Club Troppo

It is, of course, the season for holiday fun times making worthless definitions.

Last week my wife and I were making a rare trip into Namba, a popular entertainment and shopping district in Osaka. We happened to see a restaurant named “Blue Billabong (Japanese)”. It purported to be an Australian themed restaurant. We looked at the menu, expecting to snigger in the same resigned fashion as we would looking at the Menu for the Outback Steakhouse.

Here’s some of the items  on the menu.

Pasta with 5-spice prawns.

Steamed Shredded Chicken with Ginger and Green Onion Oil.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Red Wine Sauce

Seasame Crusted Lotus Seeds in Red Beans with Salty Icecream.

Xiaolongbao (“soup dumplings” associated with Shanghai).

Fish and Chips

You can make out some other items here (if you zoom in).

This was unexpected. It’s easily recognisable as something you’d find in a contemporary Australian restaurant. It’s the same combination of Mediterranean and Asian flavours (here mainly Italian and Chinese [fn1]) that has been labeled Modern Australian for roughly 20 years.

But it’s also in a country where tourism campaigns portray Australia with dozens of photos of Cairns and the Gold Coast, the Harbour Bridge and nothing of the rest of the country where Australians live.

It’s good to see we are beginning to be recognised for who we are.

…and maybe “Asia literacy” is just a code word for established government and media following belatedly where the rest of the country has already trod.

[fn1] And much different to the Italian (read “Spaghetti”) and Chinese (read 1970′s RSL) one most frequently encounters in Japan.

From Supersizing supercenters? The impact of Walmart Supercenters on body mass index and obesity, by Charles Courtemanche and Art Carden, Journal of Urban Economics 69 (2011) 165–181

Researchers have linked the rise in obesity to technological progress reducing the opportunity cost of food consumption and increasing the opportunity cost of physical activity. We examine this hypothesis in the context of Walmart Supercenters, whose advancements in retail logistics have translated to sub- stantial reductions in the prices of food and other consumer goods. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System matched with Walmart Supercenter entry dates and locations, we examine the effects of Supercenters on body mass index (BMI) and obesity. We account for the endogeneity of Walmart Supercenter locations with an instrumental variables approach that exploits the unique geo- graphical pattern of Supercenter expansion around Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. An additional Supercenter per 100,000 residents increases average BMI by 0.24 units and the obesity rate by 2.3% points. These results imply that the proliferation of Walmart Supercenters explains 10.5% of the rise in obesity since the late 1980s, but the resulting increase in medical expenditures offsets only a small portion of consumers’ savings from shopping at Supercenters.

This post is merely two additions to previous posts, neither of which warranted a post on their own.

The first relates to this post from September where I talked about the idea of realtime mapping of bus services using GPS data.  Better people than I had the same idea and, through the Apps4NSW competition, Flink Labs has produced this prototype for Sydney and Newcastle buses. I think it’s great. I may have anticipated the means by which it would come (Google maps and Government 2.0) but I got the timing way out – I thought it would take years. Hopefully the new government will run with it so it becomes more phone friendly.

The other relates to my speculations on the paucity of Filipino restaurants. One hypothesis I didn’t mention is that Filipino migrants might be less prone than  other migrant groups to cluster into certain suburbs (the way we can see suburbs that are notably “Greek” or “Vietnamese” for instance), so that that a given restaurant would struggle to have a local returning customer base within it’s own community. This could be plausible if Filipino migrants have better English skills (due to American colonialism) and are therefore less likely to seek other speakers of their language to live near. Alternatively, the gender imbalance and associated exogamy may mean they are more geographically spread out.

