Guacamole

One thing I love about Melbourne is its brilliant food and coffee scene. It is a whole city that takes my two favourite things very seriously. Its not just restaurants and cafes, there is a huge range of food markets, local growers, culinary schools, food writers and cooking classes. The age has whole sections of the newspaper dedicated to eating out and at home every weekend. I love this, as nothing pleases me more than curling up in bed on a Sunday morning with the paper, some pastries and a huge pot of coffee.

Today however as I was drinking way too much coffee at my local cafe I stumbles across an article about a local Melbourne chef. She is in the process of putting out her first cook book, managing two restaurants and owning one of her own. Basically she has the career I want (minus a t.v. show, a cooking range, a culinary school, and a collection of bed and breakfasts.......obviously she needs to start aiming a bit higher. I mean honestly only owning one restaurant.) I was looking forward to the article as it was quite similar to some of my ambitions and thought maybe I could pick up some tips. All I was struck with however was the huge amounts of pretentiousness.

When did food stop being about food? I understand creativity. I understand self expression. I do not understand however why you would want to make a desert into a 'foam' and sculpt it to look like a strategy placed through up. One of the biggest trends taking Melbourne...and I suppose the world at the moment is 'food science.' Now don't get me wrong, I love that food has so much science in it. I love that yeast is a living organism and it must be 'grown' and nurtured in the right environment in order to make bread but I hate all this silly rubbish about foaming and steaming deserts and meals. Isn't food supposed to be about loving and nurturing people, not about putting on some lavish show. Maybe I'm wrong, and who am I to criticise someones creative expression? Id just like a side of honesty with my food....hold the wank.

So here is a honest lovely weekend dish that you can through together in a few minutes at home.

Guacamole

You will need:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic (depends on how much you like)
• 2 tomatoes diced (vine ripened ones are really nice in this recipe)
• Half a lime
• Half a red onion diced
• salt and pepper
• a few pinches of smoked paprika

What to do:

1. Mash up your avocado
2. Crush and dice your garlic
3. Add everything together.
4. Give it a good mix.
5. Eat with chips or spread on toast

Its perfect for a dinner party. Oh and the picture above is the lovely breakfast I had at a beautiful place called Bean counter. It does really good food and amazing breakfasts. Its really worth checking out. The vibe is great and the staff are friendly. Anyway enjoy the rest of your saturday. Let me know if you make any really good "honest" food this weekend.