EATING IN THE FIFTIES and SIXTIES Pasta was not eaten in Australia.
Curry was a surname.
A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
All potato crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding.
Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait. A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.
Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
Fish didn't have fingers in those days. Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
Healthy food consisted of anything edible. People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
Indian restaurants were only found in India.
Cooking outside was called camping.
Seaweed was not a recognised food. "Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food. Prunes were medicinal.
Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called cattle feed. Water came out of the tap.
If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have become a laughing stock!!
But the one thing that we never ever had on our table in the sixties ..... " Elbows or Phones
macka17 said
09:39 AM Apr 2, 2017
Yea.
Pity it all changed hey.
Elbows OFF., Mouth CLOSED. Shoulders back. when at table.
BOTH legs under table please. Not like you ready to bolt..
Looking round. 99% do most of nowadays.
I'm guilty of elbow unless out eating.
BUT ALWAYS eat a meal at a table. Never plate on knees.
Restaurants frighten me. all those teeth and tonsils showing.
moamajohn said
08:08 PM Apr 2, 2017
Well done Woody so true. Macka I thought I was the only one whom dislikes eating off my knees ,frankly at 67 I still cannot master it with any comfort .My mum drank Lan Choo tea and kept the coupons and Dad drank Nescafe coffee out of little tins.When mum wasn,t looking I would always drink my tea out of the saucer ! Cheers
Lancelot Link said
01:11 AM Apr 3, 2017
Sorry to say, born 1958, remember milk in the billy, bread delivered, along with eggs, vegetables and the dunny being changed over with the guy that had a hat as flat as the **** carters hat! Hessian sack draped over his shoulders! Remember the butcher cutting the meat that had been hanging and smelling meat that I wish I could eat today! The corner store where the lollies used to cascade into your hands because your mother went there all the time! The dray the milk used to be delivered on and every Saturday morning, up early with a carrot for the horse and a ride on the dray with a free pint with full cream!
Where did we go wrong?
Landfall said
07:02 AM Apr 3, 2017
Used to have to wait to be given permission to leave the table. Many a time I would be jiggling up and down impatient to go out and play.
Sixpence worth of broken biscuits, better than any Big Mac.
Value for money? A Choo Choo bar would last forever.
One shilling on a Saturday used to get me a seat upstairs in the Lounge of the Corio Picture theatre matinee and a comic.
Lamb shanks used to be given to the dog.
LL you are so right "Where did we go wrong?"
Playing these days is staying inside on your iPad or computer, phone grafted onto your ear.
-- Edited by Landfall on Monday 3rd of April 2017 07:02:55 AM
Bushpie said
03:27 PM Apr 3, 2017
Did we go wrong...... plenty of families in my circle have active outdoor lives, camping, exploring out doors and sport......they are loving it....... they do however still use all the mod cons and social media but I dont think it is such a huge problem........
The problem I see is big media beat up to make it looks like a probllem......lets starting putting em back in their place....just coz they too lazy to get off their backside to get a real story......oh they would be struggling to get outside the office and look around....especially without the devices they need ....
iana said
08:21 PM Apr 3, 2017
Don't yer mis the big mutton roast, roast potatoes, carrots parsips, and a few peas and lots of gravy.
msg said
11:34 PM Apr 3, 2017
My mother would NEVER have cooked mutton. But, we grew up on lamb had it a majority of nights. Now its too expensive.
When I was first married, I used to buy a half side of lamb nearly every week. It had 8 or 10 loin chops, about a doz chump chops and shoulder and leg.
The dog used to get the shanks. Still refuse to eat shanks. I don't care how trendy it is.
Only have lamb now if I am having people for dinner. Its always well received. Although, I think some of the lamb you buy is really old lamb going on for mutton. (you can tell by the smell when its cooking). Roasts are so easy to serve up and its my kids favourite meal.
