Day 2: Food Markets

After our arrival in Perth we headed to the markets in the neighborhoods of Subiaco for our weekend sustenance on our jaunt to Margaret River.  The indoor market was much like Monterey Market in Berkeley.  While the produce was labeled where it was grown, it was disconcerting being at the end of winter while in the US it was the end of summer.  It was hard to know what to expect to be local and in season.  We picked up zucchini, melon, green beans and asparagus, all grown in Western Australia but I’m still not sure if that was truly seasonal.  After that we headed to the cheese and meat markets. 

 

On the plane we met a very chatty Australian “bloke”, Darryl, who went on about the meat pies.  At the cheese shop, Daily Divine, they had a tasty looking array of flaky, savory pies.  We didn’t buy any then, but it was definitely on my list to try.

My sister complains about not being able to find American style bacon in Australia – that is it doesn’t crisp up and tastes more like Canadian bacon or ham.  It sure looks like American bacon, so I’m not sure why it would taste different.  We got some pancetta instead to make carbonara that night and lamb and spicy pork sausages to bbq over the weekend.  Just like at the better butcher’s in the bay area, the shop had signs indicating all the farms where their meat was sourced.

We picked up other food stuffs at “Woolworth’s” which I don’t think had any relevance to the US Woolworth’s as it was more like a Safeway than a five and dime.  In addition to the other dried goods, we picked up some Bundaberg ginger beer for our pre-dinner cocktails.

Food shopping was a great way to get a taste of the real local flavor right off the plane.  Next I was looking forward to some of the regional foods of the Margaret River area in the south.    

Day 1: Gourmet Farmer

I wish I could say better things about the food on Qantas.  However, while sitting like a packed sardine on a 16 hour transatlantic flight we did make a great local food discovery on the endless stream of movies and media that you can chose from on your individual screen.

On Australian “reality tv” series an ex Sydney food critic, Matthew Evans, buys a farm on Bruny Island in Tasmania in order to learn where his food comes from.  While he knows nothing about farming, he does know how to eat and cook (having previously been a chef as well as a food critic).  From episode to episode of “Gourmet Farmer” he focuses on a different aspect of his rural life – with an emphasis on making high quality food.  In one show, on prosciutto, we see everything from buying/ raising slaughtering the pigs, the process of air curing prosciutto, cooking dishes with all pig parts (heart/lungs/liver) to making sausage and bacon and selling it in the local food market. 

Other episodes include raising and killing chickens (yes they even show how the chicken is humanely killed), apples, fishing, making ice cream from goat’s milk, wood burning stoves…..In each show he engages other local food producers to show him the best techniques…and it always includes a feast with others of the products produced.   I apprecicated how the show covers not just the eating and cooking – but the realities of making a living and all the technical skills needed to farm.  Of course, the show makes it look easier and quicker than it is, I’m sure.  The other really appealing aspect of the show is seeing the countryside of Tasmania.   The idyllic, undeveloped land reminds me of New England crossed with California farmland….rolling wooded hills that are brown in the summer time – rough coast lines and tiny little hamlets.  

Gourmet farmer, in its second season,  and while in Australia you can watch episodes online, you can't from the US.    Matthew Evans is very endearing in a modest way with a charming ability to laugh at himself.  I hope to find some way to keep up with the show.

I did make one other delicious discovery on the plane – vodka and Bundaberg ginger beer (similar to ginger ale, but with a stronger ginger flavor and made in Queensland Australia). It was quite a refreshing alternative to a gin and tonic.   Bundaberg also makes a wonderfully smooth rum.  I had some both in hot chocolate and over ice on the flight home while watching the rest of season 1 of Gourmet Farmer.  Not a bad way to help pass a 13 hour flight.

Australian Food Adventure

My sister and her husband have been living in Perth, Western Australia, for a year now.  I hear varying things about the food in Australia – anything from spectacularly good, even better than the bay area, to nothing to write home about.  Stephanie and I set off on our own adventure to visit Johanna and Fred while scoping out about the local food first hand.  The following chronicles some of our discoveries.