Food Porn

Sam Clifford, all around good bloke tweeted this afternoon, "Hey. Hey Jo. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey hey hey. Heeeeeyyyyyyy. Jo. Jooooooooo. JO! HEY! HEY JO! HEY JOOO!!!" At first glance I wondered it was was virus but then curiousity got the better of me so I clicked the link and out folded the most glorious piece of food porn. I don't have a soul left to sell, so I'll just have to make this Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake myself. Stay tuned.

Dandelion and Driftwood

A catch up with Miss Sarah was overdue so we decided to head out to Dandelion and Driftwood at Hendra. Though we had both heard great things about the establishment, we were blown away by its modern but warm interior filled with long wood tables complimented with ghost chairs and the formally attired staff. The establishment's passion for coffee and tea passion is noticeable and it was refreshing to be offered a variety of coffee and tea blends and be provided with notes with each cup. Miss Sarah has trained her palette to accept her coffee black, but I'm still inclined to have mine with milk. My mocha was very well balanced, with the coffee as the shining star and the chocolate merely a lingering after taste.

Dandelion and Driftwood has a lengthy sandwich menu but I was looking for something a little different and selected the Salmon Two Ways. There was a lovely vegetable dense pattie, smoked salmon and rocket dressed with lemon and tiny capers. This was a wonderful flavour combination and filling without making you feel bloated.

Miss Sarah selected a filled croissant which left room for investigate the beautifully displayed range of treats. We followed our savoury course with a dainty lemon yoghurt cake and a moreish red velvet cake. The red velvet cake was brilliant in colour, moist and topped with a vanilla icing and shaved flakes of chocolate. It's a wonderful place for a Sunday morning breakfast, or anytime you'd like to escape for something light to eat or drink with great company. Parking is a breeze, so grab a friend and start up the car.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Address: Shop 1, 45 Gerler Road, Hendra, QLD 4011.
Open: Monday to Saturday - 8am to 4pm. Sunday - 8am to 2pm.
Phone: (07) 3868 4559.

Saving the Planet One Coffee at a Time

Though I am unashamed lover of Consumerism, I'm also a huge advocate of implementing common sense methods to be more environmentally friendly. This includes simple things like growing your own herbs, raising poultry, rehoming your unwanted preloved clothes and my latest thing, the KeepCup. My boss kindly gifted me one the day I started with my role and apart from pushing the brand, I'm pleased to say that I'm eliminating approximately 10.4kgs of landfill a year (that's if I purchased one beverage in a disposable cup a year) and saving myself a bit of money. It's a tad inconvenient that I have to drop into work to fetch it every time I want a coffee, but it's a small price to pay when you consider the following facts:

• Every year 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured globally which equates to 75 disposable cups per person on the planet.
  
  
• If your cup is made Styrofoam it will still be clogging up landfill in 500 years to come as it is resistant to photolysis (the process of breaking down materials by protons originating from a source of light). Styrofoam is also the main component of marine debris and as a coffee/tea connoisseur you shouldn't be drinking from that cheap and nasty material anyway.
  
  
• The usage of paper globally has increased by 400% in the last 40 years. That equates to 4 billion trees culled for paper industries for every continent.
  
  
• It takes 98 tonnes of resources to make just 1 tonne of paper, which is mainly made from virgin pulp.
  
  
• Half of the plastic used in the world today is for single use items.
  

So after reviewing these statistics, will you be using a reusable cup? It's worth considering and makes you feel a tiny bit better about your filthy morning drug habit.

Coles and Heider's Balance Theory

Dan Beeston, 30 something, one half of Smart Enough to Know Better recently announced that Justin Bieber: Never Say Never had him grinning with delight in the back of a 737 with tears running down his face. He tweeted this morning that he was left disappointed that people thought less of him after reading his post and I responded with what marketing geekery I could fit into Twitter's 140 character limit. A random stranger congratulated me on my comment and posed the intriguing question: how would this mean for Coles, Curtis Stone and fresh food price wars. So interested in the dark arts? Let's find out about Heider's Balance Theory:

Developed by Psychologist, Fritz Heider in 1958, Balance Theory proposes that three factors shape our attitudes towards a product or service and these are:

• likes and dislikes,
• the shared values and opinions of a group and
• the relationship between individuals (Carson, Carson, Knouse & Roe, 1997, p102).

Furthermore Heider also believed that it is human nature to attempt to reduce emotional discomfort or imbalance caused by social interactions through self persuasion (Hummon & Doreian, 2002, p18-20). Examples of this might be:

• Two individuals find a product/service they dislike and as a result their bond is strengthened.
  
