It was the only food hook I could find.

I miss Amy. I miss Sorenne. I even miss Australia.

But as noted by Daily Show correspondent (and Brit) John Oliver in a podcast that is stirring up more coverage than Aussie Adam Scott’s win at the Master’s golf tourney on Sunday, Australia is “a coastal paradise surrounding a rocky hell.”

Oliver was filming in Australia last week. Can’t wait for those shows to air.

In his Bugle podcast, he said: “Australia turns out to be a sensational place, albeit one of the most comfortably racist places I’ve ever been in. They’ve really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.”

Oliver said he noticed that much vitriol was reserved for Australians of Lebanese origin.

“You can say what you like about Australian racism; it is undeniably specific,” he said.

“I had a couple of Australians – more than one – complain to me about all the ‘Lebos’ in the country, referring apparently to the Lebanese. Who the f— is annoyed by Lebanese people?

“In a way you have to admire the attention to detail. Not just all those Arabs, but the Lebanese. That’s like saying ‘You know who I can’t stand? Sri Lankans. Malaysians not a problem. Bangladeshis, lovely people, but Sri Lankans – I’ve got no time for them, Jose.’

“How many Lebanese people can there actually be in Australia? There’s only just over four million of these people in f—ing Lebanon.

“The one thing Australia cannot argue is: ‘There’s no room here in this country’, because that land is f—ing gigantic. That aside: fantastic place, can’t wait to go back.”

Oliver also interviewed former prime minister John Howard, describing the encounter as “an experience he didn’t seem to enjoy to his maximum capacity.”

One listener commented, “Where did you go in Aus? On the Bugle it sounded like you only met bogans and John Howard. No wonder you think we’re racists!”

(A bogan I’ve learned, through regular usage and Wikipedia, is a term that allegedly emerged in Melbourne‘s outer-Western and outer-Eastern suburbs in the late 1970s and is now commonly used Australia-wide to identify a person who wore acid wash jeans, ugg boots, and band t-shirts; had mullet style haircuts; and lived in the suburbs.)

The Daily Show is America’s leading fake news show. That means satire.

And Food Standards Australia New Zealand has declared irradiation safe for fresh tomatoes and capsicums (peppers) to destroy insects and bacteria.