Lancelot Link said
12:39 AM Apr 4, 2017
Pumped leg of Mutton, sandwiches for school for the next week with home made bread and butter pickles! Pickled pork with that unctuous fat that just fitted so well with fresh white bread, no butter! It was a treat to have two tooth instead of mutton! Beef was not heard of! My biggest treat growing up was Dad taking me prawning, he grew up doing it and taught me to do it. Those prawns you buy in the supermarket are the pits!
Rabbit, yabbies and fish were a great part of my young diet! Black Pudding, kippers and tatty scones from my mums side!
I wish we could buy real food, like an old boiling hen, good meat cut properly and fresh, ripe fruit, instead of stuff that sits in the fruit bowl and never ripens because people no longer believe that a ripe white nectarine is not hard and should cascade juice all over your chin!
Desert Dweller said
05:34 AM Apr 4, 2017
What a boring bland country it was back then, thank goodness immigrants arrived to add some colour to our lives & tempt our taste buds.
macka17 said
07:25 AM Apr 4, 2017
Yea. USEFUL migrants (like a lot of us) are a boon to all country's. Unfortunately.....
When we first came here. 'late '73. Milk from dairy (cold vat). Scoop cream off top in small jug first. OOOooooooh.
Lambs. Merino\Suffolk. Usually around 40lb dressed. Rang Brian. He'd put 3 in round pen by loading ramp with water for coupla days to clear them out. I's slip round there with .22 and silencer. Pop them in brain while dozing. NO hard meat. Gut. bleed. Skin (Brian kept the skins.) $4\5 a head on the hoof.
Bob Dressed 3, kept one. (fair trade in my eyes.)
Beef. Shorthorn \Poll. Lovely meat. lived on hillsides.
went halves with Bob, Boner at meatworks.
Rang Doug. He'd drop a slab of lucerne under old gum top of hill. They'd amble up. He'd select one. Pop with 30'0. again in head, front lobe.
Chain blocks. gut. skin. Chainsaw down middle.
Round to Bobs shed where he dressed and packed. 1\2 each.
$45\50 a head on hoof again.
Rabbits and fox skins down the creek.
Fish, launch boat off beach or toss lures off rocks.
NAH. We had a **** of a life. Didn't we then.
Oh. Daughter brewed Beer. (still does)
and Garry does the best Single Malt.
or any other spirit you name.
In the 20 gall stainless beer kegs I gave him 30 yrs ago.
Decent sized batches. Daughter has one too.
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:32:16 AM
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:36:38 AM
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:41:01 AM
The Belmont Bear said
08:06 AM Apr 4, 2017
Like DD I agree that immigration has brought with it a wonderful range of new tastes and ways of enjoying food but who can forget when growing up -
Being allowed to slice a thick crust from a freshly delivered still warm loaf of bread and spreading it with real butter and golden syrup. The cardboard wrapped ice cream brick bought occasionally as a family treat in summer from the ice cream vendor's van. Later on Mr Whippy travelling through the suburbs playing his signature "greens leaves" tune so that all the kids lucky enough to get some money from their parents where waiting when he got to their street. I was born in 1956 and Lancelot we also had the s***carter as well as the coal man delivering his bags of coal , the bread vendor with his horse and cart, the fruito travelling the streets in his truck, the milko delivering the milk in glass bottles, the paperman throwing the rolled newspapers out the window of his car. I even remember the garbos coming around in an open top truck with the guys on the ground throwing full bins up to the guy on top who emptied them and threw them back down. Before there was money in football some players would work as garbos just to keep up their fitness. Macka same rules applied for us at the dinner table which the whole family sat down to every night and on Sundays for that traditional roast dinner regardless of whether it was 4deg or 40deg. outside.
I didn't grow up somewhere in the bush I grew up in the suburbs of what was at the time Australia's 6th biggest city - Newcastle.
rockylizard said
09:34 AM Apr 4, 2017
Gday...