I didn’t feel this hypothesis explained much (hence I didn’t mention it), but I kept it in mind. The other day I was using CData to map 2006 census data on migrant groups for an unrelated question (on which I’ll probably post in future), but this gave me the opportunity to compare Filipino settlement to some other groups. Notably I compared residency in Sydney and Melbourne by people born in the Phillipines with those born in two other countries, Korea and India. I chose these two because their periods of migration roughly coincide with Filipino migration, so they’d be facing similar house prices and job opportunities which would alter their choices relative to post war migrants. Additionally, unlike the Vietnamese or Lebanese (or more recently East Africans), there’d be no refugee aspect where settlement would be dictated by government decisions. Furthermore, Korean and Indian restaurants are abundant. The comparison is still flawed of course.

The maps (and some notes) are below the fold. I can see some element of greater concentration amongst Koreans and Indians, at least in Sydney (and in places where you’d find many restaurants in said cuisines), but not nearly enough to explain the disparity. The concentration of Filipinos in the spur of settlement between Blacktown and Penrith is notable – half the Filipino restaurants I know of in Sydney are in Blacktown (i.e two). Maybe there’s a lack of suitable commercial real estate there?

I don’t think there’s more for this hypothesis though, but you can look for yourself.

(Continued)

Being in holiday mode, my brain is deeply immersed in trivial thoughts, not least who the Australian selectors could sensibly pick to begin the process of rebuilding a competitive cricket team.

However an even more burning question is this: why are there so many cooking programs on TV?  It can’t just be that they’re much cheaper to make than scripted drama or comedy.  People must actually like watching them.  But why?

There’s certainly a moment of harmless if tacky diversion involved in watching the amply endowed voluptuous Nigella figuratively fellate her audience while whipping up tasty comestibles.

I even confess to once watching a couple of episodes of Gordon Ramsey in horrified fascination, though only to find out just how much bullying and humiliation contestants would tolerate in the hope of fleeting foodie fame (the answer appears to be that there’s no limit, otherwise someone would have punched Ramsey’s teeth down his throat years ago).

But with those exceptions, why would you watch a cooking show?  And if learning the finer points of domestic chores is entertainment, why don’t we see shows like Poh’s Laundry or Nigella’s Mopping and Vacuuming Titbits? Please explain.

I guess the coming of Master Chef was 9 parts good and one part bad. Great that people got into cooking, but all that stuff about ‘plating up’ was a bit much for me. A nicely presented meal is nice of course, but ‘plating up’? A tad overblown methinks.

Anyway, I just thought I’d let all Troppodillians know that I’ve found the restaurant of my dreams. The Darna Authentic Moroccan Restaurant. What’s so good about it? Well pretty much everything. Every dish that was served a group of four of us tonight was superb. Even those dips that turn up as the initial course were truly delicious. Of course dips often are, but these were a bit different to your usual. And truly delicious.

The main courses were slow cooked lamb with prunes and other sweet things, and onions, and roasted almonds; Artichokes stuffed with veal and lamb meat in lemon dressing and a couple of other specials that don’t turn up on their internet menu.

The food was so delicious we were full, but managed one desert between four. It was Toubkal delight – Sweet pastry with vegetal milk, citrus water, garnished with baked ground almonds in cinnamon. Sublime with mint tea. Had we wanted more there were plenty of alternatives like dates stuffed with marzipan, crescents of toasted almonds, shbakia, coconut cookies, almond balls, ground nuts and dates in powdered sugar, phyllo leaves stuffed with marzipan and dipped in honey.

The bad news? Darna Authentic Moroccan Restaurant is in Jerusalem. So it will be some time before I make it back there. In the meantime, if you’re in town, make sure you go. It’s wonderful. Prices are normal – say high twenties, low thirties for a main. It completely lacks preciousness. Everything was presented in a very appetising way, without much sign of ‘plating up’.

I can’t think of a better restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. Ever.

Balmain is not  just the city of basket weavers it is also a place to find thinking drinkers and binge thinkers. Put this in your list of favorites.

Shaken and Stirred, the brainchild of Parnell McGuinness and Leonie Phillips, is a space for the free exchange of opinions without fear, favour or rancour. It is a moveable feast of ideas, usually associated with food and drink (well, why not?).

