The Hamptons report

Beginning of Indian summer the weather invited me to the Hamptons for exciting event organized by The Supper Club and hosted by Audi and al fresco dining with Celeb chef Tom Colicchio.  The day started at the boutique hotel Maidston in Easthampton. Guests gathered for coffee, mimosas and pastry bites. From there we took a picturesque drive in all shiny Audie Q7 SUV to one of the best vineries in Hamptons Wolffers estate. Quick stop, and a bottle of wine later (as a gift) we were on our way to our secret luncheon spot in a private estate hosted by chef Tom Colicchio. 

I couldn’t be more excited to meet one of my favorite chefs, and try dishes created by him especially for this event. Mr. Colicchio, is among the most vocal and widely recognized of the new political chefs, not least because of the celebrity he has earned from his side job as a judge on the hit television show “Top Chef.” He also owns and runs the craft chain of restaurants. Colicchio is an influential advocate for ending hunger and improving the safety and environmental practices of the food system. He is a board member of the nonprofit Food Policy Action, and he recently served as executive producer of A Place at the Table, a film about food insecurity in America directed by his wife, Lori Silverbush.

We tasted a chilled zucchini soup with crab and sun-gold tomatoes, a tender lobster roll, grilled skirt steak with watermelon, and a salad of fresh peaches with lightly marinated corn and to die for desserts a chocolate truffle cake, a pistachio blueberry financier, and peach tartlets.

Tom Colicchio was gracious enough to talk about his cooking career; he also took some time to answer our questions.  The only moment of this delighted day I was disappointed was when I approached Mr. Colicchio and pose for a picture with him. I realized he is almost half of my height. I felt super awkward. The pictures came out strange as well, I looked like a giant trying to make myself look a little smaller- result very unappealing for both of us.  We both had a great laugh out of it and he sold me his secret for the mouth-watering corn salad.  Corn needs to be local, fresh and served raw not cooked. 

I left the event with a private chauffeur (unfortunately only for the drive home) bag of goodies from Audi and very bubbly bottle of Wolffer sparkling Rose.

Thank you Supper Club for another excited event!! 

Bloody guilt trip

Definition of guilt  by some online dictionary - "a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined". Guilt will never make the grade as an A-list emotion. No one has ever written a song or a poem about how they haven’t called their mother in over a week and their expensive-bought online exercise machine is being used to dry their underwear. Yet somehow, this crabby little C-lister manages to punch way below the belt.

Guilt is such a powerful feeling we do almost anything to avoid it, I know I do. It is our driver of internal system of actions and balances. The annoying little voice stopping us from eating the whole chocolate bar at once or telling our friend that the story about her daughter new project wasn’t interesting the first time.

We need guilt that runs the engine of morality, in order for society to function. Without its ghostly appearance, we would turn into sociopaths, or politicians. My guilt is my inner police force, but given it too much power I am turning into a police state. Mine is a sturdy guilt drawn from two totally different but yet very powerful religions.  On my mom’s side I am born with original catholic guilt (thanks Adam and Eve), which brings me to another guilt of a higher power watching every step I take and listening to all my inappropriate conversations and actions. On my paternal side I got the complaining, overthinking, neurotic Jewish variety. Ask my two best friends, they are tired of me analyzing every move I take and scrutinize for weeks and months if anything goes wrong, , (it usually does). The once mild mannered voice of my conscience is turning nasty with passing years. Like many women, I have the capacity to feel guilty about pretty much everything. Here is the basic glossy magazine guilt – the easy looking skin care regimens, and complicated man-pleasing instructions, the ideal bodies, and never to be cooked recipes.  These make a great background for failure.

But it gets deeper. I feel guilt for hurting my friend on the phone the other day for telling her “that thing”. I feel guilt for taking too long to respond to my best friend’s supportive email, writing this post during my work hours. I feel guilty for taking a drink invitation from men I have no desire to go to bed with, and also that my son’s first few words were “mommy’s wine”. And most of all, I feel guilty that I am wasting my time worrying about any of this nonsense, when right now there are children starving in Africa.

