Indulgence at Simon Johnson's Toorak store: spice, pasta, and haricot beans from Spain.

I was in Toorak yesterday and between appointments so what better way to while away some time but a nice browse in Simon Johnson's.  I have been in Melbourne nearly six years and haven't set foot in Simon Johnson's.  Years ago when in lived in Elizabeth Bay, I would visit the Woollahra store.

I loved this window setting.

The large bottle of Olive Oil looked like perfume, don't you think?

It was quite a surprise to find the oil beautifully centred

in the reflection of  two charming old Toorak buildings.

It was a lovely sunny Melbourne morning - for once in July - and I was offered a cafe latte (free).  The two women in the store were friendly and we chatted.  Very pleasant.  A feature of all Simon Johnson's stores is the Fromagerie  And this one was stacked and packed - and the wonderful cheesy aroma.  I stood in there and just inhaled!

I made some simple purchases.  An emblazoned Simon Johnson carry all, a jar of Christine Manfield Satay Spice Paste, a pack of Benedetto Cavalieri's cartwheel pasta, and a jar of  Monjardin organic white haricot beans all the way from Spain

The site of Conservas Artesanas El Navarrico of which Monjardin is a part is delightful..   The trip around the 'net, particularly to Spain, extended my simple and small shopping pleasure.  One request, Tucker lovers: there is scarcely a haricot bean recipe on the site without some animal flesh in it so I would like to take this opportunity to request your best suggestions and recipes for the haricot beans.  And while your at it, vegetarian satay and pasta dishes as well, please.  Let's have a party!  

Related matters:

Lisa Audit Fromagerie 8 x 20 Print

Australian Cheese: A Guide to Cheeses Made in Australia by the Australian Dairy Corporation

Dairy Farming in Australia: Australian Cheeses, Dairy Products Companies of Australia, Coon Cheese, Dairy Industry Association of Australia

Prayer & Pots; handles & holders - and op shopping

Now, I really don't use pot holders. And I've never made one. I either use the space age oven mitts which were a birthday present from The Director (my sister), pictured below, or I quickly grab a tea-towel. But, when I saw these at my favourite op shop, I had to bring them home. Who knows? Part of a gift package, a decorating item? But they are cute - particularly the embroidered one.

These oven mitts withstand temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius.

And I have found this prayer by Leunig which just seems to fit:

We give thanks for the invention of the handle.

Without it there would be many things we couldn't hold on to.

As for the things we can't hold on to anyway,

let us gracefully accept their ungraspable nature and

celebrate all things elusive, fleeting and intangible.

They mystify us and make us receptive to truth and beauty.

We celebrate and give thanks.

Amen.

I was up at my favouritest Parents Without Partners Opp Shop in Upper Gully to-day.

To-day, Friday 13 June, and to-morrow, Saturday 14 June, they are having a Dollar Day.

They are stocked to the hilt and they want all their regulars to benefit from the sale.

As well, they want to welcome lots of newcomers too.

So, time to hotfoot it to Rose Street, Upper Ferntree Gully.

Directions:

Head east to the Dandenong Ranges,

turn right from Burwood Highway into Dawson Street, Upper Ferntree Gully

(Ferntree Gully Plaza Shopping Centre on one side of Dawson Street

and the Royal Hotel on the other side)

Take first turn to the left - along Rose Street.

Rose Street bends to the left.

On the bend look right and there it is!

Your money is well spent

because PWP at Upper Gully contributes to the support of Emergency Housing in the south-east and, in addition, pays the wages of a Social Worker to assist those in need of the housing.

Aussie Farmers Direct

Herself has signed us up. First delivery is yet to arrive. Someone knocked at the door - and it seems like a great way to support our farmers. You see in Australia our grocery retailing is in the hands of a duopoly - Woolworths and Coles. There are independents - an Australia wide one IGA and locally there is Maxi. Here at The Trad Pad, Maxi is our preferred grocery retailer but we do shop at Woolworths when it suits - for very good specials or a particular product. You see we don't want to give most of our grocery dollar to supporting the market dominance of Woolworths - not only in groceries but in hotels, liquor retailing, and poker machines. What do you think, dear Reader, when you see the Roll Back poster in Woolworths proudly boasting that they are rolling back prices? Miss Eagle thinks there are two possibilities:

1. This is untrue - and prices are not rolling back i.e. when are they rolling back to? - are they rolling back on every item or only some items?
2. This is true - but how is the rolling back being done and at whose expense? Stories persist of farmers being squeezed; of farmers being flooded with paperwork as Woolworths imposes their auditing procedures upon them. And what about employees - are their wages and working hours and intensity of work being squeezed too? Are suppliers being forced to cut and cut their prices to get shelf space to put their products up front?

