Perth Good Food and Wine Show

Around Australia we have a number of fantastic events for food, coffee and wine lovers, and Perth is no exception. These provide the opportunity to try produce from local specialists and other Australian regional treats and allow the wandering foodie to learn from some of the best chefs and trade experts in Australia.

So, confession time – I have never been to a food show.

Not one – ever. (CRITICAL UPDATE: My partner has just given my the 'left-eyebrow-lift-of-impending-doom™' and reminded me that our second date was to a food and wine show in Brisbane. Ooops)

Ok – there was the Italian Festival in Ingham, but it was a food event by default as I do not think it is possible to have an Italian cultural festival without food playing a dominant role – it is brilliant by the way and if you ever intend to go to North Queensland make sure you go to Ingham when the festival is on.

Apart from that I have never managed to make it to a food or wine show – a fact that may get me banished from the food lovers guild, but it has always been at the wrong time, too far away or I have been interstate, or barrier. This year though I am going to make up for it. I am going to live blog from the Good Food and Wine Show which is on in Perth from 2-4 July 2010. I'll be blogging via my iPad (due to arrive Friday!).

My partner and I will be wandering the stalls, taking photos and loading it all up as we go. This is partly to give the iPad a good run at live blogging but mostly because the Good Food and Wine show is something I have wanted to attend for years (even before the name change).

This year the show is said to be bigger and better than ever, and while I am not sure what coffee-related displays may be around I am sure I will find something. The Melbourne show has a huge focus on coffee this year with the 'Coffee Experience' sponsored by BeanScene Magazine and I am keen to hear how it goes for them – it would be great to see similar involvement at our event in Perth.

The Perth show includes both wine and cheese masterclasses as well as the celebrity theatre, decanter bar and cooking classes - I'm not sure how I will squeeze it all into one day but it promises to be a lavish affair full of foodie delights - I am very much looking forward to going.

If you would like to be kept up-to-date they have a notification service up and running here for email, SMS and snail mail.




Disclosure: As of Friday the organisers have provided me with free tickets to attend and blog the event. They have however, placed no obligations or restrictions on what I post about the event - which I appreciate.

The Storm Bird

Our silver car got trashed in the Grrreat and Deadly Storm of 2010™ but yesterday we were able to go and pick it up, two months later, from Wanneroo Smash Repairs – they have done a beautiful job (replacing the roof, the bonnet and 3 other panels in the process) and I can highly recommend them. The car looks like new with no more hail stone marks anywhere. They also detailed the car so that inside and out it also feels like a brand new vehicle to drive.

We consider ourselves fortunate that it was not written off (we like it) and that we got it back so soon as others are having to wait a lot longer to get repairs done.

Alli is very pleased to have her wheels back (as am I!)

Welcome home Stormbird.

Cocktail Frank

Junior Grendel Number One has a rather limited diet of food that he will eat. His daily meals consist of Nutella Sandwiches, Cheese Snakatas and Jarlsburg slices. This complicates dining out as we have to pack a lunch for him whenever we go somewhere – although if we go to T5 in Joondalup he will always order and eat a ham and cheese croissant.

Occasionally he will express a desire to try a new food – often prompted by a brightly coloured package or even an ad on TV – and we usually jump at the chance to (perhaps) add something to the very short list of foods he will eat. Yesterday he asked for some cocktail frankfurts – barely meat, but a lot more than he has had this year.

As of this afternoon he has had a couple at each meal and finished a pack – now what parent in their right mind would be ecstatic about that?

Me

:)

Saturday Night Barista Jam

I'm late on the wagon with this one!

Matt at Abstract Gourmet Tom Wearne from European Foods, Charles Stewart of Rocket Fuel, Jesper Bood of Ristretto Coffee and Jen Murray of Five Senses have started the recently started the process of planning for the WA Barista Championship - I can't think of a better group of minds to kick things along as they all have great knowledge and experience in making great coffee and promoting coffee in Perth.

To start fund raising and promote the competition they have arranged a barista jam to get more people interested and involved - even if you are not a barista and prefer your jam on toast or in donuts rather than as a performance art, if you love coffee you should come along.


When: May 22nd (TOMORROW NIGHT!!!), 6:30pm
Where: Elixir Coffee Specialists, 145 Stirling Hwy, Nedlands

$15 for entry, pizza, some drinks and coffee.

Thank you very much to Matt, Tom, Charles, Jesper and Jen for getting this moving and thank also to Justin, Jonny and the team for hosting!

All About Coffee

The incomparable Ross Quail, president of the Australasian Specialty Coffee Association has posted on the AASCA site the exciting news that the William H. Ukers coffee text "All About Coffee" is now out of copyright and as such project Gutenberg have undertaken to make it available electronically - free of charge. This occurs whenever sufficient time passes after the death of an author to be sure that the author's estate has benefited as much as is reasonable from the product of that author - I think about 50 years or so.

There are a variety of formats available including ePub - which can be read on laptops, desktops iPhones and other smartphone - and naturally, iPads.

You can find the book here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/28500

Thanks to Ross and AASCA for spreading the news as I know there are many people who cannot afford the several hundred dollars for a paper version of the text.