My guilt muscle can be very flexible. It could be trigger by exactly the same situation in two opposite directions. I can spend the whole weekend interacting with my son, watching movies, cooking meals, filling guilt that I have not taken a single picture for my blog, that I am not working to perfect my skills and I wasted a couple of grand on equipment and props.  And yet when I spend a whole day cooking and taking pictures,, my guilt bubbles up for the fact that I didn’t see my child all day and I am missing the opportunity to spend with him the last, preciouses moments before he tells me he prefers to spend them with his friends or his girlfriend.

But my main overwhelming guilt comes from the fact that a few years ago I have moved overseas, taking my baby boy with me, meaning I have ripped the only grandchild from his grandma to chase my selfish dreams thousands miles away.

When you live far away, no matter how often you call or come to visit, it’s never often enough. My mom never said a word to make me feel this way, she doesn’t need to. She doesn’t need to do anything to make me feel guilty about my life choices. My mom would probably hate the idea that talking to her makes me feel this way. This feeling bonds us together sometimes more than a family dinner table. My mom makes me feel guilty because her mother made her feel guilty. And as much as I would like to spare my son the burden in theory, I would be laying if I said that I don’t want to throw a little guilt his way, at least enough to making him choose a nice nursing home for me, the one with bar and games rather than the one with urine smell and bible studies.

Guilt is usually pretty ineffective over all. Instead of making a conscious choice and standing by the consequences, I behave as I am please and then cash in my moral credits by feeling bad about it afterward. As long as I have guilt as a comfortable fallback position, I fail to take full responsibility for my choices and actions. My friend once told me that she takes no responsibility for her life choices, in her opinion guilt is reserved for true wrongdoing and she wastes no time dwelling over her lifestyle or failure to live up to impossible ideas. I would love to get to that level of emotional sanity one day. Amen.

Today’s recipe is a total guilt trip between being lazy, having time for myself, and doing something creative and not wasting time binging on “ Mr. Robot”. Simple –no time at all- toast with goat feta and baked blood oranges. Still very tasty and guilt free.                                                                                   

Recipe                                                                                                                                                      Few slices of nice rustic bread

2 blood oranges

goat feta

coconut nectar

toasted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400F, slice oranges, and place them on a baking sheet spray with olive oil and bake until they get a little brown.  Toast the bread, smear with goat feta, top with slices of oranges, and coat with coconut nectar, sprinkle with roasted pumpkin seeds. 

Pineapple crumble or happiness vs satisfaction

I was at the gynecologist office yesterday for my annual checkup, thinking about what is an appropriate small talk for those weird moments when the person you are speaking to is replying to your vagina, when my doctor asked me if I am truly happy, knowing what I was going through recently. A year and a half ago I would have found it very strange to be discussing the path to everlasting bliss with my gynecologist but yesterday it really made me pause for a moment and think about what I want in life, what makes me really happy, what are my goals, desires?

 It’s not that I don’t want to be happy, but growing up in Poland we didn’t talk about it. It makes us Poles uncomfortable around the subject. Asking people how they are today will bring you to a long conversation about what is wrong with their lives. That’s why standard American greeting “how are you" doesn’t exist in polish small talk. If you are friendlier with someone and have time to kill you might ask “what’s cooking“ – free translation, and for 15 minutes or more you will experience a lot of … it’s good but… I call it a “butt talk “. It feels almost embarrassing to discuss happiness and demeaning to chase it. It's like having sex for the first time and asking if it was the best you ever had. Part of this is that Americans seems to have a deep aversion to negativity, this could be a positive change for me, but the pressure to remain positive all the time could be mentally very challenging. It’s good to be away from the sometimes life – sucking negativity, but I also find it hard to throw myself full gear into approach to hunting down the bliss

What is it that I really desire, money, a better job, love, a new car, traveling? Do I wish to do something big, or maybe I am satisfied with my life as it is, and don’t want to change it? I started to analyze my goals, small or big and ultimate discovered that what I really want is security, and everything I do is motivated by the desire to gain it. I desire things not because I believe new car, more money, better job will bring me happiness, but it will free me from stress, anxieties and fears. 

