Autumn Fruits

Nothing is as good as Spring and Summer fruits. When Autumn comes we still have the joy of grapes and pears start to appear. The only problem is that I always find it very difficult to choose my pears. They are either too hard, too mushy or tasteless. But when you pick a good one they can be so yummy!

Gourmet Traveller

My favourite food magazine has to be the ever excellent Australian Gourmet Traveller. I have picked up so many recipes from this monthly publication. If you live out of Australia you usually can find it through any good English magazine provider. It reflects the amazing diversity of Australia cuisine that borrows from the best from any other country in the world really.

Food of the Day - Part Two

And now for something completely different: Jelly. I absolutely love Jelly! It is so easy to prepare, so easy to eat, so tasty and yet probably so bad for health. But as any of my favourite foods, as long as you do not eat it excessively (as I did tonight) you should be fine. Since I am in Australia I was made to purchase the Aeroplane brand. Orange is my favourite. Yummy! The time when TV ads were lasting for two minutes is well over but you should have a look at this TV classic!

Food of the Day

The food of day is: Oyster. I never used to like them. Or I used to only like them fried or cooked. But wether it is in America or here in Australia I usually enjoy oysters as they are much tastier and fleshy. Thay have actually grown so much on me that if they are on the menu I am now most likely to order them as my first choice. That's insane how tastes can radically change over the years.

Good Friday

We were a bit lazy today and we are not very Christian but as we always enjoy seasonal food goodies we purchased some Hot Cross Buns which are very popular all around the world in AngloSaxon countries. I had my first ones 25 years ago in England. Calling our family we discovered they all made their own for Easter, some the traditional way with raisins, others a bit more fancy with cranberries. I like the way they taste and it always is a pleasure, while eating them, to think that it will be a full year before I have another taste...

Rapid Creek Market

The market season is approaching with the famous Mindil Beach Sunset market soon to reopen as it seasonally does every year in late April. In the meantime you can enjoy a few markets in Darwin, especially on weekends. Yesterday, we went to the Parap Market which is pretty small and a bit hippie but still enjoyable. Today, we were in search of organic fresh fruits and vegetables so we headed to the famous Rapid Creek market. It has a strong Asian influence. Coincidentally, a few people have been questioning me on Darwin's legendary Asian influences lately and I have to admit that I kind of see them less obvious here than in Sydney for exemple. But in between Thai massages, Indian spices and Vietnamese food stalls you could be mistaken for thinking you are somewhere in Asia.

In my fridge

My fridge is always always filled with yoghurts. I just love them. In France you can have two or three full rows of yoghurt products in the shops. I do not actually recall having seen as many brands and types anywhere else in the world but when it comes to quality, Australian Jalna yoghurts are the best without any contest. I have tried the whole range by now but nothing comes as close when it comes to creamy texture and taste as the Vanilla one. I used to love the coffee flavoured one but I have not seen it for a few years now. Their claim is that many yoghurts are mass produced using gelatine, starches and food acids. But Jalna is different. Indeed.

Good for You, Good for the Environment…

That’s what the label says. For some time now there have been many incentive to encourage people to eat kangaroo meat. I admit that I am not a big carnivore but over the past 4 months my red meat consumption is probably split as is: 60% Kangaroo, 30% Lamb and 20% beef (the latter mainly being the Boeuf Bourguignon I ate in France). For once I will cut/copy/paste word by word what is written on the sticker that accompanies kangaroo products here as it is self explanatory: Kangaroo’s need less food than sheep or cattle, are better adapted to drought and are far less damaging to the fragile topsoil than their sharply-hooved sheep & cattle counterparts. Australia’s sheep and cattle produce huge amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas – but kangaroos do not. (…) Kangaroo meat is 98% fat free, high in protein, iron, zinc and also contains conjugated linoleic acid, which reduces blood pressure. So if after that you’re not convinced… The only thing is that it is valid only if you live in a country where kangaroos are grown (erm… I mean Australia). If not, if you have to airfreight the meat, there are no benefits for the environment, really!

Fruits of the season

Oh that is great! After the peach and apricot season this summer here come the grapes starting to pop up in every supermarket in the area. The Northern Territory does not grow any grapes and does not produce any wine as far as I know - and I might be wrong - but the Southern Autumn makes itself felt with the arrival of these seasonal 'fruits'. The weather seems to be a bit in transition here at the moment with dryer days, bluer skies but hotter temperatures as well. The temperatures should then hopefully drop a bit to leave the area under constent sun and no clouds. That's what I call winter!

Bugs

The first time I read the name on the menu in a restaurant I was really curious about this. What is this? Australians actually eat bugs? What kind of bugs? Then I saw that it had nothing to do with the terrestrial bugs I knew. Actually the name is short for Moreton Bay Bug. They are very strange creatures, a bit like lobsters but with no head or rather a flat head. They look rather prehistorical to me. Once cooked on the barbecue their flesh and taste are heavenly. Better than lobsters in my opinion. Here you can see them in my sink before I cook them...

