Category Archives: Food Issues

February 28, 2015 · 11:10 am

A freezer stocking frenzy

photo

I’ve been stocking up the freezer. I’ve amassed quite an edible stash. There are 35 double portions of hand-made meals in plastic containers, plus 10 single portions of random things. That’s 80 individual meals, frozen in time.

There’s a good reason for this bizarre hoarding. We have just embarked on a back-of-house extension and kitchen renovation, which will render us kitchen-less for about eight weeks. The fridge-freezer and microwave have been redeployed to the dining room: we’ll be eating defrost/reheat-style for several months. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Food Issues, Reflections, Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

August 31, 2014 · 11:50 am

How to overthrow a head cold and eat right for your body type

Anjum_Anand_cold_busting_curry-ayurveda

Anjum Anand’s cold-busing curry (Photo: supplied)

When I was sent a recipe for the Ultimate Cold-busting Curry at the onset of Sydney’s wintertime, I didn’t expect to use it. I needed another curry recipe like a hole in the head and I usually escape winter without so much of sniff or a snuffle, even when friends and colleagues are crashing around me like flu-ridden flies.

But on the tail-end of winter came almost two weeks of persistent, and often torrential, rain. Somewhere in the middle of it a head cold moved into our house, uninvited. It latched on to one of us, then the other and has proved difficult to shake. So Anjum Anand’s Ayurveda-inspired cold-busing curry is getting a workout this weekend. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Book Reviews, Food Issues, Recipes

Tagged as , , , ,

August 24, 2014 · 3:49 pm

Is it time to cut out the C-word and get healthy?

Purple_lettuce_veggie_patch

I guess it had to happen some time: the acknowledgement, and subsequent overhaul, of a diet laden with carbohydrates — usually the ‘bad’ kind. I’ve known for a while it’s time to cut back on the bad carbohydrates — or the C-word. The white rice, pasta and bread products that bulk out our meals and are easy fodder on a week night after work have been filling us up, but also filling us out.   Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under Food Issues, Reflections

February 10, 2014 · 7:27 pm

Eating at work: five rules of engagement

Eating_At_Desk

Eating at the work desk is fraught with difficulty (iPhoto)

Not long before I left my last job I was at my desk eating a Crunchie — you know, one of those Cadbury chocolate-covered honeycomb bars — quite noisily, it turned out. The boss stood up, peered over the partition between the ‘hot desks’ we occupied, muttered something about eating (I can’t remember what, exactly) and smiled in a not really smiling kind of way. I was sufficiently chastised to suck the rest of that Crunchie, which was aptly named by the marketing geniuses at Cadbury, I have to say.

The next day, sitting at the same hot desk, I was eating a bag of crisps — you know, those extra-crispy Kettle Chip kind — quite noisily, it turned out. The boss stood up, peered at me over our partition and said: “Oh, you again!” I was mortified. Not once, but twice i’d been ousted by the boss — of all people — for my inelegant office eating habits. Continue reading →

31 Comments

Filed under Food Issues, Reflections

Tagged as , , , ,

October 26, 2013 · 11:48 am

Sugar rush: the growing taste for elaborate desserts

Anna_polyviou_tropic_anna_dessert

Anna Polyviou’s Tropic-Anna dessert. Photo: James Morgan

It’s ironic that John Ralley, head pastry chef at Sydney’s Wildfire restaurant, has a hairdryer on his work bench. Tattoos cover just about every inch of his visible flesh, he wears a black ear gauge that has stretched the lobe to a gaping hole, and has a shock of dark, unkempt hair.

But it wasn’t Ralley’s unruly locks that were destined to be blow-dried. It was the blown-sugar apricot he was attempting to cool before he could embark on the next stage of his four-textured apricot dessert: ­filling it with exquisite mousse. Read the full article in The Australian Financial Review.

9 Comments

Filed under Chefs, Food Issues

Tagged as , , , , ,