Eating Wilbur and Patting Rex, or: re-establising the Farm to Fork Continuum in the public mind

I suspect a zeitgeist. 

On Sunday, perusing as is my pretentious wont, the Weekend Australian Magazine (actually I never read the Australian; it was a one-off), I read a column that I can't locate online in my lunch hour, but which I assure you exists, about the break in the farm-to-fork continuum that allows self-proclaimed animal lovers to chow down on Daisy, Wilbur or Lambert whilst simultaneously petting Fido and stroking Fluffy. 

Today's Age contains this column, slightly more academic and pointed, but in the same vein. I hope that the 'conscious forgetting' of Jonathan Safran Foer that the author refers to is getting more and more forgotten itself, but it does at least seem that this issue is getting more media airtime. I hope that someone, reading the weekend paper with a cup of coffee on the couch (or beer if you're like me), glanced down at faithful Ralph or Rex or King or Duke or Bailey or Sam, and then reconsidered their plan for a pig sandwich for lunch and a baby sheep roast for dinner.

Cookering Bookering, or: I have purchased more instructional veganic literature

I've oohed and aahed before over the excellent vegan cookering bookering section at Dymocks in Collins St.  They seem to have more all the time, including Terry Romero's Viva Vegan for those who like Latinesque foodering (not enough pictures for me ... yet. But I do really like the cover and think it's a bit a la Nigella ... so therefore mainstreamish and more appealing to audiences. I rate that). 

Dymocks' psychic pull on me is intense, because recently I have bought:

• The Vegan Table by Collen Patrick-Goudreau (also of The Joy of Vegan Baking). We've made some verrry noice burgers from it. No pictures, breaking my usual rule, but beautifully laid out and fonted. (Fonted?).

• The Ultimate Vegan Cook Book (not Veganomicon ... I can't find a picture of it and it seems like a stock published book, but it was only $25 and it even has instructional pictures)

• Clean Food by Terry Walters. This book doesn't contain the word 'vegan'. But any book that uses agar agar in dessert recipes sure darn is. Quite American as its focus is seasonal ingredients, but still looking sensational and heeeeeps of recipes.

• Babycakes by Erin McKenna (even though I'm not really a bakerer, I loved the purdiness of the book and also the chance to cook something vegan and gluten free so I can share it with Buzz's mama)

• Easy Vegan (again, a publisher only book, but 'easy' rings bells in my soul)

• The 30 Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray (like 'easy', 'quick' is like angel wings beating against my heart). 

My collection is growing ... soon to take over more shelves in the kitchen and colonise a cupboard.