Morish Nuts

The annual Taste of Sydney Show from 8th - 11th March kicked off our Eastern Walkabout, and what a great way to begin our East-coast Morish adventure. The weekend pop-up restaurant festival that will give you 'an unforgettable gourmet experience' complete with eating, nibbling, drinking, tasting and shopping - a foodie's haven!

 

Well, as the best shows always go, this one was off to an interesting start - the first day of the show had to be cancelled last minute due to the crazy weather in Sydney. A massive downfall of rain, and it didn't look like it was going to stop! So much rain in fact, that a guy at Bondi wearing a wet suit sitting at the foot of some stairs looked like he was sitting under a waterfall!

 

The rest of the weekend was looking fairly unpromising at that point!

 

But then, miraculously, the following day the sun was out and you wouldn’t have known that there was even a light shower, let alone torrential winds and rain only just the day before. So we had 3 glorious days of show time fun, and there were plenty of characters and Morish lovers that we met through the weekend.

 

Photo: Taste of Sydney 

One keen customer departed our stand with a gift of Soft Nougat for a friend - we've been informed that it didn't quite make it to the recipient, and she'll now be shopping for replacement Nougat bars for her friend AND herself on our website! (Too right, we say!)

 

We also spotted Simon Leong, who loved our Macadamias! You can see his blog about the whole festival here - it takes a lot of effort and a keen stomach to get round to ALL the exhibitors in just 3 days!!

 

So in the end the show was a great success, and a great start to another Eastern Walkabout. The next stop will be the Newcastle Show this weekend!

Wake up! Wake up! It's Autumn already!! And the best bit about heading into the cooler months? ALL OF THE SHOWS OF COURSE!!

 

Remember Archie's Eastern Walkabout last year? Well, we're travelling the East coast again and going to all those wonderful shows - filling up on that good ol' festival feel, catching up with old friends and nut lovers, and of course providing you with the huge joy of Morish show bags :-)

 

So get your calendars and diaries out and jot these down - if you're super duper excited like we are you may want to use highlighters and multicoloured pens too! Post its sometimes help, or flashing neon signs - but we hope you don't need to get that extravagant!

 

First up the Tastes of Sydney show from the 8th of March. The week after that (no messing about with free time here!) find us at the Newcastle Show (16th - 18th March). And then as we head into April, a bumper of a month we go!!

 

Those keenly awaiting the Sydney Royal Easter Show will get to go wild again; bring on the show rides, big crowds and lots and lots of show bags! We'll be there from 5th April until the 18th. And if you feel the need to see the show again and again, we'd be more than happy to assist your sugar levels with a bit of our special caramel coated Morish Premium Nut Mix.

 

We'll take a quick breath then shoot over to the NSW Caravan & Camping Show from the 20th. And while that's happening, we do a tricksy double whammy in the last weekend where you'll see us at the Royal Bathurst Show AS WELL between 27th - 29th April.

 

Yep, that's right - we can multi-task so well you might as well call us a woman!

 

And not to keep the other side of the country awaiting their Morish fix - you'll also see us at…Wagin's Woolorama (9th & 10th March), Araluen's Fremantle Chilli Festival (10th and 11th March) and the Perth Caravan & Camping Show from 15th - 19th March.

 

And what about that middle part of Australia who don't get to go to any of these shows?! Well, hit us up online and you can get in as much Morish munching as you can get your virtual hands on. Our ordering system is quick and easy, and we post your scrummy goods out to you as soon as we get the order.

 

Marv!

National Nut Day is celebrated on October 22nd in the USA and UK, but given that we're nutty about those little things EVERY day, we've decided to pay particular attention to the grandness of nuts in order to join in the festivities.

Apart from the huge health benefits and yummy snack options - nuts have a pretty cool appearance through history.

Peanut butter was developed in 1890 by a doctor in St. Louis who ground peanuts to give to elderly patients as an easily digestible food. In actual fact, peanut butter has a few more uses than the regular sarny - the natural oils found in peanut butter can remove gum from your hair. So mum's and dad's, it's ok to let your kids go nuts (haha) with a stick of Hubba Bubba, so long as you've stocked up on the PB.

 

 

In Celtic lore the Hazel tree is the tree of knowledge. Apparently (this is a rough translation of ancient myth) there was a sacred pool in Ireland that was surrounded by 9 Hazel trees. Hazelnuts would drop from these trees into the water, and be eaten by salmon - and legend has it that if you ate the salmon you would be granted with immense knowledge. Nice!

 A native Australian tree, the Bunya Pine, produces large cones of Bunya nuts once every 3 years. When this happened, Aboriginals would hold a Bunya Feast in the mountains of Queensland (the only place these trees grow) to celebrate (and eat and eat and eat!). We like to do that with our Morish Family Mix after every batch… but that's just us!

Pistachios managed to always make it into the knapsacks of travellers and explorers in those early days - this is because of their high nutritional value and long storage life. So if you don't have pistachios in your trail mix these days, you really need some upgrading to the original snack-a-thon food.

That goes for you too, Dora.

Almonds are a world favourite. Tutankhamen had them in his tomb, the ancient Romans loved them, Shakespeare wrote about them, and reference to the humble almond are even found in the Bible. We'll say no more.

   

And a few other pieces of trivia, just for fun…

..Walnuts shells are a specialist medium used for polishing.

.. Some American states have officially appointed nuts as their State Nut - Missouri has the Eastern Black Walnut, Alabama and Texas both adore the Pecan, and Oregon names the Hazelnut as the State representative.

..Pecans come in a variety of sizes, correct terminology is "mammoth, extra large, large, medium, small and midget".

..Macadamias have the hardest shell to crack into, but the Hyacinth Macaw, Hyena and Alligator all have a jaw strong enough to crack it open on their own. Lesson learnt: don't mess with any of these animals. A human's skin is not as thick as a macca's shell.

Of course, if you're not already a nut lover and haven't been convinced by our loving interpretation of nut history, the wonders of peanut butter sandwiches and the pecan pie are enough to satisfy us!

Happy National Nut Day!
October 22nd

Culinary royalty has made its way into the tempting Morish collection! The coveted French black truffle, a delicacy due to their world-wide scarcity, has been used to create our brand new Morish Truffle Macadamia, a gourmet snack that is sure to please nut-lovers and foodies alike.

Created exclusively for the annual Mundaring Truffle Festival, the new Morish Truffle Macadamia is a fine food lover's delight. Using fresh Australian macadamias and home-grown truffles from The Wine & Truffle Company in Manjimup, WA, Morish Truffle Macadamias might just be the first truffle-flavoured nut to ever hit the market!

Lightly roasted macadamias are bathed in truffle oil then gently tossed in truffle salt, bringing the delicate truffle flavours to the palate from the first delectable mouthful.

The Morish Truffle Macadamias will be sold at the Mundaring Truffle Festival in Mundaring, WA, on the weekend of July 30th and 31st 2011. Some lucky truffle devotees had the pleasure of tasting the Truffle Macadamia at the 2011 Good Food & Wine Show, where a special preview of the golden packets was revealed.

Make sure you visit Morish at the Truffle Festival to get your fix!


Visit www.mundaringtrufflefestival.com for more about the Mundaring Truffle Festival.