Given their poor results in 2012 and the sweeping changes (new management, new coach and new players) we were surprisingly keen to go to the Australia Bar today to see the Western Force play. Good news is that the guys behind the bar can play you any game at any time as it is all pre-recorded. So we sat ourselves down with a giant can of Fosters (for Peter) and a a Cape Mentelle SSB (for me) and a steak sandwich and watched the WF v Brumbies followed by Reds v Rebels. Bad news was, despite some good play by the Force backs in general and Kyle Godwin in particular, the Force lost and the second game (Reds v Brumbies) was a waste of time with poor play from both sides. We made arrangements to come back next week for the Six Nations and the next round of Super 15. I also made a note to bring our own chips. I can’t watch Rugby without chips and they don’t sell them here in bars not even Aussie Bars – go figure? I found a solution though. During the break between the two games this week I went next door to the deli and bought two packets of plain chips as a taste test. Lays ‘Classic Chips’ and Lays ‘Original Baked Chips’ – both came in almost identical yellow packets but their taste and contents were quite different. Lays Classics – 42g of product with 240 calories (140c/fat) – ingredients were potatoes, oil and salt. Lays Baked – 31g of product with 130 calories (20c/fat) – ingredients were dried potatoes, corn starch, sugar, corn oil, salt, soy lecithin and corn sugar. The Baked Chips didn’t even look like chips … but you can be very sure that the prominent signage on the Baked Chips packet that says ‘fat free’ is effective to lure many people to eat them … I just can’t wait until we get such products in Australia … or are they already there?
The mass production of food for a growing world is a significant problem. How to get the food that is grown to people all over the world who want it and are prepared to pay for it? So many affluent consumers, so far away. We live in a profit driven world where every effort is made to keep production and transportation costs down. But this can lead to increased processing to ensure that products travel well or don’t go off. For example, green produce picked and transported and gas ripened at the point of sale to suit the flow of demand and reduce damage and waste. Why do we demand seasonal foods like strawberries all year round? Increased wealth to the middle class now means that Russians don’t have to eat potatoes and cabbage and the emerging Chinese middle class is demanding more than just rice. I must remember to ask Professor Powles how the world is planning to provide for this increasingly ‘picky’ wave of demand. Food co-ops particularly for organic fruit and veg are a big thing here in NYC.
After the football we went to Pepelinos (West Broadway between Canal and 6th). It is an intimate restaurant with an authentic Italian menu. I had the three soups - Ribollita (tuscan bread soup with black cabbage, mixed vegetable & fresh thyme), Passato di Zucca (butter nut squash soup with crumbled amaretto cookies) and white cannellini bean soup with a full bodied chianti, followed by a slice of foie gras freshly cooked and served on toast with a reduced fig sauce. It came with a big glass of sauterne – oops more alcohol than I was planning! Peter had the lamb shank and the rest of the chianti. My food was fantastic … and to judge by the satisfied moans coming from Peter his was both excellent and extremely filling!
We then hailed a cab and took a wild ride home with a middle aged white guy cab-driver from Jersey who wasn’t a big fan of Jews, blacks or any other people from Manhattan!
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