Food History

I’ve borrowed Llyn’s computer to let you know what a perfectly foodie weekend I have had. Tomorrow I’ll be home and Tuesday I’ll launch the competition, but today my friends and I have visited Newtown and various shops (lunch was Turkish bread with baba ganush, carrot dip, chummous and tea) and two major cemeteries and at least one significant church. The ‘at least’ refers to the fact that we only went inside one church. I’ll post about our graveyard visit (and how to see ghosts in Newtown) on my my other blog tomorrow. Tonight I want to tell you about yesterday.

Sydney is full of suburban strips of shops. This is where you can find the most fascinating little places for food. Yesterday, for instance, we dropped into a number of places in Rozelle and Five Dock. Our excursion included two gourmet chocolate shops, a patisserie, an Italian supermarket and Herbie’s. Herbie’s is one of Australia’s best herb and spice specialist shops, run by the inimitable Ian Hemphill. Llyn gave me a belated birthday present of Ian’s book (about which I might have to blog someday) and Ian himself has promised to be interviewed for us. That will probably happen later in July. Ian and I chatted about all sorts of things, from Roman tastebuds to how to spice early nineteenth century dishes correctly.

We ate those heritage carrots for dinner. The white carrot has a higher sugar content than the coloured ones, but is rather bland. The purple one sliced to orange and tasted like the orange ones ie deliciously carrotty. Llyn and I think that if we ever obtain white carrots again, we might try them caramelised and make use of that sugar.

I have carefully packed samples from the chocolate shop and my wonderful new book. With them I packed new memories of the harbour and the bridges, of old tombs and perfect Gothic arches, and of lots of happy moments with friends who are equally food-addicted. I didn’t pack the sickle that we bought at Rozelle markets - it won’t fit in my backpack. I learned how to use it, though, and we’ll find a way to get it to Canberra soon, I hope.

Now you know why my blog entries have been short for a couple of days. I wrote them in advance and posted them on time-delay. I’m back to real life now, though, and life is about to get rather exciting, with interview and competition and all that chocolate and book in my backpack.