Modelled on the great Parisian salons of the enlightenment, Shaken and Stirred events gypsy throughout metropolitan Sydney presenting unusual speakers on provocative ideas. By deliberately seating ideological opponents adjacent, the events encourage thinkers from all perspectives to challenge their own ideas and those of others.

See the Shaken and Stirred Facebook page for previous events.

A few weeks ago, on the 30th of Sept to be precise, I gave a speech to ‘science leaders’ in CSIRO. Science leaders are early mid career scientists from around the world whom CSIRO have recruited. As the speech explains, Jim Peacock, the Chief Scientist whom I met when on the Innovation Review asked me to speak. I sent this to Don Arthur, who enjoyed it, so I thought I’d post it for those who might like to read it on Troppo.

I must confess to some trepidation as I stand before you.

Ive never thought of myself as an after dinner speaker. But there I was working away I was going to say innocently working away but some people who know me might find that unconvincing.

Anyway, at that point, the nations Chief Scientist rang.

He said that hed come to think of my contributions to the Innovation Review where we both sat as members as so witty that he thought that if I turned up here tonight everyone could have a good laugh.

I note he didnt say witty and wise, but then thats just as well as it halves the level of performance anxiety I might otherwise feel.

Now naturally enough, those on the Innovation Panel regard a gentle request from the Chief Scientist in the same way that members of the US Military regard a gentle request from the Commander in Chief. So I accepted his kind invitation.

Anyway, immediately I got off the phone the saying that came to my fevered and terrified mind was the one attributed to Abraham Lincoln. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time (I think in these circumstances thats a reference to the Chief Scientist), but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

On thinking about that I nearly rang back and cancelled, but then I realised, that from what the Chief Scientist had said, all I really needed to do was fool all of the people in this room for fifteen minutes or so.

So here I go. Please dont refrain from having a few more drinks as I speak. A couple of minutes already gone! (Continued)

When I was a boy growing up in Sydney – and this is the 60s we’re talking about here – I often spent school holidays at my grandmother’s house in the western suburbs. Generally speaking, it wasn’t much fun. My grandmother never had any money. There was a box on the wall out the back of the house that you fed pennies into if you wanted electricity. The electricity people installed it because she could never pay the bill, so we spent quite a number of nights scratching around in the dark for lost pennies, which was an especially traumatic thing if there was a good show coming on the telly.

That wasn’t the worst of it, though. I can clearly recall having fat for dinner one night. Ancient, globulous, orange-yellow fat, scraped out of an ancient cast iron frying pan where it apparently lived. Mind you, I actually didn’t mind it. It was delicious.

Now, I’m a cartoonist. I know a bit about politics but bugger-all about economics. The mechanics of meltdowns and bailouts is beyond me. I’ll happily admit that most of the analysis here on Troppo, for instance, goes in one eye and out the other. What I do understand about economics is that sometimes things go pear-shaped, the price of pears goes bananas and people have to eat fat instead.

Which brings me to a question: if America fails to rescue itself will we soon have to re-learn the dark art of 20th century working class cooking? Are things really going to get that bad?

According to CNN it’s already happening in the UK, where people are buying up big on cheap meat like livers and pig’s feet. There is even talk of seeking out forgotten recipes for gruel. In the States, of course, they’re going for more traditional comfort foods, such as pizzas and cordial. And soup. Soup is big.

Help me out here. My wife has already dumbed down our meals. She reads the papers. Her consumer confidence has hit an all time low. She’s cooking things on the cheap, like meaty slop that’ll provide hearty meals for weeks on end. She must be stopped. Apart from hiding the morning paper, is there anything I can do to restore her faith?

If the answer is ‘fat chance’ does anybody have any decent end-of-the-financial-world recipes I can pass on?

