Thoughts From Becca

It's been a bit easy for most of us growing up. We've come to know food in cities as packages on the supermarket shelves. We've lost touch with the earth under our feet. I thank my lucky stars that I spent some time on family farms seeing, feeling, touching, smelling the produce growing, and eating it fresh from the soil on the day it was picked. This is what taught me to appreciate freshness and flavour as well as gain an understanding of the seasons of food.  My first food memories are of a large walk in pantry on Aunty Dossie's farm. The shelves were lined with vacola (preserving) jars taking the excess of each season and stored for later use. I still remember the taste of icecream that came fresh from the cream of her cows. The icecream was lovingly beaten by hand every 20 minutes (no churn no icecream machine) throughout freezing to stop crystals forming. The chickens produce eggs that were gathered warm each day and used in the kitchen on the same day they were...

During the week I posted a list of 5 favourite food films. http://cookinglinks.blogspot.com/2009/03/five-fabulous-food-films.html Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) Babette's Feast Like Water For Chocolate Chocolate My Dinner with Andre Discussion followed online as I was searching out those I'd forgotten, and those I had yet to discover. Here's a sample of the best of the rest... Happy viewing... The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover Delicatessen The Flavor of Happiness Le Grande Bouffe Tampopo as well as... Almodovar American Pie Baby Boom Big Night Blueberry Nights Brown Sugar Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Chicken Rice Wars Chicken and Duck Talk Chungking Express The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Eat, Drink, Man, Woman Eating Raoul Fried Green Tomatoes Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers God of Crockery The Godfather Hunting and Gathering Kitchen Stories The Meaning of Life Moonstruck Mouse Hunt Mystic Pizza No Reservations (note the original German movie Mostly Ma...

GENEROUS, NURTURING, CARING, LOVING, SUSTAINING When I was a little girl, everyone around me could cook. It may not have been with the sophistication that is sometimes expected today. It may not have been with the variety of produce that we can access today. But the food we ate, was always cooked and served with love. It was often homegrown, or windfall, and nearly always from produce of the season. The neighbours swapped backyard produce, swapped gossip, and swapped recipes. I was reminded of backyard swaps, only this afternoon. I stopped the car to pick up a bag of fresh limes. There was a handwritten poster at the side of the road: "Limes $2 a bag". The two young boys, young entreprenuers were selling the limes from their overladen backyard tree. The limes look delightful as they adorn my dining table, and the aroma permeates. They'll later be used for a range of delicious treats. When I was a little girl, of seven turning eight, my grandmother died. She died the day b...

What a wonderful world of travel has unfolded before me. My wonderful world is the world that the online communities and user generated journalism provide to me, to us. My latest trip included Barcelona. There wasn't much preparation to find the accommodation. Still in Australia, with some months before travelling, I went straight to the TripAdvisor website and picked the top of their list: all 5 star ratings, all excellent comments. And, I was not disappointed. This information was from a trusted source. It was not from the advertisements, sponsored links or hotel listings. My selection was from the ratings of my fellow travellers, from their reviews. Destination BCN was top of the list, and did not disappoint on arrival. Closer to the time of my holiday, I used the Internet to research what to see and do in Barcelona. Of course I'd heard of Gaudi. I did not however know much about him, and used the time of mounting excitement, to research, read, learn. I stood before Sagrada ...

Exploring the hub of a city (the food market) is my number one travel priority. Towns historically formed as a market centre. The town emerged around the market place well before industrialization. Farmers brought their produce to town to barter or sell, long before we turned the fashionable 21st Century city phrase ‘farmers market’. When I was younger, and long before I ventured away from home, I found a love of travel, of discovering other cultures. Discovery was pursued in my mother’s kitchen by exploring the food of other lands. Cooking became more than sustenance, more than nourishing myself and others, and became a way to embody myself in other cultures. From this, there also unfolded my deep love of well cared for produce and slowly crafted cookery that became an integral part of my being. Now that I do travel as often as I can, the first thing I do in a new city is to find the food market. I felt right at home on my first sojourn to Paris because of the attention and importance...

What is a 'griffe'? I first came across the word 'griffe' this last holiday season, when I devoured 'Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas' in one overnight helping. I must admit when I first picked it up in the Shakespeare & Co bookshop, it was the similarity of the title to the Hemingway classic, 'A Moveable Feast' that attracted me.  As it turned out, the book and I were well suited. Baxter is an Aussie who now lives in Paris; I am an Aussie who stills lives in Sydney but likes to visit Paris. The connection did not end there and was cemented with a love of food, French food. Baxter also describes his daughter's coming of age when she brings home her 'griffe'.   My Google search found the definition of griffe: a clawlike ornament extending from the base of a column. The griffe Baxter refers to is the sum of ourselves that describes our personal style. For his daughter her griffe was her business card holder.  The New York Times writer,...