Food

I Still Call Australia Home

~ Cheryl

OK, so I am in New York for the first time in my life. What did I do with myself? First of all I had to catch up with La Gringa and find my out to her delightfully book-filled apartment in Astoria. This is near Queens, so I keep thinking to myself that I ought to be eating refried beans, but I had other priorities this evening. I had a party to go to, in the Australian Consulate.

Yes, really; my good pals Trevor and Deb and Jonathan had arranged a splendid bash and invited a whole load of New York literati. There was free Aussie wine. And it was all paid for by the Australian Government, as part of their drive to export fine Aussie speculative fiction to America. Nobody tell John Howard, OK. Although hopefully his days of being able to be outraged and able do something about it are almost over.

It was a good evening. I met lots of good folks, many of whom I already new well, and others for the first time. I discovered that Australia really does have Cultural Attaches. I got to talk to Margot Lanagan. Garth Nix apologized profusely for the failure of the Australian rugby team to beat England. And afterwards I got dragged off to an Italian restaurant by Ellen Datlow, which was very impressive, though even here they don’t do zabaglione. Italian restaurants are not what they were.

Tomorrow I get to play tourist and go shopping in New York. I already have the subway sussed. I have Spidey Sense when it comes to cities.

Indian Chile Pepper Breaks Heat Record

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Good news for all pepper masochists lovers, there is a new “world’s hottest” pepper to try. That honor used to be held by the Red Savina, a habanero cultivar. (This was the pepper responsible for almost killing Kevin and Dave Clark.) But scientists at New Mexico State University have recently announced that the Bhut Jolokia pepper from Assam is twice as hot.

(It seems to me that Australia is missing a trick here. It has the world’s most deadly spiders, snakes, jellyfish, sharks and so on. What’s up with the plant life?)

Settling In

~ Cheryl ~ 8 Comments

I appear to be more or less arrived in California now, meaning that I felt refreshed enough on waking up this morning to start getting back into my Pilates routine. I’m obviously getting too old for long-distance international travel because it takes me longer and longer to recover from the flight each time, but at least I still get there in the end.

The other good news is that I have my kitchen back, so I’ve been able to experiment on Kevin with some new recipes. I’m pleased to report that Nigella’s new squid recipe is every bit as fast and delicious as she promises, though I’m clearly missing a trick with regard to getting the coating to stick well. I also tried out a new chili recipe which included mole paste. That worked very well indeed, though the mole paste itself proved to be very dangerous stuff, being very oily and prone to staining it touches bright orange.

Site Report

~ Cheryl

If you are at convention hotel and not attending the convention you need it to be a good hotel experience. The Hotel Phillips in Kansas City has some good and some bad points.

The hotel itself is beautiful. It is an old building with an art deco design and lots of wood paneling. I’m going to take a wander round with a camera later. Of course being an old building has its problems. The elevators are commendably fast, but everything seems a little cramped compared to modern US hotels. the place is built more on a British scale.

Access to food is a major problem. The hotel is in a business district. The only places to get food are restaurants and other hotels. There’s a food court in a nearby building, but as it caters for office workers most of the outlets are closed at the weekend. Only Starbucks and McDonalds were open today, and they are closed tomorrow. Thus far our dining has been confined to The Mango Room, a Caribbean and Southern US themed restaurant. The food is excellent, and I won’t manage to eat my way through all of the good stuff on the menu in just a weekend, but they too are closed tomorrow. Oh what I’d give for a nearby deli, or even a 7/11.

Cats 1 Fungi 0

~ Cheryl

The Fungi Festival wasn’t quite as impressive as I had hoped. Not enough interesting food on offer. The mushrooms themselves, however, were spectacular. Put all together, the different varieties looked rather like a coral reef. (And remember I have been swimming on the Barrier Reef.) If we do get invaded, Earth is sure going to look pretty.

I did, however, score one notable triumph. There is a mushroom known as the candy cap which is edible and sweet-flavored. Believe it or not, lurking in my refridgerator is an actual-genuine mushroom cheesecake. It tastes a bit like maple syrup.

Of course I also took advantage of my trip into The City to visit Lush (where, scarily, they are starting to recognize me), and the Golden Gate Meat Company to pick up some elk burgers. Also, as my cholesterol numbers are now down in the normal range, I allowed myself a visit to Cowgirl Creamery. Expect some cheese blogging soon.