I use to devote a lot of time and efforts for getting something that in the end did not bring me the happiness and security I anticipated. I realized that my true happiness does not depend on possessions, and circumstances, new shoes, good sex, wonderful meal are only temporary excitements.  True security begins as a mental state, as inner strength, as faith in myself, and I also discovered that my inner happiness brings happiness and security in the material world. Sometimes is just not worth to fight and want more, it’s good to give out and make peace, it will all come back one day.

My happiness is my choice, I don’t let other people to decide either I am happy or not. It is my attitude that makes me feel uplifted, not the circumstances. I can choose to dwell on an unhappy event all day long, or I may also choose to refuse to think about it, and focus on other things that make me happy. I might not be able to change people’s behavior, but I can control my reactions, my response, and whether to let their behavior and their actions affect me. It’s so easy and so hard the same time. I learn new things about myself every day, I practice my patience with my testing me teenager and most of the time I succeed. 

Happiness is often compared to a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

Waiting for the butterfly to sit on me and to answer my OB- GYN, for the time being I will stick to satisfaction, shifting my focus from being utterly happy to being happily satisfied with all I have had achieved, and all I have and care about.

Today's recipe is a perfect example of satisfaction over happiness. I mimicked the thick, sweet, sugary filling by treating the pineapple in two ways: I  mashed half of pineapples to thicken the sauce and cut the other half into chunks for added texture. To cut down on calories, I traded sugar for coconut nectar (or xylitol ) and regular flour for almond flour . Traditional recipes have 540 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 11 grams of saturated fat per 1-cup serving. My changes brought the numbers down to 300 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 4 gram of saturated fat. I am very satisfied with the end result and the taste. 

SERVES 6

Instant or quick oats turn the topping sandy; use old-fashioned oats. Note that the pineapple pieces and pineapple chunks are cooked differently.

INGREDIENTS
   Topping  

2/3 cup (2 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats                                                                                                1 cup mixed nuts
5 tablespoons packed light brown sugar, i used coconut nectar 5 Tbs or to taste
1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) almond flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling

1 pineapple or 6 large Golden Delicious apples (8 ounces each), peeled, cored, and  halved
1 cup pineapple juice or if you are using apples apple juice
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar or coconut nectar to taste
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE TOPPING: Process 1/3 cup oats in food processor until finely ground, about 20 seconds. Combine processed oats, remaining 1/3 cup oats, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, nuts, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. FOR THE FILLING: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut half of pineapple into 1 inch pieces the other half into 1/4 inch chunks (3 apples into 1-inch pieces and slice remaining 3 apples into 1/4-inch-thick wedges. ) Bring pineapple pieces, apple juice, sugar, and cinnamon to simmer in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until pineapple pieces are tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl and mash pineapple using potato masher. Reserve 1 tablespoon mashed pineapple mixture. Return remaining mashed pineapple mixture to skillet with pineapple chunks  and cook, covered, until chunks just begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Off heat, stir in lemon juice.

3. Scrape pineapple filling into 8-inch square baking dish and press into even layer. Add reserved mashed pineapple to topping mixture, stirring until mixture appears crumbly. Sprinkle topping over filling and bake until juices are bubbling and topping is deep golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Decorate with fruit, I used cape gooseberries also known as Peruvian ground cherry.                                                                                                                                           Bon Appetit !

