- Something to discover: I’ve enjoyed watching the goings-on at Ireland’s Food on the Edge festival via Jock and Lara’s instagram accounts. A few things I am hoping to hear more about: the need to talk seaweed, Fool talking the future of food journalism, Jock on the future of Australian food, Massimo talking no more excuses and waste as a failure of the imagination.

- Something to admire: the beautiful photographs featured in The Plant Kingdom of Charles Jones - a collection of amazing early photographs taken by a professional gardener in the late 19th century. Alice Waters writes in the preface: “Of course the photographer would have had to be a gardener, or a cook — and a good one, with a keen, unjaded eye. Who else would have composed still lifes so alive they are hardly still at all?” I'm mad for a still life and these have an almost sensual quality. Nice work Charlie Jones (and great name!).

- Something to watch: this is an oldie but an absolute favourite. Dans le cochon tout est bon … sauf le cri. Of course it’s French. It’s also incredible. The literal translation is “everything is good in the pig … except the squeal.” The squeamish should start at 35 secs. (Also, via more traditional/literal channels, you might like “For the Love of Meat” with Matthew Evans on SBS tonight. I'll also be watching the Four Corners story this Monday on salmon farming).

- Something to drink: I saw mention of Okar in one of the reviews this week. I looked it up. It turns out it's our very own amaro-style drink (think Camparri and Aperol) made with Australian natives - predominantly riberry. The name is a rather cute play on the word ochre. Has anyone tried this? Anyone serving it in Sydney?

Your two cents –

- I love how many of you write back each week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It actually makes my heart swell. Last week, among the regular delightful responses, I received the two corrections below:

This from Dan Sharp at Sixpenny -

“Just a quick note on cucumbers – they do have a very high water content and due to the high specific heat of water they stay cool for long periods.

However, your statement “Due to their high water content, the inside of a cucumber is actually, literally cooler than room temperature” is false. If left out of the fridge long enough a cucumber will have exactly the same temperature as its surroundings. Any other scenario violates the (oddly named) zeroth law of thermodynamics.” Love it. Thanks Dan. x

And this from Necia Wilden at The Australian -

“With respect - you had a go at Lizzie Meryment a while back for mauling the French language, but you can't even spell "peek" - as in sneak peek - a fairly basic word in English, I submit. I'm not entirely sure what a sneak peak is, perhaps a practice run at Mt Kiliminjaro (sic) ...”