A story about love at first microwave popcorn with Felice Arena

Felice Arena joins us on the show this week to talk about ... food!

To find out more about Felice you can visit https://www.felicearena.com

Please review, rate, subscribe, follow and like the show. Your support will help us keep this podcast going.

To find out more about R.A. Spratt visit raspratt.com
To find out more about Jacqueline Harvey visit jacquelineharvey.com.au
To find out more about Tim Harris visit timharrisbooks.com

Transcript

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Rachel Spratt: Hello, and welcome to real stories with random writers. I'm Ra. Spratt, and I'm here with Jacqueline Harvey. Tim Harris is still out sick with his kids. Keep the fluids up. Mini Tims, today's special guest is Felicia Arena. Felicia is the author of the Specie Mcgee Series, the Besties Series, The Sporty Kids Series, the Epic Historic Adventures Series, The Unstoppable Flying Flanagan, A Great Escape. Fearless Frederick

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Rachel Spratt: Pasta and many more, and his next book, Cheese is coming out in September 2024. Welcome to the show, Felice.

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Felice Arena: Thank you so much. Thank you. Rachel. Hi, Jackie! Hello!

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Rachel Spratt: Well, we're all book creators. Which means we're storytellers. Normally, we write our stories down. But for this, podcast we're going to tell them out loud instead. And today we're going to be telling tall tales about food. Let's get into it. Can I just say before you begin, because you'll go first, st Jackie. I am so jealousfully, Jay, that you thought to write a book called Cheese.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Okay.

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Rachel Spratt: Nothing I love more in the war.

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Felice Arena: Will, the.

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Rachel Spratt: Cheese, and you must have got to claim cheese as a tax deduction while you were researching.

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Felice Arena: I have, you know so well.

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Jacqueline Harvey: It's.

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Felice Arena: Cheese in Switzerland. I've had cheese in Italy, cheese in France it has to be deducted right.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah, because you know, it's a legitimate you know, working expense.

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Felice Arena: Little mile.

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Rachel Spratt: Gloucestershire. I have cheese in my blood, you know. Double Gloucester. My family are cheese makers, and I just. I am devoted to cheese.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I can't.

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Felice Arena: Like? Do you like the smelly ones.

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Rachel Spratt: I I like it all. I like it all I love. I love a melted cheese at my wedding I had a baked brie that was oh, it was about 50 cm across. It was huge, and they just peeled the lid back and used it like as a dip. It was like the best thing about the day better than getting married.

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Felice Arena: Reason.

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Jacqueline Harvey: We we actually had one of those here just recently. We did it as an entree when we had some some friends over, and my sister now lives in Queens Town. One of my sisters doesn't. She loves to cook? And so she did. A a brie with some candied nuts on the top, and some I don't know, some sort of marmalade thing, and it was absolutely delicious. So.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: But I'll tell you the we had some people come to stay we had some friends come to stay last year and you know. Often when people come and stay with you, and they're like, Oh, what do we bring? You know what's sort of you know. What can we give to the host, and about a week before they arrived this parcel lands on our doorstep. And it was an entire.

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Jacqueline Harvey: basically the whole catalog of Whitestone cheese, which is Whitestone, is a really beautiful New Zealand cheese maker and my friends, my God! And Alex had sent, as our you know, thanks for having us. But we're not here yet. A, a, an entire like, basically an esky.

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Rachel Spratt: Kelly.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah. A Chili bin of cheese and a Chili bin of cheese was probably, I think, one of the best. Thank you. Gifts from getting.

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Rachel Spratt: Hosted.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Let's give.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Very very good. Game.

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Rachel Spratt: A cheese Advent calendar at Christmas time.

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Felice Arena: You don't.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, you can get them at Woolley's.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Instead of a chocolate one.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah, you get.

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Jacqueline Harvey: You would love chocolate ones, too, though, cause you like chocolate as well.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, yeah, yeah, but.

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Felice Arena: I prefer.

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Rachel Spratt: I prefer my cheese advent calendar. It's got a different type of cheese every day. It was a bit like a couple of years ago they had like a ginger. Wensley Dale, which is gross. But then, yeah, it's kind

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Rachel Spratt: of an Advent. Calendar is like, not every day is your favourite chip.

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Felice Arena: No, no, and you find, and I'm glad we've got stuck right into cheese, because the cheese picture book, which is the follow up to Pasta. I think I've gone through every cheese in the world in this one. I think it's like better than Pasta and the illustrations. I've seen the illustrations from Beatrice Cherokee. She's this artist from Award, winning artist from Rome. Oh, my God, they're just stunning, and you want.

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Rachel Spratt: Huh!

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, they've got great cheesing.

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Jacqueline Harvey: That's tihous day.

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Felice Arena: No, I was like.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Cheese full. Ha! What is your favorite cheese?

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Felice Arena: It's interesting cause I, when you were I grew up with I really remit. Have this really fond memory of my grandmother giving me ricotta cheese with mortadella

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Felice Arena: on a on a nice focaccia bread. So cheese was very much a part of it growing up. I did have a Fondue in Switzerland. I know that's cliche just recently, but the Fondue was. It's oh, my goodness it! You have to have wine to cut through it, and or otherwise. It just sticks in your

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Felice Arena: smile.

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Rachel Spratt: Got got a reglet grill.

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Felice Arena: Days a day, so you'd have to

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Felice Arena: one.

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Rachel Spratt: So she's got this reclet grill. My mom's got a reclte grill, which is like a Swiss Melty cheese, and it's got like 4 or 5 plates around the top, and you lay the cheese on, and then it's got one flame, and you like rotate the plates around.

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Felice Arena: Yeah, we've got a brewery.

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Rachel Spratt: Down here in medicine, called the Eden brewery, and they've got outdoor picnic tables, and me and my friends often go there and set fire to things that we eat like. I made a candle out of butter.

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Rachel Spratt: and I put it in a cob loaf.