This time last year the British media was buzzing with stories about the demise of marmalade. In January, The Grocer reported that sales of marmalade fell by 4.4% in the year to 4 November 2006. Worse still, most marmalade consumers have their best toast munching years behind them — 81% of marmalade is consumed by people over 45.

According to The Spectator’s Rachel Simhon, marmalade’s decline "is due to ‘younger consumers’ – or rather their parents, who bow to demands for honey, jam, Nutella and other sickly concoctions." Market researchers say that children find marmalade too strong. "Well, of course they do", writes Simhon:

Seville orange marmalade is for grown-ups. It’s one of life’s great adult pleasures and cannot be allowed to disappear because of feeble-minded pandering to infant whim.

Now the Sydney Morning Herald’s Richard Glover has unearthed the story — and the implications are more serious than anyone realised. The demise of marmalade is part of an ominous trend. Like Simhon, Glover argues that parents are becoming more indulgent and food is becoming sweeter and fattier:

Sometime in the early ’90s parents were convinced that it was OK to give their children sweets for breakfast. The product was called "hazelnut spread" to make it sound healthy, although the main nuts involved were surely the parents who served it.

And once children become used to food that’s loaded with fats, sugars and colourings, normal, healthy food will look and taste bland in comparison.

But unlike Simhon, Glover traces the problem to its root — capitalism. According to Glover, it infantalises us all by creating products that appeal to our "basest, most primitive instincts". This is why "our food gets steadily sweeter, our TV drama more violent and our ice-creams ever more fattening."

Does Glover have a point? After all, there is a trend towards sickly sweet adult products that taste like they’re made for children. The latest example is beer that tastes like marmalade. But sweet, citrus flavoured beer, ought to make us wonder — is the demise of marmalade really a best example for an argument about the insidious effects of capitalism on food preferences?

(Continued)

If you’ve ever wanted to make a burger with 100% pure bacon or you need a recipe for caramelized bacon then I’ve got links for you. Welcome to the baconsphere!

"Bacon is totally meat candy," says bacon enthusiast Heather Lauer. Heather blogs at Bacon Unwrapped. See Heather’s recipe for caramelized bacon here.

"A while back I heard about the Flavor Spray™ Diet," says the anonymous author of I Heart Bacon. Apparently the spray is meant to eliminate fat-rich "toppings, gravies, dressings" and give back the flavour diets take out. But the I Heart Bacon blogger didn’t care that the spray was endorsed by former Miss USA, Chelsea Cooley –the ad said that it tasted like bacon:

I was still unclear about how I was supposed to use them. I suspected that I should spray them on food, but I wanted instant gratification after waiting that long. I decided to spray the bacon flavor directly onto my tongue. What could it hurt?

As usual, my naive innocence led my astray. It hurt bad.

It was like bathing my tongue in a tubful of liquid smoke. All I could taste was smoke. Was my tongue on fire? After that came the harsh chemical aftertaste. Choking and gasping for air I made my way to the sink. You know how they make those eye bath cups for chemical burns? I wanted one for my tongue.

I thought that maybe the parmesan one would be better…

I Heart Bacon has links to other bacon blogs like The Bacontarian, "a person who supplements an otherwise normal diet with large amounts of pork!"

"We feel sad for them for they know not the ecstasy that is nature’s perfect food" say the team at Six Degrees of Bacon. Six Degrees’ authors include Mr Flitch, Chef Guanciale and General Hogwashington. But rather than being a hobby, the blog was created by marketing firm Optiem as "a sandbox to test out a wide variety of online and word-of-mouth marketing techniques." According to Optiem president Jeff Rohrs, there’s a passionate group of people out there discussing bacon. And that’s just what marketers need.

Rohrs himself seems to have a passion for smallgoods. He is also the author of The Sausage Manifesto — an open letter to paid search networks on behalf of pay per click (PPC) advertisers.

If all this talk about bacon is making you hungry, here’s a tasty recipe from The Bacon Show — "one bacon recipe per day, every day, forever."