greetings from waaaay down south

[lamington]

Hello there. Just joined this fantastic place. I'm an avid amateur cook, writer and foodie. Based in Australia, so a metric guy!

I look forward to lots of fun talk about food (and hopefully problem-solving too;-)

cheers to all. Duncan

[culinarian247]

Welcome to ChefTalk, lamington. If I am not mistaken, there is another gent here from "down under". His name is Nick.Shu I think. Nice guy and very informative. But then again so are most (99.99999999%) of the people here.

[mike]

gday sport welcome

[Mezzaluna]

Hello again, Lamington. It's very nice to meet you! We'll look forward to your posts.

What in the culinary world interests you?

Regards,
Mezzaluna

[lamington]

Thanks for the warm welcome. My culinary interests...

highest on the list are Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and various Southeast Asian cusines, and French/German/Scandinavian patisserie. My writing tends to be about sweet stuff though I'm trying to force myself to focus on the savoury a little more (I *eat* and cook savoury much more than sweet, but it never makes it to paper)...

Interested in pedagogy in cookbooks and foodbooks, and the anatomy of ingredients and flavours -- I appreciate works which educate/inform the reader, rather than just collections of unannotated recipes.

So that's that in a (large) nutshell.

[mike]

eh ???
what pedagogy me not know !!!!

just read a corker... Hotel Bemelmans by Ludwig Bememlans
see www.randomhouse.co.uk written by a german waiter in the 1920s when hotels were bastions of the rich & famous. Its probably the best descriptive book of the hotel industry since orwells down & out in london & paris.

[lamington]

LOL. don't worry, pedagogy isn't an unfamiliar ingredient It's the method and practice of teaching.

[mike]

Thanx,
heres one for you.
Suggest a savoury use for that oddest of fruits the asian pear

[lamington]

you mean the 'nashi' pear? How about fanned slices of nashi and chicken breast (marinated in something lightly perfumed). A touch of acidity somewhere might be nice. Maybe a little tamarind, but not strong.

I don't know how nashi react to being sauteed in butter... haven't played with them much. As yet, I haven't tasted one that bowled me over... the most fascinating thing has been the texture.

Sound good or bad?

[mike]

thanks. i think the would turn to mush if sauteed they seem to have a high water content beyond normal apples & pears.
However i did find a Korean idea.

Blend asian pears ginger soy garlic chilli to a sloppy paste & marinate thinly sliced beef fillet (or chicken as you suggest) for 24
hours. remove & dry fry the beef over high heat. use reserved paste to stir fry veggies....ive tried it & its real good

chow

[lamington]

interesting idea... but is there really any difference in flavour between the nashi pears in that marinade and using, say, a different pear? (other than perhaps the nashi mixture just being less flavoursome?)

--lamington

[Nick.Shu]

hello Duncan.

Pedagog huh?, you a teacher at tafe, perhaps?.

You have chosen a good place to come to, there is mountains of experience and comparitive knowledge here. Also the international flavour makes for a very good forum for discussion.

Soz i took so long to show up, but been quite busy.

Nick

[lamington]

G'day Nick. Certainly is an emulsion of knowledge on these pages! I'm not a TAFE pedagogue though. Was previously a full-time academic in Melbourne (in a non-food discipline) but now do freelance consultancy and also foodwriting.

cheers, D--lamington

[Nick.Shu]

academic, ahh, were you ever at latrobe? My uncle is a professor in the philosophy Dept there.

[lamington]

Just thought I'd whisper a new 'hello'... I seem to get dragged away from my favourite forum for months on end, but maybe posting this will make me come back more often!

Had less opportunity to wear my foodwriter hat recently, but a little more to do some cookbook localisation, which was fascinating.

Merry everything...