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Rachel Spratt: and I I took it to the brewery, and we like lit it, and we're there like secretly drinking beer and and eating this flaming loaf of butted bread. But I think I'm gonna take my reclet grill down to the brewery sometime, and just cook chips.

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Felice Arena: And it drinks.

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Rachel Spratt: Here all afternoon. It'll be great.

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Jacqueline Harvey: You see, my exotic experience of cheese as a child was, you know, the most exotic cheese I ate as a child was the craft Cheddar cheese out of the blue, you know, because we I don't know. Cheese wasn't a big thing when I was a kid. It was, you know, like very ordinary or plastic cheese slices. You know. And it wasn't until I I was an adult, and I got to experience things like brilliant camera.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And you know, Rockfoot, and all sorts of nice things that I actually realized. Oh, you know, cheese is far better than just the the crop chit off which I still love.

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Felice Arena: Jackie. There's really something beautiful and nostalgic about those slices of.

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Rachel Spratt: You know t-.

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Felice Arena: Right and remember home economics. And we could. This might be a good segue onto retro food, because recently we'll come back to the cheese. I remember one of the 1st year 7, or I think it was year 6 or year 7. Home economics, you know those slices over a pineapple on a piece of toe.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh yes!

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Felice Arena: That was it. But it was fantastic.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Well, I just had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. So there you go with a plastic piece of cheese on it. But actually, you've taken me to an interesting place there, Philhay, with the whole Home Economics. So I come from a family. I do come from a family very good cooks. And so, you know, doing home economics was a compulsory thing when I was in. I think that's you 7 in your age, anyway, one of the things we always had to have a partner, and my partner was my friend Alex from you know, who was my one of my best friends at high school.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and we had to make pizza homemade pizza. Anyway, we obviously didn't read the recipe very carefully when it came to how much garlic should go on the homemade pizza, and so, instead of a knob of garlic.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh!

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Jacqueline Harvey: That we not not just the little knob. We put the entire clove

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Jacqueline Harvey: on the pizza, anyway. I remember we ate the pizza, and we thought we were just sensational. We were the most amazing cooks in the world. My parents would not come near me. I seriously, the entire weekend. They said that I just stag so badly, and they're like, I remember Mom walking to my bedroom. She says, Oh, dear God, she's like got the window up. She's got a fan outside.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah. Do not ever, you know, like you've gotta you've got to get a handle on the dark use here. It's not how it goes. And the funny thing is, I actually really do not like garlic anymore. I can't eat it, and it makes me feel quite unwell. So yeah, so but so I'm gonna tell you, some food.

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Felice Arena: That.

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Felice Arena: Yes, sorry. Just add to your home economics. That was brought up at Christmas because I was asked to bring to dessert to our family big Italian family, Christmas, and I decided to make a ripple cake.

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Felice Arena: Remember the old yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I.

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Felice Arena: In the middle and stuff, and I mean and I get there, and my nephews, you know, 20 and 18 looked, and had never seen a ripple cake before, and I said, It's classic. This is classic, and it's festive. I made, you know, a crumbled chocolate on the top, and a little, you know, it looked like a Christmas log and all that sort of stuff, and my brother said, No, it's more home economics here, but you know what they ate it all up.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: They did!

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Felice Arena: Good old classic classic food. Can you remember chocolate crackles? When was the last.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, I love a chocolate crackle, they they! One of that was probably the best thing when you went to someone's birthday party a chocolate, crackle, or fairy bread.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, we have fairy bread still, quite a lot in our house.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah. Violet.

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Rachel Spratt: Used to work in a sweet shop, and she quit after a year because she's a senior. Now she wanted to study focus on her studies, but the ladies at the sweet shop bless them! They've got to pick a mix, and in the freckles the hundreds and thousands fall off, and they go to the bottom, and when they clear out the freckle bin they empty out all the leftover. Hundreds and thousands

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Rachel Spratt: put them in a bag, and they message me and say, Do you want to come and pick up the left.

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Rachel Spratt: 1,000, so she gets like a half kilo bag of the lumpy leftover, with little chunks of chocolate attached from the freckle bin. About every couple of months. And it's.

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Jacqueline Harvey: That's an excellent.

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Rachel Spratt: You.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah, that's it.

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Felice Arena: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Excellent.

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Felice Arena: Do you remember talking about retro food? This came up in conversation the other day. Remember chuck ice or Magic Ice, or Magic.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, I had something.

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Rachel Spratt: Comedy.

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Felice Arena: Excess. Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: It's still the same.

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Rachel Spratt: It's like it's there's very little chocolate. I'm sure there's a lot of chemical.

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Felice Arena: Is it really still a thing.

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Jacqueline Harvey: It's hardly.

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Rachel Spratt: My youngest loves it.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And it's really frustrating, though, because, you know, you'd I can remember we get ice magic. And it was a big deal if Mom bought the ice magic instead of the normal chocolate topping. You know, it was like we were. That was like Christmas, basically.

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Rachel Spratt: You getting.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Magic, and then the most frustrating thing is you'd want to put like half the bottle of it on your 1st lot of ice cream, and then it only took about 2 days, and it was all gone, and then you'd have to. I remember standing it in hot water.

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Rachel Spratt: Yes.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Try and get it out, and then you'd put the bottle upside down in the cupboard so that hopefully it would run.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Then you'd get the knife and you'd go around the inside and have to. Yeah. So it was some. It was exciting but monumentally disappointing most of the time.

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Felice Arena: Oh, no, I don't. But I just it's it's something. It's something I don't know. Retro food. I think it's making a comeback, or did it ever go away? I'm not sure but.

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Rachel Spratt: No, I think you just grow older, and you don't like it anymore. But kids like my daughter's passion for chalk ice is is is limitless.

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Felice Arena: You'll like it. Here's the thing. I think I'd still like it. I like.

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Rachel Spratt: Well, they've got different flavours now, too. You can get chock men chocolate.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, you get mint ones. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like the mint ones so much.

