01 Monday Mar 2010
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In Mitzi Goldman’s documentary Parra one of the young Lebanese women who frequents Parramatta shopping centre on a regular basis says something like; ‘wog hair needs a lot of product’. I instantly knew what she meant. She was talking about my hair—a thick, thick tangle of unruly frizzy curls that can only be tamed into submission by a truckload of product. Whenever I look down at that curly endive in the top left had corner of the photo I think of my hair.
27 Saturday Feb 2010
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I picked a handsome bowl of basil tonight and made my poppet’s favourite pasta—Pesto. My Auntie Caterina, who lives near Genova taught me how to make it when I visited in 1999. And I want to stress one thing: there is NO cream in pesto. So when I hear people say that they love Pesto because of the cream I feel very sad. Pesto is a blend of basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmigiano cheese (although I prefer Pecorino). Salt and pepper are optional. The irony of the visit to Italy is that by the time we got back home my partner was diagnosed with Coeliac disease and we had to start eating gluten free pasta. This was a disaster 10 years ago as the gluten free pasta was hideous but today you can hardly tell the difference.
26 Friday Feb 2010
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I picked and cooked my first Bok Choy tonight. It was certainly not a baby Bok Choy but still very tender and tasty. I made a chicken and vegie laska and it was very tasty. I had planned to take a photo of the meal to post but life took over and I didn’t get a chance. I had it all ready and on the table when I went to the front of the house and saw poppet was in the middle of an impromptu play date with a one of the neighbour’s children and didn’t have the heart to break them up. So I covered the meal with a tea towel and joined Baba and the neighbours. We hung out for a while and then went in to a warm meal. It was pretty good. Oh and in case you’re wondering how the Bok Choy relates to my Italian vegie garden, my answer is that although my dad grew mainly Italian vegetables he was very interested in other culture’s produce and experiment with vegetables from around the globe. Following his lead, and because I love Chinese food, bok choy is the perfect thing to grow in my tiny Italian garden.
19 Friday Feb 2010
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19 Friday Feb 2010
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I’ve started a vegie garden. Using my late dad’s garden as inspiration I’m going to create a tiny Italian garden. His garden had a huge variety of vegetables all year round. It was like a little market garden in an Australian suburban backyard. He grew eggplant, beans–several varieties, artichokes–which my mum would stuff and cook in a tomato sauce, tomatoes, spring onions, asparagus, zucchini, basil, mint, parsley, peas, snow peas, silver beet, rape–pronounced rarpear, broccoli, and on it goes. My patch is only about 2metres by 3metres so it can never replicate my dad’s garden but I hope it can capture its soul.
My Tiny Italian Garden 