Foods I and II

Andy likes to write beautiful poetic narratives on life reflected in the beach; I like to write about baked goods...  I was reminiscing that in high school, I took the home ec classes called Foods I AND Foods II. (I also took Family Relations, for what it’s worth… Apparently I was preparing myself for the marriage that would happen 30 years later.) My favorite TV show here is The Great Australian Bake-Off. My sister Jan will like to know that one of the judges is Kerry Vincent, who has been on Food Network Challenge. The contestants are quirky and the music is great. This week’s competition featured the pavlova, a meringue dessert which originated in Australia (or New Zealand, depending on who you ask!).  

I’ve enjoyed getting to know the many pastries I have encountered here. Most cafes have a glass display case full of cakes and slices, usually with 4 or 5 gluten free options. Slices come in many different flavors, but all are what we would call a bar, like a lemon bar or a blondie. I've also seen sponge cakes flavored with passion fruit. I am a particular fan of this little beauty here.

It’s an Australian pastry called the lamington. Traditional lamingtons are covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut, and I look forward to trying one, but this one is a jelly lamington: sponge cake covered in strawberry jelly and then in coconut. All of my life, I’ve allowed myself, ONLY on long road trips, the guilty pleasure of Zingers. This, my friends, is a homemade Zinger. And it’s delicious. This was my second one, which I had to buy because I lost the picture of the first one in the death of my hard drive. Darn!

A uniquely Australian treat is the Tim Tam. There is a traditional practice of biting off opposite corners of the Tim Tam and then sucking your coffee through it like a straw. Andy attempted this one morning but didn’t have much success. We’ve only tried a few flavors, but frankly, I can’t manage to resist eating the dark chocolate mint ones. They are double the pleasure of a Girl Scout thin mint, if you can imagine that is possible.

Another common Australian cookie is the yo-yo. I see these in jars at many cafes. It’s two small butter cookies with frosting in the middle. I had wanted to try one, so I ordered one for dessert in a fairly fancy restaurant the other day, and the server raised one eyebrow and said to me, “You’d like a yo-yo??” as though I had just asked for a Twinkie or something. I could see a jar of them right in front of the cash register, so it wasn’t like it was a special order. He offered, "The panna cotta is lovely." I said, "No thank you, not a panna cotta fan." He said again, incredulously, “A yo-yo.” And I confirmed that was indeed my dessert order. I think he was only half joking in his pretense. Andy said I should take a picture of it, but I thought that would just give the waiter more fodder.

Also popular are French macaroons in vibrant colors. The other day we were at a little craft fair and there was a woman selling all kinds of interesting flavored macaroons, including licorice. If I liked meringues, I would have tried the licorice one. Instead, we got this heavenly thing called Persian love cake. It was made from almond meal, rosewater, some type of syrup, and had crushed pistachios and edible flowers on top. I didn’t get a picture because Andy and I literally ate it in 30 seconds. I'm sure that's why they call it love cake.

The only new candy bar I’ve tried, purely for scientific purposes, is the Cherry Ripe. I thought this might be something like the beloved Twin Bing of my childhood, but instead it’s more like a cross between a chocolate covered cherry and a Mounds bar. And it tastes better than it sounds.

1/3 of a Cherry Ripe

I have baked three things since living here. My morning glory muffins turned out great. I was able to find all of the essentials of baking in the cupboards including desiccated coconut, which I’ve never used before. Last weekend I made a strawberry rhubarb cake for our dinner guests. Our house comes equipped with a hand mixer and this totally charming old school sifter.

I’m not sure how many times I’ll want to wrestle with that hand mixer but it was a good team sport with my handsome house husband. Friday I used a potato masher to make Mexican wedding cookies. We were having guests over for Mexican food, which is quite uncommon here. We could only find black beans in a specialty market for $4 a can!

This probably won’t be my last post about food. I will have more to share. Fortunately, we walk all of this off nearly every day, either enjoying the beach or running errands. Thank god we don’t have a car.