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Felice Arena: So.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Extraordinary ones.

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Felice Arena: Picture the classic flavors. It's when they started, you know, making tin tams in different flavors as well.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, that's just wrong!

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Felice Arena: It's wrong, what it's.

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Rachel Spratt: I mean, the original's the best. So why bother with all that rubbish?

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah. But.

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Jacqueline Harvey: It's like, yeah, I I agree. I I think I mean, I don't. I'm not even a big Tim tam fan, which you know is probably sacrilegious.

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Felice Arena: Don't!

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Jacqueline Harvey: And that I don't.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, my! Gosh!

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Felice Arena: What's it?

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Rachel Spratt: Job. You moved to New Zealand, Harvey.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I like. I like min slices. I love min slices. They're good.

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Rachel Spratt: No.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Sorry I like Monte Carlo and and mint slices. But yeah, I'm just not the mass.

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Felice Arena: We're all that.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: Like ice are fine, but like who wakes up and thinks I'm gonna go to the supermarket and not get any of the other biscuits, but I'll get an iced.

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Felice Arena: But they don't make them the way they used to. They don't as as much marshmallow on top, and the same with wagon wheels. Remember, wagon wheels used to be.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Well, wagon wheels have shrunk to about a 3rd of their original.

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Felice Arena: Umberry now. Right so.

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Jacqueline Harvey: They possibly always were. But we our tolerance for really sugary things was probably a lot higher when we were 700.

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Rachel Spratt: Burned.

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Jacqueline Harvey: They are.

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Rachel Spratt: The my husband who has the the taste, the palate of a six-year-old. He likes those Tiktok biscuits where they're like round, and they've got a clock face.

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Felice Arena: On one side, and then the.

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Rachel Spratt: Hard and royal icing on the other side. He likes that it's

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Rachel Spratt: and they're like 50 cents, cause they're so disgusting. Even the biscuit makers know they're disgusting.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, are, we gonna take it in terms, yeah.

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Felice Arena: Authorities, Jackie Taylor.

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Rachel Spratt: Story.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Tell stories about food in terms of someone who has severe allergies. And so, you know, I food is one of those things that I love, but certain foods can kill me. And so I discovered this when I was about 11 years old, that it was. It was the night before our year 6 camp to Canberra and the Snowy Mountain. So going away for a whole week. And

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Jacqueline Harvey: I it it was sort of the the mystery, food, allergy reaction.

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Jacqueline Harvey: So I'd been outside playing in the garden with my sisters came inside, had a bath. My mother cooked spaghetti Bolognese, which we'd had, you know at least 7,000 times before.

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Rachel Spratt: Google.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And and gave me a glass of milk.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and so I'm sitting at the table, and all of a sudden I start, and I'm thinking, oh, what's wrong with me like? Why, you know, and I get these violent pains in my stomach, and I'm thinking what's happening to me. So when it's very clear that I am about to die. My mother says I think we should go to the hospital, so she whips me up to the hospital, which fortunately is only about I don't know. 5 min drive away.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and it turns out I'm having an anaphylactic reaction to who knows what.

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Jacqueline Harvey: anyway? So they give me some they give me the adrenaline injection and watch me for a couple of hours.

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Jacqueline Harvey: but then send me home, and my mother says to the doctors before I'm about to go home. She's going on you 6 camp tomorrow. Do you think she's she should still go and the doctors go? Yeah, she'll be fine. Don't worry. This is prior to epipens being a thing, either. So I've got no medication. I think I had maybe a ventilence right? And that was it.

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Jacqueline Harvey: So I go off on the trip I survive, which, you know, had a great time. It starts my love of the snow and cold climates and all the rest of it.

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Jacqueline Harvey: anyway, years later.

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Jacqueline Harvey: So well, not that many years, but a few years, I have a, you know, legitimate reaction to I I'm allergic to shellfish, so I'm allergic to shellfish. So prawns crest all sorts of crustaceans. So prawns oysters bow mind bugs. You name it any of that. I cannot eat it, and I knew that I was allergic to prawns, because I my! We would go fishing all the time as children, and I only had to touch a prawn, and suddenly I would have hives

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Jacqueline Harvey: from one, you know, from head to toe, and my mother has shellfish allergy, and you know, so does my aunt, and you know, runs in the family.

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Jacqueline Harvey: So

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Jacqueline Harvey: Anyway, I'm very, very careful about my allergies now, and even more so, since when I was, I moved to Byron Bay and my husband and I moved to Byron Bay for a couple of years. But the 1st month we were there we go to this Japanese restaurant, and we tell the waiter, you know, I'm really highly allergic to shellfish. Just so you're aware of that. And the waiter's like, Yeah, cool. No worries. Anyway. We have our beautiful dinner.

523
00:43:40.230 --> 00:43:46.080
Jacqueline Harvey: of which, you know there seems to be no issue, and then go across the road to a nightclub called La La Land, and

524
00:43:46.654 --> 00:43:51.599
Jacqueline Harvey: we've got you know we're having a few drinks at La La land. I've got a girlfriend up from Sydney.

525
00:43:51.830 --> 00:44:02.179
Jacqueline Harvey: and all of a sudden I get these massive pains in my stomach. I start having anaphylaxis. I'm like I can't breathe. I have nothing with me, because I hadn't had an attack for a long time, and I was.

526
00:44:02.500 --> 00:44:15.560
Jacqueline Harvey: And I actually at this point didn't even own an epipen. So anyway, we get in the car. We go home so I can get my ventilin. I have 16 pups of Ventilin, and nothing happens. I'm still about ready to kill over. So Ian

527
00:44:15.560 --> 00:44:35.149
Jacqueline Harvey: says, where's the hospital? Because we we've had to just move to you. We don't even know where the hospital is, so he finds the hospital we drive. I think he broke the land. Speed records through the main street bar, and by probably doing about 160 kilometers an hour. Speed into the emergency. At the hospital I fall through the door. They, you know, stab me with an an adrenaline injection.

