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The Food Pornographer featured at the Museum of Australian Democracy

TFP — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:10:43 +0000

I’m pretty chuffed to share this news with you.

One of the photographs from my blog post about the election day sausage sizzle and an audio recording of me reading the post are featured in an exhibition called Living Democracy: the power of the people at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra.

Read the post: Election day sausage sizzle

In a section of the exhibition called ‘To the polls’, my sausage sizzle photograph is featured in a slideshow called ‘Sights, sounds and smells of election day – August 2010′. The audio recording accompanies the slideshow.

Australians and regular readers of this blog will know that sausage sizzles are dear to my heart, especially on election day. I think it’s awesome that the museum has included this important and beloved tradition of Australian election days in the exhibition.

Sausage sizzle from my local polling station, federal election, August 2010

The museum contacted me earlier this year to ask whether I’d agree to let them use my election day blog post and photos in an upcoming exhibition. I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Upon their request, I made a recording of myself reading the election day post for use in the exhibition. This week, many months later when I’d forgotten about it, I got an email telling me that the exhibition is now open and thanking me for my contribution. I feel honoured to be a small part of it.

Living Democracy: the power of the people is a permanent exhibition at the museum. If you check it out, I’d love to hear what you think. We haven’t got any trips to Canberra planned, so I’m not sure when/if I will get to check it out myself, though I doubt I could stand listening to the audio of myself – that would be just too cringe-worthy!

The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
18 King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra
Telephone: (02) 6270 8222
Web: www.moadoph.gov.au
Opening hours: Daily 9am–5pm (closed Christmas Day)
Admission: $2 adults, $1 children and concessions, $5 family

Jac and I went to Canberra almost a year ago. We had a great time but it was a very short stay and we didn’t get to visit Parliament House, old or new. Read my posts from our Canberra trip, November 2010.

I guess this is a pretty quirky claim to fame. :) What about you – what’s your claim to fame?

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Boxing Day eating at IKEA

TFP — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:39:08 +0000

We felt like getting out of the house on Boxing Day and went to IKEA. Amazingly, we hadn’t been to IKEA since it moved from Osborne Park to its current location at Innaloo. When we got there just after 10am there was a long line of people moving slowly into the store. Jac detests waiting in queues and would’ve gone straight back to the car and driven off, but there was no way I was going to get that close to my beloved Swedish meatballs and walk away! I managed to convince her to give it a go, despite the crowd. Thankfully, once we got in through the doors the store was busy, but not congested.

In anticipation of getting Swedish meatballs at the restaurant (this is an IKEA ritual for me – every time I visit IKEA I must have meatballs), I hadn’t eaten breakfast – my tummy was growling loudly and I was starting to get a headache. But when we reached the restaurant, DISMAY! A staff member greeted us, then apologised and advised: “Unfortunately we had a power failure overnight so the restaurant will be opening at 11am today.” We had no choice but to walk around the store while my tummy continued to grumble in protest.

Lunch at the IKEA Restaurant

We returned to the restaurant just before 11am and were relieved to see that everything was ready for an onslaught of now starving customers (well, at least one starving customer!). Finally, I got my Swedish meatballs! When IKEA first opened in Perth, they used to serve the meatballs with your choice of boiled potatoes or fries, but I guess due to people overwhelmingly choosing fries over boiled potatoes, there’s no more boiled potatoes option. You still get a generous serve of meatballs with cream gravy and a shiny blob of lingonberry jam. One thing they don’t do any more is stick a little Swedish flag toothpick on the dish – I presume this is a cost-cutting and/or environment-saving exercise, which I have no problem with, as the meatballs are still plentiful, tender, bouncy and delicious and fantastic value (AU$6.95 for the standard size serving, and even cheaper on Tuesdays – AU$3.50!). The chips were on the floppy side, but the cream gravy saved the day.

I bought a serve of garlic bread as well, AU$1.00 for 2 pieces. It didn’t look like anything special, but the bread was buttery with a good garlicky flavour. We had a piece each and enjoyed it very much.

Jac got herself a smoked salmon platter. She loved the dill sauce that came with the salmon and she loved the delicate triangles of bread spread with cream cheese, but it’s quite a small serve and she was still hungry after finishing her meal. She was glad she had that piece of garlic bread to eat as well. And a few of my meatballs.

Ah, meatballs. On our way out, we did pick up a bag of frozen meatballs, two packets of cream sauce mix (as per IKEA’s recommendation of two packets of sauce per bag of meatballs) and a jar of lingonberry jam, so I we can enjoy Swedish meatballs all over again at home.

A snack at the IKEA Bistro

We spent a few hours in the store that day, and just before we left, still-hungry Jac stopped at the Bistro downstairs to grab something else to eat and drink. She bought one of IKEA’s famous $1 hot dogs. Next to the meatballs, these hot dogs are my favourite. You really do get a decent sized hot dog for a dollar. I love the flavour and springy texture of the sausage. I’ve thought many a time about getting behind the counter and eating the sausages straight out of that steaming bain marie of brine. Mmmm, steaming bain marie of brine…Heheheh. I had a few bites of hot dog too. What can I say, shopping always makes me hungry!

Jac washed the hot dog down with a tall can of Swedish pear cider. She’d never had pear cider before – she found it to be most refreshing. I didn’t really like how it tasted, but then I’m not a big pear fan. I’ll eat them if they pop up in a salad, but I never buy pears to eat.

We left IKEA after a few hours of shopping with some new items for the house. I was happy, I’d had my meatballs – that’s all I really cared about. :D

Swedish meatballs recipe
You can buy the frozen meatballs, cream gravy packet mix and lingonberry jam from the Swedish Food Market at IKEA. But if you’d like to try making them yourself:

My sister Juji’s Swedish meatballs recipe, which was adapted from the IKEA Friends meatballs with cream sauce recipe

Here’s the original post featuring Swedish meatballs for dinner, cooked by Juji.

A craving for Chinese roast meats

TFP — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:53:22 +0000

At the shops, I had a powerful, terrible craving for Chinese roast meats, especially Chinese roast pork, with layers of fat and crispy crackling. So when lunch time came, I got myself a Chinese roast meats combination, with noodles, fried rice, stir-fried vegetabkes and three meats: roast pork, barbecue pork and barbecue chicken. The lady who served me placed a mini spring roll on top of my plate. Bonus!

The fatty pork and crispy crackling was so delicious. The barbecue pork was great too. The barbecue chicken was tender dark meat cooked in similar flavours to the barbecue pork. For as long as it took me to eat all this food, I was in heaven.

Chocolate cake

TFP — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:52:39 +0000

It was workmate C’s birthday. At one point during the morning, a friend of his turned up at his desk and sang Happy Birthday – she stood there and sang the whole song like you do at someone’s party when they’re standing in front of the cake with candles. She then gave him a Miss Maud box with a cake in it as his present. He could’ve taken the cake home but generously shared it with all of us. In between layers of soft chocolate sponge was chocolate mousse. The chocolate ganache icing was fantastic – the best bits were the swirls all around the top of the cake. I’m not a chocoholic by any means, but this was one of the nicest chocolate cakes I’ve eaten for a while.