“See, I’m on this new diet where I don’t eat for a week and when I think I’m going to faint, I eat a cube of cheese. I figure I’m one stomach flu away from my goal weight.” Emily Charlton, The Devil Wears Prada.

Dear Reader, post Christmas and NYE and the food festival that is the holidays, you may be feeling a little as I do and riffling through your wardrobe for the wrap dresses (always so forgiving) and reminiscing about the delicious food eaten while wondering how to eliminate the gentle reminders of them. After much discussion with friends, I decided to try a detox-in the name of research of course. One of my best friends Queen Viv detoxes every six months. She comes out looking brand new and shiny and she believes that it helps her retain her youthful appearance (she looks at least 20 years younger than she is).

Another girl that I know flies to Thailand once a year for a detox. She swears by it although has made it clear that it’s tough during certain stages. So when I was asked by Natural Detox Drinks whether I’d like to try their detox program, the first thing that jumped in my head was Emily’s quote from the Devil Wears Prada. And then I enthusiastically cleared five days in my calendar when I wasn’t eating out and hoped for the best. Here is my detox diary.

Day 1

Dear Diary,

I started off very enthusiastically. I received my delivery yesterday from Natural Detox Drinks and am told that I will be doing the transitioning detox which is the less hard core version of the full juice detox. I’m secretly quite relieved because I’ve never done a detox-my lifestyle and job just isn’t conducive to it.

I started off with a 200ml glass of the Kombucha drink as soon as I woke up. It looked a little like ginger cordial and tasted a little fermenty but it’s pleasant and quite sweet. I followed this up twenty minutes later with lemon water through a straw-apparently I can have as much of this as I want. I’m not a regular coffee drinker so the start was fine, no gnashing of teeth or sniffing bags of coffee. I believe that coffee is the top hurdle for most detoxers.

Around 10am, I decided to crack open one of the satchels of drink. Apparently, I can have as much or as little of these drinks as I want provided I stay within my supply. I chose the chocolatey sounding one (of course) which was cruelly sitting next to my supply of butter, and I poured a glass. I took a sip. It’s a little chocolatey, quite nice and sweet and again healthily pleasant. I then add 1.5 tablespoons of psyllium husks-apparently you need to clear your colon and this helps with it. I tried to say to myself “well it looks like coconut” but after a few minutes, the husks swelled and I was left with a pile of sludgey husks at the bottom of my glass which I ate by the spoonful.

I had an appointment around 2pm so I made sure to eat my only solid meal of the day. For the first three days of the five day detox, I have set out to eat one solid meal of vegetables prepared by myself. Fine, I told myself, I love broccoli and so I steamed myself some. Then I hit my first road block….salt! I season everything, not a lot, but I do season and I couldn’t season this. Suddenly the steamed broccoli turned into something I ate simply to quash my growling stomach. Is this what life for athletes is like when they just use food for fuel and derive little to no pleasure?

After my appointment, I’m feeling vague so I pop open a coconut water. Apparently I can have the unsweetened coconut water and I feel better very quickly. I must admit though that I’m not a fan of any of those prepackaged coconut waters at the supermarket – they don’t taste anywhere as nice as a fresh young coconut cracked open. On my way home I stop at the traffic light and I see a sushi restaurant. I involuntarily start drooling and suddenly a chant enters my mind “Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!” I’m picturing aburi scallop sushi and eel sushi and suddenly I can’t think of anything else.

At 6pm when Mr NQN comes home, I realise that I’ve already had my meal of the day and that I don’t have a meal to look forward to. I miss the social interaction and sharing and I prepare something for Mr NQN that he loves but I’m not tempted by. I look at him and ask him if “I can just watch you eat?” He agrees, but has no real choice in the matter as I stare at him with bulging saucer eyes. I sip on my shakes-I’m supposed to finish all food and drink by 7pm but finish instead at 7:30pm.

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Do you remember the episode of Kath & Kim where Kath and Kel go on their honeymoon but don’t leave the airport? Well as a travelling and airport enthusiast, I kind of understood it. For most, going to the airport signals the onset of something exciting. Some airports are of course better than others – some are a delight whilst others are disappointing. Singapore’s Changi has a movie theatre and conducts airport tours. Conversely, flying into LAX is surprisingly disappointing. For the number of people and flights that pass through, there is scarcely anything to buy or services to enjoy.