528
00:44:35.150 --> 00:44:39.970
Jacqueline Harvey: and then they tell my husband that I probably would have been dead in 20 min. Top.

529
00:44:40.610 --> 00:44:44.210
Jacqueline Harvey: And his response is, I could have finished my drink, anyway.

530
00:44:46.680 --> 00:45:02.789
Jacqueline Harvey: I had to spend the night in hospital, and then I have since always carried an epipen with me. But just the other day, and this is quite funny. And I'm not going to say anybody's names, because these people are deep friends of ours. But we went to dinner with some friends. And

531
00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:22.529
Jacqueline Harvey: I didn't know whether we were going for dinner or if it was just drinks. But clearly when we get there it's dinner, and anyway, we're back. Sit down to dinner, and our friends and I look at the stove, and I? Oh, no. And I say, is that seafood paler? And our friend says, Oh, yeah, yeah. Anyway, I was like.

532
00:45:22.540 --> 00:45:28.899
Jacqueline Harvey: I am really sorry I can't eat it, and anyway, he tried so hard to convince me that there was chicken in the bottom, and.

533
00:45:29.183 --> 00:45:29.750
Rachel Spratt: I would.

534
00:45:29.750 --> 00:45:50.836
Jacqueline Harvey: Anyway. So luckily they had some other, you know, chicken and stuff. And so that's what I had for dinner, and it didn't bother me at all that I couldn't eat this pail it. But it was just funny that our friend was really trying to convince me, because he worked so hard on the pailer that if I just dug to the bottom I would not be impacted, which clearly I would have so

535
00:45:51.110 --> 00:45:56.150
Rachel Spratt: No, I feel your pain. I got done on Friday, cause I've I've got a nut allergy.

536
00:45:56.150 --> 00:45:56.730
Jacqueline Harvey: Yes.

537
00:45:56.730 --> 00:46:04.230
Rachel Spratt: And you forget about it in your own home, because we have a nut-free house like I can eat peanuts and muckadamia nuts. But I'm allergic to hazelnuts, walnuts.

538
00:46:04.230 --> 00:46:05.989
Felice Arena: Walnuts for me, as well. Walnuts.

539
00:46:05.990 --> 00:46:14.600
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, and it's pretty easy to live a walnut free hazelnut, free life. I mean, you just like I don't have nutella in the house and just stuff like that. Any.

540
00:46:14.600 --> 00:46:16.930
Felice Arena: And ask for banana bread. Cause you do. Yeah.

541
00:46:16.930 --> 00:46:40.262
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah, anything like that. Basically I don't. But you see, the thing is, I ring church bells. And so I go to the church, and we have tea like, which is just. They want to rest the old people. So we have tea, which takes half an hour, and there's always cake, and I've learned the hard way all people, just they shove nuts in everything, and you can't rely on them to tell you what's in their food, either, because you'll you'll

542
00:46:40.860 --> 00:47:10.240
Rachel Spratt: you'll say, is there nuts in this? And they go? Oh, no! Oh, no! And you put it in your mouth and you start chewing. They go. I did use almond flour. And you're like, Oh, and yeah, I was done on Friday, because it was one of the guys birthdays. And normally I never eat cake out of my house. But you know birthday cake, it's like rude not to. This. Guy's like nearly 80, and he's like they're always a little bit more sensitive about stuff like that, and I'm in charge. So I'm trying to lead the way. And you know, like I've got the candle and everything, and someone ate a slice before we'd sung happy birthday. So I was like telling them off.

543
00:47:10.240 --> 00:47:15.890
Rachel Spratt: So I had to eat a slice myself, and it was lemon cake, and I think it's lemon cake. It's like clear.

544
00:47:15.890 --> 00:47:16.930
Felice Arena: That's like this.

545
00:47:16.930 --> 00:47:31.659
Rachel Spratt: It's gonna be fine. So I start eating it. And it's it's fine. It's clearly okay. And I'm eating it. And then he starts telling the story about how he's gluten in intolerant, and it's a gluten free cake, and I'm like, Oh, no cause that means almond flour.

546
00:47:32.100 --> 00:47:39.997
Rachel Spratt: and so I have to go home, and it's like the antihistamines and the steroids. And I took so much steroids. I did not sleep that night.

547
00:47:40.510 --> 00:47:43.110
Felice Arena: Yeah, so almonds, I'm not.

548
00:47:43.510 --> 00:47:44.200
Felice Arena: Look.

549
00:47:44.370 --> 00:47:46.100
Rachel Spratt: It's a huge pain. Because I went to this.

550
00:47:46.100 --> 00:47:46.740
Felice Arena: To, and.

551
00:47:46.740 --> 00:47:47.639
Rachel Spratt: And there's so many.

552
00:47:47.640 --> 00:47:48.770
Felice Arena: Walnuts.

553
00:47:49.020 --> 00:47:50.440
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, so much good stuff.

554
00:47:50.440 --> 00:47:51.649
Felice Arena: It's way ahead.

555
00:47:51.650 --> 00:47:53.239
Rachel Spratt: Nuts and almonds in it, so.

556
00:47:53.545 --> 00:48:17.659
Felice Arena: Exactly. Yeah. When I was I was about 12. I broke out into these hives, and we found out was a food allergy, and it was walnuts and bananas at the time, and then, when I hit my twenties, I was able to eat walnuts and bananas without breaking into hives, and now it's come back so I can not banas, but walnuts. I I over the covid period something. I started eating walnuts, and I had

557
00:48:17.660 --> 00:48:30.239
Felice Arena: my own little test experiment. I thought, I'll just try these again, because there's a few dots popping up. I'll try it again. Oh, no, it's there, it's there. So I avoid walnuts. I don't. I don't almost die like Jackie, but it's

558
00:48:30.470 --> 00:48:33.212
Felice Arena: highly inconvenient to have spots all.

