eG Foodblog: Misgabi - An Australian's week

[misgabi]

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

[gus_tatory]

thanks for the foodblog, misgabi~!

do aussies have large sunday dinners, as a lot of other nationalities tend to?

more, please...

[misgabi]

do aussies have large sunday dinners, as a lot of other nationalities tend to?

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)

[SobaAddict70]

What's Australian television like?

Do the commercials make any sense? (A recent trend that's spiked in the US consists of commercials that are only tangentially related to the product that's being sold. Some of these are so far a leap of imagination and logic that I don't even bother trying to think about them anymore.)

How many of those commercials are food-related?

Cheers,

Soba

[Al_Dente]

How do you keep the food from flying off the table and making a mess of the ceiling?

Yeah, that was lame.

[misgabi]

What's Australian television like?

Do the commercials make any sense?  (A recent trend that's spiked in the US consists of commercials that are only tangentially related to the product that's being sold.  Some of these are so far a leap of imagination and logic that I don't even bother trying to think about them anymore.)

How many of those commercials are food-related?

Cheers,

Soba

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.

How do you keep the food from flying off the table and making a mess of the ceiling? 

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.

[fifi]

Are your Australian ads anywhere near as bizarre as some I have seen from the UK?

I was in Ireland last week. Watching the BBC, there was this car ad. The car was rushing down the street being followed by this big red jiggling jello mold and two front loading washers. No... I am not making that up and I wasn't drunk... at the time. Needless to say, I have no idea what kind of car it was.

[misgabi]

Had a late lunch of chicken, cream cheese and cranberry sauce on a white (vaguely italian type spongy) roll. Got the chicken from the charcoal chicken shop and the roll from the bakery (had the rest in the fridge at work) and made it myself. Also had a diet coke.

Roll on the most boring foodblog ever

[Squeat Mungry]

How do you keep the food from flying off the table and making a mess of the ceiling? 

More importantly, do your revolving restaurants revolve clockwise or anticlockwise (or should that be counterclockwise?)?

Cheers,

Squeat

[Schneier]

How do you keep the food from flying off the table and making a mess of the ceiling? 

Yeah, that was lame.

Like they've never heard any "fall off the planet" jokes before.

[Tam]

My uncle married an Australian lady he met while travelling abroad. They now live in Canada (his and my country of origin). As we are a family with strong Ukrainian roots, her cooking has been quite a novely to us. We all often share recipes of hers since her dishes are tasty and new to us. She makes lovely baked goods (snacking cakes, squares and lamingtons). As well, her range of appetizers is innovative (ie. chutney cheese spread). Due to her influence, I own a few Australian Women's Weekly cook books and quite enjoy the breads, desserts and seafood recipes therein. Obviously my aunt comes from a country and family of good cooks. Don't let us down, Misgabi.

[misgabi]

Told my husband I had been tagged for the foodblog and his response was "excellent - you will have to make an effort so they don't think you live off soup!" He is seriously excited about acutally having food in the fridge when he gets home from work in the middle of the night.

I had an apple & custard muffin for afternoon tea that my secretary purchased when she took the mail to the post office - yum

I will have to go to the shops on the way home and buy some food now so I don't disappoint this week.

Tam : My husband mentioned that I could make lamingtons and he could eat them!!! I told him he should make them then I could eat them Needless to say neither of us will be making them!!

More importantly, do your revolving restaurants revolve clockwise or anticlockwise (or should that be counterclockwise?)?

I'm sure you are taking the piss but the one in Canberra goes clockwise!! And the food used to fairly ordinary - but they did do crepe suzettes and set fire to my sister once luckily her eyebrow grew back and they didn't charge for the meal!! Don't think we ever went back after that........

Edited November 3, 2003 by misgabi (log)

[Shiewie]

misgabi - a city in country NSW half way between Sydney and Melbourne ... do you live in Wagga Wagga?

[Pan]

And the food used to fairly ordinary - but they did do crepe suzettes and set fire to my sister once  luckily her eyebrow grew back and they didn't charge for the meal!!  Don't think we ever went back after that........

Do Australians sue for stuff like that?

[misgabi]

misgabi - a city in country NSW half way between Sydney and Melbourne ... do you live in Wagga Wagga?

Yes, "place of many crows"!!

Made lasagne for dinner last night. Got some fresh lasagne sheets and layered them - goats cheese and mushrooms, pumpkin (I think the one the american's call butternut squash - we just call it butternut pumpkin) cooked and mashed with a thick layer of fresh ricotta on top. A layer of semi-dried tomatos with mozarella, then another layer of goats cheese and mushrooms. Top layer of pasta and then poured my tomato sauce (bottled last year) over the top. Parmesan on top of all that and baked until all golden and bubbly - yum

Ate this with a "salad" - really just cos lettuce and truss tomato with a balsamic dressing.

Was full after that so had no dessert.

While I was making dinner I downed a couple of glasses of the local chardonnay and had some "Roaring 40's" blue cheese from King Island in Tasmania - delicious.

It is Melbourne Cup here today so am off to a "chicken and champagne" lunch and to watch the local races. We then are going to dinner with friends - probably not a good plan after an afternoon of champagne hubby has taken the afternoon and evening off for all this frivolity. I am simply closing the office

I had a slice of toast with marmalade for breakfast and a mug of earl grey tea - making it about the 3rd time this year I have actually eaten breakfast at home before leaving for work.

