And onto the soap box:

- Duncan Welgemoed spent some time this week in the Northern Territory and was not impressed with what he found there. His visit to the local community store disgusted him: best before dates extended over a number of years, rotten fruit and veg etc etc. You can read/see more here. He wants your help to take it viral.

- It’s not all roses in the city stores either. Letho took a look at Kylie Kwong’s pre-packed supermarket meals, questioning the significance of the RSPCA accreditation. Kylie has made her name being one of the most stringent in the business when it comes to animal advocacy and organic produce. I too was surprised to see her put her name to it. Lethlean looks at what this actually means. The answer is not much.

- Matt Evans has responded to the Senate decision to ignore seafood labelling, particularly where they pertain to cooked seafood. I mentioned this a couple of weeks back, but was missing the details, you canread his response here.

- On the other side of the world, Heston was interviewed in the Guardian. He’s readying himself to open the Fat Duck again and was taking stock of what he has learnt over the years. His focus is on the importance of telling a story with your food and his obsession with childhood memories and nostalgia remains.

- A counter-article appeared in the NY Times, entitled Dinner and Deception. "Guests wanted to believe the make-believe; they wanted to believe everything was perfect. But the moment someone noticed a minor imperfection — a smudge on the butter, a fingerprint on the fork — other imperfections would suddenly become noticeable, threatening the illusion we all worked to maintain." It's a great read.