Take A Bite: Part One

Nutrition and fine dining was to me as a youngster what dental hygiene is to a British citizen. Although I was introduced to authentic Turkish as a child the days and nights of home cooked food faded into the distance the more distant my mother and father became with each other and the families they'd abandoned and been abandoned by. Back in the 1980's fast food was still an emerging culture in Australia, up until that point it had been a very bland culture as far as cuisine was concerned then the Asians came from all corners of the Pacific and Mainland and brought their flavours along with the Greeks and Italians. McDonald's was cheap and easy but fast food wasn't the real thing unless it was cooked by people from a foreign land. To this day Australians has integrated into its culture the basic premise that food must remain real no matter how fast, cheap or bad it is. So, even though my parents had become distant to their own cultures they did embrace the changing world around them, and then something bad happened to my mother and step father and we were suddenly broke. Poor and living in the ghetto neighbourhoods of Western Sydney we survived by what little was brought into the kitchen thanks to welfare, then they were caught by the authorities for welfare fraud and suddenly we became even poorer. For whatever reason my mother refused to find a job and keep it and my step father did the same. As abusive and terrible as my father was he eventually became the better option between the only two I had.

Spending weekends with him was always a treat; he would work at a kebab shop in the city CBD and I would wander the city at my own pleasure just as long as I checked back in with him every hour or so - the greatest paradox about my father was that he cared enough for me not to get hurt unless it came at his own drunken hands. But that was just fine with me since I got to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. He of course introduced me to fast-style Turkish food along peanuts, improvised stews and salads. Until I began living with him I didn't truly know what an olive was or how much better salt makes food taste. Strong cups of Turkish tea found its way into my hands every morning and so did the occasional glass of carbonated radish juice, yogurt drink and beer. Then as I became a troubled teen who was too much for him to handle he began to neglect my nutrition and instead feed me KFC day in, day out. It would be years later before I would realise that all the excess weight I gained during those years was due to the increasingly poor diet; I went from a slender good looking athletic type to a very fat and unattractive young man. As charming as I was I couldn't get a girlfriend for years because of it. Years! Once I realised exactly what the problem was I took on every challenge I could to better myself with the staple of life; long before I truly understood the science behind flavours, textures, mixes and temperatures I managed to educate my palette until I had my very own language when it came to cooking and eating.

To be continued...