  
• An individual initially dislikes a newly released product but their favourite celebrity endorses the product, the individual may alter their attitude to a more favourable view in order to emulate the celebrity they admire.
  
  
• However the reduction of discomfort or imbalance can also have negative effects for example if a celebrity’s brand isn't strong enough to combat the negativity of the consumer brand, the result would be damage incurred to the celebrity's brand. Celebrities must be wary of this fact as to the public they too are a brand and while the values may fit initially the world of a celebrity is always evolving at a rapid rate (Hummon & Doreian, 2002, p18-20).
  

It would be easy to assume that dashing chef and Coles poster boy, Curtis Stone's brand would have been damaged by the $10 feed a family campaign and even more irritating down down TVCs, but the decision of where we purchase our groceries is not merely made by the face. We're not going to shop at a Woolworths further down the road simply because Margaret Fulton is wooing us with a luscious pavlova. When it comes to fast moving consumer goods, we'll shop where it's convenient. So Coles, Woolworths, Curtis Stone and Margaret Fulton will probably keep tap dancing on our screens while the consumer looks on apathetically. It's going to take something a lot bigger like solving world hunger or every local manager molesting the neighbourhood children to radically change the behaviour of the shopper. So you're safe Curtis, carry on making the big bickies.

References:

Carson, P., Carson, K., Knouse, S., & Roe, C. (1997). Balance Theory applied to Service Quality: A focus on the organisation, provider, and consumer triad. Journal of Business and Psychology. 12(2), 99-120. Retrieved December 12, 2010 from Springerlink Contemporary.

Hummon, N., & Doreian, P. (2002). Some dynamics of social balance processes: bring Heider back into balance theory. Social Networks 25(1), 17-49. Retrieved December 31, 2010 from ScienceDirect.

Valentine's Day at The Cupcake Parlour

Photograph courtesy of The Cupcake Parlour

Up until the age of 17, I was fairly certain boys had cooties so would cringe ever time Valentine's Day came around. I still retain a percentage of that reflex as I believe you shouldn't need one day to tell someone that you love them. But if you must cave into society's norms and do it on the day of commercial love then these cupcakes from The Cupcake Parlour are just adorable! $45 for 12 regular sized or $25 for 12 bite size pieces. Orders must be in by the 12th of February and delivery is additional.

Black Forest Cake

Photograph courtesy of the talented Ryan Barlin

Many moons ago, I was absolutely desotted with a boy so I promised him an amazing birthday dinner: Silverbeet and Salmon Rotolo with lemon cream and Gary Mehigan's Black Forest Cake. No, not the one on the website, but the one featured in Masterchef Magazine Issue 2, and note there are a number of differences. Mainly the latter removes the need to purchase semi candied pitted cherries, which I think makes the sourcing of the ingredients easier and in my opinion the simpler presentation actually improves the look of the cake.

It's a gorgeous cake and actually quite easy to make if you start the mascarpone cream and chocolate praline mousse components a day ahead. For the chocolate praline mousse I recommend purchasing dry roasted hazelnuts as it eliminates the fussy step of roasting the nuts and removing their skins with a tea towel. Also it's important you ensure that the cherry syrup isn't over cooked or you'll end up with a strange toffee mixture that won't penetrate the sponge as you really need a viscose syrup to make the cake moist. Be generous with it and keep zen. If you remain calm you'll pull off this gorgeous creation with ease.

For those curious I did end up delivering on my promise, created a divine feast and he still left me to pursue his career ambitions in a far away town. I've never made a cake for a boy since.

I Dream of Biscotti

Mister Spensley is turning 27 in eight days, which has given me numerous opportunities to reminding him of morality by pointing out all his grey hairs and informing him how another year older means more responsibility etc. Though I've enjoyed this exercise immensely I'm actually fretting about the birthday dinner with his family ... what should I wear, how should I act and more importantly what should I cook?

Due to time constraints, I'm thinking of making biscotti. As avid readers of my blog know, I'm fantical about these treats and though I've tried numerous recipes I am yet to find a Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti recipe that comes close to the wow factor of Phillippa's Chocolate Hazelnut Orange Biscotti. I feel my downfall is the lack of melted chocolate and/or additional chocolate pieces. So are you a gun biscotti maker? Do you have any suggestions on how to really infuse that chocolaty taste into this Italian treat? Then I want to hear from you!