Issuu

Issue 18

Dec/Jan 2023-2024

Contents LOCAL

FUN

04 Rezza Gone Wild 08 West African Cafe

10 Best of 2023 18 Food I've Enjoyed Recently

22 Beyond Banh Mi

20 DIY Blanket Jumper

The Rezzadent continues to exist thanks to:

PROFILES

COMMUNITY

Editor-in-Chief Shannon McKeogh

06 Ben Houghton

24 Reader Survey

Like or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheRezzadent/ Receive the paper in your inbox https://bit.ly/3tv3Pkd

Deputy editor Viktoria Komornik Grouse designer Delyse Drummond

COLUMNS 14 Italians

Whizz-bang marketing guru Vinisha Pulikkaparambil Amazing Contibuting Artists Nicole Robertson Constance HUnter Rhiannon Poley Cover Image Credit Julie Atkinson Awesome writers & photographers Rachel Unicomb Julie Atkinson Camille Short Shannon McKeogh Viktoria Komornik Anna Scovelle Eddy Urias Castro

Acknowledgement is not enough but still important The Rezzadent was made on stolen land in Reservoir, Victoria. We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the traditional custodians of this beautiful land. For many of us, our local creeks, trees, and our lake have been such a comforting balm to the soul during these chaotic times. We would also like to pay respect to the Wurundjeri Elders, past and present, and extend this respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait people from other communities who may be reading this. It always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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This is our final edition for the year and is a selection of some of our stories from the year. You can read all of our previous issues on https://issuu.com/therezzadent Thank you to everyone who has kept The Rezzadent rolling through for another year. Can you believe it’s been two years now of local stories? The Rezza crew is mostly volunteer run. This year we had the wonderful contributions of: Viktoria Komornik, Delyse Drummond, Vinisha Pulikkaparambil, Rhiannon Poley, Nicole Robertson, Shannon McKeogh, Mitch Kuhn, Panda Sanders, Eddy Urias, Jenny Brown, Susanne Newton, Kate Jost, Anna Scovelle, Julie Atkinson, Hayley Harris, Suraya Saleh Anna Kiligrew, Cosette Paneque, Rachel Unicomb, Sofia Sabbagh, Bec Thexton, Lisa Reid,

Katie McWha, Fotis Kapetopoulos, KL McGlynn, Shailla Van Raad, Julian Abrahams, Mylie Nauendorf, Constance Hunter. THANK YOU! Thank you to local businesses and individuals who helped us - by being available to chat, supplying photos and answering our questions. A big thanks to Nathan Lambert’s Office, who print and bind a small print run of The Rezzadent so that they can be enjoyed locally. We will be taking a break and be back with a new edition in March 2024. If you’d like to be involved, please reach out rezzanews@gmail.com We can’t do it without you! Lots of love from The Rezzadent

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? To wrap up our second year of The Rezzadent, we’d love to hear from you our readers. As a thank you for your time, you can go into the draw to win $100 to use at your favourite 3073 business. I’s short, it’s sweet and will take you three minutes. Plus I think it is kind of fun - but what would I know. My idea of fun is creating surveys on a Sunday afternoon …

Fill out our reader’s survey and (maybe) win $100 URL: surveymonkey.com/r/FMGLKN8 Winner will be drawn at random on 31/01/2024.

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REZZA GONE WILD Words & Photos By Rachel Unicomb

I volunteer with a wildlife rescue, and we rely on locals to inform us about displaced or injured wildlife. In Reservoir we mostly receive calls about magpies, brushtail and ringtail possums. Many may consider these animals pests, but they are natives, who have adapted to survive in our increasingly urbanised world – and who can blame them for that? So here are some tips for helping our Rezza wildlife. No tree, no me It’s important to always consider wildlife before cutting or removing trees. They’re home to lots of creatures, including possums, birds and bats. Recently a Reservoir couple called about a ringtail possum in their backyard. The tree in which its nest was located needed to be cut back, completely exposing it to the sun. I took out an artificial nest made by volunteers from the Friends of Edwardes Lake. Its circular shape is designed to replicate the nest shape built by ringtails (known as a drey). We installed the drey securely in another tree and waited. Several weeks later we discovered not one, but two ringtails were calling it home. We were absolutely thrilled! Consider installing a drey or possum box in your garden if you’d like to discourage possums from nesting in your roof. Pouch Check Many native animals rear their young in pouches, including possums. If you happen to hit a possum on the road, or find one deceased, it’s important to

check its pouch to make sure there isn’t a baby still alive inside, or nearby. If you’re not comfortable checking yourself, this is the time to contact a rescue. It’s also important to move deceased animals from the road so no others are injured trying to reach them. Food, suitable food Avoid feeding wildlife at all times. It is particularly popular to feed mince meat, cat food, or bread to magpies, but this is transferred to growing babies. Because such food does not contain many natural vitamins (particularly calcium) the chick’s development is affected. If you want to feed birds, please buy insects from your local pet shop, dig some worms out of your compost or water your lawn to encourage insects to surface.

