702 ABC – The Food Blog on Evenings with Robbie Buck

Talk about serendipity. Do you remember the pumpkin kibbe post? The one a couple of posts down? My friend Eddie was invited to join the feast and her husband Ludwig ate most of the pumpkin kibbe. Two days later, Robbie Buck is talking pumpkins and pumpkin recipes on 702 ABC. So Eddie calls up and talks about my pumpkin kibbe. Being the amazing person that she is, Eddie manages to get Robbie and his lovely producer Susan to have a look at my blog, which all would agree is a wonderful thing. And yesterday, I ended up in the ABC studios at 9 pm for my 15 minutes of fame. It happened to be Robbie’s birthday and I showed up with some Lebanese sweets to share around. We talked about how I got started in food, my background in Lebanon, Lebanese sweets, food and tradition and about my recent chestnut foraging. I also gave Robbie a recipe that gives away the secret to a perfect baba gannoush. I have to admit I was nervous at first, but Robbie is such a great guy, and an experienced interviewer that I was at ease after 5 seconds of talking to him. He lead the conversation, asking loads of questions, each of which I could have spent hours talking about. Have a listen to the interview and tell me if you heard it live, and what you thought of my radio personna. Do I sound anything like Frasier?

Click here to listen: The Food Blog Interview on Evenings with Robbie Buck

QA with NW Magazine

I don’t think I am on my way to becoming a celebrity in any way. Actually, I think less people know me now than 10 years ago. So I was a bit baffled when NW Magazine contacted me and set me the challenge of answering the 5 questions below. It’s hard answering these kinds of questions, because they always limit you in some way (name the 5 ingredients you will take to your death bed). I guess that’s good though, so let me know if you share my opinions:

What was the first recipe you ever cooked?
I’ve been cooking with my mom ever since I was a child. I remember learning how to make kibbeh, fattouch, hommous and baba ganoush at a very young age. I also remember spending hours going through grains of rice and lentils to remove impurities since grains in Lebanon during the war were of poor quality. The first dish I cooked when I was on my own was lasagne and I cooked it when my parents went to our summer home while I stayed back for a few weeks with my friends. I used what was in the pantry: spaghetti instead of lasagne sheets, powdered milk, frozen mince, onions and mom’s tomato paste. To my 15 year old palate it was superb, and I was hooked.

What is your favourite dish to prepare?
My favourite ingredients are those in season, and so my favourite dishes are in turn seasonal. I don’t usually cook the same dish more than once or twice a year. I like mutton ragout and chicken soup in winter, shish barak or krautwickel in autumn (a new favourite), bbq lamb or prawn and garlic shoot stir fry in spring, fattouch and mom’s fish with tahini in summer

What are your favourite restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
I’m not much of a breakfast guy but a croissant from Bourke Street Bakery and a piccolo late from Mecca Espresso would do fine. Ichiban Boshi’s Aburi Chashu-men (blowtorched pork with ramen noodles) for lunch is amazing. Al Aseel at Greenacre does, imho, the best Lebanese in Sydney, and dinner there is always a treat.

If you could have only 5 ingredients to cook with, what would you pick?
Tough one… hmmm… I hate hypothetical questions… Is this for a one off cooking adventure, or 5 ingredients to haunt me forever? If it’s forever, then aged beef, flour, eggs, zaatar, milk (for butter and cheese making) (and maybe sugar, salt, Lebanese spices, tomatoes, olve oil, onions and garlic). I’m assuming water is abundant…

What is one piece of advice you would give to people who are not great cooks but hope to be one day?
Cook food you’ve eaten before, use fresh, quality ingredients, keep it simple and increase the complexity gradually, and finally resist the temptation of cooking Thai food because it will never be as good.

Interview with SBS Radio

For those of you who can understand Arabic, you may be interested in checking out my recent interview with SBS Radio for the Arabic program. Click here to view the podcast.

The interview covered much ground, including the blog, the secret dinner and reviewing for the GFG, and finished up with a quick demonstration for my sweet falafel.