haresfur

Thanks Nick. Your blog was amazing. Eileen is coming back from Sidney, tomorrow. Boy is she in for a shock.

Thanks for the tips on the frames (and to everyone else with suggestions, too). I don't think you will see any chestnuts - I like the smell of the roasting but can pass on the taste. I'll post some photos from today's shopping. I've been enjoying the pumpkin here and have been discovering root vegetables, although I'm still not sure about beetroot on sandwiches. The main thing I miss from North America is the variety and low cost of produce. I scored maple syrup from Costco in Melbourne. I haven't developed a taste for Vegimite - it is too salty so I've been practicing with MightyMite, which has less sodium. I also bought some "MyFirst Vegimite", which isn't salty and has a noticeable malt flavour. TimTams are nice enough but IMO Australia's greatest contribution to sweet biscuits is: The perfect balance of chocolate and biscuit. Best kept in the fridge.

Well the guide uses food fossicking as searching and discovering but I think it would be good for foraging. Thanks for the leading question on the garden. It's looking a bit worse for the wear as summer ends. The basil has bolted to about waist high but I decided a batch of pesto was in order in spite of the weather turning to the winter side of autumn. We do get frost here but not very hard or for very long. Mostly it gets about as cold inside as out because the house has little insulation and single pane windows. Hope springs eternal and I'm trying for an autumn lettuce crop. So here is the garden: and pots with herbs and dwarf lime. The herb pot trolley lost a wheel when a red gum dropped a limb on it but the pot and bay tree were unscathed (red gums are known for losing limbs at arbitrary times and it is wise not to park under them): I used walnuts and almonds in the pesto because I have never been much of a pine nut fan, even before hearing about the bad taste in your mouth for weeks thing. I served it over whole meal spaghetti. I've made better.

It's unfortunately been decades since I've been back. I need to get my Polish coworker to teach me how to make perogies because her's are great (although not quite the same as eating them in the pub with a couple of draughts in front of you). It's hard to tell if I miss food from there or food I ate with my family like corned beef, knishes, gooey cheese cake... Thinking about it, I don't think I ever had Goldeye but I miss fresh pickerel.

That was a new one on me, too. It's the bits left over when the butcher takes the meat off. The dogs have been put on a semi- "Biologically Appropriate Raw Food" (BARF) diet. Don't ask me, I just do what I'm told. But for the price of the frames from Woolworths, they could be eating drumsticks. I guess there's a shop in Horsham where they are much less expensive but we haven't found one in Bendigo yet.

Oh yeah, dinner. I made another one of my Dad's favourites, chicken marsala. Sorry, no cooking pictures. When I cook, I tend to go a bit manic and totally forgot the camera. I'd say my cooking style is bastardized versions of everyone's cuisine. Um, let's call it "fusion" . The marsala recipe wasn't handed down - I had to wing it and figure out to myself the key is a heavy hand with the bottle. But it's dead easy. Cube up some chicken, coat in flour, salt & pepper. Brown in olive oil remove from the pan and add a chopped onion and sliced mushrooms. When the onion is translucent and the mushrooms soft, add the chicken back in and pour in about half a bottle of Marsala. Simmer until the sauce thickens. I served it over the porcini noodles. I would have thrown a shallot or two in with the onion if I had any. I ate it with steamed broccoli that just had a little lemon juice squeezed over it. Too easy. Sad state of affairs: I forgot to make myself a cocktail. Booze will never lead me down the road to heck at this rate. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

The avatar is actually the top to a tea warmer I made. Haresfur is a kind of Temmoku pottery glaze, originally from the Song Dynasty in China. It was just a handle that I adopted for the internet because it is lovely glaze. The tea warmer is Temmoku but without the streaky haresfur effect. The rabbit design is based on a Celtic or pre-Celtic drawing I saw in a book. I haven't done much pottery for the last few years but I'm trying to get back into it. Still haven't wired my kiln yet but I've started doing a little terra cotta.

Thanks! It's been fun so far. I think things will slow down when I get back to work.

On the way home from Harricourt, I made a stop at Aldi. I didn't want to ask permission so I just snapped some quick photos with my phone so the quality isn't best. Many jars of simmer sauce for the lazy. I buy the Butter Chicken. Depending on my mood you may see it in action. Assorted tuna flavours like lime & cracked pepper, tomato & caper, mango chili... Frozen Yum Cha assortment are ok but I ended up getting mini-spring rolls for the even lazier nights. Porcini noodles. Some of the haul at home. And tell me what is it with coin-deposit on the shopping trolleys in Australia? If someone really wants one, would a dollar stop them? The Food Fossicker's guide said that the Eaglehawk IGA, of all places, has their own smokehouse, so I had to check it out on the way home. I decided to pass on the eel but bought some trout.

