another big favour

I need a little help with the subject of classic Australian treats. Does anyone know of any famous Australian children's books which mention treats such as lamingtons, Anzac biscuits, pavlova or peach melba? Although illustrated books and titles for very young readers often have lovely foody illustrations or rhymes, these are not what I'm looking for. So if anyone has a favourite book with a classic treat, I would love to hear from you.

Just so you know - Seven Little Australians and camp-fire damper are already on the list.

Thank you.

 

Comments

[Jenny]

Jane, I don't know anything about Australian treats, but I do know that I just moved to Singapore, and I was in the bookstore today and saw your book on the shelf!

[Cordelia]

The Possum Magic cookbook, based on a book called Possum Magic by Mem Fox. http://www.memfox.net/possum-magic.html

[SnapdragonJane]

I was going to suggest Possum Magic too - one of my daughters' favourites when she was little - but it might be too young an age group (3-5)
J
x

[Amy]

An Australian author named Jaclyn Moriarty has a few books for children/young adults (if this is the age you are looking for) and there are a few references to food in them. I'm not sure if the ones you are looking for are mentioned in particular, but the books might be worth taking a look. Her books include "The Year of Secret Assignments," "I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes," and "Feeling Sorry for Celia."

[Janet MF]

There are some great stories about Blinky Bill, a koala, (I think the name is - don't know who wrote it) but don't know if they refer to any Australian gourmet foods.
Good Luck,
Janet MF

[Ruth]

There is a book called The Magic Pudding by Norman Linday. Also Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, not too sure if they eat anything very special though, they are bush babies. Blinky Bill is iconic but I think he eats bush tucker if I remember correctly. Hope that helps.

[lucy]

One of my favourite books as a child was Walkabout by James Vance Marshall. I seem to remember that it was about a plane crash and an aboriginal boy finds a boy and girl and looks after them (sorry to be vague, probably twenty five years since I read it). There was lots of wildlife description and I am sure they must have longed for a lammington at some point! It is a classic australian children's book and must have been published way back in the sixties.

[sinda]

You definitely need to read The Magic Pudding.

[Lesley]

Jaclyn Moriarty books are excellent (and very modern). I think that the girls all eat a lot of popcorn and pizza and stuff (I'll check with Emily). Saw a reference only the other day to Anzac biscuits and can't remember where. It'll come to me and I'll let you know.

[Anna]

Hi,
Have not visit your blog in a while and saw the post with Devonshire split. As in Finland we have a similar bun in Sweden. We call it semla, see wikipedia! When I was little I use to read the books about the private detective Ture Sventon (by Åke Holmberg). He loved semlor and had a little portable fridge filled with them when he had a case in the desert. What a great idea! Do not know if the books have been translated to English though. Greetings from Stockholm.

[Angela Haigh]

I very much enjoy dipping into your blog and love the photos. I thought you might like to know (maybe you already do) that there is a lovely "Blue and White Show" on at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath at the moment, with work by Candace Bahouth, Carole Waller and Kaffe Fassett. Some lovely quilts, glorious patterns and fabulous blue and white china.
www.victoriagal.org.uk
Angela

[Deb]

Hi, love your blog! I'm american and don't know how famous these books are to you. They're on an amazon.com "listmania" page of favorite australian children's books, as compiled by a mom/librarian. At least one mentions lamingtons, and several others are stories about home life.

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Australian-childrens/lm/3R0137K01QLUO

[Rhian]

Hi there Jane. Love your blog and wonderful, wonderful, inspirational book! Although not a children's book at all what about 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'? It is a classic Australian novel which was then made into a film. It is essentially an atmospheric psychological thriller involving a group of priviledged private school girls going on a picnic with mysterious consequences. Although years since I've seen the film/read book so memory is vague on detail, it is all based around this picnic which must include foodie descriptions of possible traditional Australian fare! R x

[Dianne]

Hello, thought you might like to know that those foods are special New Zealand treats too and there is some dispute between New Zealanders and Australians as to which country invented the Pavlova. Just saying!

[lisette]

the billabong books by mary grant bruce are full of food and meals! always scones and afternoon tea. a little bush maid was the first one and there are about 10 in the series (i have them all!)

