Image from Special Delivery by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe (Murdoch Books).
It’s time for another round-up of news snippets and podcast in It’s News To Me.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have no idea where January went. The rate at which time passes these days is dizzying – or perhaps that’s just because I’m getting old and my balance isn’t what it was? Whatever. One thing I’m sure of is that there are always plenty of podcasts to listen to and news to catch up with, so I’ve decided it’s time for another “It’s News To Me” roundup where I share with you, dear reader, bits and pieces I hope will be of interest.
I’m still addicted to podcasts and have discovered one that many of you may already be familiar with. Chat 10 Looks 3 is the curious name that journalists Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales have come up with for their very entertaining podcast. It is basically the two, who are clearly best of friends, chatting about books, movies, television, politics and food – frequently with cake. Find it on iTunes or download from their website, which also contains links to most of the interesting stuff they chat about.
A while back I wrote about sustainable seafood eating here in Australia and the value of trying out fish we’ve not eaten before. We have a wealth of tasty seafood in our waters, but tend to focus our fishing and eating on just a handful of fish species. This recent article in The Australian talks about how limited our seafood palate is here – a timely reminder.
Yotam Ottolenghi By Keiko Oikawa (Katieheartwiki received this from Keiko Oikawa.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Back in my last “It’s News To Me” post I mentioned a podcast interview with chef Jennifer McClagan, whose recent book is all about the value of bitterness in our diet. One of the foods I’ve heard her speak of, which conjured up memories for me, was bitter grapefruit. Back in the day when I was young, grapefruit were bitter, not sweet, and had to be made palatable with sprinkles of sugar when we had them (infrequently) for breakfast. Lucky Peach has a current story about the hunt for the last of the white, bitter grapefruit in the US.
Bee Wilson
English author Bee Wilson is one of my favourite food writers. Her books “Consider the Fork” and “Swindled – The Dark History of Food Fraud” are wonderful and I’d highly recommend them to anyone interested in food history. Her newest release is called “First Bite” and is a look at how we develop our food preferences. I found this great interview with her in Seattle where she talks about where our food preferences come from.
This little lot should keep you going for a while. I’d love to hear of any great sources you might have found for podcasts and general food information – please share them with all of us!
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Great round up, Amanda… now to find time to sit and listen!
Thanks for these Amanda! I have to admit I wasn’t across most of these.
My mother used to give us those bitter grapefruits to eat for breakfast as well. We were given a half a grapefruit and sprinkled it (liberally) with raw sugar then tried our best to prise the segments from the pith and skin. Yes, they were bitter but they were the only grapefruits we knew! We could also order grapefruit juice from our milkman and it came in those old-fashioned glass milk bottles! xx
Awesome, I have been looking for some new content to listen to during the day, so thanks for that. Like Charlie, I have memories from my childhood that included half a grapefruit with a sprinkle of sugar (not that that helped it taste good) each morning for breakfast. Mom said it was good for digestion, kind of like the lemon water thing. Anyways, I wouldn’t be able to tell a good from bad grapefruit these days, are they sweet now? Ha.
I’ve just discovered the wonderful Nelshaby capers – from the Southern Flinders Ranges – wonderful to add to some of the seafood mentioned earlier. I put them into my pasta e broccoli dish – along with EVOO, lemon zest, loads of broccoli, fresh red chillies, anchovies and freshly grated Parmesan (the best you can get). Mix this into freshly cooked penne pasta (save some of the water to bring the sauce together). Finish with salt and ground black pepper. Delicious!!! They’re available at Jaggers in the Central Market or online.