[alacarte]

I've noticed no Vegemite yet. You're ruining my pre-conceived sterotype of Australian eating habits.

Do you have any thoughts to share on Vegemite?

[misgabi]

I've noticed no Vegemite yet. You're ruining my pre-conceived sterotype of Australian eating habits.

Do you have any thoughts to share on Vegemite?

I like vegemite spread really, really thinly on super fresh white bread. I seem to go through stages of eating that for lunch for a whole week and then won't touch it for months. I used to eat vegemite sprinkled with sugar on toast for breakfast as a kid. (a bit like cinnamon toast only completely not!)

I do however use vegemite in stews and meatier type soups - just a tablespoon added at the same stage as the stock going in seems to give it a bit extra.

If you have pre-conceived stereotyped ideas of our eating habits here maybe I should throw a shrimp (prawn) on the barbie Or have a nice big kangaroo steak for dinner tonight.

[bloviatrix]

It is Melbourne Cup here today so am off to a "chicken and champagne" lunch and to watch the local races.

What type of races are conducted at the Melbourne Cup?

[misgabi]

It is Melbourne Cup here today so am off to a "chicken and champagne" lunch and to watch the local races.

What type of races are conducted at the Melbourne Cup?

Horse racing. Melbourne cup is touted as "the race that stops a nation" and everyone slacks off for the afternoon. Melbourne actually has a public holiday on the first Tuesday each November for this race (everyone else just pretends they do)

Melbourne Cup

Here is the link for King Island that makes the fabulous cheeses etc that we seem to eat alot of.

King Island

[misgabi]

Ok going to lunch now - will see how I fare posting-wise after that!! Wish my liver luck

[misgabi]

Had a seriously nice whole smoked trout at lunch - decided against the traditional chicken. It was served on salad greens, red onion and tomato with a creme fraiche dressing that had lots of dill in it. The trout was delicious, moist and flavoursome and a far better choice than chicken.

Dessert was called "walk in the black forest" and consisted of berry ice cream (could taste rasberry, blackberry, strawberry and blueberry I think) really thick and creamy served with fresh berries (same as listed which may have made me think I was tasting them all!!) but to round out the presentation they had created "shards" of chocolate about 90cm high and 30cm in width which stuck out of the ice cream. The waitress needed both hands to deliver this dessert and the chocolate was greedily consumed by other people at our table (trust me far too much for one person).

Just to pander to alacartes preconceived stereotypes of Australian eating habits you will be pleased to know my husband ate kangaroo sausages with native pepperberry. He said these were very moist and went really well with his garlic mash (I tasted that and fully believe that at least 45 cloves of garlic died to create this sensational side - it tasted almost whipped in consistency and soooooo creamy - something we intend to try to recreate at home.

Am now seriously considering purchasing an icecream machine - and make treats of my own (but possibly without the foot and a half of chocolate shard).

Drank a couple of glasses of champage but then switched to charddonay - anyone seeing a drinking trend here?

Off now to get some nibbles ready for friends before we head out to dinner later.

[fifi]

This is a really fun blog, misgabi. What with the time difference, I hope you don't get discouraged about the replies. Look at the "views" statistics.

Tell us more about native pepperberry!

[Squeat Mungry]

Dessert was called "walk in the black forest" and consisted of berry ice cream (could taste rasberry, blackberry, strawberry and blueberry I think) really thick and creamy served with fresh berries (same as listed which may have made me think I was tasting them all!!)

Misgabi,

Thanks for a fascinating blog! I'm curious about the berries. I assume these are Australian-grown berries you're talking about? I also assume none are native to Australia? It's early spring there now, correct? Are the berries in season?

By the way, I was taking the piss (if, again, my assumptions are correct -- this is not a common Americanism in the assumed sense) about the revolving restaurants. I'm pretty sure the one at the Hyatt here in San Francisco goes counterclockwise, but it's been a while.

Thanks again for the blog and, er, go Melbourne!(?)

Cheers,

Squeat

Edited: those g's look just like q's when they're underlined in the eGullet font!

Edited November 4, 2003 by Squeat Mungry (log)

[misgabi]

This is a really fun blog, misgabi. What with the time difference, I hope you don't get discouraged about the replies. Look at the "views" statistics.

Tell us more about native pepperberry!

Thanks fifi - was just thinking I might be boring everyone - especially after shiewies exotic sounding blog.

Native pepperberry is one of those "aussie bush herb/spice" we keep hearing so much about. Have included link:

native pepperberry

to a place called "Herbies Spices" where I buy alot of gorgeous things over the internet (as we don't get to sydney that often). He does amazing kits that I often send to friends overseas (for example: True Blue Aussie which has favourites like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Everyone I have sent them to always asks for the same (or similar next time).

Our aussie bush flavours seem to be more intense (such as the lemon myrtle which can replace lemon grass and make fabulous scones) and we have a few things in the pantry just because we like to buy new things and try them out.

There is also this site paddymelon which gives some really good descriptions of different aussie bush foods that might interest some people. We don't use a huge amount at home but I tend to like ordering them if I go out. There used to be an excellent restaurant in Sydney that specialised in "bush tucker" and did things with paperbark and fish that should be outlawed (except that it was so good). I miss that restaurant

Must go - people arriving soon. Hope some of this is of interest. Just trying to fly the flag for australian food even though I live in the middle of nowhere (as far as Sydney/Melbourne dwellers are concerned)

[Pan]

I also assume none [no berries] are native to Australia?

Why do you assume that, Squeat?