Eureka Street

Keywords: Culinary

ARTS AND CULTURE

Stephanie Alexander and the family table
- Claire Heaney
- 02 August 2024
When Stephanie Alexander released the immensely popular The Cook’s Companion in 1996, she became a literal household name. The reason for her success lies perhaps in the knowledge that the true essence of cooking lies not in perfection, but in the act of coming together.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Recipe for welcome
- Gillian Bouras
- 11 April 2023
6 Comments
Food has the power to evoke memories, connect people, and bridge cultural divides. In Australia, the diverse range of cultural influences enriching the culinary landscape stands as a testament to that sense of connection. In a time where the world feels increasingly divided, perhaps sharing a meal is just what we need.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Conjurer of the Infinite: Memories of Mama
- Binoy Kampmark
- 15 February 2023
1 Comment
Mama was a master of the kitchen, revered for her culinary magic and domestic miracles. Her cooking was an unsurpassed conjurer of traditional Bosnian pita, a sublime miracle that drew the infinite from the minimal. Mama's death left a void of ignorance, indifference, and inability that hovered over the village, mourning the loss of an unassailable figure.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

The Dadist manifesto
- Barry Gittins
- 25 October 2022
When Kenneth Hugh Gittins is in the room and crash-tackling the conversation, well, eat your heart out Salvador Dali and Walter Mitty. Conversations turn surreal, fact-checking expeditions run aground. A charming teller of truths and tales (some tallish and some Himalayan), this rustic raconteur has perplexed many an audience or congregation and delighted many a grandkid and great-grandkid with his reminiscences.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Farewell Uncle
- Binoy Kampmark
- 17 August 2022
1 Comment
Uncle Boda was a figure who managed to tease out an image at one mention with his humble and unambitious doctor’s practice, for which he worked for years to obtain. He had read medicine in India, and to this day it remains unclear how long he spent trying to earn his degree.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

The way we were at Christmas
- Gillian Bouras
- 08 December 2020
18 Comments
When I was small we spent Christmas camping by a river in NE Victoria. The festivities began on Christmas Eve, when campers and residents of the township of Bright gathered for carols by candlelight. During the singing of my favourite ‘Good King Wenceslas,’ I never wondered about the absence of snow ‘deep and crisp and even.’ I don’t imagine anyone else did, either
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Evolution of the modern family meal
- Catherine Marshall
- 08 April 2019
9 Comments
Most recently, my younger daughter declared herself a vegan. She wanted to reduce her impact on the environment, to withdraw her implicit support for a brutal farming industry that had long disturbed her, and for a society that fritters fossil fuels and fills our oceans with plastic. And so our kitchen has undergone yet another revolution.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Soft sympathy and hard redemption for scarred chef
- Tim Kroenert
- 22 October 2015
2 Comments
Brilliant but volatile chef Adam humiliates and physically assaults a female colleague, Helene, over the heinous crime of mis-cooking a piece of fish. The encounter ends with Helene telling Adam to keep his hands off her and storming out. Yet clearly her justified indignation has its limits: in the very next scene she is shown madly rehearsing cooking the dish whose mangling sparked the incident. The glossing over of this abuse reinforces the notion that creative genius somehow excuses arsehole behaviour.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

The seven Dadly sins
- Barry Gittins
- 04 September 2015
7 Comments
As Father's Day looms, I embrace zen introspection. My beloved Keeper and I have two offspring, a daughter — a sweetheart aged 12, turning 30 — and a son — boisterously nine. Life changed unrecognisably with their arrival, and overwhelmingly for the better. This Sunday I will join the ranks of sleepy paters, gingerly drinking dubious coffee, eyeing off culinary abominations and graciously acknowledging new socks.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

The tyranny of career
- Ellena Savage
- 22 May 2015
3 Comments
The expectation to enjoy the labouring part of your life, or find it 'rewarding', is a relatively new one. Australia's boon in tertiary education in the latter half of the twentieth century, and the post-industrial nature of postmodern work means that for many, labour is immaterial, and jobs are not necessarily protected or stable. 'Career management' is therefore a key concept that rules life decisions.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Handwritten history of two mothers' loving meals
- Gillian Bouras
- 07 May 2014
7 Comments
My mother's recipe book has been part of my life for 60 years. Every entry is handwritten, and the handwriting conjures up the person. But the book is a historical document for other reasons, for in it my mother has also written out the recipes she learned in my Greek mother-in-law's village kitchen. Yiayia was illiterate, so my mother had to observe and make notes. The book is, in a sense, part of the story of two mothers.
READ MORE
RELIGION

Japan's gods of nature
- Catherine Marshall
- 21 March 2011
5 Comments
In Japan's relief centres and obliterated streets, there is no news of looting or violence, no shouts of blame, no demands for immediate evacuation and coronial inquests. 'Shinto is a nature religion,' says my guide Yoshiko. 'We give thanks to everything we have.'
READ MORE

Subscriber login

Keywords: Culinary