July 2025
As a kid in Sri Lanka quaffing condensed milk was a daily practice. The can had two holes in it – triangular from the tool that made them. I also grew up having condensed milk in my tea, a practice that was stopped immediately when we landed in Australia. I wonder why? Perhaps it was because now we had easy access to dairy milk? Condensed milk spread on white bread from the bakery down the street was a more accepted practice. The other use of condensed milk I recall was poured into hibiscus tea. When my dad went on bivouacs in the Australian Army he would always return with three or four tubes of sweet and not-so-sweet spreads – Vegemite, a jam, and condensed milk at a minimum. We’d squeeze the tubes directly into our mouths and occasionally squeeze them onto white sliced buttered bread.
