2024Henry Lawson is arguably the pre-eminent male chronicler through his short stories of outback domestic life and the life of a swagman and a shearer in Australia in the last …
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June 2024In 1963 the Festival of Asia Committee in New South Wales published a slim volume of 32 x A5 pages simply titled Cook Book. The content was recipes in …
Diggings 26 JUNE 2024
26 June 2024
Labor’s first extinctionFor a bureaucratic document, the advice was startling in its direct conclusions: the “primary threat” to the skate was “habitat degradation from sustained reduction of dissolved oxygen” and …
Twelfth Cakes, Fancy Biscuits and Kangaroo Soup. Pastry cooks and confectioners in the early colonies of Australia
24 June 2024
June 2024Lately I’ve been fascinated by some aspects of early colonial foodways that I overlooked in my history of food in Australia. As redress, I have written about nurserymen who …
2021The Echuca Coffee Palace, situated at the south end of High Street, on the west side, is a new addition to the architectural features of the town. It consists of …
The Death of the Democracy Sausage?
17 June 2024
2018In November 2018, Bunnings, the Australian hardware retailer issued new guidelines for charities who raise funds from sausage sizzles outside Bunnings’ stores. A sausage sizzle at its simplest is the …
June 2024In March 2024 Australia Post issued a set of four stamps under the heading of The Shared Table. The Overview accompanying the stamps states the intent of the issue:Historically, …
2024Straight after school we headed for the fish shop opposite the station. One or two would stay with our bags at the bus stop while the rest of us went …
2024I’ve got guests coming to early supper tonight. So today will be spent provisioning for supper and also some of my larder foodstuffs need replenishing. This is the provisioning plan.First …
2024I had occasion lately to eat a stick of cabanossi, a thin, dry, red, spiced and smoked crumpled sausage. It produced a food memory of lounge rooms and wine bars …
THE Cookbook and Butter Churn Quest
21 May 2024
A book printed in 1659 and a churn brought from Ireland last century have won £100 each for their owners in our quest to find the oldest cookbook and butter …
2024I was gustatorily surprised in a nice way. There on the menu at a local bar was an item called Starving Artist’s Plate. It consisted of slices of cabanossi, cubes …
May 2024Rifling through a collection of recipes and other food related paraphernalia I had bought in a bundle from an antique dealer, I came across a set of 38 recipe …