Miss Eagle suspects that the answer to each question is in the affirmative. Woolworths are progressively introducing their trendy looking house brand, Select. Some stories are around that Select is gradually taking shelf space away from other wholesalers. In other words, Woolworths are not giving existing suppliers a fair deal. Dear Reader, if you are not already taking time to check the labels on all the products that go into your shopping basket - please do so from now on. To whom are you transferring the power of your grocery dollar vote? Towards Australian business and employment or to foreign businesses who do not pay their employees well, who do not meet appropriate environmental standards? If you think this is exaggerated, Woolworths had to answer questions recently about Select brand toilet paper which had its source in unsustainable forest harvesting.

As a consumer, dear Reader, are you prepared to be relieved of what power you might have and give the decision-making to large corporations to make decisions in their own interests which, in the end, may not be in your best interests?

So, here at The Trad Pad, we are willing to give Aussie Farmers Direct a go.

Woolworths, Grog and Complaints

Well, dear Reader, it took a while. They didn't meet their own standard. Was beginning to think I'd never hear from them. But lo and behold they called. What on earth am I rabbiting on about I hear you ask?

You may recall my post Woolworths, Safeway, Liquor and Fuel - but not food which was posted on Friday, 8 June 2007. Woolworths pride themselves on having a seven-day response in replying to customers. Answering my complaint took them two days short of six weeks. Ah, well, better late than dead on time, eh!

Anyway, the call came from John McInnes who is in charge of buying for the liquor stores. As I expected, John didn't see my point. You might recall the issue was a promotion prior to the Queen's Birthday long week-end where, if you were to buy $60 worth of liquor from their liquor shop, you would get an 8c a litre discount on fuel (twice the usual 4c a litre discount when you produce your cash register docket for purchasing more than $30). My argument was the link between alcohol and driving and putting a value on alcohol which food did not attract.

John tried to claim that they did not target anybody in particular with the promotion. I explained to him that this was not true. He had in fact targetted two groups of people: those who drove and those who drank alcohol. A mum buying food for her family of six and didn't drink had no chance of getting 8c a litre off her fuel.

John didn't seem to be able to see the problem that alcohol was for all of us. He told me that following this nation-wide promotion, out of two and a half million customers he had received only eleven complaints apart from mine and they were all from the Northern Territory. Funny that, Miss E said, I'm an old Territorian. Perhaps we are a bit more conscious of grog issues than other people? I lived in the only town that had the pubs shut by Aboriginal people - Tennant Creek. Read all about in Grog War by Alexis Wright, this year's Miles Franklin Award winner.

Back to explaining community responsibility re alcohol consumption. For instance, we all pay taxes for the hospitals and these have a high rate of alcohol related admissions. In fact, when one considers the links between violence and alcohol and road trauma and alcohol, alcohol is a community problem. So there was more conversation in this regard which didn't bring about one ounce of regret or remorse from John. Youth drinking? Parental problem. Miss E said that when they stabbed someone or killed someone on the road it was a community problem, a problem for all of us.

I explained to him that what I would like from him was for him to say that he would never link alcohol and driving again or give preference to alcohol over food again. He said he couldn't say that. Suprised? Are you kidding? But I did suggest something else to him.

I suggested that he enable food purchasers to have access to an 8c a litre discount on fuel for purchases over $60. I suggested that such a promotion be held the week before the First Sunday of Advent. Brief reference to an election and what's-his-name's threat/promise on food pricing should he become Prime Minister.

Wouldn't that be good? Just when you're buying the fruit for the cake and the pudd and associated Christmas jollies. Just when you're about to set off on hols. with the kids and all the camping gear.

I said if he didn't know when the First Sunday of Advent was he should buy a calendar and learn - and I did a deviation to say that chocolate chips do not belong in Hot Cross Buns and and that Hot Cross Buns should not be on sale before we had even got to Epiphany. Didn't bother to ask if he understood what Epiphany was. All that will have to be the subject of a separate complaint. (Poor pun warning: Should I wait for an epiphany from Woolworths?)

Poor John. He's to do with liquor and not food...but he said he could bring it up because he is on the team that discusses this. Mmm.

