World Party 2010

Food, music and violence towards international students were the catalysts for World Party. Designed to bring our diverse community together, the Party worked a treat. About 6000 people grazed and grooved and shmoozed over 10 hours last Sunday. And the goodwill didn't stop at the door. Hobartians of all sorts, carrying away sushi by Masaaki Koyama and Greek sweets by the Estia crowd, engaged happily with each other going along the streets leading from the City Hall and on the buses on their way home. World Party made a lot of students and recent arrivals in Hobart more confident and gave cause for great pride to the older arrivers to our shore who partied with them. It was inspiring to see everyone happy in their own skin.

As you will see from the photo a couple down from here I had my hands full with the requirements of some 20 international food stall holders and a similar number of musical and dance acts that stretched from 2.00pm until midnight so I am once again indebted to my good friend, the very talented Marc Bester for his great photographic record of the day. His pic of this conger line formed by the Greek dancers early on captures the mood of the day very well.

Jonathon Poh a UTAS student who usually makes mooncakes made these gorgeous coconut desserts which burst in the mouth with their liquid centre. Unfortunately the recent Mooncake festivals in Hobart had cleaned all our Chinese stockists out of mooncake ingredients otherwise we would have seen Jon's beautifully crafted and coloured examples of this delicacy.

All the usual suspects were there. Some just having a beer and a chat ...

and some - well what can I say Rob. The dreamiest Clean Team worked tirelessly to make sitting down and eating a pleasure for all. Thanks also to Janet Carty, Fiona and Peter Davis, Robert Jarman, Jude Franks and Kim Foale.

Bree Mooney , alias Mondo Mama sold out in no time her hundreds of Italian bombolini.

These citrus flavoured Italian donuts were variously filled with chocolate, Meyer lemon curd and rosehip jam and then rolled in sugar.

Bree's bombolini were beautifully matched with Barista Sista, Anja Boot's coffee, the location of which had to be explained to our hard working security staff. I am happy to say however, that this all ages, licensed, day/night event was totally without incident or excessive consumption of alcohol.

One of the star attractions was Geeveston sushi genius Masaaki Koyama whose exquisitely crafted offerings were snapped up from the time he and his partner Lucy commenced operating.

These fried tofu wrapped sushi rice offerings named after the Shinto god Inari were a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. They were the best example of their kind I have seen.

And among Masaaki's customers I have no doubt would have been the amazing and stirring Taiko drummers who delighted the crowd early in the afternoon's line up.

Fen Zhou the Chinese lute player also enchanted the large crowd of 1000 plus who flowed in as soon as the doors opened.

The Tibetan Buddhist monks stall featured the traditional dumplings known as Momos and they were a huge hit, including with the Chinese Buddhist monks who later took the audience's breath away with the most athletic and meticulously choreographed Lion Dance Tasmania has seen. Thank you Master Wang.

These Momos were one of the few things I actually found time to sample and with the Tibetan's hot, and I mean hot, chilli sauce they were absolutely what I needed.

The Indonesian student's stall was carefully decorated and they had a great day they told me as well as a very successful one - selling out completely by the end of the evening. Their elevated mood typified the goodwill in the City Hall that was palpable all day long.

The Madi Tribal Dancers from the southern Sudan also rocked the crowd with their drumming and rhythmic movement. The African kids all had a great day and the young rappers and funk performers later on were also a huge hit with their polished performances.

Cultural cuppas were in evidence and were free, as I should say, was water, all day long thanks to the generosity of Richard Dobosz of Wellington Springs.

Indian food was represented by the Indian Kitchen and the Zaika Indian restaurant.

These pappadams and naan breads were seen everywhere and were just a fabulous accompaniment to the curries.

This beautiful and graceful Bhutanese dancer was one of the true artistic highlights of the day. Her great talent and grace belied her mere 14 years of age.

The World Party was also a quiet remembrance of murdered Chinese student Tina Yu and it was wonderful to see the Chinese PRC Student's Society so well represented and accompanied by their friends including food stalls by Four Seasons and Wah Yuen

The Chinese students stall had a beautifully decorated backdrop and was a popular spot for the Chinese artists during the breaks in their acts - including show stoppers Jason Xu and the Hotkings.

More Indonesian ...

and still more

The Thai stall - Zapp Thai was also a crowd pleaser

And the Greek ladies desserts were to die for.

Overseas students were seen taking large bags full of baklava and kourabiethes back to their accommodation as fuel for their study for imminent exams. It was a delight to see.

Some of the best baklava I have ever tasted. It was very kind of the Hobart Greek Community to turn out in such force. They also ran the bar and a souvlaki stall.

And the World Party would not have been possible without this man who arranged 10 hours of the most amazing and uplifting global music and dance. Non stop and seamless - thanks Martin Blackwell. All these artists came from within Tasmania and appeared without fee or for a nominal amount. This was a free, not for profit event and was a party to remember.

World Party Tasmania

If you have been wondering why no new posts, it's because I have been flat out with the organisation of World Party - a free, not for profit food fair and concert to be held at the City Hall Hobart on Saturday 16 October to celebrate the global flavours and sounds of Hobart. Rock against intolerance. Love to see you there.