Companion Conundrums

The Wildlife Rescuers

Companion animals are a threat to our native wildlife. Always ensure your dog is on lead (unless in a contained off lead area) and under your supervision and control at all times. If you own cats, remember that Darebin Council now has a 7pm – 7am curfew. Cats should never be outside after dark, as this is when they are more likely to hunt wildlife and be injured themselves. It is best to keep your cats indoors at night (and ideally at all times).

100% volunteer operated 0417 506 941 wildliferescuers.org.au

Who to call The below rescues service the Reservoir area. Even if someone cannot attend immediately, they can offer some great advice over the phone. If you’d like to learn more about how to help wildlife, both organisations offer training days for the public – you can book on their websites.

Wildlife Victoria 24/7 support - (03) 8400 7300 wildlifevictoria.org.au

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OUT OF THE BOX

BEN HOUGHTON Written by Camille Short

Have you ever met a composer for video games? If not, you might get lucky in Reservoir! Ben Houghton has lived in Reservoir for

three years. Ben spends his time thinking about and experimenting with how to enhance the narrative in a game, and evoke the right emotions. He explained to me how composing for a game is

different to composing for a film (which he also does). In a film, there is a static storyline; you know exactly the emotion you want to evoke in what moment. You can be precise. Games on the other hand are a dynamic environment, the user has control (allegedly), and they may do unexpected things. You have to approximate, iterate, strategise and be pragmatic. This extra layer of artistry appeals to Ben, and I can see why. It is a lush blend of design, music and teamwork. Ben mostly works on grant-funded Indie games and films. I like the sound of “Miska” by Umbrella Party Studios. Miska is a narrative-driven adventure game set in a National park in Victoria. You play as a woman reconnecting with a park she visited as a child. The narrative focuses on family, connection with place and nature restoration. You can get a sense of Ben’s style by listening to the sample tracks on his website (https:// benhoughtonmusic.com.au). There is something for every mood, conjuring epic quests in some tracks, funk and amusement in others. “Dirt Game Theme” and Ducky Bossa” are good examples. An “indie game” is a game produced without the financial and technical support (and the constraints) of a large publisher, like Nintendo. They tend to involve small multi-disciplinary teams working together, with a focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and often social concepts. Ben says he feels very at home in the Melbourne indie game scene, drawn in by both the creativity and pragmatism that characterises working on indie games. Ben envisaged a career for himself as a game composer after attending a conference in 2017. He was a landscape architect, saxophonist and DJ at the time. The conference opened his mind to new possibilities and spurred him to enroll in a Bachelor of Applied Music (Composition) in 2020. That year he

was awarded “Best Music/Film Score” at Deakin University’s “Visionnaire 2020” for his work on “Love The Life You Live” (Wei Shi). Since then he has established his own freelance composition practice, and is chipping away at his dream to have a sustainable career. The Federal government's new National Cultural Policy “REVIVE”, which commits to reinstate the Australian Interactive Games Fund (cut by the Abbott government), is good news for Ben and others in the industry. You might see Ben around Reservoir taking field recordings for games. So far he has used his storm water drain for a waterfall, magpies out the front of his house and Edgars Creek for ‘creek ambiance’. Otherwise, you might see him having a swim at the Leisure Centre, eating a banh mi from Luke’s or hunting for a bargain at Vinnies. Local parks are also reliable. I should know, we met (and I invited him to do this article) swingside. Ben has opened my eyes to the world of indie-games. Maybe there is something there for me afterall. Some of Ben’s recent favourites include “Frog detective”, “Disco Elysium” and “Outer Wilds”. Thanks for the tips Ben, see you around Rezza.

