ChrisZ

When I was in high school I came across a book that claimed Australia's national dish was the "pie floater". I was annoyed that I'd never heard of it - you would expect Australia's national dish to be common knowledge to Australians - and even more annoyed when I discovered what it was. A pie floater is a bowl of pea soup with a meat pie floating in it. Google has revealed a wikipedia article, and also a photo. My original indignation was well-founded, the pie floater is not Australia's national dish and hopefully never will be. Maybe they're delicious, maybe they're much healthier than a plain meat pie, but I think they're plain wrong. -Chris

I moved from Melbourne five years ago but when I lived there my favourite market was always the Prahran market- I'm a little surprised it disappoints you. I agree that the Victoria Markets seem to be more about quantity and price rather than quality, the food I bought there was a bit hit & miss, but I always found Prahran to be very reliable. And the Essential Ingredient is there too, I spent hours and loads of money in that shop... If you want a wide range of potatoes then try the South Melbourne market- the market itself isn't anything special (the fresh produce is pretty good but the rest is tacky) but there is a stall dedicated to unusual potatoes (South Melbourne Market). It's not exactly close to Kew though, so if you decide to drive from Kew to South Melbourne just for a few spuds then you will have my respect! I suggest you try the organic food shops in Eltham, they may be what you're looking for - and if you're new to Melbourne then a drive to Eltham (and Warrandyte) will make for a lovely afternoon. I suggest you try googling for organic food shops in Eltham because it's been many years since I was there and they may have changed, but there was one called something like Dynamic Foods which was lovely. There are bound to be farmers markets in the Eltham area as well, although the Collingwood one (linked to above by EmmaElizabeth) has the added attraction of all the animals! And if you want to make a weekend of it then just go for a drive out to the Yarra Valley and take your chances with roadside stalls. Visit some wineries, or berry farms, or trout/salmon/yabby farms, and enjoy the scenery as much as the food! Cheers, -Chris

Thought I might elaborate a bit further... Several years ago in London I attended the book launch of "The Chocolate Connoisseur", by Chloé Doutre-Roussel (Amazon). She gave a 2 hour talk on chocolate and took audience Q&As afterwards. My favourite part was the gasps of horror from the audience when she said that even if she were locked in a room for a week with nothing but Lindt chocolate she still wouldn't touch it, and that Godiva chocolates (and most Belgian chocolates) weren't anything special either. She obviously has extensive knowledge of the chocolate manufacturing process and has personally visited cocoa plantations, her book is worth a read because it gives you a different perspective on chocolate than most other chocolate books I've seen. She specifically talks about organic chocolate in the book, and the question that you ask was also asked by an audience member that night and this is what I can remember her response being: -Firstly, the quality of chocolate begins with the beans- the type of tree they are grown on, the way the beans are harvested, fermented and then dried. However this is a low-profit part of chocolate making, so there's little incentive for plantation owners to use expensive labour. If you're using premium quality chocolate then there is less of a chance that it was produced from low-cost plantations. However I should point out that Chloe's definition of quality is much more stringent than the average person's - she names Dagoba, Kaoka, Green & Blacks, Amadei, Domori & Pralus as manufacturers that are directly involved with plantations or own their own plantations and are concerned with quality over profit. -Secondly, unfortunately the terms 'fair trade" and "organic" can influence customer choice (your post is a direct example of this!) however it is a long and expensive process to become certified as either fair-trade or organic. Also, being either fair-trade or organic doesn't guarantee that the chocolate is high quality. According to Chloe's book- in 1997 all the organic chocolates that were sampled by the French Chocolate Society were judged to be poor quality. What this means is that there are high quality chocolates which may be organic and/or fair-trade but aren't certified as such (thus nothing on the label) but also many chocolates that are certified (so big expensive declarations on the label) but are low quality. So basically - what Alexandra said above! Personally, Green & Blacks is the only chocolate available in Australian supermarkets that I like, and so it's what I normally use- when it's on special it's cheaper than Cadburys. David Jones food departments have a wider range of artisan chocolates at much higher prices, my closest David Jones stocks Michel Cluziel amongst others (possibly Pralus). And my local deli stocks Valrhona at about 4 times the price of Green & Blacks in the supermarket, special occasions only! Any of the brands mentioned on this page should give you a clear conscience and a great result.

Green & Blacks is another choice that is now becoming common in supermarkets. My favourite milk chocolate is G&B, and I use their dark chocolate in cakes and desserts.

If it's wobbles you want then try sticking it in the dishwasher ;-) That's what my flatmate did to my salad spinner... it came out kinda wavy and all buckled but with a bit of effort it still spun - but boy did it wobble! But it worked well enough that it wasn't replaced, perhaps the dishwasher experience made it better!

I'm envious- some of the best food and most memorable meals I have ever had were in Osaka. I agree with the others that the food in Osaka is generally wonderful, and izakaya is the way to go. Personally, I never really got into the whole shabu-shabu thing and was teased for usually ordering donburi. My favourite restauant in Osaka (and one of my favourite restaurants of all time) is simply called Izakaya Toyo, a short walk from Kyobashi station. If I told you that the entire restaurant is run from the back of a truck then you'd think it was dodgy! But the food is divine- I'll always remember the blowtorched tuna. The owner/chef (Toyo) has also popped up on Japanese TV occasionally, he's well known locally. I remain very impressed with his approach to cutting-board hygiene- judging from a clip I saw on TV he seems to use thick blocks of cutting board plastic, and every day he would use an electric planer (like a carpenter would use) to shave the cutting board down to a fresh and clean surface. I just did a google search and although I couldn't find an exact address or location for you, I did find someone's blog on the same restaurant- very informative: http://ofvegemiteandmiso.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/hello-world/ One of the most impressive (and expensive) meals I have ever eaten was at Kiccho's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiccho)- one of those times where you want to photograph every dish but you feel too silly and embarrassed to do so -between 12-15 courses of exquisitely presented morsels. There was some scandal a while ago regarding one Kiccho's restaurants but I don't know what it was about or how much the media hyped it. But the lunch I had at the Osaka restaurant is something I will always remember. At the other end of the price scale - if you have a problem with jet lag then go to the fish market... great food at 4am. You can get sushi that's so fresh the prawns are still twitching on the rice. Have fun! -Chris

