Melbourne Food and Reality TV

As we have mentioned before, Melbournians pride themselves on their food – talk to any Melbournian and they cannot think of another city where one could find a better meal. In March, there is a 3 week food and wine festival that is rather amazing. There are special meals at the expensive restaurants, food festivals, cooking lessons, and lots of other events. We opted for some of the more reasonably priced events. First we went to a “spice market” dinner. This consisted of many restaurants serving primarily Middle Eastern food. As part of the event, the kids could ride a camel, there were belly dancers, snake charmers, and other entertainers. Kevin was able to learn a lot about the roasting and brewing of coffee at a one-day coffee academy at a local college. On one of the weekends, there was a coffee market where tons of brewers gathered in one place and sold coffee quite inexpensively – it was a way for us to learn about the different coffee shops in town as well as places to buy our beans. We also had lunch (organized by the festival) at one of the more relaxed but highly regarded restaurant. And on another day there was a fresh foods market (some produce but mostly goodies made by locals). This is where we learned about duccah … a “bush” food – essentially roasted sesames, sunflower seeds, and spices – one way to eat it – dip a piece of bread in olive oil and then dip the bread in the duccah. Quite a nice treat … All in all, we were impressed with all of the different events held through the festival. More cities should be as ambitious (the catalogue for the festival events was close to 100 pages)!

Speaking of food – it is time we discuss Aussie reality television some more… we do not watch all of the reality t.v. shows – but a few have caught our eye (more for the oddity of the shows than for quality). One is called “My Restaurant Rules” – the producers set up a couple in each of the capital cities with a space with which to start a restaurant. These can be married couples, friends, mother & son, etc. In many cases at least one member of the pair has had some experience in the kitchen (professionally) – but this is not always te case. Initially the drama comes from the presentations the couples have to make to a group of food critics in order to get money to renovate and start the restaurant. Then the drama unfolds to all aspects of starting the restaurants (renovations, hiring staff, picking a menu, etc.) … and then there’s the “what happens” once the restaurant opens and various elimination techniques … Given that Melbourne is a capital city, Kevin and I felt compelled to go to the Melbourne restaurant – on the show, the two guys running the restaurant seemed to be the least experienced and appeared as if they decided to participate in the show after a night of much drinking. Despite the food critics on the show raving about the chef, we were very disappointed in our eating experience … Fortunately, the owners were the first to be kicked off the show and, in a twist, new owners put in their place (all future restaurants will be kicked off and not replaced on the program – it is not clear what happens to the restaurant once kicked off, however).

The other reality television show we watch with some regularity is one called “Dancing with the Stars.” Premise is simple, match a celebrity with no dance training with a dance expert. Each week the pair must perform some type of ballroom dance for judges and the t.v. audience (whose votes on their favorite pair are used with the judges scores to decide who stays and who leaves). The producers have done a pretty good job of finding celebrities with no dance skills – and amazingingly, it is not always the worst dancers who get eliminated from the show.

And for non-reality but Aussie produced television shows, we have found a few that are very well produced and fun to watch. One is a travel show that highlights places in and out of Australia – the producers go out of their way to find interesting things to do/places to go without it costing an arm and a leg (sometimes, at least). We also found a gardening show with quite a delightful (and funny) host (a 75 year old man).