 

Skladniki na 6 porcji
 
kruszonka: 
2/3 szkladnki platkow owsianych ( nie blyskawicznych)                                                                               1 szklanka dowolnych orzechow, lub mieszanka
5 lyzek brazowego cukru , ja uzylam nektaru kokosowego
1/4 szklanki maki ( w moim przypadku orkiszowa) 
3 lyzki masla rozpuszczonego
1/2 lyzeczki cynamonu
1/8 lyzeczki soli
nadzienie:
1 swiezy ananas mozna uzyc jablek (6 duzych soczystych obranych ze skory i pokrojonych na czastki) 
1 szklanka soku anansowego lub jablkowego
2 lyzki cukru brazowego (nektar kokosowy lub ksylitol) 
3/4 lyzeczki cynamonu
2 lyzeczki soku z cytryny
1. kruszonka: zmielic 1/3 szklanki platkow owsianych w mikserze. Wymieszac zmiksowane platki  i pozostale platki, make, maslo, cynamon i cukier. odstawic na bok
2. nadzienie: rozgrzac piekarnik do 200C . Polowe pokrojonego anansa usmazyc z sokiem anansowy, cukrem i cynamonem okolo 10 min. Przelozyc miksture do miski i ubic tluczkiem do ziemniakow. przelozyc na patelnie i dodac druga polowe pokrojonego ananas, przykryc i gotowac do momentu kiedy kawalki zaczynaja byc miekkie. okolo 3-4 minuty. wylaczyc i dodac sok cytrynowy. wylozyc nadzienie na blaszke do pieczenia, na wierzch nalozyc kruszonke i piec okolo 25 minut. smacznego ! 
 

I love beets

I love beets; I can eat every part of it, roots, leaves, and stems. We can prepare them in many ways, whether roasted or boiled, pickled or grated raw, add a distinctively sugary shock of color to any meal. We can also make juice out of them or add to a smoothie. They are a wonderful main ingredient in salads and baked dishes or taste great in combination with other foods. Some great pairings include: mint, feta, hazelnuts, orange, ricotta salata and even tomato. 

They are a lot of obvious health benefits to beets.  They are a great source of folic acid and are rich in anthocyanin, which may reduce the risk of cancer. Additionally, the greens are rich in calcium, vitamin C, beta-carotene, and iron. There are also a few lesser known facts; one of the earliest known benefits of the red beet was its use as an aphrodisiac during Roman times. Beets nitrates are naturally converted into nitric oxide in the body. This widens blood vessels and increases circulation. 90% of male sexual dysfunction is caused by poor circulation. Also, beets may increase the production of sex hormones in both genders. Beets contain betaine, a substance that relaxes the mind and is used in other forms to treat depression. It also contains tryptophan (also found in chocolate), which contributes to a sense of well being. Beet juice has been used on city streets to remove the ice because it doesn’t damage cars like sand or salt.

A lot of nutritionists use beets and beet juice to test levels of stomach acid. If you consume beets and your urine turns pink, you have low stomach acid (which is typically a good thing!). If your urine is still clear, it means that you have high levels of stomach acid. Since the 16th century, beet juice has been used as a natural red dye. In 19th century England the Victorians used beets to dye their hair. Beets can be made into a wine that tastes similar to port. In Australia, a true Oz-style burger must have a slice or two of pickled beets. Even McDonalds and Burger King have had to adjust the line and include it in their menus!

Beets range in color from familiar dark red to light gold and creamy white; for a real beauty, try the Italian Chioggia beet, which reveals its pink and white stripes when sliced. But most nutrition experts recommend the red beet and suggest you ingest the entire beet so you don't lose the value of the beet fiber. White, yellow, and striped beets may be nice to look at and taste juicy but only the red beet has been shown to have both nutritional and healing powers.

While buying beets look for the ones with smooth, unwrinkled skin and a firm, hard feel. Select the tiny "babies" or the smaller adult variety when you can; anything over two inches or so in diameter can have a hard texture. If you can, choose beet bunches with the green tops still attached: They should be bright and not wilted. You can store greens separately in plastic bags in the refrigerator for up to one week. The greens can be steamed or sautéed in a similar fashion to spinach. Or you can chopped them up and make a beet soup 

To get the most nutrition, flavor and color, cook beets with their skin on. Scrub carefully and steam in a covered pot, or wrap in foil and bake at 350° F, for 45 to 90 minutes, depending on size. Try to choose beets of approximately the same size to keep cooking times even. When they're easily pierced with a fork, they're done.It will be easy to remove the skin off once they cool off. 

