While I enjoy a good condiment (evidently from this site), I've not really been addicted to one until I tried this macadamia nut spread from Rainforest Foods. Holy crap- it is good.

The natural macadamia spread is made entirely from macadamia nuts- no added oil, preservatives, anything. It's such a simple idea but has changed the way I eat my morning toast. I did try this with butter as well but it really doesn't need it. The spread is creamy and luscious to taste and is much more subtle than your average peanut butter. It's actually so subtle, I tend to spread it on my toast now as if I were icing a cake.

Another gem of a spread from Rainforest foods is their small leaf tamarind jam. It's nothing like the tamarind you may typically associate with Thai cooking, but is a fruit native to Australia. The jam itself is quite tart and I was a bit concerned it would end up being too tangy. I had some on pancakes with cream and it worked a treat by offsetting the slightly sweet pancakes. If you're wondering with regards to the picture below, I then tried another jam on my second pancake but found it much too sweet after the awesome small leaf tamarind-topped pancake, so I went back to the tamarind jam for my 3rd, 4th and 5th pancakes. 

Rainforest Foods work with local farmers in the sub-tropical hinterland around Byron Bay to create small, sustainable native rainforest orchards from which they produce their delicious spreads. Their range includes Davidson’s Plum Jam, Illawarra Plum Jam, and Riberry Jam which I sampled at the markets and loved its ginger-like taste. These condiments really provide a great way to taste some produce that's native to Australia but that the vast majority of us have never even heard of before.

I stumbled upon these products at the Kelvin Grove markets in Brisbane's northside, but they are available at a plethora of other markets I'm told, and also can be bought online.

Website: Rainforest Foods
Twitter: @RainforestFood1

Coles and Woolies may have stepped-up in the boutique Christmas pudding market with their limited edition 'Heston' and 'Finest' range of puds, but neither of them hold a Christmas candle to these creations from Pudding Lane.

Hang on- I hear you say- that looks like a salami. While the ye olde bowl-shaped pudding is on offer, these two tasty treats pictured here are pudding logs which make serving up dessert a breeze as it's quite a bit easier to slice off exactly the amount you want from a uniform log-shaped thing, rather than guessing how big a wedge you'd like from a ball-shaped thing.

Underneath the cloth covering was an aluminum foil wrapped mystery, and peeling away the foil revealed a plastic-sealed pudding. When I sliced through the pudding log, it was dense in texture which set my expectations high for a concentrated flavour which was exactly what we got.

Served up, the pudding slices resembled Irish black pudding, but what this dessert lacked in aesthetic beauty it certainly made up for in taste which is really the main reason we all eat Christmas pudding. Each mouthful was a combo of opluent rum-infused chocolatey fruit, nestled in a rich pudding and was intensely delicious. Normally I serve up Christmas pudding with custard, but these chocolate rum & raisin varieties went brilliantly with double cream.

These puddings are made just north of Sydney in Newcastle, using traditional method involving tying them in calico then cloth and boiling them in cloth in copper vats before hanging them on a line which allows them to mature. Each pud is made from Australian vine fruits and a bunch of other wholesome ingredients such as free range eggs and Barossa Valley Oak Australian Brandy.

I bought these logs from the Kelvin Grove markets in inner-north Brisbane, but have seen them for sale at numerous markets around the place. They are also available online.

There were a bunch of other flavours available which I had samples of such as triple choc (yum), chocolate macadamia (yum again) and date & toffee (oh man these were the bomb!). The two I bought here are smaller 500g options, but there are 1kg versions available to feed the whole family and the jolly man in the red suit himself.

Website: Pudding Lane

Stuck for what to spread on your toast in the morning? Jam is not a unique idea, so once that decision is made, it becomes even more important to choose a good quality one from all of the mass produced sugar bombs in the supermarket.

Rather than reaching for the good old strawberry jam, choosing a lesser-made variety of berry spices things up a bit, and one seasonal option is opting for mulberries. Pinny's Mulberry Jam is an excellent example of this- actually tasting of mulberries rather than just being randomly sweet.

As I got through the jar, there were still bits of whole mulberries in there which still squished onto my toast perfectly, and was a nice reminder of the little fruits that would have peppered the tree this year to create this tasty spread.

This is a small jar of jam, but this year the people at Pinny's had to fend off wildlife for their mulberries grown on their 2.5 acre farm in South Ballina. I am so glad they did though!

This jam was bought at the Byron Farmer's Market, where an array of Pinny's other sticky products can also be found.

Website: Byron Farmers' Markets