I'm not a food scientist, alas, so I can only paraphrase additional bits from McGee's book. Without giving specific temperatures, McGee simply says amylase is "remarkably resistant to heat". I tried googling and also discovered a range of conflicting temperatures for amylase to denature- from 60C on Wikipedia to 100C here so I'm not sure what it really is. I found one site that said it wasn't deactivated even after 30minutes at 95C. It is also possible that sugar, salt and overall dilution of the mixture will determine the temperature needed to deactivate the enzyme. In the same chapter of the book, McGee details how the temperature required to coagulate a custard depends on several factors including the overall concentration of yolk to liquid, and so is significantly higher than the temperature required to coagulate pure egg yolk. However the principles involves in thickening a custard may be different to deactivating enzymes. As Shalmanese points out, creme patisserie must also be cooked at a high enough temperature and for a long enough time to allow the starch used to gelatinise- this also contributes flavour as well as stability. To return to the original post, this is something of an issue of definition. A creme pattisserie is basically a custard with starch added to it so that it becomes thick enough to hold its shape- there's not much point in creating a thin creme pattisserie because it would be a thinned-thickened custard! So if the original recipe calls for a creme patisserie then you would assume the point is that it sets and not that it pours like a sauce. If you prefer it when it pours then just omit the starch from the recipe and don't boil it... Cheers! -Chris

I'm just reading McGee's book on kitchen science and the chapter on eggs reminded me of this thread. According to McGee, cream fillings that are stiffened with a starch (ie flour) must be boiled to remove the enzyme amylase from the mix- amylase is present in egg yolks. If the mixture is not boiled then the amylase will digest the starch and over time the cream will turn from thick to thin. Creams that do not have starch added should definitely not be boiled. Hope this is interesting to you as well, -Chris

Thanks for the photo and the pearl dust suggestion... something I haven't tried before but sounds lovely. -Cheers

Hi, Sorry that I don't have answer to your initial question (haven't heard of Cacao Noel), although I can confirm that you do need to temper the cocoa butter with the melted chocolate. The tempering process is all to do with the cocoa butter- there are 6 different ways that cocoa butter can crystalise, and only one ("form V") gives you glossy, snappy chocolate. The tempering process is designed to crystalise the cocoa butter into form V crystals, so you wouldn't want to go to all the bother of tempering a batch of chocolate only to add more, non-tempered cocoa butter afterwards. I used to buy Lindt couverture chocolate in 2kg blocks, I've never been very fussy with white chocolate as I don't find much variation between brands (as compared to the dark stuff). The Lindt melted well, however it was clearly labeled a couverture so the cocoa butter content would have been relatively high. But I'm interested to know if adding cocoa butter affects the colour much? Does it make the chocolate more yellow? I'm wondering if it's a problem for you to match white chocolate (which is usually a bit yellow) to the icing on the wedding cake? Cheers, -Chris

I've just bought Blumenthal's 'Fat Duck Cookbook' and am happily working my way through it. He mentions langoustines several times, which are small Norwegian lobsters (I know them better as scampi). Probably a lot smaller than the lobsters you're dealing with, but the principle should be the same. Blumethal initially blanches them for 10secs in boiling water with shell intact, then plunges them into an ice bath, before removing the shell and refrigerating them sous vide (with butter) until needed. They are then cooked sous vide at 60C for 6 minutes. The interesting bit is the footnote which I'll paraphrase- 'the cooking time for langoustine is brief and exact. If cooked at too low a temperature the flesh becomes "pappy", this is because the usual temperature range for cooking seafood promotes the activity of enzymes which break down the flesh very quickly.' Hope this helps, -Chris

Lovely thread. Smoothies have been my breakfast for many years, a happy compromise I reached after my trainer at the gym was horrified when I told him I never had more than a cup of coffee for breakfast... Not much to add but a few thoughts- Definition: Personally, for me a smoothie's definitive ingredient is yoghurt. A no-yoghurt dairy smoothie is a milkshake. A no-dairy smoothie is fruit juice! Fascinating how this type of thing can vary between people and between countries. Freezing fruit: ditto about freezing fruit and not using ice. I buy strawberries by the box and divide them up into freezer-bag portions (about 100g), frozen fruit acts as a thickener too. Bananas: All my smoothies have a banana in them, I've never thought about why, I guess I like the flavour and texture... I've never had to freeze them though. Additives: For a simple banana smoothie I sometimes add toasted muesli. It makes the texture rough but I don't mind it as a change. But a good toasted muesli will introduce a lovely taste and tones of honey to the smoothie without the need to add honey. I assume it adds fiber too... Another additive I use with banana smoothies is wheatgerm. It has a much more subtle flavour than toasted muesli (and a much more subtle texture!) but also very pleasant- it's almost like a 'health food shop' aroma. Nutmeg might make it taste more exotic. My regular breakfast smoothie is: 1 banana 1/2 punnet strawberries (about 125g, or 4oz) 1 cup apple juice 1/2 cup yoghurt