Recipe

4 - 5 small beets u used Chioggia beets

1 bunch of small carrots

2 cups whole Greek yogurt

8 leaves tarragon

1/4 cup pistachios

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Wash and dry beets. Cut off and discard greens.

Transfer the vegetables to a deep baking dish or pie plate, in a single layer. Add enough water so that the beets are half covered, but not fully submerged. Cover baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. 

Roast beets for 50 minutes to an hour, or until fork tender. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool. Remove the skin by rubbing the beets with a paper towel.

Peel the grapefruit, cutting off the top and bottom of the fruit, creating a flat surface on which to balance it. Place the edge of a sharp knife just inside the border where the pith meets the pulp, and slice down with a firm, clean stroke, following the curve of the fruit. Repeat, until the entire fruit has been peeled. Slice the fruit into 3/4” segments. 

Give the pistachios a rough chop with a good knife, using a cutting board.

To serve, spread yogurt onto plates, as much as is desired. Arrange sliced beets and grapefruit on top and sprinkle with chopped pistachios and torn tarragon leaves. Drizzle with good olive oil and sea salt to taste.

 

 

 

Ratatouille

Spring is very shy this year in NYC; it comes and goes. One day is 70F the next 25F with chilling winds. I can’t figure out what to wear anymore.  I already swapped my wardrobe for the Spring one and have no boots or warm jackets in my closet.  Maybe Spring is punishing me to my limits because I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. To make up for it I will try to make some Spring resolutions come true: to lose some weight, climb new mountains, and discover new friends. There will be some wonderful work to share and even more to achieve. 

To start with the easiest task let’s shed a few pounds first. The quick way to do it is to move more and eat less. I don’t have any super diets up my sleeve for you.  It’s just hard work and clean eating.  A great way for me to achieve this is to move to a vegetable- fruit diet.  I tried this simple but luscious light recipe this year when I was visiting my Aunt in France.  And what’s more French than Ratatouille. 

The history of my family ending up in France is pretty amazing and worth mentioning.  My maternal Grandfather had a sister who volunteered to go to the work camp for him during World War II.  After the war, despite many years of searching, she seemed to have disappeared.  My family was convinced she died in the camp and eventually stopped looking for her. They moved from Ukraine to the Western part of Poland.  At one point, my Mom heard a radio announcement that someone was looking for a family and mentioned our name, but she ignored it thinking it was someone else.  Years after the war my Uncle started to look again for her, and this time he got lucky going through Red Cross files.  After 45 years she came and visited us in Poland.  She had survived the camp, met her husband who was also a camp survivor and settled down in France.  She had 8 kids, who are all married with their own children.  You can only imagine the tears, hugs, and long hours of stories to catch up on after all that time they missed together.  I have visited them many times in France and they have been in our life ever since.  My Aunt passed away recently in the age of 90.  She outlived all her siblings and was in good health until one day, she went to sleep and just never woke up.

She showed me this recipe along with many others. She introduced me to melons, avocado, and crabs.  My love for coffee and wine started with my French family.  You will be missed my dear Aunt. 

Recipe:

1 large eggplant peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large onion chopped

2 medium zucchinis cut into 1 inch pieces

4 garlic cloves chopped

2 pounds grape tomatoes split in half

salt

pepper

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs chopped fresh thyme

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

2 tbs chopped fresh parsley 

In a colander, sprinkle the eggplant with salt and toss. Let stand for 1 hour. Transfer the eggplant to paper towels and pat dry.

                In a bowl toast eggplant with olive oil  thyme and roast until soft and golden.

            Repeat the process with the  zucchini and the garlic, tomatoes with onions using 2 tablespoons of oil to cook each batch.

            Combine all the vegetables, stir in the basil and the parsley , salt and peper to taste and serve. 

