This weekend gone I went camping with Kris in The Grampians in Western Victoria. This photo was taken at MacKenzie falls, shortly before a kookaburra stole the D’affinois, tomato and the local Mount Zero olive tapenade baguette from right out of my hand. Serves me right for being a yuppie.
For those in Melbourne, we’d like to invite you to join us for the launch of an exhibition, Tenderfoot, at Mr. Kitly this Friday, January 27th.
The exhibition features photographers Kasane Nogawa (Japan), Ye Rin Mok (South Korea), Peter Sutherland (United States), Nich Hance McElroy (United States) and Jessica Brent (Australia).
Taken across continents, the collection of works seek to capture the spirit of eating in the outdoors and explore the affinity we form with food when it is enjoyed in nature.
The launch will run from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, so please drop in for a glass of wine from our friends and Jed, some mountain tea and marshmallows.
For those not in Melbourne, images from the exhibition will be included in the upcoming issue of Condiment due for release in Australia’s Autumn.
At the very edge of the city there’s a small park that I often walk through or sometimes we have spontaneous picnics in where we drink bottles of champagne. My favourite part of the park is the geometric water feature from the 80’s that offers curtains of mist that you can stand in the middle of. One day a friend of mine pointed out the rows of rosemary that lined the footpath. I was in disbelief about failing to notice them, but also excited about my future relationship with these plants. Unfortunately, the park is slightly out of my everyday way, and in reality I’ve rarely been able to successfully utilise this resource.
My preferred route to work involves walking through three parks. Today in park #2 the spring air was fragrant and I was admiring one of the triangular garden beds brimming with lavender and a vaguely familiar plant. I picked a stem and rubbed it between my fingers to release the rich smell of rosemary. With a smile I selected a couple more to take with me and eagerly planned the food that I would cook with it this week.
I like to think that the same landscaper designer is on a mission to supply limitless rosemary to people who like to walk through parks.
Sometimes it’s nice to sleep with food too.
A couple of years ago some of my friends gave me a hot pot for my birthday. This year for my birthday we made a hot pot feast. We sat amongst mountains of mushrooms, lotus root, greens and wagyu, passing each other pieces of broccoli, handfuls of noodles and dishes of sauce.
We are very pleased that Condiment has found a home in Barcelona in the Llibreria of CASA MARIOL, the wine bar and food store of a family owned winery of the same name, based in the Terra Alta region of Catalunya, Spain. We hope to visit them one day but for the time being we’ll have to be satisfied by their quite amazing website.
A delicious three person feast tonight with Kae and Daisuke at the famous harajuku gyoza restaurant.
It was Ben’s birthday on Sunday. I found him in Yoyogi park reading Naked Lunch and concealing a bottle of ume-shu and some olive bread.
This winter we spent many chilly nights eating indoors on the picnic rug, imagining we were outside and it was summer.
On the first warm spring night in September, Sari invited us over for dinner and made a delicious Mexican feast. She dragged her Persian rug outside into her garden and set it up with cushions. We sat under the stars, ate tortillas, and lounged around as if we were on her living room floor.
In late August we made a long awaited pilgrimage to Gallery Trax.
Cameron hired a car and drove above the speed limit at all times.
The car looked like a pink rice bubble.
It had been raining heavily.
We got lost. Cameron looked to the earth for answers.
We met a handsome dog.
Poetry was everywhere.
There were beautiful paintings by Ai Sasaki.
Kain and Fi were there.
Miyoshi-san made us fresh corn which we threw into an empty field afterwards.
Next door to the gallery was a hammock shop…
… and the gallery vegetable garden. The city seemed very far away.
Delicate - New Food Culture recently published by Gestalten is “an exploration of a worldwide scene that sees eating as a creative challenge.” We’re in there somewhere.
Papersky is a Japanese travel magazine who are tirelessly organising events for friends and readers such as bicycle tours, mountain walks and food clubs hosted by their favourite local cooks like Yoyo from Vege Shokudo - featured in Issue 01 of Condiment. These photos were taken in August at their second Food Club event hosted by Chiori Yamamoto of Chioben at the Knee High Media home and headquarters (aka Green Studio). It was an intimate and inspiring afternoon and window into how weekends should be.
There are different kinds of cookie people. Their tastes range from the crunchy to the soft because people, too, are cooked in a variety of contexts. Cookie compatibility is, of course, a cornerstone of any friendship and is crucial to ensuring that freshly baked situations don’t end in disaster.
My favourite thing you can order at the Albion are the giant cookies, delicious and satisfying to hold in two hands. The cookie chefs are well aware of the importance of balance in baking and make their cookies large enough so that there is the perfect bite for every type. Or, in the situation you are they same type, you can select one that is either entirely crunchy or extra chewy.
On this particular day we shared a combination cookie and a carafe of rose. I munched on the outsides while my friend chewed the insides. Satisfied, we sat in the sun and watched the day go by. As we left we each picked our own cookie to take home.
