A Few of My Favourite Things !

So, I was walking down Edward St towards Brisbane’s botanic gardens early on Thursday morning. Other than the suits heading to work, it was fairly quiet on the city streets so I was quite surprised to come across a corner that was buzzing with a subdued energy. Four tables in front of a pub were filled with diners and across the road, there were two lone market stalls with a crowd of people milling about in front.

Odd, I thought, that there were only two stalls because that kind of market would surely not attract many shoppers. As I crossed the road and walked past the diners, I noticed that not one had a breakfast dish in front of them. Moreover, these patrons were just that little bit too shiny to strike me as being ‘normal people’.

Yesterday, I got on the plane to head home. I was presented with a Courier Mail newsaper only to come across a story about this. Well, that would certainly explain the spiffy-looking extras…

That’s the question I am going to ask if I am ever refused entry into a food institution from now on…

Actually, this had me in stitches wondering how many people flicking through the magazine would have been scratching their heads saying “Who?” - referring, of course, only to my own name (cheeky grin).

Well, from scientific journals to the AGT - where to next?

Just a quick photo-less update on our New Year’s Eve celebrations for today. We invited some close friends around for dinner and drinks to usher in 2007.

To start with, we dipped into smoky babaganoush flavoured with lemon juice, salt and pepper then lightened with a dollop or two of sheep’s yoghurt. This was accompanied by homemade pinenut and parmesan wafers that tasted actually better on their own than with the dip.

Unsure of how many would turn up early for dniner, I prepared the ever delicious chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine using our own preserved lemons, a lamb, nut and rice dish, stewed chickepeas, duck bisteeya and basmati rice scattered with jewel-like dried cherries, apricots, pistachios and slivered almonds.

I chose to replace pigeon with duck in the bisteeya so that I could purchase an already roasted duck from Chinatown instead of cooking the fowl from scratch - a useful time-saving measure. The chickpeas were stewed for over an hour with onions, garlic and cumin, rendering them exquisitely and meltingly tender.

For dessert, we enjoyed baclava, bought from our usual place on Sydney Road, and cheese from Simon Johnson, including a Roquefort, a pungent ewe’s milk blue cheese, Livarot, a soft washed-rind cheese made of cow’s milk, and my favourite, a Beaufort. The latter is a Gruyere-style, hard cheese made from cow’s milk and this one had a streak of blue mould running through.

We almost managed to see the fireworks from the living room but our plans were thwarted by the presence of a single tall building that managed to block most of the action. At least we had the television though…

Hope that you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to a blessed New Year!

I love food. I enjoy reading recipes, visiting restaurants, checking out gourmet food products, cooking for my friends and I’m not the only one. That’s why you are here, right? I do feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to do all of those things above but it’s time now to have a care for those who are not in as privileged a position as we are. Those around the world who are unable to afford food on a daily basis, let alone three meals a day.

Is this a problem that is too large to solve? Absolutely not! A couple of weeks ago in Melbourne, a group of top Australian performers and international acts including Bono, helped raise awareness about reducing world poverty through the Make Poverty History concert . This time, the food blogging world is out to do our bit to help those less fortunate. Initiated 3 years ago, this annual event known as Menu of Hope aims to raise funds for different charities each year. This year, the funds that we raise are going towards the United Nations World Food Program.

The good news is that YOU and I can do something to help. Food bloggers the world over have been busy sourcing prizes for you and there are some incredibly delicious-looking ones indeed! You can bid for prizes in the Asia Pacific region by visiting Grab Your Fork for the round-up of great donations.

Thanks to some generous donations, I’m putting up three prizes that you can bid for:

Two $50 vouchers for Chilli Padi (prize code AP23 and AP24):
Drop by the restaurant in Melbourne Central for some lovely mod asian cuisine before or after the movies. Even better, visit their Chilli Malam hawker stall the next time you are looking for a post-midnight snack after partying with friends. You can order roti, nasi lemak and other yummy hawker-style dishes. They even sell their own Chilli Padi stocks for making laksa and mee siam - perfect for a quick dinner after work

A $100 voucher to spend at Koko Black (prize code AP43):
Chocolate salons have been popping up all around Melbourne but Koko Black is a stand-out amongst these. The chocolate is made in-house and their hot chocolate is rated as one of the best in Melbourne. I think their house truffles are absolutely divine and the mint chocolate is another favourite of mine. I’ve also recently used the 74% Koko Black dark chocolate for some Alice Medrich desserts and will post about them this week. Try out their chocolates for yourself by purchasing a raffle ticket for this voucher. Can you IMAGINE how much chocolate you could get for $100?! (PS- if you’re interstate and are not able to visit Melbourne for any reason, I could possibly be talked buying a selection and posting it to you).