MAKE AHEAD

The ratatouille can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

fennel- apple salad

Once again, I would like pay tribute to Aran Goyoaga and her food photography workshop I attended in October. This was my dream come true.  Since I started my journey with food photography I wanted to meet Aran. I wanted to see her thought process as she prepared to take pictures. How she arranges food and props on the set, what angles and light she prefers and how she processes her pictures.  I wanted to take a step forward. 

Aran began the workshop telling us more about herself, her move from Florida to Seattle, her new studio and new approach to light (which Seattle has way less than Florida). Then she moved to explaining what equipment she uses, how she points the camera, what’s important for her on the set, and many more technical details. At any time we were able to interrupt her and ask questions. She told us where she buys her props, and what’s important when buying ingredients for recipes. She shared with us how she promotes herself on social media, and advertising techniques she uses. 

 During lunch we were able to move around the studio and take pictures of anything we liked. Sunday Suppers staff made great soup and salad for lunch. They also had a lot of dishes and food items for us to photograph.  

The second part was a little more “hands on photography”. Aran showed us the way she takes pictures and it was eye opening for me. It comes so naturally to her and her pictures look absolutely effortless. At the end, she showed us her photo processing work flow on Lightroom.  I was surprised how little she has to improve in the post- processing; just a few details here and there.  Each of us had one on one time with Aran, asking questions and sharing concerns. 


I learned that although we paid to learn some new techniques, what we really experienced was meeting new people, cooking with them, talking, and exchanging experiences.  I love watching people meet each other for the first time, approaching each other, starting conversations, eating together and at the end exchanging business cards and phone numbers.  

 

This was an unforgettable experience for me, and I hope to do it again in the future.  As a memory, I was left with pictures I took and this salad recipe we had for lunch.

Recipe 

2 seasonal apples 

1 fennel bulb with fronds 

1 small red onion  

1/2 toasted hazelnuts cup capers, 2  cups chopped watercress

 2 TB chopped chives 

orange zest 

Goddess dressing:

amount for several salads, you can refrigerate up to 2-3 weeks.

1 cup mayo ( i used canola) 

1 cup yogurt ( i used goat, but greek is good as well) 

1 cup chopped scallions

3/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup of lemon, add more if needed

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp of anchovy paste ( or chopped anchovies ) 

1/2 tsp of salt

1tsp of black pepper 

2 tbs of chives 

1/4 tsp lemon zest 

Peel and core apples. Pull a quantity of fronds from fennel, then clean bulbs. Peel onions and slice very thin. Slice apples and fennel bulbs on hand plane or mandoline. Toss with remaining ingredients and refrigerate.  Combine all the dressing ingredients and blend for few minutes until dressing is smooth and creamy. Before serving mix it with dressing 

Przepis: 

 2 Jablka

1 koper wloski 

1 mala czerwona cebula

1/2 szklanki tostowanych orzechow laskowych

2 szklanki salaty ( rukiew wodna lub rukola) 

2 lyzki posiekanego szczypiorku 

otarta skorka z jednej cytryny 

Obrac i pokroic jablka

oczyscic koper wloski

obrac cebule i pokroic bardzo cienko

poszatkowac jablka i koper wloski

wymieszac z pozostalymi skladnikami i wstawic do lodowki

Boski dressing :

Ilosc na kilka salatek, mozna przechowywac w lodowce przez kilka tygodni

1 szklanka majonezu ( ja uzylam z rzepaku) 

1 szklanka jogurt ( kozi lub grecki) 

1 szklanka posiekanej zielonej cebuli

3/4 szklanki posiekanej bazili  ( swiezej ) 

1/4szklanki soku z cytryny

2 zabki czosnku

1 lyzeczka pasty z anchovies lub posiekane anchovies 

1/2 lyzczki salt

1lyzeczka pieprzu 

2lyzki posiekanego szczypiorku

1/4 lyzeczki skorki z cytryny 

wszystkiego skladniki polaczyc i zblendowac w blenderze na kremowy dressing. dodac do salatki zaraz przed podaniem.

