Posted by kathryn in Ethics & Sustainablity and Dinners

Before the Quicklinks – an Australian plug. Wellbeing magazine have just published their first edition of Wellbeing Food. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Sub-titled Eating for Pleasure & the Planet, it’s a cross between a magazine and a book. Well maybe it’s better described as a thick, advert-free magazine.

I’ll admit to a bias – as I have an article in there on whether fresh is best – but I think it’s a really, really good, comprehensive, basic guide to organics, eating seasonally, buying local. While there’s information available on these topics, both on and off-line, I’m particularly enamoured of Wellbeing Food because of it’s Australian-focus.

Up until now a lot of info on these topics has been North America and European focussed. Which you then have to extrapolate back to the Australian situation. Finally there is something which looks at what “organic” is in this country, who’s doing it, what it means to be an ethical Australian omnivore and so on.

There are also some great recipes at the end. It’s not quick cooking but beautiful food. And the picture on the front of Spinach & Quark Ravioli with Broad Beans is absolutely lickable.

At $19.95 it’s more expensive than a normal magazine. But there’s no space taken up by ads, so it’s jam-packed with information. And to be honest it’s quite beautiful too. Some of the produce shots are glorious. So take a look.

Now onto the normal Quicklinks . . .

• Is pomegranate a superfood: Regular readers will know my dislike of the superfood phenomenon, so I enjoyed reading Catherine Saxelby’s debunking of the hype around pomegranate juice in the latest GI Newsletter.
• Zucchini & almond: What a delightful dish from Stonesoup it’s a zucchini confit with mint and almonds. It’s also a flexible dish and Jules has included a number of suggestions on different ways to use.
• Pasta sauces: I’m not just linking to this because it mentions me. I’m new to Paola’s Spades & Spoons blog, but I love the way her pasta sauce suggestions progress in complexity. From the simplest garlic and olive oil dressing, through fresh tomato ideas, to a basic carbonara.
• Eating locally in Japan: A really neat short animation I saw on the Stuffed & Starved blog. It’s a Japanese public service announcement covering obesity, food independence and climate change. Such a clever, clever way to convey a complex message. Click here
• Using up leftovers: Tony Naylor at The Guardian is talking about food wastage. He’s made a list of the food scraps in his bin and asked readers to suggest ways to use. Responses range through useful, bizarre, funny, nagging and overly-serious.
• Meal replacements: There’s been some concern this week over meal replacement shakes being sold in pharmacies. This piece from the SMH gives a general outline while Online Opinion also looks at the fructose content of these concoctions.

Zucchini photograph by Bahai View.

06 February, 2009