Chutney, yes, but also … A survey of one hundred years of mangoes at the Anglo Australian culinary table
January 2024 After primary school in Sri Lanka I would go with my bothers and classmates to the achcharu woman sitting just outside the school grounds. We would pool what was …
January 2024 I read an article about tuckshops in Britain in an online food magazine recently and it set me remembering my tuckshop days at St. Joseph’s Primary School at Singleton …
A vermicelli dinner party
December 2023 As I’ve been researching various items of food in Australia one item keeps cropping up like an insistent child tugging at my leg wanting me to give it attention. …
The Rabbit: Only fit for pies or curries?
December 2023 Rabbits are a dry meat, only fit for pies or curries; and excellent served as the latter … Abbott, Edward, The English and Australian Cookery Book: Cookery for the Many, …
Diggings 29 December 2023
Do you know where your seafood has come from? Here’s why it matters Australians are in the dark about whether their Christmas lunch has been ethically sourced because of a lack …
More than salad dressing and frying fish: The culinary uses of olives and olive oil in Australia 1865 – 1949
October 2023 'Contrary to popular belief olive oil was fairly common in many colonial kitchens ... While olive oil was sold, used and marketed for medicinal purposes by chemists it was predominantly …
Tripe: more than just white sauce
November 2023 I had occasion lately to bring up the subject of tripe with my coffee-and-dog-walking crew - I’d recently seen the bible/book version of it in a Chinese butchery. I …
Diggings 17 November 2023
Carrot Cake. An amusement The food historian in me wondered when carrot cake made its first appearance at the Australian table, in what guise, how it developed over the years …
Carrot Cake. An amusement
September 2023 The other morning a member of my dog-walk-and-coffee group happened to mention that the evening before he had eaten a large slice of carrot cake that had some kind …
Tripe Curry
November 2023 I was brought up eating tripe. Specifically, tripe curry. It was a brown coloured dish, pieces of tripe sitting in a salty, spicy thin broth. I loved the look …
November 2023 I grew up with condensed milk till my early adolescent years. In Sri Lanka, home for the first 10 years of my life, I got my hit mainly from …
Thomas Shepherd – ‘the oldest professed gardener in the Colony’
October 2023 Thomas Shepherd is one of the contributors to the early development of the Australian foodscape who has been left out of its history. This article seeks to redress …