mutteringhousewife

Shopping is always better with girlfriends, especially if they’re taking you somewhere you’ve never been before and it’s not a shop you’d find on your own. Now I’m as fond of shoe and handbag shopping as the next girl, but this was a special experience. We went to Chef’s Warehouse.

The are many reasons I’d have never gone there by myself. It’s among the vomit splattered streets of Surry Hills and I’m allergic to driving in the Eastern Suburbs. It has a small and self effacing entrance that I’d probably miss. It says “trade only” on the door, and I always take these things very literally and slink away without making enquiries. Apparently it’s to stop locals from wandering in to buy the overproof rum they sell for Christmas cakes. So I was very pleased to be escorted.

It was a small and perfectly formed wonderland. I tried not to look at KitchenAids, I’m really not ready to go there yet. Every size of chopping board, serving dish, mixing bowl, baking tin, sieve and knives were there. Callebaut chocolate chips in flour sack sized bags. I didn’t even know they made cocoa powder. Proper recipe books, I was very tempted to buy some to even out the ratio of joke cookbooks to useful ones in my collection. I wondered why there was such a thing as a Chef’s saw, surely they’d get a butcher to deal with any bone issues? Then I thought, some of those chefs you see on TV get very cross, perhaps it’s to process recalcitrant kitchen hands into the goulash without anyone knowing. Here’s a picture of my purchases.

The baking tins are two small square ones and a longer loaf one, and my burst of mental arithmetic tells me that their volume added together will equal my square cake tin. So next time I make a fruit cake I can make three gift sized ones to chase people down the street with. I had to get the chocolate and the cocoa powder, and a peppermint essence because it’s difficult to find. As are recipes that use it, as it turns out. I’m going to have to get inventive. The little bat thing is a gnocchi paddle, every kitchen should have one. Come on, I didn’t get the tomato corer. And check out the tomato sauce bottle. I am going to be so popular when the kids get home. They may insist on sausage sandwiches for dinner. I did get a raised eyebrow from one of the gang for buying it, but they had clearly never seen Bunfight at the OK Tearooms and are therefore Missing Out.