Suburban Tomato

Before I go into my Top 5 this week I wanted to thank two blogs who have recognised mine in recent weeks.  So to Veggiegobbler I say a very big thank you for the Sunshine Award and to The Good Life an equally big thank you for the Lovely Blog award.  Whilst I am not going to properly accept them with ‘interesting things about you’ lists or pass the awards* on I would like to recommend both VeggieGobbler and The Good Life to you as great blogs to read.

VeggieGobbler writes from Melbourne, often about her garden, usually about her family, mostly about whatever takes her fancy that week but always entertainingly.

The Good life is on the other side of the world in (not always…) sunny England.  Her blog is a record of what she is growing and how it is doing.  It’s is dry humoured, to the point and reminds me of England – which strangely, given I’m Australian, is a very good thing.

*If anyone is interested why no lists and awards.  The first part is simple – I couldn’t really think of much that anyone would be interested in.  The main reason though is the awards part.  I could pretend its because I’ve done some mathematical calculation and worked out that if everyone passed on these awards then after a week of 15 blogs passing on 15 awards there would be close to 1,000,000 blogs awarded (incidentally I haven’t actually calculated this but if someone would do it for me that would be lovely).   The real truth though is that I have a mortal fear of upsetting people.  I just can’t come up with a list of only 5 (or indeed 15) blogs and not think about people reading it and wondering they they weren’t included…its the sort of thing that leads to sleepless nights and I am a girl who needs her sleep.  It’s also the sort of fear that leads to my daughter inviting her entire Prep class to her birthday party and me now having to work out how to entertain close to 30 kids.   Arrrgh.

So after all that on to this weeks Top 5:

I’ve been trying to write this post for quite sometime now.  I had big plans to see as many food oriented films as humanly possible and then condense it down to a top 5.  Great in theory, in practice though locating a copy of the Milagro Beanfield War at the local library has proved difficult.  So here are five interesting food – centric films (not including the fondly remembered but not recently watched Robert Redford directed classic(?) mentioned above).  I have tried to give only pretty basic information about the films here as there is little that irritates me more than film reviews or film writing that gives away the entire plot.  If only all film reviewers could be as marvellous as Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo  sigh…

Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate) – I loved the book. I love the film.  Set in rural Mexico around 1910 the film tells the story of Tita the daughter of a conservative matriarch.  Tita, who is raised in the most part by the family cook and takes on much of the domestic functioning of the house, pours all the emotion of her, at times tragic, life into her cooking.  This film is part historical epic, part magic realist fantasy.  It is beautiful, interesting and engaging and the food sounds wonderful.  Quail with rose petal sauce anyone?  Funnily enough when this film first came out in Melbourne during the early 1990’s there was a restaurant close to one of the screening cinemas that put the dish on its menu.   I reckon it would have done quite well.

Tampopo – Soup first or noodles first?  How should one eat a bowl of noodle soup?  The basic pretext of this movie is the search for the perfect bowl of Japanese noodles.  Or is it?  Perhaps its just a comic Japanese Western?  Or maybe an intelligent art film exploring the Western obsession with food?  Or perhaps something else entirely.  Whichever it is though you get to see a lot of noodles and that is never a bad thing.  I think this is probably my all time favourite film about food….a few scenes aside…..

Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin shi nan nu)– I love Ang Lee films, I loved Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I loved the Ice Storm,  I thought Sense and Sensibility was perfect and I even considered going to see the Hulk.  Clearly I’m something of a devotee, so its not surprising that I have included an Ang Lee film on this list especially as there are two I could have possibly put in (The Wedding Banquet being the other possibility).  Eat Drink Man Woman tells the story of a master chef trying to communicate with his adult daughters usually via food – and fabulous food at that.

Babette’s Feast (Babettes Gæstebud)-  A beautiful, beautiful film set in 19th century Denmark.  Babette herself is a refugee from Paris who seeks shelter in a highly religious coastal community.  Beyond that I am struggling to convey much about this film without giving away the plot.  It is interesting though to compare the role of food across the films in this list, where in Like Water for Chocolate is it sensual and it Eat Drink Man Woman it is an expression of love here, it is different – seeking a higher purpose or plane, contrasting with the austerity of the environment and the conservatism of the community.

The Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) – I wanted to include a film that looks at the politics of food and farming in some way.  Set in the West Bank, The Lemon Tree is that film.  As much as this film is about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the nature of power more generally , it is also about the lives of 2 women, one Palestinian, one Israeli and a lemon grove which provides a concrete expression of their own personal dissatisfaction with their lives.

That was my Top 5, or at least 5 interesting films with food at their core, my top 5 might be different tomorrow – I can be quite fickle when it comes to films, having said  that Casablanca has been my favourite film for as long as I can remember although I do have one criticism of it – not enough food.

Interestingly none of these films are in English and try as I might I have to admit struggling to come up with a film that I really, really enjoyed highlighting food that was in English.  Perhaps I just haven’t seen it yet.  Recommendations?

Over at the New Good Life this weeks Top 5 is…..well I’m not sure yet but I’m sure it will be good.

I’m feeling a little swamped with work at the moment and have very little time to garden at the moment.  In light of that I felt it appropriate to celebrate those plants that reliably produce no matter what.  These are the plants that don’t need much of a feeding regime, that will forgive difficult conditions, erratic watering and general neglect.  Some of them even conveniently replant themselves for you, saving even the bother of sowing seed.

In no particular order they are:

Chervil – I bought a chervil plant once – that was 3 years ago, and ever since I’ve had chervil.  Its growing amidst the strawberries at the base of an aging passionfruit, so its not without competition for nutrients or water.  It doesn’t seem to mind, instead it grows happily there in the shade and once a year it flowers, goes to seed and thus the next chervil plants are born.  There are many more of them now than when I started 3 years ago.  If only everything was this easy.

Rosemary – I actually don’t like rosemary much so I tried to kill the plant I do have.   I dug it up taking cuttings for friends all of which conveniently struck.  Then the original plant re-shot from some roots I must have missed so now I have rosemary again.   I never water it, I never feed it, I do prune it occasionally to give to visitors who enjoy it but otherwise it just goes happily about its business.  Really its the perfect plant, I just wish I could develop a taste for it.

Swiss Chard/Silverbeet – As long as you choose a green or white stemmed variety the growing experience goes something like this: Sow seed, seed grows, plant out seedlings if you sowed seed in punnets/pots.  Watch it grow.  Harvest leaves.  Enjoy eating leaves.  And that’s about it.  Now I’m sure you would get bigger and better plants if you gave it useful things like food, water and sun but I find it grows pretty well without much in the way of either fertiliser or sun.  It does need a bit of water though but you can’t have everything.

Parsley – Now I know that not everyone seems to have the same success with parsley but for me it just grows and grows.  Eventually it does go to seed (some of my plants are looking as though they are about to send up seed heads as we speak).  After it goes to seed it helpfully scatters said seed onto ground and new plants grow, and so on.  Once again its happy in sun or shade, doesn’t need much soil enrichment and as long as its got a reasonable amount of water its happy enough.

Rocket – There are quite a few salad leaves I could have included: sorrel, some types of lettuce, beets etc but for me rocket is the easiest mainly for its prolific self seeding qualities.  It also seems to need less water than many lettuce varieties.  Funnily enough I actually don’t have any rocket in the garden at the moment due to a conscious decision to remove it from the areas it had been growing the last few years.  Luckily this should be easily rectified as it tends to germinate fairly easily and grow quickly.  Hopefully I will find the time to sow the seeds.

What plants grow best for you in your garden?

The New Goodlife should have a Top 5 to explore, if not now then soon, so head over to check.