As I mentioned, Bendigo was a major gold mining town and there are old workings everywhere. The park across the street from me is littered with crushed quartz and I often see "fossickers" out with their metal detectors looking for gold. Luckily the trend heads a couple of houses to the east and there are no old shafts mapped under my place (touch wood). But today we are going... First I swung by work for some photos when no one was around but I'll time-shift those to a work day. Then I stopped in the city centre for some coffee at T'Hooft Cafe, where they roast their own. Just pretend there is nothing odd about a caravan in a cafe... Actually it is explained on the all-knowing internet. One of the pleasant surprises about Oz was that you can get pretty good coffee in even the small towns. You can't read the sign on the healthy-eating Vibrant Garden next door, but I'm amused by their slogan, "Catering to Intolerance". Then I headed south to Harricourt where the apple harvest is starting. I picked up some Galas and Johnnies at a stand run by 5th generation growers. The Pink Ladies won't be ready until May because of the cool wet weather. I'm amazed at the investment in shade cloth that also protects against hail. Then a stop by Bress biodynamic (whatever the heck that is) winery. They were baking rolls in a wood oven for the lunch people. I didn't care too much for the wine but they also make a "Normandy" style cider and the dry was decent. But for cider, I was really heading for the more English style at Henry's of Harricourt. Quite the characters. I passed on the still cider for now but bought a bottle of the fizzy traditional cider apple/pink lady mix and a couple of bottles of Perry.

Why Bendigo, indeed? Well it's pretty close to Horsham . About 10 months before I came over, Eileen took a position in Horsham - an even smaller agricultural town, about half way between Melbourne and Adelaide. We were going to do the ultra-long distance thing for a while but this job came up and, what the heck... It is also easier to get a work visa for a rural area. I was hoping we were going to get to see Horsham this week but I don't think that is going to work out because Eileen is doing a lot of travel. Too bad because I had a craving for a visit to Horsham Masala. Misty and Pinot came over when I did. Pinot has finally forgiven us for the month in quarantine. Yes, it cost lots of money. Wattle and Spock adopted us here. They are all rescues. Biscuits were from the store but now I'm getting inspired to try to make my own. I grew up in Winnipeg (Hi Pam!) and ended up in the eastern Washington State for 16 years after bouncing around for a while. Maybe we'll pop open a bottle of Washington wine this week (yeah, bringing wine to Australia is like coals to Newcastle).

After crawling back to bed, getting up and starting the blog, I decided I needed some sustenance before heading out for the day. I'm not much of a breakfast person but I'd been awake for long enough to handle my version of one of my father's breakfasts: fried spaghetti. It's called that, no matter what pasta I find left over in the fridge. This time it was green fettuccine. Here it is part way through cooking - apparently I didn't get the finished product. My father made it pretty plain - fry the pasta to crispy in butter and scramble in some egg. I use olive oil and tend to doctor it up, depending on my whim. This time I used oregano, garlic, and dried chilies with lake salt and pepper put on at the end. I try to fold the eggs in fairly gently as they cook so I get bigger bits. I found some bacon at the back of the fridge and it didn't kill me yesterday so it went in, too. I'll get to the day's activities in a bit but after I got home I sent the dogs outside with a chicken frame each and made some Darjeeling tea. The tea pot is from an unknown Minnesota potter - I picked it up at Warren MacKenzie's studio and is a classic Mingei-sota style of wood fire. It pours well but is rather hard to fill because of the lack of clearance between the handle and lid. Still, I think it is really sweet and I decided to pick up pots that spoke to me rather than having to get one of Warren's. The mug is from a friend in Bellingham Washington, Michael McDowell. If you think you will be needing a cremation urn sometime soon, be sure to check him out . The plate and sugar bowl are random. The Jaffa Cakes were at the perfect point of starting to go stale to give them a little tooth.

Anzac biscuits have their origin (at least by that name) with World War I when they were sent to the Australia and New Zealand Corps soldiers. They were made from rolled oats, coconut, etc. so they would keep well for the journey. I haven't tried making them yet but they are really good. Anzac Day is very close to Easter this year but I haven't seen any tins yet - just the packages. I need a tin for my office because we have quite a mouse infestation this autumn. ETA: Oh yeah, the mug: Thanks for the compliment, I made it. I put a fair bit of thought into the handles and I think they are pretty comfortable when I get them right.