Ya know Macka - ya never (and I mean NEVER) cease to amaze me ... the things you like to share with everyone and the long-winded, fully and graphically descriptive (in fractured English) way you do that just takes my breath away.
Is there ANYTHING you ain't dun ?
and don't hold back - fill a page
Cheers - John
Lancelot Link said
03:36 AM Apr 5, 2017
Rocky Horror Picture Show!
sandsmere said
05:29 AM Apr 5, 2017
iana wrote:
Don't yer mis the big mutton roast, roast potatoes, carrots parsips, and a few peas and lots of gravy.
Yep !
My father always killed our own sheep and cattle for meat.
I just loved the mutton. Usually 3 year-old Border Lester cross. Beautiful.
We never killed lambs, so I hadn't tasted lamb until I went my own way.
Very disappointing after the mutton.
Home grown spuds too. Much better than bought ones.
I have got used to lamb over the years, but the memories linger.
KJB said
07:59 PM Apr 8, 2017
I grew up farming with all the "Australian food" but I am really thankful for the influence that "New Australians" have had on the food that is available and that we can eat now , a much broader and enjoyable menu not restricted by English tradition. I still really enjoy an "Aussie roast" but also look forward to Greek ,Thai , Chinese, Italian, Korean, Indian and many more great cuisines . We can now eat not only for sustenance but also for enjoyment , adventure and pleasure. Great times .Lucky country. Life does not get much better than this.
KB
Allan Wood said
06:16 PM Apr 9, 2017
Well, born in '58 in a small country town to a family of conventional omnivores. I chose the hard road of vegetarianism from as early as can remember ( 2 or 3 yrs of age) despite the threats and punishments. Meat on the plate always seemed like an exercise in dissection to me. I spent most meal times banished to the back step.
Left home in the end because I needed to cook for myself as much as any reason.
The choices of cuisine are so much better these days which is terrific and I suppose I save a lot by not bothering about buying meat.
Pity it all changed hey.
Elbows OFF., Mouth CLOSED. Shoulders back. when at table.
BOTH legs under table please. Not like you ready to bolt..
Looking round. 99% do most of nowadays.
I'm guilty of elbow unless out eating.
BUT ALWAYS eat a meal at a table. Never plate on knees.
Restaurants frighten me. all those teeth and tonsils showing.
Where did we go wrong?
Used to have to wait to be given permission to leave the table. Many a time I would be jiggling up and down impatient to go out and play.
Sixpence worth of broken biscuits, better than any Big Mac.
Value for money? A Choo Choo bar would last forever.
One shilling on a Saturday used to get me a seat upstairs in the Lounge of the Corio Picture theatre matinee and a comic.
Lamb shanks used to be given to the dog.
LL you are so right "Where did we go wrong?"
Playing these days is staying inside on your iPad or computer, phone grafted onto your ear.
-- Edited by Landfall on Monday 3rd of April 2017 07:02:55 AM
The problem I see is big media beat up to make it looks like a probllem......lets starting putting em back in their place....just coz they too lazy to get off their backside to get a real story......oh they would be struggling to get outside the office and look around....especially without the devices they need ....
When I was first married, I used to buy a half side of lamb nearly every week. It had 8 or 10 loin chops, about a doz chump chops and shoulder and leg.
The dog used to get the shanks. Still refuse to eat shanks. I don't care how trendy it is.
Only have lamb now if I am having people for dinner. Its always well received. Although, I think some of the lamb you buy is really old lamb going on for mutton. (you can tell by the smell when its cooking). Roasts are so easy to serve up and its my kids favourite meal.
Rabbit, yabbies and fish were a great part of my young diet! Black Pudding, kippers and tatty scones from my mums side!
I wish we could buy real food, like an old boiling hen, good meat cut properly and fresh, ripe fruit, instead of stuff that sits in the fruit bowl and never ripens because people no longer believe that a ripe white nectarine is not hard and should cascade juice all over your chin!
Yea.
USEFUL migrants (like a lot of us) are a boon to all country's.