559
00:48:33.670 --> 00:48:51.139
Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, well, you know, it's it's not pleasant at all. And yeah, it's it's really not not pretty. But yeah, I'm I'm always, you know I'm very careful, but I do realize, you know, it's all it's it's on. May. You know I have to be the one who's careful. Make sure that you know I've I've got my stuff, and you know, my my little.

560
00:48:51.140 --> 00:48:52.280
Rachel Spratt: And if you like, that guy.

561
00:48:52.280 --> 00:48:53.450
Jacqueline Harvey: And medical kid.

562
00:48:53.450 --> 00:49:03.890
Rachel Spratt: Harry Potter. It's like eternal vigilance. You must always be vigilant because you can go years and years and years, and then just get caught out like it's been several years since I got caught out, but I still got done. On Friday

563
00:49:04.210 --> 00:49:10.869
Rachel Spratt: I was triggered, and I had my worst reaction was actually in Italy, because, as I said, they put nuts into things we wouldn't think of doing.

564
00:49:11.340 --> 00:49:24.379
Rachel Spratt: And I went to this restaurant. And I've got this policy when I'm overseas, because I like to try local foods like, if in doubt, I always order the 1st thing off the menu, because I figured they wouldn't put it 1st on the menu if it wasn't really good, like, you know.

565
00:49:24.450 --> 00:49:45.279
Rachel Spratt: and I knew that in Italy, if you were going to have a nice meal. They like to do all the courses. So you have like an anti-pasta. You have a little bit of pasta, then you have a meat course, and then you have dessert. It's like it should be a 4 course meal with paired wines, or you're not doing it properly. So I thought, I'm in Italy. This is part of the cultural experience. It's not. Just go to museums.

566
00:49:45.650 --> 00:49:59.890
Rachel Spratt: I'll I'll I'll do this. I'll I'll treat myself to a 4 course beautiful meal. So I order. But like in an Italian menu, you're actually familiar with a lot of the words, cause you know, you know Kane is meet, and you know. I don't know. What person is it for fish?

567
00:49:59.890 --> 00:50:00.819
Jacqueline Harvey: Hollow is chicken.

568
00:50:00.820 --> 00:50:09.814
Rachel Spratt: Polo is checking. So you recognize all that. But I didn't know the word for nuts, and it's like Noisetto, yeah, not yeah, not. And so

569
00:50:10.560 --> 00:50:19.220
Rachel Spratt: So the 1st thing was like hazelnut ravioli, and I did not realize that that was what it was. So so it's not just that it's nuts. It's hidden inside the past.

570
00:50:19.220 --> 00:50:20.080
Felice Arena: Yeah, so.

571
00:50:20.080 --> 00:50:43.950
Rachel Spratt: Ate 2 pieces before, like my tongue starts to go, and it's like I was on a budget. I was 2423, something like that. It's like, and I just paid for this fantastic meal. And I realized there's nuts in it. But I'd never had a bad allergic reaction, and I just think, stuff it! I paid for this pasta. I'm eating it, so I eat the whole thing. I eat the whole meal, but I'm getting sicker and sicker, and I go back to the hotel like, and I'm coming out this huge rash.

572
00:50:44.000 --> 00:51:05.199
Rachel Spratt: So I sat in the lobby, and it was a really cheap hotel, and I sat to the guy behind the desk. It's like, I'm having a pretty bad allergic reaction. I'm going to sit opposite your desk if it gets any worse you're going to have to call an ambulance. And so I sat there for like an hour and a half, just wheezing, and eventually it got better, and I went to my room. So ever since then I've carried an epipen everywhere.

573
00:51:05.370 --> 00:51:05.540
Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

574
00:51:05.540 --> 00:51:23.610
Felice Arena: So funny how it's so funny, I suppose, how food evokes so many memories for us, and and we can attach into events all the times we travel, or to people as well. And and and while you were talking about that, Rachel, I was thinking of of the times I've had food poisoning. I'm not sure if you've experienced food poisoning before. Oh, yeah.

575
00:51:23.610 --> 00:51:24.080
Jacqueline Harvey: Oh yes!

576
00:51:24.080 --> 00:51:35.610
Felice Arena: Only happen. Well, actually, it's happened twice to me. But both in the Uk. After they see food. So this last trip I've just come back from a trip from the Uk. I decided not to have any fish.

577
00:51:39.050 --> 00:51:48.999
Felice Arena: That's nothing against Uk. And they're sick, and I'm sure they have great seafood restaurants and stuff, but I just didn't want to risk it. I just didn't want to be sick again, because Boy was that last time I was out for a week.

578
00:51:49.000 --> 00:52:13.009
Felice Arena: and it was coming out from both ends. It's awful awful stuff about that. But talking about food have I know I've written food, and I know a lot of children's authors use use this tool. But I've written a a lot about food in my stories, especially in historical novels. Have you both. Is there one particular scene or book that you can think of where you've used

579
00:52:13.010 --> 00:52:18.490
Felice Arena: food as a not as a tool, but just useful food? There's probably a chapter or a scene somewhere where so.

580
00:52:18.490 --> 00:52:20.219
Rachel Spratt: Well, I write 90.

581
00:52:20.220 --> 00:52:20.550
Felice Arena: Problem.

582
00:52:20.550 --> 00:52:25.219
Rachel Spratt: And I don't know if you've ever read any Nanny Piggins, but it's very cake and chocolate orientated.

583
00:52:25.220 --> 00:52:25.750
Felice Arena: Okay.

584
00:52:25.750 --> 00:52:33.019
Rachel Spratt: And for my podcast I've started writing Danny Piggins again. And what I do is, I take, like ancient Greek, myths and

585
00:52:33.090 --> 00:52:48.659
Rachel Spratt: and classic fairy tales, and I make Nanny Piggins at the beginning, will say, well, one of my distant relatives was there, and it'll be, you know, like Cleopatra Piggins, or whatever, and then it'll all become focused about cake, these great events in history. So at the moment I'm telling the story of Jason and the Golden fleece.