Sydney Airport is of course the one that I visit most. Two years ago, there was a redevelopment of the airport and with it came a roll-out of eateries and new shops both on the “land” side (i.e. before you go through customs) and the “air” side  after. Who spends more? People on the “land” side or the “air” side? Apparently there are more people that visit the land side establishments but the spend on the air side is higher as people have cleared customs and are more relaxed

The question on everyone’s lips? Why is airport food so expensive? Well there are a couple of reasons –  there is a captive audience so retailers know that but also the rents are also high at the airport. However, there was a recent push to ask eateries and shops to keep items at a certain cost in order to add value to the customer.

Danks Street Depot- Land Side, International Terminal

There are several operators that help set up the outlets in the airport and SSP (Select Service Partners) is one of them. They have partnered with Sydney chef Jared Ingersoll to bring Danks Street Depot to the land side of the airport. It sits smack bang in the centre of departures and a bright yellow sign announces it’s location. It has a large seating area and service is at the counter.

The Danks Street Depot menu is similar to the cafe in Redfern but there are some differences to the menu and a couple of items are exclusive to the airport cafe like the steak sandwich and spaghetti picante. Some of the prices aren’t too bad however a comparison of the prices of the Reuben sandwich shows a $8.50 difference and the chicken sandwich a $5.50 difference.  However, the sandwiches here automatically come with a small serve of hot chips whereas at the cafe they are ordered separately at $8 for a larger size. The most popular items are the two poached egg and bacon combo which is two biodynamic eggs, Schultz free range bacon, herbed tomato with brasserie bread sourdough toast plus a coffee for $19.50.

As this was Ingersoll’s first foray into airport retailing, there was concern that his vision and values (sustainability and artisan, house made products) would not be adhered to but everything, including the chicken for the chicken sandwiches is roasted on the premises. The mayonnaise is made here and they ship in as little pre-made as possible.

Reuben sandwich $24.50 (bowl of chips given separately)

The Reuben is a toasted sandwich with toasted Brasserie Bread rustic loaf . Inside it’s filled with corned Wagyu beef braised in balsamic sugar and spices, a layer of sauerkraut and Heidi tilsit cheese and seeded mustard. The beef is tender and the tangyness from the sauerkraut balances the richness of the wagyu and the nutty cheese well. Then hand cut chips are cut every day on the premises and come piping hot with a light crunchiness on the outside and a soft, fluffiness on the inside.

Chicken sandwich $23.50 (bowl of chips given separately)

Even though the Reuben is the more well known, I slightly preferred the chicken and corn sandwich with rocket and house made mayonnaise. I must admit that I have seen pictures of these sandwiches looking much more come hither with the gooey insides oozing out almost onto the plate.

Coffee $4.50

The coffee here is excellent. All Danks Street Depot staff and all staff working at the SSP eateries must spend time at the original restaurant in order to be trained up to the restaurant’s standards.

Cookie $4

When they bring us the cookie they explain that the cookies aren’t always this size (which quite frankly I think is fabulous as they’re gigantic). As someone that has OCD and likes even distribution of chunks this is excellent with even chocolate chip dispersal. And I think that if I brought this on a plane I could while away at least 30 minutes just nibbling away at this cookie.

Orange & almond cake $6

The orange and almond cake is warm and with a soft, sweet interior fragrant in orange with a slightly sandy texture from the almond meal. There are flaked almonds on top and a dusting of icing sugar to give it added sweetness.

China Grand-Air Side, International Terminal

The last time Mr NQN and I went through the airport I tried to get him to have some yum cha with me sadly to no avail. Yum Cha on the air side’s China Grand isn’t of the trolley variety, you order it from the menu and they bring it out to you.

Prawn dumplings $9.90

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The problem

Orange dust sweeps up into the air as the truck settles to a halt.  ”Oh no those shoes won’t do” Lou Revelant says looking down at my ballet flats. “I’ll be fine” I say, after all I’ve visited countless farms wearing similar footwear.

“Ouch! ouch ouch!” I say as I take two steps and enormous bindies spike my feet. “Ok maybe I will invest in a pair of farm shoes” I concede.