Stokes Hill Wharf

Today I took a small boat to go and visit one of our Vessels near shore. It was actually my first trip out of Darwin by sea. It is great since it gave me a new perspective. I departed from Stokes Hill Wharf which is a place that is very popular with the tourists and locals alike. Housed under the roof of the building you see in the picture (the roof actually says ‘Welcome To Darwin’) are a good quantity of restaurants and is a popular spot to watch the sunset while having a bite and a drink. I have been to some fancy restaurants but the best Barramundi I was given to experience remains at Stokes Hill Wharf for a few quids and in a plastic plate with plastic forks and knives.

Dry fruits

I usually really like dry fruits. Of course, it is often the common apricot or mango that I tend to snack on but I often try something new and different. I never had any kiwi before. It is not bad. I am not overexcited about it but it still makes for a good snack. The proof is that I finished this 150Gr packet in two days. The problem I find with most dry fruits though is that they contain lots of unecessary sugars. It is quite rare to find raw dry fruits without any additive and it is a shame since they are much tastier in the raw. The other problem is that the drying process kills most of the Vitamin C but they remain rich in vitamins and dietary minerals.

Lapin de Garenne

We went directly from New York to the French countryside and it was a bit of a ‘culture lag’. Nevertheless, we always are greeted by my mother’s excellent cooking and on this very day we lunched on a real ‘Lapin de Garenne’ (wild rabbit). The ‘Garenne’ has a very subtle flesh and you could fear that it tastes quite gamey as any other wild animal but it is not. The only drawback is that they are always killed by hunters in the wild and as a result you have to mind the bullets while you eat it.

Boeuf Bourguignon

It has obviously been much colder than this a few weeks back but I find the weather to be still rather cold. After all, it is more than 30 degrees colder than what I was experiencing two days ago so there is nothing strange in feeling cold outside. With this kind of temperatures there is nothing better than a slow cooking and hearty Boeuf Bourguignon (Burgundy Beef, and that's where I am originally from) to keep you warm. After all that winter food I will have a good reson to go back to the swimming pool when I am back in Australia to burn all those extra calories.

Perfect Breakie!

Oh! No better way to start this first day in Paris than with my favourite French Breakfast for a cold winter. Hot chocolate, croissant and Libération newspaper. It was also market day in my corner and I just loved browsing through all those nice fresh products on display. I could not help buying a few things I do not find elsewhere (or not tasting as they do here) like Boudin Noir and Boudin Blanc that will compose my lunch. Also, I would like to see a few movies that I did not have the opportunity to view wherever I was this year. Les Plages d'Agnès, an autobiographic documentary about Agnès Varda and Séraphine with the usually excellent and touching actress Yolande Moreau.

La Galette des Rois

There are a few French traditions I kind of miss abroad. On a daily basis I do not miss the French baguette, the saucisson or the camembert as some of my fellow countrymen do but I admit that I missed the Foie Gras or the Boudin Blanc for Christmas and last year I was very annoyed not to have gone to Carrefour in Singapore to get a Galette des Rois (King’s Galette) on the 6th of January. The tradition of the King’s Galette is linked to the three Wise Kings in religion but, religious or not, these galettes pop up in the windows of all the bakeries in France shortly after Christmas until late January and disappear. It is of course impossible to find one in Australia so I decided to make my own. I really thought it would be more complicated to make.

Finally!

I have been talking about the australian barbecue so many times that a picture of it had to be posted on these pages someday. The traditional one is usually composed of a thick piece of meat and some big fat sausages (snags). On our side we opted from some local and very nice prawns, some kangaroo skewers as well as some kanga bangas (kangaroo sausages). I was actually a bit disappointed by the later as they - luckily for our health - lack all the fat that makes the pork sausages so sweet and taste quite dry as a result. But the kangaroo skewers were absolutely stunning and the shrimps exquisite.

Food of the Day: Aussie Croc

When living in Alabama I used to go to Louisiana very often on weekends. One of the specialties there is the aligator. It was most of the time proposed fried with lots of crumbs and it was very difficult to fathom the real taste of the meat itself. Now that I am in the Northern Territory I will have to try the local crocodile simply grilled with no additive whenever I see it on the menu. Nevertheless, I went for a Crocodile Salad for lunch today that had more bite than the tasteless meat I used to have in America. Or maybe the Australian croc is simply tastier than the American aligator indeed?

Food of the Day: Pearl Meat

I had actually never heard of Pearl Meat before entering this wonderful restaurant called La Beach yesterday. I understand that for many people in many countries, Pearl Meat is a delicacy. Much different than traditional edible oysters that are farmed around the world, Pearl Meat is a firmer flesh that is actually the muscle of the oyster that allows it to close its shell. As explained by the Owner of the place before it arrived on my table, it is a subtle mix between scallops and abalone. Let me tell you that I really really enjoyed it. And sorry about the blurry picture but I was concentrating more on my food than in taking a picture.

Australian Products

Every country has its own specificities in terms of products. You can only associate Australia with Vegemite, Cherry Ripes, VB, Turkish Delights, Tim Tams and Ginger Beer. I will certainly tell youa bit more about the aforementioned products at one point or another. Ginger Beer is one of my favourite drinks. It has been produced for over 40 years from the town of Bundaberg in Queensland. It is a brewed product made using dried ginger root from the local area mixed with Queensland Cane Sugar and water. Despite its 'beer' name it is a soft drink and contains no alcohol. This is why I love it so much!