Unfortunately.....
When we first came here. 'late '73.
Milk from dairy (cold vat). Scoop cream off top in small jug first.
OOOooooooh.
Lambs. Merino\Suffolk. Usually around 40lb dressed.
Rang Brian. He'd put 3 in round pen by loading ramp with water for coupla days to clear them out.
I's slip round there with .22 and silencer. Pop them in brain while dozing.
NO hard meat.
Gut. bleed. Skin (Brian kept the skins.) $4\5 a head on the hoof.
Bob Dressed 3, kept one. (fair trade in my eyes.)
Beef. Shorthorn \Poll. Lovely meat. lived on hillsides.
went halves with Bob, Boner at meatworks.
Rang Doug.
He'd drop a slab of lucerne under old gum top of hill.
They'd amble up.
He'd select one.
Pop with 30'0. again in head, front lobe.
Chain blocks. gut. skin. Chainsaw down middle.
Round to Bobs shed where he dressed and packed.
1\2 each.
$45\50 a head on hoof again.
Rabbits and fox skins down the creek.
Fish, launch boat off beach or toss lures off rocks.
NAH. We had a **** of a life. Didn't we then.
Oh. Daughter brewed Beer. (still does)
and Garry does the best Single Malt.
or any other spirit you name.
In the 20 gall stainless beer kegs I gave him 30 yrs ago.
Decent sized batches. Daughter has one too.
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:32:16 AM
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:36:38 AM
-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 4th of April 2017 07:41:01 AM
Being allowed to slice a thick crust from a freshly delivered still warm loaf of bread and spreading it with real butter and golden syrup. The cardboard wrapped ice cream brick bought occasionally as a family treat in summer from the ice cream vendor's van. Later on Mr Whippy travelling through the suburbs playing his signature "greens leaves" tune so that all the kids lucky enough to get some money from their parents where waiting when he got to their street. I was born in 1956 and Lancelot we also had the s***carter as well as the coal man delivering his bags of coal , the bread vendor with his horse and cart, the fruito travelling the streets in his truck, the milko delivering the milk in glass bottles, the paperman throwing the rolled newspapers out the window of his car. I even remember the garbos coming around in an open top truck with the guys on the ground throwing full bins up to the guy on top who emptied them and threw them back down. Before there was money in football some players would work as garbos just to keep up their fitness. Macka same rules applied for us at the dinner table which the whole family sat down to every night and on Sundays for that traditional roast dinner regardless of whether it was 4deg or 40deg. outside.
I didn't grow up somewhere in the bush I grew up in the suburbs of what was at the time Australia's 6th biggest city - Newcastle.
Gday...
Ya know Macka - ya never (and I mean NEVER) cease to amaze me ... the things you like to share with everyone and the long-winded, fully and graphically descriptive (in fractured English) way you do that just takes my breath away.
Is there ANYTHING you ain't dun ?
and don't hold back - fill a page
Cheers - John
Yep !
My father always killed our own sheep and cattle for meat.
I just loved the mutton. Usually 3 year-old Border Lester cross. Beautiful.
We never killed lambs, so I hadn't tasted lamb until I went my own way.
Very disappointing after the mutton.
Home grown spuds too.
Much better than bought ones.
I have got used to lamb over the years, but the memories linger.
I grew up farming with all the "Australian food" but I am really thankful for the influence that "New Australians" have had on the food that is available and that we can eat now , a much broader and enjoyable menu not restricted by English tradition. I still really enjoy an "Aussie roast" but also look forward to Greek ,Thai , Chinese, Italian, Korean, Indian and many more great cuisines . We can now eat not only for sustenance but also for enjoyment , adventure and pleasure. Great times .Lucky country. Life does not get much better than this.
KB
Left home in the end because I needed to cook for myself as much as any reason.
The choices of cuisine are so much better these days which is terrific and I suppose I save a lot by not bothering about buying meat.