 

Aussie food

I will start by saying that I feel like I am waking up from the deepest, longest dream. But I am back and ready to start over.  Long overdue, the story about my trip Down Under is finally ready to be told. Australia deeply touched me, from its endless and incredible landscapes, extreme activities, dangerous animals, crazy people and, of course, the food.  I wasn’t expecting Australian food to be any different from American.  I actually didn’t know what kind of cuisine to expect, but that it would probably very much like what I eat in NYC.  To my surprise, I discovered completely new distinctive flavors and food combinations.

Aussie people are very proud of their country and culture as well as their food. Most places serve locally grown vegetables, farm raised animals, wild caught seafood as well as overpopulated kangaroos. Some of the dishes I can’t even describe; with so many different ingredients I have never tried and combinations I would have never thought of. 

Australians love their avocados – especially with their eggs and breakfast dishes. They develop so many variations of avocado toast that for 3 weeks I never tried the same dish twice. Aussies also have a fondness for avocado and Vegemite on toast. I am not a big fan of it, but I loved “Smashed Avo” - avocado on toasted sourdough, feta, lime, cashew and basil pesto with chili jam and poached eggs.  

Breakfast also means a variety of fresh squeezed juices and fresh made shakes. Options are overwhelming from beetroot /apple /ginger/ lemon/ oranges to The Nutty- peanut butter/ Nutella/banana and yogurt, to Bananarama- banana/spinach/mango/yogurt/Chia and almond milk and my favorite Cadolada- avocado/pineapple, banana, mint and coconut milk. All equally healthy and refreshing.  I was surprised by the muesli that are often served for breakfast, a mix of Chia seeds, oats, wheat germ, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit, local yoghurt, poached seasonal fruit and local honeycomb, it was a wildly delicious thing.  

The best coffee I have ever had was in Thailand but the Australian latte takes second place; smooth and creamy, simply addictive. 

I never imagined combining beetroot hummus, poached eggs and pistachio yoghurt on a toast before but it works incredibly well. The sweetness of pistachio yogurt works really well with a touch of sourness of hummus and combined with the crunchiness of sourdough toast to make a tasty sandwich.     

The national product, world famous Vegemite, is just disgusting and no matter how many people tell you how awful it is, have to try it for yourself. Vegemite is a dark brown food paste made from yeast extract and spice additives. The most popular way to eat it is to spread it on bread or toast with butter. I have tried it and it not only looks and smells disgusting it also tastes disgusting. (Yuck!)

Crocodile and kangaroo meat are essential meats in Australian kitchen. Both are very lean and tasty.  Kangaroo, which is red and tastes more or less like steak, goes really well with a pepper strawberry sauce.  Crocodile is a white meat and tastes like chicken, often served with French fries and salad.Barramundi is the most popular fish in Australia.  It gets its name from Aboriginal language and it means “large-scaled river fish”.  The best one I had was grilled like a steak and served with herbed oil.  The Australian ‘lobster’- Balmain bugs or Moreton Bay Bugs has no claws and only its tail contains edible meat. I have tried them steamed, deep fried, grilled, barbequed and cold as part of a seafood platter. They all taste good.

During a river safari, watching salt water crocs in their natural habitat, I was offered one of Australia’s iconic cheap foods – Damper – soda bread make with wheat flour, water, and a pinch of salt and baked on the coals of a campfire.  Mine was served with traditional Billy Tea. On the fancier side, the popular dessert is Pavlova; supposedly invented in honor if Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova while she was visiting Australia. New Zealand claims the same thing and both countries fight forthe title of inventor of Pavlova – a meringue based dessert toped with whipped cream and fruit.  Regardless of its origin this cake is absolutely delicious.

 

Anywhere you go in the world you should always try the local food.  You might hate it or you might be positively surprised and discover new flavors and favorite dishes.  There is so much complexity and variety to Australian food that I cannot wait to go back to this magical country to explore and eat, once again.