What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?
There was 8 of us so the meals were always big piles of stuff to feed the horde like Chilli corn casseroles with polenta and cheese, lasagne, ham steaks with pineapple on monday night, a lot of Mum’s Polish style cooking ( biggos, pieroggis, potato platski with sour cream and fresh parsley from the garden etc) and Dad’s Mullumbimby burgers which were really dry lentil burgers, tuna mornay with rice and peas, stir fry with beef and veggies and Brown Rice or Dim Sims and chips as a treat .
My parents had a restaurant for a while called ‘Oblio’s’ based on the main character of Harry Nillson’s ‘The Point’. It was kind of wholefoods, proto Middle Eastern mixed with healthy dishes from around the globe. Quite delicious and futuristic and completely foreign and weird for Logan City in 1986. Didn’t last long
cut because of that I ate a lot of left over Baked Kebbehs and piles of Hommus for breakfast and stuff.
I was also right into white bread and Campbells chicken cream soup when i came home from school, and crumpets piled with butter promite and baked beans and cheese on top.
Or i would run through the property next door to my Grandmothers house and she would feed me up on toast with Mock Duck, liverwurst, italian casseroles with chicken and mushrooms and bowls of Rhubarb and Ice Cream
It was Queensland in the eighties and most of my friends just ate meat and veg and dogwood dogs n chips n stuff but we were part Italian and Polish and Irish and we wanted to eat the fuck out of everything
I was a pretty chubby kid.
What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?
I try to eat healthy stuff with lots of Fibre. But in reality i get too excited about local treats. I was touring Norway with Pk once when i was trying to be vegan and the venue turned out to be an award winning seafood restaurant with an 8 course degustation waiting for us before the show. Needless to say that was the end of Vegan Dan for that year
What type of food do you hate, and what is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten? Tell us the story.
Kidneys. I used to work at the Yatala Pie Shop just off the Pacific Highway when i was 15. I used to have to get in a 5am and boil a huge vat of kidneys for the steak and kidney pies. It smelled like oily piss and i was experiencing my first hangovers too around that time. I accidentally ate one of the Steak and Kidneys pies once and it was too much. Another gross anglo concept like black pudding .
What type of food do you make sure to avoid before a gig or going on stage?
Carbonated soft drinks and beer are a shocker for burping during ballads. Also Indian food. My good friend Bill McDonald (Max Q , Frente etc) has a no Indian food rule before the gig and he was so full on about it that i’ve adopted it too
Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at a gig. What food do you put on it?
Large Bowl Spaghetti with Garlic and Chilli and Olive Oil
Platter of char grilled Snapper fillets with fresh Oregano and Pepper and heaps more Olive Oil
Pan of Spanish Rice with Sicilian Olives, Anchovies, Shredded Free Range Chicken, Saffron, Roast Tomatoes with Smoked Paprika, Dry Spanish Sherry, Pimentos, Chicken Stock
Bowl of Sri Lankan Yams with Coconut Sambal and Snake Chilli on the side
Green Papaya Salad
Big stack of grilled Eggplant with a yoghurt sauce
Large Goat on Spit glazed in Honey stuffed with Rice and Rosemary and Pistachios
Some of Fiona Kitchins Lentil pies with pea mash
A large Roman Pizza with Potato, Rosemary, Garlic and Parmesan
6 jugs of Red Wine
4 jugs Dark Rum with Ginger Ale and Fresh Lime
4 Neil Young Honey Slides (Hash and Honey fried in a pan)
What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date? Tell us the story.
I was cooking at Claypots Seafood Restaurant and it was about a 48 degree evening and we were understaffed and a hundred people all ordered at once and we only had four burners and the ovens were not working to full capacity and it was taking forever and everyone is just staring at us in this open kitchen then Nick Cave rocked up and i freaked out and kind of prioritised him and everyone in the restaurant knew it and hated me and then the other chef cut his hand on a huge fish spine and there was blood everywhere and then the grease trap busted and i had to stick my arm into it and i’m covered in blood and grey water and grease and trying to hide from Nick Cave, who i’m sure couldn’t give a shit, but it was fucked.
When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?
Fresh vegetables mostly. London and Europe seem to have particularly drab veggies. A poor little zucchini sitting limply in a box on a Berlin st corner, covered in Chernobyl dust is not too appetising
This is your last day on earth, what is your final meal?
Refer to rider question above!
