This, my friends, is a cheesecake brownie (tested for Ricki Heller’s new book, Sweet Freedom).
Mmmmmmmm.
Edit: Anyone know if it’s possible to change how far away the camera focuses? I’m experimenting with the macro setting…
Ahhh, I am a VeganMoFo failure!
I’d like to say that I had some big crisis and was dragged kicking and screaming away from the internet for the start of VeganMoFo, but the truth is, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to fly up to Darwin (where I used to live) and see all my friends from back then, before they all graduated and scattered across Australia. And I’m glad I did; I had an amazing time (my first time travelling alone and everything!). Food-wise, though, there wasn’t an awful lot to write about.
I’d forgotten what a different food scene Darwin has compared to Canberra; in Darwin it’s all about the Asian food (fairly authentic – Darwin has a very large immigrant population – but very greasy) and the tropical fruit. Just about everywhere you went there was fresh juice available, with none of the pretentiousness that you get around juice down south (“no, I don’t want a wheatgrass shot; no, I don’t want to pay five dollars for a cup of ice with a tiny drizzle of juice; no, I don’t know why nobody that works here weighs more than 50kg”). I think the best I had was a banana and lime juice – it doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does. (And yes, it really was like a juice, not like a smoothie… I don’t know how they managed that.)
But the most exciting thing was… INDONESIAN MANGOES! In Australia! Omg!
There are actually a million kinds of mango in Indonesia, but what I mean by Indonesian mangoes is harum manis mangoes, my favourite from when I was growing up there. Harum manis means “fragrant and sweet”, and they are. They’re not sugary-sweet like the Kensington Prides that you usually find here, but they have so much more depth of flavour, with a tart bite to them and another taste I can’t quite place, reminiscent of… coriander? Perhaps? I’m not sure. In Indonesia they’re usually eaten green (as in the picture), which I always thought was just how they were when they were ripe, but apparently they do eventually go yellow: I bought some yellow ones at the market. (I pointed to the green ones, but I suspect the man took one look at me and decided I wasn’t Asian enough to actually want them green, so he gave me yellow ones.)
A harum manis mango. (Thanks to Sexy Chef of flickr for the image.)
But in conclusion, harum manis mangoes are my favourite taste in the world (no, seriously, I know I say that about every new food that comes along, but these are a stayer) and I need to move back to the tropics – wait, sorry, I mean, and you need to try them.
My first food porn – Carrot Red Pepper Mint Soup from ExtraVeganZa.
In the interests of improving my food photography before VeganMoFo, I think…
- I need better light. (I didn’t finish making it until 6pm, at which point it was getting dark… I think for the next few weeks I’ll stick to photographing breakfasts and lunches, on weekends.);
- I should have ironed that pillowcase, or found something else to use as a background, because you can see the creases in it;
- I should decide on the angle I’m going to use before deciding on the garnishes. I had the mint leaves all laid out nicely and you can’t really see them properly in the photo.
- I need an image editing program that isn’t Paint.
- Carrot soup is really not the most photogenic thing anyway.
… But overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, especially for a first try.
Just this evening I was looking over all the food photos at VeganYumYum, trying to decide what she did to make her photos so beautiful, and lo and behold – Lolo has posted a food photography tutorial. I’m off to read it now.
I Need A Strawberry 