Greedy Diva Gets Her Noggin on a Cereal Box - Jordans Country Crisp Appreciation Society

If you've been paying attention, you will have noticed this is largely a blog about restaurants.

However, I reserve the right to muse whimsically about any food related moment that comes my way. That includes my recently attempted one night stand with a dim sim.

And now it shall also include the fact that I recently had my grinning mug put on on a box of cereal. (A lovely Christmas present for the The Peanut Gallery, without the need to hit the shops - things were looking up.) Unfortunately, the folks at Jordans did not see fit to put said box in wider circulation than my own kitchen. What a kick in the guts. (Although, "understandable", The Peanut Gallery tells me consolingly as he stares at the box with a slightly freaked out expression.)

I never ate breakfast at all until I started working in an office, and now it has simply faded into the first part of my standard "cannot think, type or make any kind of decision unless chewing" routine. There's a breakfast window - don't put anything near me before 9am (unless I'm still on my way home, in which case make it a souva), and anything after 12pm becomes lunch.

However, during the breakfast window, I'll eat like a lion with a hangover. Give me pizza, burger or last night leftovers - I'll take them. Even cold. I just stop short of mouldy. As a standard/lazy position at home, it's hard to beat warm toast or crumpets with loads of melting butter and a smattering of Vegemite, but I might branch out wildly and mix things up a bit with some avocado on toast, or (on health kick days) granola and muesli. Or porridge (plain, with yoghurt) or mushy Vita Brits (baby food consistency is best). Anything that's not too sweet - unless it involves pancakes or I am in France, in which case I'm sure to have a craving for pain au chocolat or an almond croissant. And I haven't even started on my favourite breakfasts around town.

So, when at home, I like a nutty, crunchy, not too sweet cereal that's got a bit of a granola character about it. Which brings me to my point. Before Christmas (yes, I've been a little tardy), I was invited along with some other fine food bloggers to attend Leith's School of Food and Wine for a Jordans Country Crisp Appreciation Society food fest. There, Jordans and the lovely gang from the Wild Card PR company fed me up with coffee (very wise at such an early hour - someone must have warned them), juice, cereal and fresh fruits, and entrusted me use the rather professional looking utensils to bake a pear and cereal cake (not an innate GD skill - they make nice cakes at Princi, afterall. Think the Swedish chef on the Muppets let loose in a professional kitchen, and you'll have caught my drift.)

To my intense shock, I found the whole baking saga surprisingly therapeutic, and managed not to fling too many bits of stray pear onto the winty woolies of my accomplices, Ginger Gourmand, Kavey Eats and Food Urchin. I became at one with that mixer, as I chopped, mixed and whirled like a Japanese iron chef. So inspired was I, that I even bought myself a new pair of beaters leading up to Christmas - although it may be telling that they have since been used only to make alcoholic beverages (a lovely Christmas eggnog).

I enjoyed an enlightening speech by Bill Jordan on the ethos and family history of the company. Jordans is committed to producing its products without added salt, unseemly amounts of sugar and in a conservation friendly manner. Its oats are grown by British farmers who subscribe to a Conservation Grade scheme. (See more on Jordan's mission here in this week's article in The Telegraph).

An educative session from Kirsten (Head of Taste - love the title) on the complex making of cereal followed (seriously - who would have guessed there was so much to it? I've been taking my cereal makers for granted), before we rolled up the sleeves and dug in to create our own cereal blends. And I must say (ahem) I believe I may have uncovered a new GD talent. The mix of 9 parts nuts to 1 part cereal (no dried berry bits or chocolate flakes), was an award winning combo.

For more on the day, you can check out some other posts here (by Kavey Eats), here (by The Muesli Lover) and here (by Apple and Spice).

Thanks to Jordans and Wild Card for your hospitality, a great day and a lovely stash of cereal which I've been munching on since, as a fine accompaniment to my daily Vegemite fix.

So. What do you like for breakfast? Is my leftovers habit really that disgusting (I already know what you think, TPG). C'mon admit it - you sneak in a bit of cold curry in the mornings, don't you? Don't you?

Gluttonous Travels: Tribute to the humble Melbourne dim sim

It would be a sign that something had gone horribly wrong (an event in the league of my own death or city wide flood and famine) if I had not consumed my first dim sim within 48 hours of arrival in Melbourne.

The dim sim is a unique Australian take on the Chinese dumpling. Known colloquially as the "dimmy" to proud Australians everywhere, the Aussie dim sim is about twice as big and thrice as ugly as your standard Chinese variety known elsewhere. That beloved mix of pork and mystery meat, cabbage and flavourings is encased in a thick dumpling wrapper which is steamed or fried, then doused in a vigorous splash of soy sauce which must reliably leak through the brown paper bag from which it is eaten and drip lazily down your arm as you eat and walk. The dimmy is not to be eaten gracefully.

The debate over whether steamed or fried is best can divide otherwise loving friends and families. While I'm usually a steamed fan, the fried variety is an undeniably solid hangover companion. Neither option is to be eaten on a train, in confined spaces or before a hot date - beware the post dimmy breath.

The elephant man of the dim sum world, it is fair to say the dimmy's blistered skin and lumpy innards have an appeal which is confined largely to the local palate. The same can be said of other national icons, like Vegemite (our yeast extract spread, a more bitter twin to the beloved British Marmite) - although unlike Vegemite, the monopoly on the production of this enduring national treasure is not foreign owned.

Chinese food has long been a part of the Australian culture - and for many years it was the only commonly consumed Asian food in Australia, which would often compete with fish and chips for the Friday night take away slot. Chinese food in Australia has now evolved well beyond its traditionally "dumbed down for the Westerners" approach, and many excellent Chinese restaurants thrive in Australia - such as the Flower Drum which has won awards as Melbourne's best restaurant and is no stranger to lists of the world's top restaurants.

But there remains a firmly entrenched place for the simple, street food style dim sim.

So who do we have to thank for the humble dimmy? Legend has it that the dim sim was originally developed in 1945 by William Wing Young (father of Elizabeth Chong, a prominent Melbourne food writer and educator on Chinese cuisine) for his Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, Wing Lee. The thick skin was chosen for safely transporting the dimmy to football matches where they would compete directly with another Australian culinary hero, the Four 'n Twenty pie.

While they are available at fish and chip shops everywhere, it is often unanimously agreed that the best dimmys are sold at the South Melbourne market. However, the original stall holder died in 2006, and some say the new larger, rounder versions are not as good. Well, after a dim sim-less 8 months, let's just say those passing me on that Sth Melbourne corner a few days ago were left in no doubt that an enthusiastic reunion was taking place. I believe the words "get a room" were contributed from passing motorists. Yes, I love the dimmy. And I have the soy stained hands to prove it.