586
00:52:48.660 --> 00:53:04.909
Rachel Spratt: But in my version it's not a golden fleece. It's a golden sheet cake. So they're going through all this epic journey to travel to Colches to get this amazing beautiful cake that is hung in a tree and is guarded by a dragon. So yes, cake features very heavily in.

587
00:53:04.910 --> 00:53:07.579
Felice Arena: Yeah, brilliant, brilliant, I know, and in in.

588
00:53:07.580 --> 00:53:32.430
Jacqueline Harvey: My books, too. In Alice, Miranda. There's a lot of food. You know. She goes to boarding school, so I've decided her boarding school has great food, not terrible food. It's not a varies at times, but I I did a lot of so much food that in the back of the house Miranda books we used to put a recipe, and so from something that was in the book. So one of them is Nana's apple pie, which is actually my Nana

589
00:53:32.699 --> 00:53:42.119
Jacqueline Harvey: who passed away last year. It's her apple piracy, and so she would love the fact that I would get sent pictures of kids from around the world making Alice Miranda's Nana's apple pie.

590
00:53:42.426 --> 00:53:51.313
Jacqueline Harvey: The other thing that we had is a cake called heaven cake which Alice Miranda would go home to where she lived, and on the estate where she lived.

591
00:53:51.710 --> 00:54:20.439
Jacqueline Harvey: Mrs. Greening used to make this incredible cake called heaven cake. And so kids started asking me, How do you make heaven cake? And I was like, I don't know how you make heaven cake! It was one that fizzed on your tongue and sort of exploded in your mouth, anyway. So my mum's sister is a really good baker, and so I asked her. Could she invent the recipe for heaven cake? And she did. And so we ended up putting that into one of the Alice Miranda diaries. So yes, food has featured a lot in all of you know. Lots of my books.

592
00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:21.000
Felice Arena: Yeah.

593
00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:26.536
Jacqueline Harvey: Now you know what I'm writing at the moment it's set in France. And so there's a lot of beautiful.

594
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:46.570
Felice Arena: Nice segue about France, because when I was writing Felis Frederick set in France in 1910, the historical novel, I want to use food in that. There was a chapter there where I had, I thought, well, you know, writing France writing Paris croissants right? That's the go-to. Well, Croissants didn't become popular until the thirties just before

595
00:54:49.570 --> 00:54:59.720
Felice Arena: Second World War. So I needed something for 1,910, and I discovered in my research that the wealthy in Paris loved the good old vanilla slice, but they call a million.

596
00:54:59.720 --> 00:55:00.799
Jacqueline Harvey: I'm not sure why.

597
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:16.009
Felice Arena: My French friends always make fun of my accent, but it's, you know, a million leaves or 1,000 leaves, and the rich would have that. But the did you know where croissants originated from? They didn't even originate from France. Do you know, Rachel, do you think

598
00:55:16.180 --> 00:55:21.640
Felice Arena: Benny believed that it was the shape of the Turkish. The crescent moon.

599
00:55:21.904 --> 00:55:22.170
Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

600
00:55:22.170 --> 00:55:37.009
Felice Arena: The Ottoman when they used to fight against the Viennese. So it was actually came from Vienna. They thought it might have come from Vienna, and they used to celebrate by fighting Ottoman Empire by eating crescent shape.

601
00:55:37.230 --> 00:55:49.689
Felice Arena: Kipflas, I think, or that was something like that. The etymology of it was, it's interesting. There's so many theories about it. I wasn't sure what was real, but I knew I couldn't use croissants. But you think France, you think croissants right, but

602
00:55:52.280 --> 00:56:08.830
Felice Arena: I love the fact of finding where history the food has come from over the years. Here's a question for you both. What's a classic children's book. Not that we've written, but a classic children's book you grew up with, that has features food for you.

603
00:56:09.200 --> 00:56:11.670
Felice Arena: I wonder if you go to the same? I know. Hi, Jack.

604
00:56:11.670 --> 00:56:13.170
Rachel Spratt: Nice show! Felicia.

605
00:56:13.170 --> 00:56:15.540
Felice Arena: I hope that's gonna help. Yeah, sorry.

606
00:56:16.100 --> 00:56:16.660
Felice Arena: This is.

607
00:56:16.660 --> 00:56:20.090
Rachel Spratt: Supposed to be a storytelling show. It feels like you're just asking us questions about.

608
00:56:20.090 --> 00:56:20.520
Jacqueline Harvey: Yes.

609
00:56:20.520 --> 00:56:21.120
Rachel Spratt: A.

610
00:56:21.120 --> 00:56:24.510
Felice Arena: Yeah, that was my tactic all along.

611
00:56:24.510 --> 00:56:28.529
Rachel Spratt: Okay, have you got a story for us, Felicia? How about we get back to that.

612
00:56:28.910 --> 00:56:31.570
Felice Arena: I haven't. So I'm just.

613
00:56:31.570 --> 00:56:33.178
Rachel Spratt: No, that's okay. No.

614
00:56:33.580 --> 00:56:34.460
Jacqueline Harvey: Tell us what.

615
00:56:34.460 --> 00:56:38.629
Rachel Spratt: Famous 5 because, like famous 5 with the tomatoes, you know, because

616
00:56:38.660 --> 00:56:41.157
Rachel Spratt: and that influenced me with Nanny Piggins because

617
00:56:41.700 --> 00:56:52.649
Rachel Spratt: Ena Blyton was so influenced, like people in Australia, find it hard to understand what it was like in England, with the rationing for all those years like, and how whole generations

618
00:56:52.800 --> 00:57:06.393
Rachel Spratt: just had didn't have access to food and quality food and types of like my parents talk about. They didn't see a citrus fruit till they were 12 and well, my favorite story is Aubron Wart, the author, you know.

