‘Have a look at this’. Les Hiddins, the Bush Tucker Man
16 June 2025

June 2025 In July 1988 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC) screened something quite new in Australian television. Starting with a montage of a man in a khaki shirt, blue  green …

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Big Mulch


More than just a curry house. A brief look at 20 Indian restaurants in Sydney as examples of the changing face of Indian food in Australia.
9 June 2025

June 2025 I remember a time when there were only half a dozen Indian restaurants in Sydney all with the same menu – Fish Curry, Beef Curry, Eggplant Curry, and Dhal …

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Curry, hoppers and wattalappam. My favourite childhood dishes.
8 June 2025

 June 2025 My earliest food memory is of eating rice and dhal hand fed by our cook. She expertly mixed rice and dhal into small off-shape balls that were popped into …

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Pigeons, squabs and the Wonga Wonga at the Australian Table 1864 – 1964
7 June 2025

June 2025 Pigeons, squabs and the Wonga Wonga at the Australian Table 1864 - 1964 June 2025 To be LET, For Five Years certain, or any time less, as the Tenant shall require. …

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‘You don’t need culinary training to explore the potential of these ingredients’. A look at seven native food cookery books written by Indigenous cooks and chefs 2006 – 2025
5 June 2025

June 2025 The article looks at seven native plant cookbooks written by Indigenous cooks and chefs between 2006 – 2025. It looks at the authors’ reasons for writing the book, summarises …

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Cakes, Biscuits, Puddings and Sometimes Curry. Fifty years of culinary use of coconuts in Australia
2 June 2025

2025 Few people know how useful cocoa-nuts are in cooking.  They can be used in both the sweet and savoury dishes and, as many old Indians will tell you no curry …

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Compost
30 May 2025

May 2025 We’ve entered the age of the hot cross ice-cream, loaf, sandwich and ‘crosskie’ While there will always be a place for sturdy, raisin-studded rolls, being hot, crossed and a bun …

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Mentions, papers and meals. An overview of the engagement of Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy with Australian multiculinarism
25 May 2025

May 2025 Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy (SAGs from hereon) are biennial events begun in March1984 that bring together food historians, food writers, academics, cooks and people interested in food and foodways …

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Utopias and dystopias/ Upepsia and Dyspepsia
11 April 2025

2002 There’s no getting away from it. Food, sex and politics have been inextricably linked since Adam and Eve dallied with a snake over an apple in the Garden of Eden. …

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A Dog’s Breakfast – and lunch and dinner and treats
11 April 2025

April 2025 It was the doglato that did it.  Set me wondering what was happening in Django’s (my companion dog) food world. This article is a brief overview. Read more.

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The Recipe Book of Ada de la Harpe
8 April 2025

April 2025 There are two unusual features of Ada’s Cookery Book for me. The recipes follow each other closely with no space for additions and little for revisions: they are ordered …

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Dumplings & ANZACs. The Golden Syrup story in Australia.
8 April 2025

April 2025 Just the other day a school friend of mine living in England sent me an article from the Spectator about ‘Golden Syrup Dumplings’ which the article said are ‘a …

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Bitter Bread and Sour
6 April 2025

A paper for 'Cooking and Eating in Adversity' New Zealand Symposium of Gastronomy and Food History. November 2020 For dole bread is bitter bread Bitter bread and sour There’s grief in the taste …

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