“I THOUGHT I SHOULD BRING MY FOOD TO THE WORLD”

RESERVOIR’S NEW WEST AFRICAN CAFE Words by Shannon McKeogh, Photos supplied by Evette Quoibia and Esther Moses

In a quiet, humble residential avenue in Reservoir, a new West African eatery is bringing delicious authentic food, and a dash of Tiktok popularity to our suburb. La Goût Afrique (french for ‘Taste of Africa’) is the creation of Evette Quoibia and Esther Moses, who are the seventh owners of the 50-year-old milk-bar. The store upholds the milk bar’s historical conveniences (milk, bread, canned goods) and traditional takeaway staples (fish and chips). What makes La Gout Afrique truly interesting is the addition of a cafe with a large selection of West African dishes. Evette and Esther say the most popular dishes are jollof rice, fried rice, okra with fufu, egusi with fufu and red beans with flat bread. Fufu itself is a unique eating experience for westerners, and has recently become popular on TikTok. What makes it different is that you don’t chew fufu but

swallow it whole. The cafe serves cassava fufu, yam fufu and semolina made from wheat durum. Esther said they have received extremely positive feedback on their dishes. “People love the food,” she said. All of the food is cooked by

Evette, a support worker and single mum, who is the eldest girl of 11 siblings. She first bought the milk-bar while going through her divorce, with the dream to add in a cafe. “I have always been a natural cook. People have always loved my food. I thought I should bring it to the world,” she said.

La Goût Afrique Address: 13 Moira Ave, Reservoir Hours are Monday - Friday 7.15am - 8.45pm

Evette and Esther, both from Liberian backgrounds, first met when working together at a takeaway shop in Sunshine and reconnected over Facebook. It was at a church girl’s night, where Evette shared her vision for the old milk-bar that Esther became interested. “I checked out the milk-bar a few weeks later which was getting renovated, and Evette said she needed a business partner and I said OK,” Esther laughed. While Evette’s background is in hospitality and food, Esther wants to make it clear that she is not a cook and her passion is in fashion and styling. As well as working full-time as a social worker, she also has an online clothing store called, DeKontee - the label. Esther has also been is also a savvy TikTok, with La Goût Afrique becoming a surprise viral sensation. In the lead-up to their grand opening she uploaded a video on TikTok. Nothing flash, just short and snappy, celebrating: ‘We started the first convenience store to serve

African cuisine in Melbourne.’ Within 24 hours the video had nearly 800 views, and now it sits on 103,700 views. That very TikTok video led me, and Rezzadent illustrator Nicole Roberson to attend the grand opening. La Goût Afrique was packed and there was a line out the door. Evette and Esther has been blown away by the local support, with a regular customer bringing them flowers for the opening. While the big grand opening over and things have quietened down for the moment, there are some exciting and delicious plans in the works. La Goût Afrique is looking to host future events in their outdoor area, such as a family BBQ for locals. They are also looking at adding jerk chicken to their menu with the support of a Jamacian friend. But in the meantime, there’s plenty to try on their menu. If you’re looking for something different, authentic and a bit different - support this local gem from TikTok to IRL.

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IN PHOTOS

BEST OF 2023 Images By Julie Atkinson

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THE MANY FACES OF RESERVOIR

ITALIANS Words By Viki Komornik Illustration by Rhiannon Poley

It won’t come as a surprise that Reservoir has a high proportion of Italian speaking residents within its borders. In 2021, 13.9% of Darebin’s population spoke Italian at home compared to 6.6% in Greater Melbourne. Even higher in the Merrilands area of Reservoir, 34.9%. James Matra and Antonio Ponto, both of Italian descent, arrived with Captain James Cook on his voyage of discovery in 1770. Convict Giuseppe Tuzo arrived with the First Fleet, but the first large group of about 4000 Italians arrived during the 1850s Victorian gold rush era. The numbers steadily started increasing in the early 1920’s. I have a soft spot for Italy. While living in Budapest I visited the Venice festival a few years in a row, travelling close to ten hours on the bus, and hardly sleeping on the way back so I would not ruin my amazing carnival face paint before I could show my parents. Unfortunately as Venice was built on mud and reclaimed land, it has been sinking and the Mediterranean Sea levels are rising causing the city to flood every year. By 2100 it could be underwater, however I’m hopeful the city will be saved. Image by Ashley Fontana, Pexels

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Image by Rhiannon Poley

The architecture is dreamy, stunning, I was taking photos of every building I passed. In the pre-digital camera era that was a lot of photos to print. I traveled extensively around Italy in my twenties, and still try to visit every time I’m back in Europe. Hey, living in Tuscany for a few months is on my bucket list. So yes, a soft spot indeed. Based on the high number of Italian speaking residents in Reservoir, many of you will know more about Italy than I ever will, but below might be some interesting facts for everyone. Italy is one of Europe’s youngest countries. Until 1861 it was a collection of sovereign states. You’d be easily forgiven to think Italy is an ancient country, as many believe that ancient Rome - Rome being over 2000 years old is the same as Italy.

