HOT: Mediterranean Wholesalers, 482 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

I think the best way to navigate Mediterranean Wholesalers is to bring your own Italian nonna. Really, they should offer a No-Nonsense Nonna rental service along with the shopping trolleys.

Since no such service exists, I was left to face the fomidable rows of dried pasta shapes on my own. The supermarket also sells pallets of other mediterranean goods, from caranoli rice to tomato passata, jerry cans of olive oil, frozen filled pasta, as well as offering fresh bread, wine, sweets and deli products such as chorizo and baccala. When you're done with your shopping, you can even settle down at the authentic-looking Italian bar for an espresso and a slice of super-cheap apple cake or marble cake.

My shopping basket:

• frozen beef tortellini ($5.50)
• Carmelina sundried tomatoes ($4.55)
• Mazzetti pesto because I don't have enough basil to make my own now ($4.65)
• La Risera Arborio rice - just picked a brand randomly ($2.99)
• Reggia pasta - again no idea, but I spotted a little old lady stocking up on the sale items, so figured it must be ok ($0.99-$1.19)
• Di Martino bucatini - mainly just so I'd have a point of comparison for the Reggia pasta ($1.19)
• Di Martino Calamarata - cos it came in a nifty box and was an unusual ring shape ($2.29)
• Montefiore mozzarella and prosciutto for my pizza ($3.99)
• Giant hunk of grana padano - 600g was the smallest I could find! ($11.91)
• Arroz de Calasparra - the best rice for paella as told to me by a snobby Spaniard ($7.95). It's double the price at Simon Johnson!
  

If anyone can enlighten me as to what brands I should have been buying or whether I made the right choices, please let me know!

HOT: A1 Bakery, 645 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

I remember my first visit to A1 Bakery and being astounded by the cheap prices for the freshly baked lebanese pizzas. Well, amost 5 years on and it's still dirt cheap, mostly hovering around the $3 mark.

My zaatar pizza ($1.50!) consisted of a soft pillowy base, the complete opposite of a crispy Italian crust, topped with a tangy zaatar. There's lots of other (basic) toppings to choose from, and the warm bready base was so good that I could have kept eating and eating. However, I wanted to save room for one of the delicious baklava - a morsel of intense sweetness with firm filo pastry and a hint of orange-blossom water ($1).

On a Monday afternoon the spartan dining area was a microcosm of harmonious multicultural Australia: pimple-faced youths; middle-aged Lebanese men arguing animatedly; stout po-faced matrons dressed in black hajibs; and Anglo families with kids mesmerised by the lurid Lebanese music video on the flat screen TV. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside!

HOT: Hausfrau Bakery and Cakes, 32A Ballarat St, Yarraville

Hausfrau is a cute bakery cafe styled with kitsch 50s-style laminate, enamel jugs and crockery of bright blooms which serves an array of savoury and sweet treats as well as selling loaves of bread. Its warm cosiness was very popular when we popped in for a movie post-mortem so we had to wait a while before securing a table on a Sunday afternoon.

It's the perfect location for an afternoon nibble and general gossip - flaky mini sausage rolls, a pastry snail, cute citrussy cupcake and a corn cake with tomato relish. And if you're a true hausfrau, you can even buy a hausfrau canvas shopping bag ($4.50) or apron ($20)!

HOT: Stephanie Alexander, Art Chat, NGV Australia, Federation Square

I come from a family where food is what binds us together. We reminisce about food we've eaten, anticipate the food we're going to eat, compare cooking methods, discuss Masterchef and take family outings to farmers markets. I think I'm very fortunate that my upbringing has taught me how food gets to my table, the value of eating well and the important role food plays as part of family, society, culture and history.

However, not all children have been brought up like me. Not all kids eat well, many are overweight and many do not seem to understand where their food comes from. In today's busy world, families no longer seem to have time to prepare proper meals and to sit down at a table regularly to share food, thoughts and experiences.

Stephanie Alexander, a respected chef and restauranter, realised that something should be done about this, so in 2004 she established the Kitchen Garden Foundation. Like me, Stephanie feels strongly that sharing food is about comfort, intimacy, discovery and an opportunity to listen and to be heard. As part of NGV Australia's Art Chat program, she spoke eloquently about her goal to provide pleasurable food education for children. Her core belief is that you can positively influence food choices from an early age, and the best way to inspire kids is through a school curriculum incorporating a hands-on kitchen and garden.

The point of the program is not about finger-wagging at kids to preach what is healthy and not healthy. Nor is about teaching kids middle-class food wankery. Instead, helping kids to maintain a kitchen garden and to cook their own-grown produce is an enjoyable and enriching way to teach them about the value of eating a balanced, healthy diet. The gardening and cooking tasks are also linked to the needs to the general curriculum. Measuring out a garden, designing an irrigation system, estimating water supply, learning about the properties of heat, steam, yeast and eggs, multiplying recipes and seeing the interaction of plants and seasons are all practical applications of numeracy and literacy skills. In addition, the kids have to learn how to problem-solve, how to work together and bear shared responsibility, and thus the program can enhance their social skills, patience and self-confidence.

Thanks to Federal Government funding (after Minister Nicola Roxon had lunch harvested, cooked and served by the kids at Westgarth Primary School), the scheme will now been rolled out to 190 primary schools throughout Australia. I am so inspired by the passion of Stephanie Alexander and the work of the Kitchen Garden Foundation that I'm going to investigate volunteering opportunities at the pioneering school, Collingwood College.