G'day! My name is Evan but you know me as haresfur. I'm an FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) transplant to Bendigo Australia. Bendigo is a Victorian era gold rush town in the State of Victoria, southeastern Australia. It is a "Rural City" - quite the oxymoron, about 150 km from Melbourne. The population is about 110,000, which is I think the 3rd largest city in Victoria. That gives you an idea of how sparsely populated it is once you get out of the Melbourne area. I'll keep the blog focused on food but context is important to me, particularly as I discover a new culture. First, I'd like to recognize and thank the traditional owners of the land, the Dja Dja Wurrung people. Bendigo is a "City in the Forest" but the box-ironbark and mallee Eucalyptus across the street from me were looking rather sad when I arrived after 13 years of drought. Record rainfall in the last year has seen an amazing renewal in the undergrowth. The wattle in the teaser picture was happy last spring. Anyone know if all wattle seeds are edible or just some species? The gold rush starting in 1851 saw an influx of people including a substantial number of Chinese, some of whom came by way of the California gold rush. Many never left and I was told the town helped look after the single aging miners and now the Bendigo Chinese Association is a major supporter of health services. Easter is the time when the only Imperial Dragon in the southern hemisphere Sun Loong wakes to take part in the parade. He's hard to wake up so the day before Easter, the Lion Dancers and drums make a lot of noise followed by 100,000 fire crackers. As Anna N noted the Chinese population is well integrated and the greater community takes part in the lion teams, Chinese pipe band, and dragon teams. It takes a lot of people to carry 100 m of dragon. I encourage you to visit the Golden Dragon Museum website to learn more. Well enough of that. Bendigo is 17 hours ahead of the west coast of N America so many of you will be seeing this a day early. I'm a bit intimidated by the level of culinary expertise and passion here but I'll try to show a bit of my food life and have you explore the area with me. So my day started with a wet nose shoved into my face at 4:00 AM. It was a legitimate demand for food from the young Dalmatian, Spock (a rescue that came with name Spot, but I couldn't deal with that). He and the old Dalmatian, Misty, missed supper after having chicken frames for tea because he was asleep and Misty could lose some weight. The cats got tuna and I had Anzac biscuits and orange juice. Wattle's feeding station: Pinot's feeding station (I could use the counter space but have to keep the cat food away from the pups). Better kitchen pictures later.

Ok, I'm in. I'm still puzzled about compiling here rather than individual forums or recipeGullet, but here is my conversion with tweak of Chris' pimento dram recipe from my post. The conversion was done by weighing dry ingredients and rounding to nice numbers. Liquids were converted to mL. 375 ml Inner Circle Green 375 ml Captain Morgan Dark 50 g 1/2 c allspice berries, crushed 0.4 g 6 black pepper berries, crushed 1 g 10 cloves, crushed 14 g 2 cinnamon sticks, broken 7 g 1 nutmegs, crushed Infuse with Inner Circle for 1 week add Captain Morgan and infuse for 2 more weeks Strain through metal strainer and coffee filter. Add to simple syrup made with 300 ml water and 340 g raw sugar. Bottle.

I don't think this is quite right. The french fry plants (in the US at least) demand big round smooth potatoes so they can get long fries efficiently. To do this they like sandy soil and lots of water. Makes for inefficient water use and groundwater contamination.

I'd think about the gateway factor in the choices. Sacrilege maybe, I'd consider bourbon instead of rye because I think it's more approachable. It also opens up the sipping factor - not only another drink option but to start learning about tasting for balance. And starting with sours isn't a bad idea.

It seems to me that your conversion makes your results more consistent but the only way of knowing if it is right is by judging the results. And unfortunately shared conversion factors may be convenient but they don't get around the original problem with using volumes in the first place. I think the change should be a 2 step process: Convert the recipe using your best conversion factors - either ones you have developed yourself (possibly by measuring both ways on the fly), or ones you look up. Then you have to judge the result and figure out what to adjust. The trouble is some of us don't have the skill to know that part for some baking/cooking or the patience to do the record keeping. It seems to me it is a daunting task for a group to go through the process for all but the most popular recipes and I'm not sure how to compile the results in a useful fashion.

Sounds intriguing. I wonder if the remains would make a good tortilla soup.

In eastern Washington State, my friends eagerly await the start of asparagus season and asparagus <insert meat> on the lunch menu at the local Chinese place. It's a fine way to mark the changing of the seasons. Australia imports less of its produce than the USA, as near as I can tell, so I expect most restaurants will focus more on seasonal items (as opposed to this year's nonexistent bananas).

Some of my best dining experiences and stories are from communal tables including Basque.

Great looking rellenos! I had my first in Santa Rosa NM on a marathon trip from the east to Arizona and have never come close to the goodness since. But that looks like a worthy contender. And thanks for the photos of the pottery.

The almond biscuits who's name I can't remember well enough to even find on Google are quite nice. And the Jaffa Cakes are very good but not quite as nice as LU Pims (aka PMS biscuits - not that that's a problem for me).

Does a Bacardi cocktail made with any rum other than Bacardi count? ETA: But I like Bacardi's bat label and their support for Bat Conservation International

I moved from a government contractor where, if you brought in a bottle of wine for someone who had performed a favor or a home brew for someone to try, you had to go out in the parking lot to make the transfer upon threat of termination. They did have an auditorium building that was privately owned and alcohol was allowed with very strict restrictions - especially on how it was paid for. At my current employment no one drinks during the week but my we have a Friday after work beer club where we rotate through different beers and rank them on taste and on 'wank' (a factor more or less related to the degree of pretentiousness of the bottle and label design and text). It is run mainly by the young computer wonkies and discussion of work is generally frowned upon, although jerking managers' chain is encouraged when they show up. The beer costs $3.00 (reasonable by Australian standards) and people drink at the most 2. At the end of the year profits went into personalized stubby holders and an evening of lawn bowling. If I were running a company I doubt I would provide free alcohol with no bartender - that's asking for a lawsuit from someone's next of kin. I think you could do as much or more for morale through a stock of fruit juice and power drinks (and a good espresso machine). I know my own productivity would go down with even one drink during the day but IMO societies tend to do better when moderate drinking is supported in the appropriate situations rather than developing a binge culture.