John S Lens, Ina’s 1969 Film, No Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic
I went to the Sydney International Food Festival 3 days ago. Here are the highlights.
Passion’s price
“I don’t switch off, that’s my problem. When someone is talking to me, I’m thinking about something else. I’m having 2 conversations. It’s bad…it’s a problem”
Host: That can’t be good for relationships…
“That’s what I mean, It’s a problem I have in relationships… I just always think about pastry”—Adriano Zumbo
“We’ll attempt to make our own miso here in Sydney for our restaurant. It could be bad. We’ll have to send many tests to the professors at Harvard to see if it will be edible but we’ll certainly try”—David Chang on his momo restaurant at the Star
*At the risk of boring over 200 people about microbial terroir and how it’s study is the future of food, Chang told the hungry audience what he’s most passionate about at the moment. he described the long, tedious and very experimental process of producing Koji mold out of Japan which has it’s own unique terroir.
Chang’s way of growing this mold consists of steaming pork loin (instead of the traditional fish) and covering it in rice for months until it grows mold (instead of a mold/cast native to Japan). It is then used to produce sake, miso and soy sauce. Chang’s goal is to ultimately produce his own products to eliminate the need to import from Japan.
Why it’s controversial: Chang’s lab experiment can turn into a koji making cottage industry which can uproot sake making from Japan to any place in the world. Following the same logic, it can make Sydney the parmesan capital of the world, instead of a region in Italy.
Refer to this article about Koji because I can’t explain the science
Dude Food
My dream before was to have a small restaurant where I served 12 people. And I decide what I want to cook on the day after I visit the markets. I’m not so uptight now, I want to cook what I want to eat.-Dan Hong
When I go home, I like to pour myself custard out of the fridge. That does it for me. At work, everything is really complex so when I go home I want something simple…something basic.—Adriano Zumbo