Unstated obligations

I've been grappling with the ideas behind this post for two weeks now and find that I still cannot frame the ideas as well as I would like. I took two semesters of sociology (20 years ago) and find that this brief introduction is totally inadequate to even provide some basic guidance as to where to take this for a more structured discussion (all advice welcome!) - but here goes anyway.

It seems to me that an unstated obligation can exist between a person, or persons (entity A) who create something or advance ideas and those who benefit from that creation or idea (entity B). The obligation is not a situation of debt as such - in fact almost always explicitly not, but more likely requiring acknowledgement that the obligation exists and that an expression of thanks is appropriate.

The situation I am specifically considering is that of coffee roasting in Western Australia. It has been suggested that Perth is in a 'golden age' of coffee, which might seem like hyperbole but we have not had such choice before so in that respect I agree that 'we have never had it so good'.

A lot of this is due to the fantastic local roasters (and we have a good number now) that promote good coffee in Perth. While standing at the the deli counter of the Leederville Re store last week I was looking at the montage above the counter that showed some historical images of the Re and Ferrari families. In one photo, a shop window bore the words "Good Coffee is Fresh Coffee" and I was reminded once again that these families have been roasting coffee in Perth for nearly 80 years. I suspect that at times they may have been the ONLY local roaster in Perth.

They still continue today and I know they have kept roasting logs for decades - a wealth of knowledge and a source of learning for new generations of roasters. They also have a collection of equipment and a record of coffee purchases that would provide a wonderful track of coffee consumption in Perth's cafes.

The family remains involved in Perth's coffee scene and Catherine Natale (Winner of the Australian Cupping Championship) and her brother John Ferrari were judges at last year's WA Barista Championships and backed the effort with the resources of their company, European Foods.

In a very real sense the European Foods family have been a consistent presence in Perth coffee and have helped keep the idea and practice of local roasting alive in Perth long enough for it to diversify and gain in popularity and professionalism. In that sense I think I can acknowledge the unstated obligation that I as a coffee hobbiest have to the Ferrari and Re families and I would like to thank them for their generations of effort in making coffee available to Western Australians and to contributing to the development of Perth's coffee scene.

I know I have other 'unstated obligations' as far as coffee is concerned to a great number of people across the Perth coffee scene who have taught me a lot about coffee - most of them are roasters or baristas who I have met, but a lot are also just coffee lovers rather than coffee professionals. As I run into them over the next few months I am going to try and remember to say thank you - because sometimes obligations may be unstated, but should be acknowledged.

Sunday Ramble and an Experiment

Budget week/s are always a bit tragic for me and my blog as I end up focusing on work alone for the whole week. I also tend to drink a lot more coffee and found that a colleague and I were drinking our way through large pour-overs we would normally share between four of us.

This weekend has been no exception and Mrs Grendel and I have drunk our way through a full half kilo of the current espresso blend. While making my coffee this afternoon I was a little heavy handed with the Bannister Downs soft pack and squirted a lot more milk into the jug than I intended.

I was looking at the level in the jug and my 150ml cup, wondering what to do when a new experiment occurred to me - like most experiments it was the result of an initial error on my part, and it is quite probably neither new or unique.

I poured the two espresso shots into the cold milk and steamed them together - like I said this is probably not revolutionary or new, someone somewhere will have tried this before - and the result is probably why it is not done more often.

Generic Coffee - that is the flavour that resulted. Pleasant, but totally devoid of distinctiveness or unique character. This will not wow anyone but nor is it likely to offend and is therefore perfect to serve to people who 'just want a coffee without all the froth, fuss and frivolity'.

Espresso coffee tamed for the dedicated Nescafe drinker.

Chalk that one up to experience!

Pourover Blends

My team at work have set me a challenge to come up with a pourover blend that they all enjoy. Given the slightly different preferences of each of us this either means coming up with an outstanding blend that pleases everybody or something unremarkable but pleasant.

I'd rather not go down the second path if I can avoid it!

This week the blend uses 5 origins:

• Costa Rica Doka Estate (22%)
  
• Papua New Guinea Sigri B (22%)
  
• Papua New Guinea Kimel (16%)
  
• Ethipian Limu (16%)
  
• Guatamalan Organic (16)
  

This blend is bright and clean and very floral as it cools - It is popular with one team member in particular although all enjoy it so it is a contender.

The blend we will start on tomorrow hasn't had as long to rest as I would like, but we have gone through the first blend a lot faster than anticipated.

Blend #2 has 7 origins including those in blend 1 but with different proportions:

• Zambian (34%)
  
• Costa Rica - Doka Estate(17%)
  
• Guatamala Organic(17%)
  
• El Salvador - Finca Josephina (8%)
  
• Papua New Guinea Sigri B (8%)
  
• Papua New Guinea Kimel (8%)
  
• Ethipian Limu (8%)
  

We will test that blend tomorrow for the first time but I hope to reserve some at home to age for a week longer.

Crux

Click to enlarge

1 May 2010
2030hrs

Crux

Camera: Canon Eos 350D
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 15 seconds
ISO: 100
Program: Shutter Priority