Bill Grainger, considered by many in Oz to be "Australia’s answer to Nigella Lawson", is probably one of Australia's most well-recognized celebrity chefs and restauranteurs. In addition to a handful of Sydney restaurants, Bill's ever-expanding culinary empire also includes several fantastic cookbooks loaded with creative dishes attainable by the common home-chef.
A few weeks before leaving Toronto for Sydney, I had dinner with my Aussie friends Davey and Nathan at their place in Yorkville. Davey pulled out his copy of Bill Grainger's "Sydney Food" and we followed Bill's recipe to make his coconut bread for dessert. Shortly after arriving in Sydney, naturally I visited one of Bill's restaurants for breakfast to see if Bill's version was any better than mine and Davey's. (Davey - ours was almost as good!)
After breakfast, I walked back into downtown through Hyde Park, probably Sydney's largest inner city park. The Sydney Morning Herald, one of Sydney's most widely distributed newspapers happened to be putting on a picture expo along Hyde Park's main walking path. (As an aside, they publish "Sydney's Good Food Guide" which provides food critic write-ups on Sydney's restaurant scene. In many ways, this guided my eating patters during first two months of my australian trip.)
One display were a few dozen interesting, significant pictures that had been published throughout the SMH's many years in print. This is the one that caught my eye:
Cronulla, a neighbourhood in Sydney's north end, a few months prior to my arrival in Australia had experience some racially-motivated, and widely publicized, riotting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots I had seen the above picture both on-line and in the Toronto Star around the time I was making my Sydney plans. So sad, I thought, that racism exists in so many forms, in so many countries of the world ... yet, it's (generally) a result of similar factors and human behavioral patterns. The picture above is of an Australian of presumed middle-eastern decent being attacked by several white residents from the surrounding area. Sad, sad, sad ...
Anyhow, onto happier topics. :) After going through the other pictures on display, I took in some of Hyde Park's other sights, including some of its impressive gardens and water fountains.
Light and slightly crumbly, Bill's coconut bread is a great way to kick off brunch in his restaurant or at home.
** Note: recipe (potentially) soon to come ... I need to look into this whole "piracy of intellectual property" thing before re-printing Bill's recipe on my blog. He may have a number of highly-paid junior lawyers scouring the internet on his behalf, looking for potential criminals like me ...
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