Food has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a child growing up in a Middle Eastern home, not a day went by where delicious, comforting, and nourishing food was not enjoyed and celebrated. I have fond memories of waking up to the smell of warm cooked…
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I hate myself a little for admitting this but there is not a day that goes by where I don’t wish I was skinnier. The feminist in me rankles at this – so many times have I had internal rants that go something like ‘I will not conform to an unattainable ideology of beauty blah…
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The time has come again for me to praise multiculturalism and revel in the fact that you can walk down a bustling strip in any major Australian city and sample cuisine from at least 10 different countries. Not only that, but the food is usually excellent if you know where to go. Perhaps because the…
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When it comes to combating the common cold, does chicken soup actually have any medicinal qualities or is it made of placebo? This is a subject of much interest to me at the moment because I’ve transformed into a snot incubus. I thought the cold had finished doing the rounds in Canberra and that I…
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Have you ever come home after a long day at work, and figured it would be easier to eat cheese on toast, than to cook something healthy? We’ve all been there – groceries take time, it’s too hard to think of stuff to make, and frankly, eating badly is often cheaper. Those are all pretty…
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‘[There is] a recent trend towards high quality meals that don’t even need a frying pan, but simply require heating.’– John Newton, 1999 ‘Cooking … is a process – a source of pleasure, a means of exercising skill – not simply a collection of ingredients or “tastes” ’– Jean Duruz, 2000 In my first year…
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I have a confession to make this is a bit embarrassing for a food writer: I (until recently) had never cooked Osso Bucco and had thought it to be a very complicated and laborious recipe. When I was younger it was one of my very favourite things to order when I went out to dinner….
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Recently a good friend of mine decided to go on a paleo diet. This is a diet that mimics the eating habits of the people of paleontological times (our caveman ancestors) – meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. It’s a way of eating that is designed to encourage your body to burn fat rather than…
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Last weekend I visited my soon to be in laws with my fiancé. Despite his parents being uncommonly lovely, low-maintenance people, I was a little nervous. The reason for our visit was to help them build a house out on their vineyard. We piled into the car, our ridiculous little Pomeranian, my partner and myself…
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I’ve written about my conflicted relationship with breakfast before: love the food, but find it difficult to eat. One thing I didn’t mention in my previous post is that I’m also quite the Western breakfast traditionalist. At home it’s usually toast, porridge, or yoghurt. Out it’s normally Eggs Benedict or French toast. I also…
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I used to be a very unimaginative cook because I knew I could rely on a few unoriginal ingredients – namely meat – to satiate the people I was feeding. Pasta sauce a bit boring? Add some bacon, because everyone likes bacon. Or, say you have people coming around to dinner, what is guaranteed to…
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Food trends are a double-edged sword. They can be fantastic and give a type of food or cuisine well-deserved attention and popularity. I remember when I was in Year 12, all of a sudden, sushi was uber trendy. The exquisite combination of salty soy, sweet salmon and hot wasabi was suddenly all the rage. The…
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Like a lot of people, I love me some spaghetti (so much so that I’m willing to sacrifice talking like a grown-up). But like a lot of people, if I find myself eating too much of it, I have to wear the things in my wardrobe that are “blousy” or empire-lined. I don’t just like…
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French Onion Soup is one of those recipes that manage to make the most basic, taken-for-granted ingredient and make it taste exquisite (also, funny trivia, in France, French Onion Soup is apparently just called Onion Soup). I suppose it’s easy to make anything taste good if you caramelise it in butter, but it’s still pretty…
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