Perhaps if I make a complaint about the keeping of Christian festivals now and go over my request for the 8c a litre discount in late November....mmm...letter to the CEO do you think?

The Boatshed at Ballarat: a beacon in bleak Ballarat

There comes a time in the life of a blogger when life has to be lived...not just blogged about. There have been a number of things that Miss Eagle has been involved in since her last appearance here. Prime among them was attending a conference in Ballarat and doing the tourist thing before and after. Miss Eagle, a relative newcomer to Victoria, had never been to Ballarat. So she went up pre-conference to do Sovereign Hill, the Eureka Centre and the Fine Art Gallery. After the conference, she did the Great Tourist Road home through The Grampians and via The Great Ocean Road.

The Boatshed, Windouree Parade, Ballarat

Interior

Formal Section

Verandah with sails

Views Lake Windouree filling after being bone dry from the drought Wildlife feed Don't know whether The Begonia Princess floated on the Lake prior to the drought.

It sure looks like she will have difficulty getting out of the mud.

And this was breakfast. Wonderful.

All in all, The Boatshed was the place to be on a bleak Ballarat winter day.

Warm surroundings and warmed by the tucker.

Well worth another visit, methinks!

Woolworths, Safeway, Liquor and Fuel - but not food

Miss Eagle has sent the following email to Liz in Victorian Regional Office of Safeway (the name used by Woolworths in Victoria). It is self-explanatory. If you, dear Reader, agree with Miss E, please feel free to write to Woolworths in your state. If you are writing in Victoria, please send to ejamieson@woolworths.com.au.

This afternoon, I was in the Safeway store at Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully (not the Mountain Gate store). I was stunned to see an advertisement stating, that if customers purchased $60 of goods from Safeway Liquor, they would receive a 20c a litre discount on fuel.

I am amazed at the ethics of such a campaign. I have been told by Kerry in the Area 5 office that this was part of a national campaign organised by the Marketing Division of Woolworths. M

The campaign has certainly not been well thought through. It sends very mixed messages to the community:

1. Alcohol is more valuable than food because it attracts a larger discount on fuel at the bowser.
2. $60 worth of alcohol far outweighs in value at the bowser any amount large or small spent on food.
3. The campaign links alcohol to driving in an encouraging way - in more or less the same way that large car parks at suburban hotels encourage a drink and drive mentality.
4. Woolworths, whose income is derived - in the main - from families, encourages a significant slice of the family budget to be devoted to alcohol.
5. The campaign seeks to encourage a significant amount of spending on alcohol which is the root cause of violence and road deaths in our society and ties the name of Woolworths/Safeway to it.

I would ask you to immediately withdraw this marketing campaign from all Woolworths and Safeway stores and to refrain from any similar type of marketing in the future.

I also wish to complain about the way complaints are handled within Woolworths and Safeway.

I am told that the Woolworths system means that someone in the local regional office will email someone in Sydney but that the system does not allow for me to be cc'd. So I have no way of knowing the accuracy of material forwarded to the responsible person regarding my complaint. I have rung the corporate office in Sydney who referred me back to the local regional office. Sydney refused to give me the name of the person with responsibility for the campaign. I then asked for the title, the phone number and the email of the person responsible for the marketing campaign. This too was refused. There is clearly no way for the customer to be in direct contact with the person with corporate responsibility. I am told that the matter will take two business days and I am familiar with the time limit that Woolworths sets itself to respond.

I fear that the manner in which Woolworths deals with complaints means that the complaint will not be acted upon in a positive manner leading to the withdrawal of the campaign and that Woolworths will go on its merry way regardless.

Yours sincerely,

[Name supplied]

[address supplied] Email: [supplied] Phone: [supplied] Blogs: Oz Tucker at http://oztucker.blogspot.com/ The Trad Pad at http://tradpad.blogspot.com/ The Eagle's Nest at http://eaglesplace.blogspot.com

We'll wait to see what - if anything - happens.

Slipped me lid

Yes, I did. I slipped me lid. I was washing up the lovely one pounder (5oo gram) clear green glass butter dish, the lid slipped out of control, and smashed to smithereens on the kitchen floor. Sadness! :-( :-( :-(

Now, Miss Eagle has to hunt, seek, and hopefully gather another one - lid that is, or, more probably, a whole new green glass butter dish with lid. So, in the weeks ahead, you will come across Miss Eagle a-hunting in Opp Shops across the eastern suburbs and The Hills.

