the international bakers union has proclaimed today to be world bread day.  bread being such a glorious thing and i’m not going to argue about another day marked on the calendar.

so what could one do on world bread day? well you could eat some good quality bread, buy bread from a local bakery, teach someone to make bread or have a bread fight. well maybe not, but i like the idea of a day dedicated to eating bread which doesn’t come pre-sliced and wrapped in plastic.
the good people at fuel bakery made the bread rolls you see above. these spiral beauties were made for bécasse, that fine modern french restuarant which is currently the darling of sydney town. the head baker,  keith slater gave my mother and i a little tour of their industrial bakery last week as well as a few still-hot-from-the oven samples of the rolls. they were delicious - soft, tasty and very good. fuel bakery mainly makes bread for eating establishments around town and only sells retail to fratelli fresh. if you live in sydney i would highly recommend that you pop into their industrial bakery, you will be told to relax many times and be given a hot sample or two. and if you’re keen their cake baking shift starts at 9pm
today i plan on popping back into fuel bakery to get one of their olive and rosemarry foccacias as well as a few plain baguettes, incase another foodie would like to engage in a bread sword fight. or something.

happy world bread day!

fuel bakery
19-21 larkin street
camperdown
(if the roller door is shut, just walk through the glass doors and go up the stairs. )

just for fun.

over the weekend i saw a funny magent: “diet is die with a t“.

apparently monday is the day most people embark on a healthy eating regime. as far as i’m concerned it’s too much pressure. suffering with mondayitis on sunday evening, all i can focus on is packing my lunch and mucking about with a camera and cake decorations.

oh, i’ve tried typing up so many posts over the last few weeks. i wanted to tell you about a book i’m reading called the ethics of what we eat. i also wanted to tell you about the degustation at bécasse, the night noodle markets, the sugar hit, raspberry + mocha muffins and fuel bakery. but umm, they have been hijacked by various other things going on. you know how it is? the phone rings or someone pops in for a cup of tea all the way from portugal.
so i’ve resorted to putting together some links because no matter how focused you can be, the internet is wonderful place and soon enough you’ve spent 4 hours reading and bookmarking …

fried twinkies! i waited with bated breath when megan declared a random day as country fair fried food day a few weeks ago. how would this experiment turn out? could she fry a twinkie and mac and cheese in one sitting? would she live to tell the tale? the answers are: golden and yes, kinda.

speaking of all things golden and kinda bad, when i saw the film thank you for smoking a few weeks back i became mildy curious about the taste sensation of apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on top. you see, one of the characters, a hefty bloke with a thing for guns ordered it in a diner scene (don’t you love diner scenes!?). while it sounded just wrong i knew i had come across it elsewhere. taxi driver! you know the scene between travis and betsy? of course now, i just want to try it myself.

i ignored the permanent grin last week when i tried bill granger’s fast vegetarian fare. delicious, easy and went down well with the rest of the household. i highly recommend the spinach and pea paneer. next time i’ll have to try making the paneer at home as it’s ridiculously expensive at the indian grocer.

and to end, some mundane, yet cute instances of consumerism…

i’ve been loving my easy to use juicer which i was coveting last month. i’ve been using the smaller bottle for breakfast on the go and the larger one for mixed juice; grapefruit and orange. yum! anyone want to buy a hardly used electric juicer?

see mr. whiskie up there? he is the newest member of the kitchen. having always been tempted by these terribly cute gadgets, i’ve stopped myself from buying them because i could always use a fork right? well yes, but clearly the cuteness got to me this afternoon during a spot of retail therapy. standing tall at 14cm he’ll be whipping up some eggs very soon i’m sure.

not quite my style, but for the bacon lover who has everything, there is now a blt ring, in silver. bling bling.

note to self: it’s a crime to buy ready made preserved lemons when you have an aunty who has a lemon tree with a generous bounty.

today i managed to get a lot done. one of them, preserving a couple of kilos worth of lemons. a simple enough task, but also one of those thing i’ve been putting off for ages. with a pig full of salt i filled a few jars worth of lemons. for the next thirty days i hope to remember to turn the jars upside down and back straight up for the extra lemon juice to coat the golden skins. all of which will be ready for lots of moroccan feasts this summer!

one of my favourite design blogs has opened an online store to show case one off pieces by independent designers. a fabulous thing about the store is that grace has included international shipping to australia! such a bonus for those of us who ooh and aah over designs featured on blogs, but then find out that suppliers don’t offer international shipping.
i especially love the table runner featured this month. so lovely for spring this year.

go visit! such a wonderful feeling of niceness with 100% of all sales going back to the designers themselves as well as revenue from advertising donated to a chosen charity each month. for a cynic like me this is perfect example of grass roots projects and commerce working. thanks grace!