Where am I? I’m six hours out of Sydney at Griffith in the Riverina region exploring a story that I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. The seed for this idea first came to me when I was visiting Tasmania last year and I saw a beautifully formed head of broccoli make its way into a bin. I asked what was wrong with it, to me it was a picture perfect specimen and I would have certainly picked it up if I had seen it at the store. It was too big, I was told. I kept thinking about that head of broccoli – I choose broccoli that has a large head because I like the florets and yet supermarkets were stocking smaller headed broccoli with long stems.

The head of broccoli that was deemed “too large” and off spec

Food Bank

Minimising the amount of food waste has been the primary objective of a charity organisation called Food Bank. Each state in Australia has a branch of Food Bank and they collect tonnes of food produced by farmers and production companies that doesn’t even make it to supermarket shelves. And why doesn’t it make it to the supermarket? Because it is “off specification.”

I was curious to explore it more and find out what “off specification” really meant. Is it the idea that supermarkets think they know what we want? Or is it that they don’t really care what we want and make a decision for what we will buy based on other factors (more heads of broccoli sold as we want more florets?). Or do we really know what we want?

Then a call came from Todd Connolly, national manager of market planning, from Komatsu who I had known at his previous job. He had a proposition for me. Komatsu had just donated a two tonne Toyota ute to be used in the Riverina area that made it possible for Food Bank to do their job. Would I be interested in going to see what Food Bank do? The Riverina region is crucial for Food Bank as it produces so much of the fruit and vegetable for the NSW region and around Australia.

Food Bank state offices run the day to day business which collects the food and they truck this into a central point in the state (in Sydney’s case, in Wetherill Park) and any registered charity can come along and “shop” either for free or at a nominal rate (non essentials like coffee are charged at $1 a kilo handling fee, all of the fruit, vegetables, bread  and staples are free). On Fridays, Food Bank uploads a list of produce available and charities can take a look at the list and shop there from Monday to Wednesday.

Food Bank’s head office in Sydney lobbies the government for monetary and facility support like coolrooms and freight concessions. Each government helps to differing degrees and Lou mentions that the Victorian government is particularly helpful whilst the NSW government provides little to no assistance. At a grass roots level, there is another group of concerned citizens who head up the Waste Not Want Not volunteer group which supports Food Bank and helps to retrieve this excess food. This group, founded in the Riverina’s Hillston area is integral in getting a lot of the food to Sydney and uses old fashioned people power with volunteers picking and gathering produce.

Food Bank is slightly different to OzHarvest as they store food whereas OzHarvest do not store food and move it from the donor to the charity on the same day. Food Bank also deal in much larger quantities like tonnes-  an example is corporate donor Goodman Fielder who bake 1,500 loaves of bread for Food Bank each day as well as donating surplus loaves. In NSW alone they distribute 3,000 tonnes of food and 40,000 meals a year with 670 companies donating 19,000 tonnes of food. According to Food Bank, 2 million Australians a year rely on food relief and half of those are children.

Supermarkets such as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi also donate – there was a recent oversupply of baked beans as a line was pulled from shelves. “Best Before” dates must be observed (although anything past its use by date can’t be given out) and any food donated must have a list of ingredients on it. The Good Samaritan Act protects them to a degree although all measures of care must be taken with the food. Transport is the number one problem for Food Bank – getting the food to a central point incurs the most cost given how large Australia is and Food Bank’s staff is made up of a mix of twelve paid workers with the rest as volunteers.

The Riverina Food Bowl 

Oversupply is a serious problem for the Riverina region at the moment. When there is oversupply, the big supermarkets get choosier in their specifications and conversely when there is little supply, they interpret their specifications more loosely. The Riverina is going through a period of oversupply and that means that for some farmers, it isn’t viable for them to pick crop as it costs more to do that. One farmer that I met had to plough in 3,000 tonnes of pumpkins.

There are about 100-150 semi-trailers that leave the Riverina area each day, five days a week with produce. Previously the fruit and vegetable available to Food Bank was the leftover from Flemington markets which was variable in quantity and didn’t allow them to keep a steady supply. The people from the Waste Not Want Not group saw the level of waste from talking to the farmers in the area and sought to help redistribute this valuable produce to the needy.

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