Killer Fungi

~ Cheryl

Glenda Larke has further evidence that our world is being invaded by Ambergris.

Fear not, though, dear reader. Tomorrow I shall attend the Fungi Festival in San Francisco’s Ferry Building where I shall learn new and interesting techniques of combating these fearsome invaders (and eating them).

Nouveau Season

~ Cheryl

I’m impressed. The Nouveau only went on sale on Thursday, but World Market had it in stock on Saturday. I have now celebrated our finishing the great furniture adventure. This year’s vintage isn’t quite a fruity as I remember, but it is still very drinkable.

Bribery and Corruption

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Phew, good job I’m stopping doing Emerald City. Trevor Stafford arrived from Australia yesterday bearing a packet of Creamy Truffle Tim Tams. That’s the sort of bribe I find very hard to resist. What a very nice man he is.

Fungi R Us

~ Cheryl

Kevin’s going to be away with family over Thanksgiving weekend, but I know where I’m going to be on either Saturday or Sunday. The Ferry Building (which is now a fabulous collection of gourmet food stores) is having a Fungus Festival. There will be tastings, cooking demos, and lots more good mushroomy events. I trying to work out how we might sneak in a reading of Shriek…

Cats 1 Lobsters 0

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Yum! I knew there was a good reason to come to Boston. The world is safe from giant crustaceans for another month or so.

Talking of saving the world, the trailers for this year’s Halloween edition of The Simpsons look rather interesting, decidedly science-fictional, a very funny. “We still have the hearts and minds of the people,” – chortle!

Doomed

~ Cheryl

I’d popped down to Sainbury’s this morning to get a few last minute things for the journey (no sense in paying a quid for bottled water in a station when I can get the same thing for 40p in a supermarket). There I was, wandering through the aisles, when what did I see flashing a sexy “NEW!” tag at me? TIM TAMS!!!!!!

And they’ll probably be available in Cost Plus when I get back to the Bay Area. I’m doomed. I can feel the weight piling on already.

Medical Advice

~ Cheryl

Today’s Independent reveals that drinking too much cola can encourage osteoporosis. On the other hand, this report claims that drinking red wine can protect against cholesterol, heart disease, some cancers and Alzheimer’s. I know what I’m drinking from now on.

In moderation, of course. 🙂

(And yes, I am very picky about what medical advice I choose to believe.)

Great British Cuisine

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

You see, the trouble with those arty-farty types in places like London is that they are much to fond of funny foreign food. Take Starbucks, for example, not only do they have 20 different ways of saying “coffee” when, as any good Brit knows, Nescafe instant is perfectly good enough for anyone, but they have the nerve to call toasted sarnies “panini”, whatever that means. Well they don’t have any truck with that sort of nonsense in Darkest Somerset, I can tell you. But of course they have to keep up with fashion. So what did I see advertized today in a local fast food joint? Baked beans panini.

Is it any wonder I can’t wait to get back to California.

Addiction

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

The Australian shop in Covent Garden charges a ridiculous amount for a packet of TimTams. However, it is one of the few places in the UK I know that I can definitely buy TimTams. They are probably bad for me. I’m addicted.

Rice Mystery Solved

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Posy git that I am, I prefer to serve curry with basmati rice and chili food with American rice. The stuff keeps for ages, after all, so it doesn’t matter much having two packets in the cupboard. But recently the shelves at Sainsbury’s have been bare of American rice. Now I know why. According to The Independent there is a big kerfuffle about the presence of quantities of genetically modified rice in shipments from the US. What is more, our wonderful government has been making public noises about how supermarkets have a responsibility to make sure that the stuff doesn’t go on sale, while at the same time privately reassuring those same supermarkets that they won’t actually check up on them. The helpful Sunday Herald tells me that Sainsbury’s have stopped buying American rice entirely, and will even offer worried customers a full refund for returns.

The whole debate about GM foods has become so hysterical in the UK that I no longer know what to believe. You have some experts saying this stuff is perfectly safe, and others claiming it is a massive danger to public health. Who knows what the truth is? But what I’m wondering is this: most American rice, as far as I’m aware, comes from California. Does anyone back there know they are being accused of poisoning innocent Brits?