But why stop there? Why not put some bids in for prizes from other regions as well? Who knows, you may win a gastronomic tour of London or Tuscany that will make your next overseas trip more exciting!

After visiting the round-ups for the Asia Pacific region, you should then…

1. Go to the donation page at (http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII)

2. Make a donation, each US$10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for AP01 and 3 for AP02.

3. For US donors, if your company has agreed to match your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we may claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

5. Raffle tickets are available until 22 December 2006. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the results of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Our friend the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.)

If you would like to bid on prizes from other regions, please visit the following for the round up of prizes:
US West Coast: Becks and Posh
US East Coast: Amateur Gourmet
US (the rest): Kalyn’s Kitchen
Canada: Cardamom Addict
Europe and UK: Davidlebovitz.com
Latin America: Cooking Diva

DONATE NOW and HELP US FEED THE WORLD’S HUNGRY!

If you’ve ever seen Bill Granger on TV or in a photo, the first thing you would notice is his boyish smile - the whitest, most perfect teeth set off by tanned, tanned skin. I hear that he is promoting a new Macleans toothpaste and you can definitely see why they would love him.

I’ve never owned any of Bill’s cookbooks but I have enjoyed ricotta hot cakes and scrambled eggs at bills in Surrey Hills and his Banana Bread is one of my favourite things to bake. However, I hear that Every Day is pretty good.

This morning, on my way into work, I saw posters outside Angus & Robertson announcing that he was doing signings. There was a desk set up and books all ready to be signed on the table…and not a single soul around. Then Bill came up the stairs and walked behind the desk. And still, no one around, no one rushing up to get thier book signed. Well, I didn’t want him to feel like nobody loved him so what else could I do but head on up?

Well, actually, the truth is that A. was with me and said ‘Why don’t you get the book?’ So I did, autograph and all. And Bill comes across in person exactly the way he looks in photos - completely lovely and sweet.

A. tried to take a photo of us together with his phone but as you can see it was WAY too bright…or maybe that’s just Bill’s radiant smile.

What would you think about if you had 2 hours to do nothing but think?

Well, I thought about what a wonderful morning it was to be outside, that I would be going to the Good Food Show that afternoon, about how much I love my wonderful husband who was still in bed and how blessed I was to be able to do this:

Would I do it again? If you had asked me immediately following, I think it would have been a resounding ‘NO’. My left knee was hurting and my left foot was in pain - my overall impression was ‘this activity is not good for your joints!’. Five days later, having fully recovered from listening to Kylie Minogue’s last album for 45 min straight (accidentally set it on this just before starting and couldn’t see menu as IPod was strapped to arm) and from the muscle tightness, I would definitely reconsider that response. Actually, it could almost become addictive…

Look what I got for Mother’s Day! Aren’t my parents the best? te hee hee

After getting up extra early on a Sunday for the Mother’s Day Classic, a fun run around Melbourne’s Botanical Garden, we rushed around to Sydney Road to pick up some Lebanese sweets to share when our families came over that afternoon. I didn’t get photos of the Knafi, a Lebanese pastry made with clotted cream and topped with pistachios and syrup, but we normally order it in a huge tray that measures 50-60cm in diametre. We normally have this with kaak, a type of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds. This dessert is popular for celebratory-type occasions such as the day after a wedding. I’m always astounded by the similarities in food between cultures and for those who are familiar, kaak is almost exactly like the Asian ‘Ham Cheem Bang’ (sorry, my terrible guess at the spelling!) minus the cinnamon. Hmmm, I wonder who came up with it first?

A few weekends ago, I watched the Commonwealth Games marathon runners wind their was through the streets of Melbourne. I was there at Carlton Gardens to take pictures of the participants near the beginning of their race and I was there at the end when they sped along the Yarra River towards the MCG. I wondered how it must feel to have to maintain a strong state of mind for such a long race and what the cheers of the spectators would mean to the runners, especially when it’s starting to feel like it’s been a long day.

Well, last Sunday, I got the chance to have a little feel of what it’s like at the inaugural Herald Sun/Citylink Run for the Kids! Fortunately, I had had the foresight (uh huh) to register early on for the 14.7km, which traversed the Bolte Bridge and the Domain Tunnel, as they closed registrations off at 20,000 participants after an unexpectedly overwhelming response. The event ended up raising more than $400,000 for The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal! A huge thanks to the organisers, marshalls, volunteers and cheering spectators.

These photos are borrowed from here.