The colours in Italy's flag all have a meaning; Green is for hope, white denotes faith and red is the colour of charity. When one travels in Italy it’s impossible to avoid driving through a mountain range. Alps border the north with jewellike alpine lakes and glaciers. The Apennines form the spine of the entire peninsula. Mountain ranges higher than 702 metres occupy more than one-third of Italy. Then there is the sea or more accurately, the seas. Adriatic Sea to the West, Tyrrhenian Sea to the East and Mediterranean Sea in the South. There are active volcanoes in the south that keep people on their toes. All three of Europe’s active volcanoes are in Italy. Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli. Vesuvius near Naples is responsible for the

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Image by S. Migaj, Pexels

destruction of Pompei. It’s a country with a complicated history, like most countries I guess. The world’s smallest country, The Vatican is located within Italy. The towns and cities have a long history of self-sufficiency, independence and apparently mutual mistrust. Cuisine and dialect also differentiates the regions. The Etruscans - a pre-Roman civilisation from around 900 BC - lived in Tuscany, and the Greeks in the south before the Romans latinised the country. Jews arrived during the time of the Roman Republic, Germanic tribes came across the Alps and the Byzantines in the south. Saracens invaded Sicily until the Romans arrived and stayed for a couple of hundred years until the Aragonese, then the Austrians took over. This mixed ethnic heritage explains why you’ll meet light-eyed, blond Sicilians.

There has been a predominantly female migration from the Philippines and male migration from North Africa. The breakup of the Soviet bloc allowed for an influx of Eastern Europeans. The Post-Arab Spring revolution and the violence that followed sparked the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The total population of Italy is 62.4 million (as of midyear 2021), two and half times of Australia’s. There are the mafia movies which rightly or wrongly give the impression of plentiful shady things happening in Italy. Searching online you’ll find endless stories with facts presented about various mafia groups - the best known is the Sicilian Mafia - and corruption. Entertaining when watching a movie but less so, no doubt, when you live under their thumb.

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One of my family members could live on pasta. Literally. He appreciated the small fact the pasta dishes in Italy date back as far as the 400 BC. Historians found paintings in a pre-Roman Italian tomb thought to depict pasta making equipment. Then there is the coffee. Melbournians can truly appreciate quality coffee but are unlikely to match the consumption of espressos of Italians. Fourteen billion espressos each year. Many may think of the French when thinking of quality cheese. Well, the Italians are right up there, gifting the world the highest variety of cheeses, with over 2,500 traditional cheeses.

Image by Josh Hild, Pexels

Now back to happier snippets of Italy. Italy is packed with heritage sites, 55 to be specific, more than any other country. You definitely won’t run out of sites to visit once you are there. Although not on the heritage sites list, if you love wine visit Caldari di Ortona on the Italian pilgrimage route of Camino de San Tommaso. This small town has a free wine fountain, Fontana del Vino, that flows 24 hours a day with locally grown red wine. Italians must be doing something right as Acciaronli, a village on the South coast has one of the world’s highest concentration of Centenarians. 300 of its about 2000 residents are over 100 years old and 20% of them are over 110. Definitely not the demographic the government based the pension scheme on :)

What else has Italy given us? I’m definitely thankful for corrective eyeglasses invented in the 13th century and used mainly by monks. Santorio Dantorio invented the thermometer in 1612. Alessandro Volta invented the first batteries in 1800, ‘volts’ were named after him. Thankful or not the first bank, the Bank of San Giorgia opened in Genoa in 1149. Some things they even came up with twice. Like paving. Thanks to the Romans thousands of kilometres were paved then nothing for hundreds of years until 1339 when the city of Florence paved its street, becoming the first city in Europe to do so. I don’t think there are enough pages in The Rezzadent to list all the art Italians have gifted to the world. Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo, Vivaldi, Pavarotti, Pisano, Collodi and the list goes on. Personally I find it overwhelming how much beauty and art surrounds the visitor every time I visit Italy. So much beauty and so little time.

