Once upon a time there was a website that randomly generated mind-boggling, fancy-tickling fairy tales. It was called the Proppian Fairy Tale Generator and it can still be found today..... it's based on the theories of Russian structuralist Vladimir Propp, a literary thinker who believed that the narrative structure of every fairy tale on earth could be broken down into basic elements arranged in uniform sequence.

So how it works is you select fairy-tale elements off a predetermined list and the website spits out weird yarns that boggle the mind and amuse the imagination.

Reading the stories is confusing, the narratives make little sense: Characters appear and disappear without reason, and the plot is often impossible to follow. One moment the protagonist is standing over his father’s corpse in the woods, the next moment he is speaking with his mother, and four paragraphs later, the father returns, amazingly. But despite their insensibility, the stories are mystifyingly compelling.

A little while ago a take-away roast chicken I bought came with a small container of the most intensely *garlic* dip I have ever tasted – I instantly fell in love!

I have now found where to by the “Garlic Dip” (if anyone knows the proper name and the nationality it comes from please let me know as I am sure that it isn’t *really* called “Garlic Dip”)… anyhow you can buy the “Mum’s Choice – Dips to make your belly dance” brand from Harris Farm.

The paste has a texture and consistency like Hommus (it's thick; not runny), and includes LOTS of raw garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt (amongst other things)…. be warned it is basically like eating LOTS of raw with a hint of sweetness similar to roasted garlic.

It’s great with roast meats, or generously spread onto sourdough bread with tomato and lashings of cracked pepper!

In an effort to find fresh in-season ingredients I headed off to the Warwick Farmers Markets today (they're on every Saturday 8am-1pm). It started to rain on the way there (never a good sign) but it managed to stop long enough for us to wonder around and remain fairly dry.

Although not very big (about 12 stalls), I was *very* pleasantly surprise at the quality/freshness of everything and even more surprised at the unique variety!

I picked up two things that I have never seen/tried before; grape tomatoes and snake beans…

-----|| Grape tomatoes… they are a brilliant red elongated tomato, about half the size of a normal cherry tomato (they almost look like Jaffa's… note how small they are against the 50 cent's in the photo). They have a noticeably *sweet* flavour and a truly AMAZING, ig you get the chance you should really try some.

One of my “goals” (and I use that word VERY loosely) for 2008 is to try and be more “seasonal” with my cooking by trying new recipes using ingredient that are “in season”.....

So, I was absolutely smitten’d yesterday when out of the blue a neighbour dropped off a bag a large green tomatoes (… I can only assume they did so because they didn’t know what to do with them).

My immediate thought was to make Chutney… but then I decide to try something else…. Fried Green Tomatoes!

There are plenty of ways to coat and fry your tomatoes; use bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, cornmeal (known in Australia as polenta), or flour. Some people dip them in beaten eggs before dredging, while some just dredge then fry….

In May 2007, buildup Co., Ltd. unveiled the Tamanoi Vinegar Robot, the world’s first robot designed to make presentations about vinegar (yes "vinegar", the stuff you use to make salad dressings).

Relying on pre-programmed speech and gestures to communicate its knowledge of vinegar, the robot features a system of pneumatic servos that control 24 points of articulation in the upper half of its body. The 180 cm (nearly 6 ft), 100 kg (220 lb) machine has a mouth that moves in sync with its voice, as well as a fiber-reinforced plastic outer shell that is colored black — like Tamanoi’s black vinegar — with an iridescent coating that changes hue according to the viewing angle.

The robot’s first duties will be to entertain guests at Tamanoi’s “Cyber Trip” amusement theater located in the company’s new head office in Osaka. In addition to the robot, the theater will feature a 12-minute high-definition video on vinegar, also produced by buildup.