Saturday, May 31, 2008
The pedagogies of supermarket catalogues. Seriously d00dz, you learn some cool stuff from supermarket catalogues. I am not being at all sarcastic here, because I love trashy brochures (I can pore longingly for hours over extremely cheap and ugly sofas, for instance). But IGA really need to lift their game. Their catalogue is great for those times of unmanageably good moods, when you need the depressed feeling that only the sight of poorly photographed Black And Gold products can provide.
But you get some good stuff from Safeway. This evening they taught me that 2008 is the UN-declared Year Of The Potato, that WWE Thumb Wrestlers are on sale for $2 each (these are rubber effigies of WWE characters that you slip your thumb into before declaring thumb war on a similarly smackdown-minded companion. Collect all six), and also how to lure my kids into eating fruit by making it into a car: "Use a long rectangle of watermelon as the body and small apple slices for bumper bars. A semi circle of rockmelon becomes the roof, and kiwifruit slices make great wheels. Finally, put in some grape passengers and you're ready to go."
However, with Aldi now entering the catalogue game, Safeway have been left in the dust. Aldi's catalogue is my favourite because of the random things you can buy there, but also because of the disorienting unfamiliarity of all their brands. Thus, at Aldi, foods are stripped of their brand-values and become commodities only: ideas of food that I can think about in abstract ways. They help me out on this because they seem to use stock photography rather than their own studio sessions with sad sprigs of rosemary lashed to the lamb legs, etc.
Also, I really like their helpful, no-nonsense copywriting. In this brochure they had an entire spread dedicated to breakfast foods. Plus they have little bits of info about the nutritional value of various foods, what you can do with them, and even little recipes, which remind me of the Women's Weekly Home Hints.
"For a quick, healthy meal, toss your favourite cooked pasta with olive oil, roasted pine nuts and sautéed broccoli florets. Add salt and pepper to taste."
"To create really crisp [lettuce] leaves, briefly soak the leaves in the sink filled with cold water and ice cubes."
"Mix [tomato paste] with a little lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar for a quick and easy home made dressing."
"Make a tasty zucchini soup for winter. In a large pot, cook 1 chopped onion until soft, adding 1kg sliced zucchini and 4 cups chicken stock. Puree in your food processor. Add 1/4 cup fresh cream, reheat, sprinkle with parmesan and add salt and pepper to taste."
"Make a tasty dip with avocados. Cover a bowl with a layer of diced tomatoes. Top this with a layer of 3 mashed avocados mixed with lemon juice. Layer this with 300ml sour cream, finally covering it in grated cheese." It's like nachos for those on the Atkins Diet!
But you get some good stuff from Safeway. This evening they taught me that 2008 is the UN-declared Year Of The Potato, that WWE Thumb Wrestlers are on sale for $2 each (these are rubber effigies of WWE characters that you slip your thumb into before declaring thumb war on a similarly smackdown-minded companion. Collect all six), and also how to lure my kids into eating fruit by making it into a car: "Use a long rectangle of watermelon as the body and small apple slices for bumper bars. A semi circle of rockmelon becomes the roof, and kiwifruit slices make great wheels. Finally, put in some grape passengers and you're ready to go."
However, with Aldi now entering the catalogue game, Safeway have been left in the dust. Aldi's catalogue is my favourite because of the random things you can buy there, but also because of the disorienting unfamiliarity of all their brands. Thus, at Aldi, foods are stripped of their brand-values and become commodities only: ideas of food that I can think about in abstract ways. They help me out on this because they seem to use stock photography rather than their own studio sessions with sad sprigs of rosemary lashed to the lamb legs, etc.
Also, I really like their helpful, no-nonsense copywriting. In this brochure they had an entire spread dedicated to breakfast foods. Plus they have little bits of info about the nutritional value of various foods, what you can do with them, and even little recipes, which remind me of the Women's Weekly Home Hints.
"For a quick, healthy meal, toss your favourite cooked pasta with olive oil, roasted pine nuts and sautéed broccoli florets. Add salt and pepper to taste."
"To create really crisp [lettuce] leaves, briefly soak the leaves in the sink filled with cold water and ice cubes."
"Mix [tomato paste] with a little lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar for a quick and easy home made dressing."
"Make a tasty zucchini soup for winter. In a large pot, cook 1 chopped onion until soft, adding 1kg sliced zucchini and 4 cups chicken stock. Puree in your food processor. Add 1/4 cup fresh cream, reheat, sprinkle with parmesan and add salt and pepper to taste."
"Make a tasty dip with avocados. Cover a bowl with a layer of diced tomatoes. Top this with a layer of 3 mashed avocados mixed with lemon juice. Layer this with 300ml sour cream, finally covering it in grated cheese." It's like nachos for those on the Atkins Diet!