619
00:57:07.330 --> 00:57:33.299
Rachel Spratt: I want to say brides had revisited. Yeah. Oh, no, that's all wrong. That's his son. Evelyn wore Evelyn brides had revisited. So in the war he had 3 kids, and they've got a huge shipment of bananas, and they were distributed them throughout the country, so that every child who had never eaten a banana in their life could have their 1st banana. So Evelyn Wore's house was given 3 bananas, one for each of his children, so he called his children into the dining room, and he had the bananas laid out in front of him, and he said.

620
00:57:33.370 --> 00:57:40.059
Rachel Spratt: Children, these are bananas. You've never seen them before. They're an exotic fruit from the West Indies.

621
00:57:40.380 --> 00:57:56.559
Rachel Spratt: and they're delicious. And then he and he said, I will now eat them. And he ate all 3 of them in front of his children to demonstrate how to eat a banana, because he hadn't had one for years, either. And he thought, Stuff the kids. I'm going to eat them. And I love that story because it just is like people think of writers as good people, and we're not necessarily.

622
00:57:56.850 --> 00:58:09.103
Jacqueline Harvey: That's just like my dad eating the violet crumbles like opening, buying the big bag of violet crumbles every Friday, and then opening them up, and then taking a random violet crumble out, licking it and popping it back in so that we wouldn't need that.

623
00:58:09.990 --> 00:58:15.049
Rachel Spratt: Yeah. But anyway, so in a blight, and all those famous 5 books where the that they all there's so much talk about.

624
00:58:15.050 --> 00:58:15.560
Jacqueline Harvey: Have to.

625
00:58:15.560 --> 00:58:20.770
Rachel Spratt: Sandwiches and stuff, because for the readers that sounded amazing, that was like a feast, and like a.

626
00:58:20.770 --> 00:58:23.629
Felice Arena: Roald Dahl. Of course Roald Dahl was a master of it right.

627
00:58:23.630 --> 00:58:35.699
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, and the Lion the Witch in the wardrobe with all that Turkish delight stuff. So when I was writing Nanny Piggins, like, obviously we don't have rationing, and we don't have food shortages, but people don't think of it from the child's perspective, because.

628
00:58:35.720 --> 00:59:04.089
Rachel Spratt: like 1015 years ago, there was so much talk of childhood obesity, and the Government was bringing in the $100 vouchers to try and get kids to play more sport and kids. Their parents were like really policing what they ate, and from the child's perspective they had no control over what they ate. And there's all this amazing food out there, and they have no control over it. So there was this like, when I just started writing books about this pig that lets children eat whatever, and, in fact.

629
00:59:04.330 --> 00:59:16.210
Rachel Spratt: encourages them very emotionally to eat more cake, cause it's good for them kids really latched onto that as like hysterically funny cause. It was so much the opposite of their experience. So

630
00:59:16.830 --> 00:59:31.850
Rachel Spratt: yeah, it's it's weird as adults. We forget how powerless children are over just the basics of their life and how emotional like, you wonder why kids get hangups about food. And it's like, because everything in their life is orientated towards giving them hangups about food.

631
00:59:32.180 --> 00:59:52.150
Jacqueline Harvey: True. Yeah, for me, I think. Same same as Rachel, like Enid. The food, you know, lashings of ginger, beer and all that sort of stuff that was that was very much, you know. The the whole idea of going on a picnic, even just going on a picnic with and having ginger beer on your picnic. That was really exciting for me as a kid when I was reading those stories, so.

632
00:59:52.410 --> 00:59:53.080
Rachel Spratt: Like shy.

633
00:59:53.490 --> 00:59:58.010
Felice Arena: Even our very earliest memories. They're very hungry, caterpillar, right? Or.

634
00:59:58.010 --> 00:59:59.069
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

635
00:59:59.070 --> 01:00:01.419
Felice Arena: Tea with a tiger environment.

636
01:00:01.420 --> 01:00:02.260
Jacqueline Harvey: Came to team.

637
01:00:02.260 --> 01:00:24.839
Felice Arena: Hey? Yes, exactly so. I mean the the right. There. From the very early, a early age to primary school years we were exposed to these food theme food, theme books. I'm I'm now. I'm jumping all over the place. You wanted a story. I'm i i was when I was an exchange student to Northern California, to America. When I was 7 to 1718 17,

638
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:46.650
Felice Arena: I remember when I landed it was my 1st overseas trip. I was so excited it was part of the Lions Exchange program, and I landed in Sacramento and my family picked me up. It was late at night. We didn't have anything to eat. I went straight to bed because it was like around midnight or something, and I woke up to the sounds of George Michael singing Faith

639
01:00:50.020 --> 01:01:09.559
Felice Arena: downstairs. So it was upstairs. It felt like an American home. I couldn't believe I'm in America. This is amazing. And because of jet lag I woke up sort of middle of the day. Anyway, it was really late, and I came down the stairs, heard some music playing George Michael playing fake that was on the radio. Oprah was on TV. And my host brother offered me

640
01:01:10.110 --> 01:01:13.499
Felice Arena: microwave popcorn for the very 1st time I went. What.

641
01:01:13.500 --> 01:01:13.950
Rachel Spratt: Oh!

642
01:01:13.950 --> 01:01:15.390
Felice Arena: In the microwave

643
01:01:15.410 --> 01:01:28.384
Felice Arena: and a can of root beer. And I went root beer, as in movies and theater, I mean movies and TV shows root, beer, microwave, popcorn, and oprah on TV was my.

644
01:01:28.790 --> 01:01:30.440
Rachel Spratt: Turn around and go straight home. Haven't.

645
01:01:30.829 --> 01:01:43.280
Felice Arena: I think I'm I'm American now. This is great. But before I I just that that stuck with me that very 1st moment of waking up in America, and popcorn, and Oprah.

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Rachel Spratt: I just took my mom to America. She'd never been to New York, and she's 78. So she wanted to do like a bucket list trip where she did all these things you'd probably never get to do again. But we went and visited a cousin in Dallas to start with.

