Food Article
I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the article on food snobs by Danielle Blewett (The Sunday Examiner, November 19).
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I couldn’t agree more about her views. Food has become far too “cheffy” these days and, in the humble opinion of a pretty good cook, the Michelin Star is one of the world’s greatest rip-offs.
My favourite Italian chef, the late great Antonio Carluccio and Jamie Oliver’s mentor, Gennaro Contaldo put out a DVD set called Two Greedy Italians some years ago.
In one episode they visited a Michelin Star winning restaurant in Italy for a meal, which finished with Gennaro complaining that he was still hungry.
I have had a similar experience at an award-winning local restaurant with my friend of many years standing announcing at the end of the meal that he thought we might go and get a Big Mac to fill our still rumbling tums.
I make much use at home of a recipe book by a favourite foodie of mine, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, called Three Good Things on a Plate, which pushes the mantra that you do not need umpteen ingredients to make a meal.
The principle rule is to use only the freshest and best ingredients and keep it simple.
Unlike another book of my collection by Stephanie Alexander that seems to make even the most basic meal overcomplicated, this book of Hugh’s espouses culinary common sense.
To close, I loved her assessments of the various chefs she has interviewed. Great stuff Danielle, keep it up.
Richard Hill, Newstead.
Manus Island
I APPLAUD the current federal government’s strong stance in refusing to accept any of the men left on Manus Island.
I’m hoping that any bleeding heart do-gooder out there realises that if the opposite occurs, then this will be a green light to the people smugglers to swing into action again, with how many drownings at sea, would be anyone’s guess.
I don’t know why people claiming to be genuine asylum seekers or refugees feel they have the right to dictate what country they will only be re-settled in.
Surely this is up to the country that eventually agrees and decides to take them, not the asylum seekers or refugees themselves, and if they were so desperate to leave their original country, then surely they would be happy to be taken in by any peaceful nation.
Why are they insisting on being re-settled here?
Hopefully it’s not a case of Australia’s fairly easy access to, and generous, welfare system that is attracting them.
I believe Australia should take proper care of its own people first by supplying anyone who needs it a roof over their heads, and employment, before we accept anyone with unproven claims to their situation.
Carmen Frelek, Launceston.
Compassion
PETER Doddy (The Examiner, November 19) claims he is a compassionate person but then goes on to berate those on Manus Island as being ‘queue jumpers’ and illegal arrivals.
A compassionate, and informed, person would know that there is no such thing as a ‘queue’ for refugees to join. Nor is it illegal for people to seek asylum and refugee status.
Mr Doddy goes further and attributes blame upon those refugees on Manus Island for their current plight. That is despite the United Nations stating the alternative accommodations are not complete and that the men there fear for their safety.
Mr Doddy’s attitude is to completely ignore the fact those people should never have been sent to a foreign country for ‘processing’. I have a compassionate answer to the plight of those refugees on Manus Island; accept the New Zealand offer to locate 150 of them there and bring the remainder of them to Australia.
Geoff McLean, Launceston.
Lambie lament
THERE seems to me to be an awful injustice with regard to Jacqui Lambie.
It was OK for her to be enlisted in the Australian Army and serve her country with more than 10 years of service but because of a clause in the constitution she has had to resign from her elected job as a senator for Tasmania in the federal government.
Tasmania will be worse off by her loss as our hard working representative. I’m sure she will be returned with an even bigger majority to again stand up for Tasmania in the federal parliament.
David Parker, West Launceston.
Repayment time
Jacqui Lambie was a great knocker of people unfortunate enough to be unemployed and claiming the dole, making disparaging comments about them, and about forcing them to repay overpayments even if the mistake was not caused by the client.
Well she has made a doozie and it’s all her own fault. Should she now be forced to repay all the taxpayers money incorrectly paid and made available to her? She made a false declaration and received payments as a result of that. Do we have one rule for one and one for others?
Mitchell Bone, Underwood.
Voice lost
IT IS A shame we lost a good voice in Jacqui Lambie. It makes a laugh of the Governor General as head of Australia, when Australia still is a British country. British subjects should still be classed as citizens of Australia. Looking at what a mess Devonport is with the Living City project, driving locals further out to shop, I would not want Steve Martin running a political party. There has been a lot of wasted money on Living City, when they could have given Devonport a Gothic-look rather than a concrete jungle.
Walter Christy, Shearwater.
Dual citizenship
IF THE law does not allow people of dual citizenship to represent us in parliament, is there proof that the people who originally thought up and put in place the legislation, weren’t dual citizens themselves?
D and S Langerak, Hadspen.