[littlejennywren]

Jane you could also try the books of Tasmanian author Nan Chauncey and I was going to add Mary Grant Bruce but Lisette beat me to it. Also Ruth Park wrote some wonderful books. She was born and raised in New Zealand but raised her family in Australia so you would have a foot in both camps. She has wonderful detail of family life in her books.

[Hilary]

Possum Magic! Vegemite sandwiches, lamingtons, pavlova - it's got the lot. OK, not peach melba (nobody really eats that, it's just a hotel dessert!!).

[Hilary]

Just read your post properly and realised that you didn't want anything for such young kids...

Well, I am a big reader and I just don't think we have/or had the same emphasis on food in our kids books. I read all the English ones, with ginger beer etc, but anything Aust just wasn't the same. Perhaps because we had more food, and didn't go to boarding school so much, it just wasn't as important! H

[Rose Red]

I've been beaten to it, but I second (or third) the Billabong books by Mary Grant Bruce, as well as The Magic Pudding - if you could find a recipe for that, you'd be legend!!

[Bron]

There's a lovely scene in one of the Billabong books, where Norah and family return from London to Billabong after WW1, and the housekeeper makes a sponge cake with '10 aigs' in it. Norah, having battled with rationing and having only 'egg powder' to use for years, swoons at the thought of 10 eggs in a single cake ;-)

There is another non-Billabong book by Mary Grant Bruce (Golden Fiddles?) where, in the opening chapter, the young heroine is busy baking cakes and delicacies to enter into the local Show. The family is not well-off, so the money that she wins is important to her. I can't remember, though, exactly what she cooks - I'll have to hunt out the book!

[Jill]

I asked the advice of my literary friend Kathleen who had this to say about the books by Mary Grant Bruce - "Billabong kids eat an awful lot. Tea and toast first thing in the morning, bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast, more tea mid-morning, often with scones or pikelets or something, sit down lunch (or, if they're out for the day mustering cattle sandwiches or egg and bacon pie), more tea in the afternoon with a repeat of the scones and pikelets, then high tea, with scones and cakes and biscuits and, naturally, more tea, then a big dinner with all the trimmings, and as often as not, cocoa and something nibbly for supper. Ginger biscuits got mentioned as a snack once. Riding after cattle with a stockwhip must be terribly good for burning fat. At Christmas they have a cold lunch, but it includes an enormous ham and an equally enormous turkey. Turkey with little frizzled sausages around the edge for someone's birthday, plus gigantic cake with white icing and pink lettering. Oh and Wally makes a stew! Possum and wallaby (?!) plus vegies and macaroni and things. That's in Billabong Adventurers. And they catch fish when they go camping. When they go to England during World War I they have to ration food, so they preserve absolutely everything and boil the bones three times for soup before they consider them used up. Their friend Tommy is always baking "something new and wonderful in the way of cakes" (Tommy is a girl), and they get a new neighbour who has immigrated from Ireland who makes potato cakes. I'm sure she can find something in all of that that's useful! And what about Golden Fiddles? Isn't Kitty making a jam roll for the Show on the first page?" !!
This website might also be useful: http://www.nla.gov.au/infoserv/faq/index.php?sid=1767948&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=15&id=14153&artlang=en

[kate]

I was also going to say Possum Magic (Poss needs to eat all of the Australian 'people foods' to become visible again) and the Magic Pudding.

For anyone who hasn't read it, the Magic Puddin' is a cut and come again puddin', who talks and is the brains of the operation. He changes flavours depending on the course, and keeps reforming so he never runs out. Invaluable if you get lost in the bush.

[--Deb]

Well, I don't, but I'm wondering ... since when is Peach Melba an Australian dessert? Considering it was invented for a French opera singer in Paris, and all. (The same singer who inspired Melba Toast.) Certainly, I see that here in the USA all the time... unlike the other desserts you've mentioned, which I've never heard of (grin).

[Nicholas]

Deb(from a previous comment), Dame Nellie Melba was Australian opera singer.

[B.]

I loved The Magic Pudding, but you'll be hard pressed to come up with a recipe for one!