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DIY BLANKET JUMPER Words & Photos By Anna Scovelle

Sewing your own clothes can be really fun and rewarding, but it can also be expensive. Good fabric can be pricey and unless you use no-waste patterns (huge fan!) there can be a lot of waste. To combat this, there’s a growing trend to use pre-loved bedding and blankets for sewing projects. Now that it’s starting to get cold, I wanted to make myself a new jumper, so I headed out to the Rezza op-shops for inspiration. It took a few visits before I hit the jackpot at the Vintage Op-Shop on Boldrewood Parade. Would you LOOK at these blankets! Stunning colours, made in Australia, super warm for the upcoming winter, and just $8 each. Obsessed. Rather than purchasing patterns, I like to use things I already have in my wardrobe as a template. I started doing this when I had worn-out several of my favourite pieces of clothing and I wanted to replicate them. I cut open the seams and used the individual pieces as pattern pieces, with the addition of a 1cm seam allowance. In this instance the jumper I wanted to replicate was still on high rotation in my wardrobe, so rather than cutting it up I positioned it on the fabric so that I could cut around each piece. A little less precise, but it works.

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I wanted to use a combination of both blankets to make a fun pattern on the bottom of the jumper. To do this, I cut the desired shape into the bottom of the main body piece. I then placed the body piece on top of the other blanket and cut the same shape into the other blanket (like a jigsaw), then I cut the sides and bottom to complete the piece. Now, it was time to sew! I started by sewing the different colour body pieces together. For this design, I placed both pieces right-side facing up and sewed one piece over another. I then trimmed the overhanging fabric. The next step was to sew the shoulders and right-sides of the fabric together. Then I sewed in the arm pieces. My preferred approach for sewing in arm pieces is to sew the shoulder piece to the body piece first, then sew the arm piece together continuing down the side of the jumper. Repeat on the other side. This jumper has a mock turtleneck, so the next step was to fold over the neckpiece (wrong-sides together) and attach to the body piece. If your jumper doesn’t have a turtleneck or mock turtleneck, you’ll need to find a different way to finish the neckline (facing, binding, etc.). Regardless of what you are using, you will sew the neck piece (or alternative) to the body piece, right-sides together. If using facing or binding, you will need to sew another row to secure it in place, wrong-sides together. To complete the jumper, I hemmed the sleeves and the bottom of the jumper to the desired length. Voila!!

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Constance Hunter @conhunterart

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BEYOND BAKING – BEYOND BÁNH MI Words By & Images Eddy Urias-Castro

Writing about food for me is so rarely about the food. What draws me to write about food are the stories of care behind the dish and culinary concepts that represent the individuality of the cooks. In short, I think I over romanticise food. Alas, with great expectations, one is often disappointed, especially if you’re hunting for magnificence to translate to prose. Please, don’t misunderstand - the food and new venues I have recently visited were excellent and serviced by hard working people, deserving of the praise and gratitude of any who experienced their hospitality. However, over the last two editions of The Rezzadent I have been uninspired - there had been nothing new that I had heard of or tasted, that compelled me to express my joy in words. If you have guessed by now that I have recently been inspired and enamoured by something truly wondrous, then you’d have guessed right. It was in mid-march of 2023 that I learned of a new way to eat the most delicious Vietnamese sandwich. A sandwich born from French colonial defeat in Vietnam, where the baguette was freed from the tradition of cold cuts, butter and cheese and filled with local ingredients, at the behest of

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Saigon residents in the 1950s. Those residents travelled far and wide and we’ve reaped the benefits - the pleasure and privilege of enjoying the truly inspiring sandwich, the bánh mi. I thought I had tried every reasonable variation of bánh mi, but at Beyond Baking on Plenty road in Reservoir, it’s the fundamentals that have been developed. Simple but genius, the bánh mi is served on a fresh, warm baguette and the flavour enhancement is in a word, definitive. The ingredients simple. So far I have devoured the pork with crackle and lemongrass chicken and both are phenomenal. What makes the warm roll so special is the crunchy exterior, with a soft chewy bread that is made to soak up the meat juices and lift your spirits with every bite. Here it’s not just fresh bread baked daily, but fresh bread baked throughout the day and kept warm. A labour that most bakers can understand requires laborious timing and effort. This bánh mi deserves lines out the front and a fan fare usually reserved for Banh Mi on Smith St, Victoria St, or in Footscray. Every time I’ve been to Beyond Baking, a roll has either just come out of the oven or it has been stored in a warming oven ready to be served to my lucky self. The first time I thought this was just luck, but now I know the baker is doing it carefully and deliberately. This is the inspiration I look for when searching for a place to write about. It’s the extra attention given to flavour that satisfies my hunt for magnificence.

Beyond Baking - Bakery Address: Unit 2/683 Plenty Rd, Reservoir VIC 3073 Hours are Monday - Sunday, 9am - 5pm

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Illustration By Nicole Roberston

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