Agrarian Kitchen Secrets of Sourdough

Linseed fruit loaves, sourdough cobs and batons, baguettes, pide, brioche, bagels and chocolate cake - all made with only native yeasts from stoneground whole grain and unbleached organic flours. These are Graham Prichard's (pictured) secrets of sourdough taught as a 2 day class at the Agrarian Kitchen and at courses at his Companion Bakery under the shadow of the Callington Mill at Oatlands in Tasmania.

Batons and cobs of linseed fruit loaves made with pepitas and figs and walnuts are pictured above and perfect sourdough loaves below, all made by students at Graham's meticulously taught course and cooked in the Alan Scott wood oven at Rodney and Severine Dunn's Agrarian Kitchen at Lachlan.

Some of my own results at the end of Day 1 - brioche, fruit cob and baguette are not to0 bad and smell like heaven.

After some explanation by Graham as to the science of wild yeast and making sourdough starters from scratch in a cup covered by a fern and left in the forest, the first day gets started straight off with making a dough from scratch. Each student supervised by Graham's ubiquitous presence.

Flour is weighed, grey salt added to water, starter in ...

... and then it's hands in the dough folks and mix, mix, mix.

The dough is then left for 20 minutes before Graham's strenuous French artisan method of kneading is employed - lifting the 2 kilo piece above the head, slamming it onto the bench, pulling it back and folding it over. A quarter turn and then do it again - 300 times before a secret gluten test to see if it needs more.

Then the dough is bulk proved before scaling and balling up. The bulk prove can be for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or even overnight in the cellar or fridge. You can of course pinch out a bit of dough after a little while to use to make pide for lunch.

After lunch it's on with the job.

The bulk proved dough is scaled and folded into balls for cobs and batons for classic loaves. The shaped dough is rolled in flour and gently placed into well floured bannetons made from willow.

850g of dough in each loaf.

Next the oven. The wood fired oven starts when this fellow crows ...

... and the wood pile is raided to light the fire and let it burn down to coals.

After the fire dies down the coals are scraped out and the sole of the oven swabbed clean of all dust and charcoal.

The loaves are then gently tipped out of their bannetons and slid onto the sole of the oven.

At this point Rodney and Graham are very happy and the short wait for bread begins as the unbelievable aroma fills the kitchen.

Next comes the moment of truth. The bottoms of loaves are tapped along their whole length for that well baked hollow sound. Colour is examined...

... students become very excited at the golden crisp brioche ...

... and bread is tumbled onto racks to cool and then onto the bench. Ciabatta mingle with baby brioche and kugelhopf.

More brioche - made from 1kg of flour, 5 eggs and 500g of butter!

Ciabatta is made from the basic sourdough dough but with extra water added until the dough runs like lava and is heavily floured before being shaped into rolls.

The classic cob looks spectacular as it comes out of the oven with the floured marks of the willow banneton contrasting with the bare strip which has formed from the slash around its crown with a lame razor blade.

And a happy bunch of students praise the master, who incidentally, is behind the camera.

And the real photographer of the day, to whom thanks must go for all these fabulous images, is Pauline Mak - seated next to me - front left - and who had spectacular success with the linseed fruit mini loaves pictured below. Quite a feat!

And a happy ending. Thanks Graham for your hands on tuition and for your generosity in sharing your secrets. If you want to see Graham at work check into sourdough.com and watch the webcam in the bakery.

The Fat Duck

A friend of ours (or at least she was 'til she told us), told Mary and me last week that while she was in London recently she was able to secure a table at The Fat Duck at short notice. Huh? We didn't ask. We just drooled over her pics of the meal. First course, red cabbage gazpacho with grain mustard ice cream. "Tell someone who cares", I said.

Then followed an homage to the great chef of Mionnay - Alain Chapel - a jelly of quail with crayfish cream served with chicken liver parfait, oak moss and truffle toast. Ok you've got my interest.

Snail porridge - "you have got to be joking". "No" she said, "not when accompanied by Jabugo jamon and shaved fennel".

Ok. Then on to ethical roast foie gras served with gooseberry, braised konbu and crab biscuit. "Oh really" I said. "I had that last night. Anything else"? "Well yes" she said, "9 more courses actually".

The mock turtle soup was next with the Mad Hatters gold watch on a chain melted into the soup like a banker's teabag. "The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily; then he dipped it into his cup of tea".

The "Sound of the Sea" was an audio/oral course with the foamy rock pool accompanied by a conch shell concealing an iPod with head phones to allow two diners to listen to the sea while grazing in the tidal pool.

Continuing the fishy theme came salmon poached in liquorice accompanied by artichoke, vanilla mayonnaise and golden trout roe. Now I am seriously overwhelmed and make jokes about a slide evening.

Then she got my attention with a blokey dish of powdered Anjou pigeon (circa 1720), served with blood pudding, potted umbles, spelt and pickles. Heston Blumenthal - you genius.

The spookiest experience of the evening my friend said was the hot and iced tea which was molecularly manipulated so that it passed over the palate hot one one side and cold on the other.

This led to the first of the 4 dessert courses, macerated strawberries with olive oil biscuit, and a chamomile, coriander jelly and ice cream cornets and an edible serviette.

Just a warm up for the BFG...

... and the whisk(e)y wine gums and

the grand finale - the lolly bag - "Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop"

Impressed ? Me?