Syrup and Tang

Deriving joy from owning a dishwasher. Please explain

Duncan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:31:56 +0000

So here I am with a new (but old) kitchen which includes a mid-2000s dishwasher. Except for a short period ten years ago, I've never lived with a dishwasher and harbour some suspicion of them. How does one best enjoy a dishwasher?

Do you queue for food?

Duncan — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:52:32 +0000

Holidaying in San Francisco recently, it struck me how often the discourse about obtaining or finding good food is about how long you might have to wait to be served (or seated). We watched people queue for ages for ice cream, bread, tacos, fried rice and more. For me, it was the opposite of what enjoying food should be about.

Keeping your knives sharp

Duncan — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:12:21 +0000

One of my greatest fears when someone asks me to cook with them is the prospect of blunt knives in their kitchen. I hate being asked to finely slice an onion or trim a piece of meat with a large dull-edged kitchen knife. Ugh. I believe I've once successfully nagged a friend into getting some decently sharp knives.

OMG I can still make macarons!

Duncan — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:12:55 +0000

Ten months after I last donned my patissier gear and squeezed out a few hundred macarons, I returned to the piping bags for a brief baking blitz. My back hurt for two weeks. So then I made a cake instead.

Pierre Hermé's book on macarons is now in English

Duncan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:12:32 +0000

The most impressive book on macarons is now in English! Pierre Hermé's 2008 French book "Macaron" is out this month in English.

Vanilla slices – glorious, perhaps mundane, quite mysterious

Duncan — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:18:52 +0000

The vanilla slice is one of those standard, humble Australian bakery items that qualifies as "good old" for its longevity and as "humble" because of its modest level of finesse. But there are mysteries in all this (and questions for readers at the end)... What was your childhood vanilla slice like? Did it have a different name? And how long has it been around?

Eating your politics (or prejudices)

Duncan — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:19:37 +0000

I'm curious about how political/social beliefs or traditions shape where people will shop or dine. A timely example is that of Max Brenner, the Israeli chocolate company, which is broadly popular in Australia, but an unacceptable place to visit for some consumers. I wonder what other examples exist here or elsewhere?

Mint ice-cream, and ice-cream machines

Duncan — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:14:59 +0000

Have you ever met one of those people who looks ascance at you when you suggest having an ice-cream in winter? "But it's 8 degrees and raining!" they exclaim. So bloody what? Of courrrrrrrrrrse you should eat it all year round. So here we are at the winter solstice (in the southern hemisphere) and I decided to do a flavour that straddles ideas of cold and wishes for warmer weather.

Corsica: not the easiest foodie destination

Duncan — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:43:57 +0000

Five days in Corsica, surrounded by the azure waters of the Mediterranean, dwarfed by mountains and cliffs, eating myself full with sausage and cheese. That was the plan. The food part of it didn't quite come together. I blame the tourists.

Duncan's Degustations – Dr Oetker frozen pizzas

Duncan — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:44:13 +0000

Like a gift from the heavens, a PR person offered me frozen pizzas to sample. I'm not the ideal candidate, but with my Duncan's Degustations series underway, how could I resist the opportunity to add to my spectrum of likely-ick experiences? Little did I know I'd end up with a freezer full of Dr Oetker's odd pizzas.