Fathers day feast

Earlier this week my Mum, staring fore longingly into the scarcely filled pantry, commented on how she is "So over thinking about food". In fact she hates it. The nagging mid afternoon thoughts about what to cook, the mental search through files of meal options that will suit, the carnivore, the sometimes vegetarian, the big eater, the small eater, and oh the lactose free girlfriend. The moment your mental shopping list is deleted every time the little automatic gate swings open to welcome you into aisle upon aisle of post-work zombies trying to piece together a meal.
Don't get me wrong Mum appreciates great food, but I think the 20 something years of unappreciative children and this afternoon routine has beaten the joy out of cooking for her family... Sorry mum.

I think the commercialized industry which now surrounds our shopping and cooking practices has alot to answer for in creating such a stale and detached eating culture. For fear of harping on like an old git about this, I'll be brief. Fluorescent lights, plastic bags, chewing gum checkout teens, sticky lino and curry in a can is a far cry from early morning market banter, shiny heaps of olives, dewy cobblestones, flapping fish, wafting smells of fresh baguettes and roasting nuts, smiling stall keepers and horror story animal carcasses gaily decorated with Santa hats and flower garlands. Perhaps my mother is just lamenting the sounds, smells and sights of these European Christmas markets.
I should mention the saving grace for my mother in the laborious task of preparing the evening meal is the clean skin Shiraz she ceremoniously sozzles during preparation. (I'm aware sozzles' isn't a word but it seems a fitting description.) It makes the whole task frightfully more enjoyable.
So as we come into Fathers day and the final family gathering we will have before I head back over to London and I couldn't be happier than to relieve mum of the cooking pressures and let here mellow down with a great Australian red.
This is the joyful thing about food. For foodies there is no greater pleasure than cooking for others and the reward you get from seeing people coming together simply to eat and be with each other. When I think back on great memories most of them have involved a good meal and coffee with friends and family.
I'm still finalising the menu for Sunday but I'm thinking Blue cheese, pear and rocket salad and a pork roast of some sort as a final farewell to winter. You can't go wrong with crunchy crackling and sweet seasonal apples. Finally for grandad I'm making my sticky date pudding. Under the watchful eye of my grandmother I doubt he has had many opportunities to indulge in this his favourite dessert. I can't wait.

Zokoko Emu Heights

In other developing food encounters this week and in keeping with the local produce theme, Ben and I headed to 'Morgans' at Emu heights. My fellow Blue Mountainers will be familiar with this coffee house as the Mountains boasts many great cafes which carry this brand of coffee. From bean to cup owner Dean Morgan is truly passionate about the perfect cup of coffee and at the office in Emu Heights you can taste the result, straight from the source. Years of searching for the perfect equiptment to accompany the perfect raw produce are evident as I had one of the best coffee's I have ever had. The office cafe is small but modern and there are a few tables if you want to put your feet up and watch the machinery through the window. Most excitingly Dean's wife Michelle has developed the same passion for chocolate and the company has now launched Zokoko (also the name of of the cafe in Emu Heights) which specialise in hand crafted chocolate. What a special thing to have so close to home! There really is a huge gap in the Australian market for bean to bar quality chocolate and I can't wait to sink my teeth into a piece when dad opens his father's day present. 

Hope everyone has a great Fathers Day!

xlaura

Keeping it local

End of World War two saw the immigration boom hit Australia. They brought their skills, they brought their music, they brought their cousins and they brought their food.
Growing up in suburban Sydney I have always been surrounded by international food and ingredients and its no secret that our Australian culinary identity has really grown out of this access and exposure to all types of food from across the globe.
It seems ironic then that the very culture in which we derive all these tastes from, particularly in Europe, adopt a proudly regional and localised tradition in cooking. Recipes and menus are decided upon by the seasonable and regional changes in ingredients. The food of an area is therefore dictated by the freshest and best ingredients..unique to that location.

I love this idea. I love traveling somewhere, experiencing the food and thinking 'I will never taste this again' at least not of the same quality and unashamedly simple form. I think this is largely why the food in Europe is so fantastic. It is a celebration of an ingredient, no fuss simple food.

It is such a shame that Australia has seemed to have lost this sense of local produce cooking in the home. Perhaps even more upsetting is seeing the trend echoed in England, who is just a stone's through from Europe's market mecca. Gone are the morning food markets, gone are the local butcher, baker and candle stick maker, gone is the time capsule of rural living. In its place is a society so built on convenience that the supermarkets are king. The bloody wars between Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda are more cut throat than the current Australian election campaign.

It is a movement sweeping the globe to think international but source local. The issue covers climatic concerns relating to the food mile (click here for more info), general interest in quality flavour, not to mention the fact that there are plenty of struggling farmers out there we can support. Jamie Oliver has echoed such concerns in his recent 'Food Revolution' and self confessed 'lunatic farmer' Joel Salatin was out recently to Australia to promote the importance of local produce. As the Australian restaurant industry is becoming increasingly competitive, I notice this trend beginning to echo in the menus which is a real credit to the Australian culinary community and looks to close this disconnect so many of us have between our meals and the produce.

Being the supermarket slut that I am I am now endeavoring to remove my blinkers and explore the frontier of local produce.
I am currently visiting family and friends in Australia and recently came back from a road trip up the east coast of Australia where I was thrilled to finally be a tourist in my own country,

It was truly a delight watching the landscape of Australia change from dense Sydney scrub to tall forestry followed by sandy olive groves, lush farming land, rolling rows of banana trees, sugarcane plantations and lush rainforest's. As the landscape changed so too did the produce of the small open roadside stalls and my partner Ben often had to think quick as I noticed new rusty blackboard signs promising the bud of new locally grown produce and creations.

One such gem I found was the variety of lemon myrtle products which I have never had before including yoghurt's, biscuits, teas and honey. Derived from a rainforest tree the flavour has hints of lime and lemongrass and whilst most of the forms I came across were in the shape of desserts I am keen to experiment with the 'taste of the rainforest' honey I picked up in Byron Bay in Asian cooking. I will keep you posted...

x laura

Welcome!

Welcome to my food and travel blog!

While food and travel seems a astronomically large combination to cover in a simple blog it is undeniable that the two cannot be separated from each other.

After you have experienced the dizzy heights of travel euphoria and have unceremoniously been thrown back into the regular beating heart of reality, the things that we are left with are- the memories, the digital images, the love handles and.....the food.
Aromas that transport you back, recipes you can (attempt to) recreate and new ingredients to share.
This is the most tangible and exciting way of recreating and re-visiting the succulent locations of our holidays. And although these attempts can often fail, it is good just knowing that such amazing food and culture, which is so often closely linked to food, is being created and enjoyed out there somewhere.

This is how i see things anyway. 

So join me as I continue to explore this beautiful relationship through personal accounts of restaurants ingredients and recipes along side general musings about these two things that bring so much joy to so many people!

If you like food and travel.. comment! would love to hear your accounts of fabulous food encounters.

x laura