Fish and quips on St George's Day
I've previously spoken, as a guilty lurker, of checking out Pioneer Woman everyday (Sorry, you can't click through. She doesn't need ANOTHER link! C'mon, I'm not being mean... am I?)
Another blog I semi-lurk at is Sam's blog at Becks & Posh. Sam is English, living in San Francisco, and an ultimate foodie. Not only does she like to cook it, photograph it, and eat it, BUT she has the energy to blog about it too!
To celebrate St George's Day - which was yesterday - Sam launched a blampaign (blog campaign) called 'Fish and Quips', inviting all bloggers to do their bit to prove English food isn't a joke, and to post a delicious English tucker recipe on their blog to celebrate.
Well, I just popped on over to Sam's and started drooling immediately. The recipes and pics submitted by bloggers around the world look absolutely mouth-watering, and being an Aussie, there's a lot of familiar dishes there (I'd say I was brought up 60 per cent English stodge style, 40 per cent combined Asian (and in Oz, Asian is East Asia, not the Indian sub continent) and Mediterranean).
But looking through this list made me realise something else.
I actually feel sorta at home in England. Now... I'm still a proud Aussie, orright?! I've never lived in the UK, I've only been there a handful of times, and I still don't want England to win anything like the cricket or the rugby.
However, in light of the fact that my 'home' home is an expensive 27 hour flight away, and that I have many friends and family in the UK (oh, and I'm a British citizen), the UK is the place I go to when I need to speak English and stock up on Vegemite and Aussie wine buy products I'm familiar with.
And as it was, moving to Sydney made me realise that Poms and Aussies are very similar. We talk the same language (well, we do!). We're not selfish - we haven't taken you, I mean, the 'u' out of colour, favour, humour or favourite. And we're poncy with our spelling - we like writing cheques, changing tyres, and playing tennis with racquets.
And then there's the suburbs. In Australia, we have: Lewisham, Haymarket, Croydon, Paddington, Brighton, Kensington, Petersham, Chiswick, Camberwell, Camden, Guildford, Cleveland, Gladstone, Kew, Richmond and Hyde Park, to name a few...
(Then again, we also have Woolloomooloo, Kurri Kurri, Narraweena, Ku-ring-gai, Woolloongabba, Murwillumbah, Tallebudgerah, and Wooloowin... But just ignore me.)
And... we all love Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. And we love fish and chips (and if you come from Noo Zulland, you'd love fush and chups).
So there you go. Check out the tucker. It makes me want to go to England.
11 comments:
What a great post but then I'm bias!
OK so explain the English passport thing?
Btw they also speak English in Ireland and I'm sure they sell vegemite here...somewhere...hint hint.
I am honoUred to have inspired such a post. Thank you!
little miss moi that was a lovely tribute to England and we're all glad you feel at home here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some sort of link between Australian and Great Britain?
Hi, it's just me again.
I just washed my hands and can't do a thing with them! That typo should have read 'Australia'.
Willowtree do you mean the sort of link whereby half of you are related to British criminals of a bygone era?
Anyone what can spell humour properly like, can come and make themselves at home in Blighty.
Dear beccy. English passport? My dad was born on the sunny shores of Scotland. Ohh... I didn't know they spoke English in Ireland, I thought they just spoke Guiness. Or is that drink?
Dear sam. No worries! I really enjoyed the good english tucker and am planning to cook more than a few of the recipes. If I can find the ingredients in Ukraine.
Dear chrisb. No worries... I think England is a lovely country! Especially since you lot figured out how to chill beer ;o)
Dear willowtree. I didn't know there was. Oh you mean that the Poms were at Gallipoli too?
Hi willowtree. Didn't notice the typo, but now you pointed it out... Har har har!
Dear beccy. I'm one of them! On my non british citizen side, I'm a Irish catholic crim, well, was. Seven generations ago!
Dear mind the gap. Properly-like, or proper-like?
I don't think all of them were criminals---the Irish that got banished to Van Diemian's [Spelling??] Land. I think some just objected to the Brits taking over in Ireland, were too vocal about it, in said Brits' opinion, and were therefore shipped off to where they would cause less trouble..... I kept waiting for your recipe....got one you want to share?
Some Irish also came over during the potato famine in the early 1800's as assisted passengers (hence my birth in Aust many years later). Popped over and look at all those wonderful recipes - boy do they make you hungry. Ready to get out the ingredients and start cooking.
Dear Molly. Yep, they do say they were not all criminals. Australia did start off as a penal settlement, I believe South Australia is the only state that didn't start off as a prison. And people got transported for things like 'stealing a loaf of bread' or 'going to mass' etc. They say HM's Govt basically transported as many people as poss - out of sight, out of mind - because the prisons were so overcrowded that rif raff were caught by police and put into rotting hulks in harbours all around the UK.
When convicts in Oz won their freedom in Australia, they were too poor to pay to return home...
Dear soozii. Welcome. Well, the Irish, English and Scots kept coming and coming! Luckily they did or neither or us could call ourselves an Aussie! We're lucky to have the best weather in the world (even if we have no drinking water).
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