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Rachel Spratt: and so like I'm sort of nervous. I want her to have a great time, and she loves a buffet. My mom's always one of those old ladies who's like. Oh, I'm not hungry. I don't want to eat. I don't eat much. I've had lunch today, so I don't eat any dinner, but if you give her a buffet breakfast, she turns into a frigging elephant. She will, just course, after course, because she's really miserly, and as far as she's concerned, it's all free food, so she has to.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And she doesn't listen to this podcast. Till H. Clearly so.

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Felice Arena: Doesn't listen to anything. I.

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Rachel Spratt: Never do. It's fine.

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Felice Arena: She doesn't read my.

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Rachel Spratt: Books she'll never find out, and if she does find out she'll forget. So it's fine.

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Felice Arena: Yeah, so.

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Rachel Spratt: Anyway, we're in Dallas. We arrived quite late, so we come down the next morning to breakfast, and we go out, and I told her that in America they have like waffle machines where you pour in the batter, and you like. Cook the waffle and you flip it.

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Rachel Spratt: and they had one, and I'm like this, is it the Waffle machine? But she's never impressed by anything she says I was like, whatever I'm going to have breakfast cereal. I'm like, but I made a waffle, and when it came out it was in the shape of the State of Texas, and I'm like this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. It's so American.

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Felice Arena: Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: Shaped waffle. I just thought this, yeah, like, like, you say, it was like the perfect American experience. I feel like I could just turn around, get on the plane, go home, and it's like I'd experienced America.

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Felice Arena: And and recently, my trip to Oklahoma. And Chris Kennett was there. Hello to Chris Kenneth, illustrator, Chris Kennett. We. We went out for fried green tomatoes, nice fry everything, and we I hadn't had fried green tomatoes, and was surprised over the years of going to America. I hadn't. But oh, boy, I was suffering that night.

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Rachel Spratt: And.

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Felice Arena: Oh, the the winds came sweeping down the

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Felice Arena: so and I mean, I think I was booked to speak to you guys early couple of months ago, right and.

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Rachel Spratt: A.

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Felice Arena: With sometimes good Astro reflux disease. I really should stay, not from fried food, but I couldn't resist. You know you're in a new, you know, in a country somewhere new, something exciting. New town, new part of the world. Yeah. I've gotta try this.

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Rachel Spratt: Is it your goal, bladder, Felice? Because I was on tour in America.

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Rachel Spratt: and I was in New York, and I wanted to go and have some soul food. So I went, had some soul food. So basically fried food. And then I like the pizza. So I had a big slice of pizza, and then my publisher over there took me to lunch. She took me to a cheese restaurant and we just ate cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.

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Felice Arena: See that at.

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Rachel Spratt: And then I got on the flight to La, and I was just sweating buckets. I was so sick, and the poor guy next to me, rolled up my sleeves. I rolled up my trouser legs because I was just so hot. I was like on fire so much abdominal pain, and I get there, and I think what is wrong with me and my mom, I ring my mom, and she's like your brothers just got in for surgery to have his gallbladder out, and I think, flashback. My parents had their gallbladders out when they were 40. I am now 40,

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Rachel Spratt: and I'm like Oh, it's my gallbladder, and so I it was just my gallbladder, it was so inflamed and infected.

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Felice Arena: I initially thought that as well, and the doctor said, No, it's not your gallbladder but it is reference pain, cause. I get a lot of stomach pains when I not so much heartburn in the chest, but stomach pains and cramps, and and you feel bloated, and you just said you've just got. You've just got this reflux disease, and you gotta watch what you have and have those necks and tablets. And I feel very old when I say that.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And Rachel and I both had the gall bladder out issue.

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Felice Arena: Have you?

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Jacqueline Harvey: You know I've had it out as well, you know, and even now I get phantom gallbladder attacks. If I eat too much fry.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, he did.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Sounds really, bad. So yeah.

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Felice Arena: Anything, right?

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Jacqueline Harvey: I know what happened to the days when you could devour a whole bag of Smith's crisps on your own. You know.

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Rachel Spratt: Off and down.

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Felice Arena: I.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Good old days, the good old days, the most disgusting pride thing I ever saw in America was

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Jacqueline Harvey: We went to a baseball game at Yankee stadium.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and they were eating fried dough.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh!

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Jacqueline Harvey: You.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah. My daughter was telling me yesterday that there's a thing now you can get in America. Gherkins are like pickles are really big. Now you can buy giant pickles. They used to sell them at my, the sweet shop where my daughter worked, and what you can get is you can get a giant pickle. It's hollowed out with a hot dog in the middle, and then dipped in batter deep fried on a stick.

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Rachel Spratt: and I just thought, that's just so.

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Felice Arena: Disgusting.

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Jacqueline Harvey: That's a gold bladder attack.

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Felice Arena: That is.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Real one or a phantom one.

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Rachel Spratt: We're actually gonna have to wrap it up because we've run out of time. And the zoom is gonna pack out in 3 min. But that was really fun for joining us.

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Felice Arena: Yeah, I think.

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Rachel Spratt: We need a 2 h show with you, because we have so much to say. Alright. Well, thank you for listening to real stories with random writers. Today's guest has been Felicia Arena. If you want to find out any more about any of us, you can find out about me@rasprat.com, Jacky, what's your website?

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Jacqueline Harvey: Jacqueline harvey.com.au.

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Rachel Spratt: And Felite. Where can we find out about.

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Felice Arena: Leachate.

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Felice Arena: You know the.

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Rachel Spratt: Okay, I'm gonna set up.

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Felice Arena: arena.com a BLIC e are.

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Rachel Spratt: Okay, I'm going to say it again. Sorry, Felicia. I'll say it again. Wait, just be quiet for a sec, Felice. And so, Felicia, you can find out about him@feliciaarena.com.all right, that's it for now until next time. Goodbye.

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Rachel Spratt: Sorry, Felicia. You were just cutting out, so I just wanted to make sure it was.

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Jacqueline Harvey: The course of the time. You've kind of gone quite a few times.