However, dear Reader, could you help too - pretty please. Pretty please with sugar on? If you are opp shopping, could you please keep your eyes peeled and if you find such a pretty thing as a one pounder (500 gram) clear green glass butter dish with lid please email me off the side bar.

Mother's Day, Rose and the Cupcake Tower

Miss Eagle hopes that everyone who cares for kids had a beaut day to-day.

Miss Eagle's present from Herself was a Cupcake Tower. Miss Eagle has been dreaming of this since first finding such a thing existed on Woofnanny's blog. A few weeks ago one was advertised in a catalogue. "No", Herself said. "Wait", she said, "until there is a shabby chic one." Miss Eagle agreed.

Then, last Thursday, Miss Eagle spotted THE shabby chic Cupcake Tower in the General Trader at Knox City. The result? Miss Eagle received one as her Mother's Day pressie.

The picture above is of Herself's decoration of the Tower complete with silicone patty pans in a variety of colours. The Cup/Fairy Cakes are still to come - but they are expected to hit the oven this week.

While photographing the tower, Rose turned up to turn it into a Feline Foto Shoot.

The Rainbow Lorikeets were partying and enjoying their food as Miss Eagle stepped it out en route to her local patisserie this Sunny Sunday morning.

The patisserie is the Arena Boys Bakehouse at Shop 4, 70 Glenfern Road, Upper Ferntree Gully.

Phone 9758 0022

The Arena Boys bring a mix of Italian delicacies to an Aussie mix of pies, rolls, and vanilla slices as well as a wide range of breads and bread rolls.

The bikkies stand

Mousse for dessert?

Pies, pasties and sausage rolls - a wide variety of flavours

Miss Eagle's Sunday morning purchase.

Two ciabatta rolls; two cannoli; and two rum baba. One each for Miss E and Herself. We were not impressed by the rum baba but the ciabatta and cannoli went down the hatch very nicely, thank you. The Arena Boys are quite an asset to this neck of the woods. Upper Gully's bakehouses are Woolworths and Bakers Delight so you can see what Miss E means.

David Jones and Dreams

If Miss Eagle were to dream of food, it would not be of sugar plums but David Jones Food Hall.

The preferred placed would be DJ's Food Hall in Market Street, Sydney.

But their Food Hall in the Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne is rather special too.

Miss Eagle paid it a Christmas visit yesterday and wanted to let her readers in on the day dreams too.

The Greengrocery has all that is good, wholesome & absolutely luscious.

The confectionery from Australia and Europe is mouth watering.

Like the Koalas below - in a ganache to roll around one's mouth.

And if you plan on seeing that Queensland-boy-made-good George Miller's wonderful animation based on birds of our southern climes, Happy Feet, well why not mark the occasion with these delightful penguins - ganache, once more - and sweeten your happiness.

But choc-a-holics should look no further than the cakes below.

Skip the fruit cake and get down and muddy with these delights.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Knox Farmers Market

Miss Eagle is ambivalent about Farmers Markets.

Since Farmers Markets arrived on the scene in their current form in the late 90s, they have had a great impact. Farmers Markets provide an outlet direct to the public for growers and producers - particularly for those growers and producers with new products and innovative ways of doing things.

But what does that mean for better food and ethical eating? A lot of the food is still reliant on the slaughter of animals. Organic meat is still slaughtered flesh.

And if your expectation is that all food/products will be organic: 't'aint necessarily so. Some is, some isn't. But the intent is there to provide high quality food, reasonably priced (not necessarily cheaper), to the consumer in a direct relationship with the grower/producer.

This intent is probably the best thing about Farmers Markets - if, and only if, it helps both the consumer and the grower/producer to ask questions about their food/products.

Miss Eagle likes the direct involvement. One of the problems with modern food production is that consumers in general haven't a clue about how their food is produced and how it comes to their plates. Karl Marx highlighted the alienation of workers from the means of production. Modern food production highlights the alienation of consumers from the production of their sustenance.

Even at a Farmers Market the consumer still needs to be aware and questioning. Take the opportunity to have a conversation with those selling you your food. Your conversation could lead to better and healthier food for all of us.

Boronia Rotary Club organises the Knox Farmers Market at Wantirna Primary School, Melbourne. The next market is on 16 December.

The Knox Farmers Market was formerly at St Joseph's in Boronia Road. The new venue means everything is well laid out and last Saturday was a beautiful sunny and cloudless day after a week of extremely cold and unseasonal weather.