liked it but fortunately now I can afford bottled and not cask!!] Was there a pre-meal prayer? No, I think we said grace when I was much younger but that just seemed to have stopped one day. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? We usually had a roast on Sunday and fish on Friday (being catholic and all) but noting else was ever set in stone. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? I now share the cooking with my husband and we both love entertaining and often have people over for a meal. We eat together all the time (unless he is on night shift) in which case whoever cooks makes enough for the other and "Surprises" them when they get home from work. We eat out alot, and love going away just to try new restaurants and foods.

I think that the Chicken Maryland here in Australia was one of those 70's dinner party delights. I don't believe it is actually made anymore but the cut of chicken is still referred to as a "Maryland" - around here anyway. I have a cookbook at home that suggests serving tinned asparagus wrapped in a slice of white bread (crust removed) as an entree for this dinner party. Needless to say the cookbook is somewhat old!

Al Dente: Sorry it must be an Australian thing. The Chicken Maryland cut is the thigh and leg of the chicken (the actual dish Chicken Maryland is that cut cooked and served with a pinepple and banana fritter!!)

Thanks for the excellent site. I have been sitting at work trying to to laugh out loud for the past hour reading this topic. I feel that I must share with you all some of the "special meals" my mother has created for my husband and I when we go to their house for dinner: 1) A boned leg of lamb placed in a dish and a jar of marmalade rubbed over the top. This was then microwaved for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Around 1 minute prior to the end of this time a sliced onion was scattered on the top and "cooked". This was served with mashed potato (no salt but triple the water (?) mashed into it - my mother's "secret to perfect mash") 2) Chicken Maryland cuts with a can of cling peaches (and all syrup) poured over the top and microwaved for around 10mins - we were told it was dangerous to overcook chicken!!. Served on rice so overcooked that it had reached a porridge consitency. 3) My personal "favourite" involved cooking spinach pasta until nearly falling apart and placing in the bottom of a casserole dish. Beef mince was then dropped in freeform balls on top of the pasta along with a tub of cottage cheese. A box of frozen spinach was defrosted and placed (again in freeform balls) over the cottage cheese. A jar of spagetti sauce (commercial) was then poured over all of this along with a glass of wine. A chopped raw onion was sprinkes over the top and then covered with grated cheese. This is then baked in the oven until done (with an additional glass of wine being poured over the top half way through cooking). Just thought I would share that with you all.