ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

For those looking for Winter warmers,

you could do those fancy gourmet cooking show meals and trendy recipes in the newspapers, but NONE of them come anywhere near the great gourmet winter feast delight of the fifties which was;

A hot chip sandwich with tomato sauce dressing,

second only to the greatest of all,

Half a loaf of bread with the soft part removed, then the crusty shell filled with hot chips from the fish and chip shop.

Winter comfort food and a banquet fit for a king.

I'm with Neville, don't know why I'm a 100 kg.

TTFN

Always had a slab of butter added to the half loaf with the chips! Always thought this was an invention of the kids in my school at Leichhardt in Sydney but obviously it was apparently well known.
What about fried slices of garlic or devon sausage with fried eggs and tomato sauce?
Fried bread with fried eggs?
Saveloys and mushy peas? Find it hard to buy a good saveloy these days.
Bubble and squeak?
How about bread and milk or macaroni and milk for breakfast?
What about if you were desperate: tomato soup made from tomato sauce and hot water?

G'day Vic,

You have reminded me of some street kids I knew in the late 60s. the used to go into a coffee shop and have the cheapest drink on the menu then pocket all the sugar and sauce in sachets to have later . I don't know where they got the hot water from but they did mention the tomato sauce soup. They also told me about getting fruit from bins at the back of Paddy's Market (and stale bread to dip in their soup). Another thing was 'Hotel Cheap'. They would buy a city circuit rail ticket and stay on the train all night. It was a little warmer than the park.

My Mum used to make the fried bread with the egg in the middle. Cooked in pure dairy butter. Sometimes on a Sunday we would have fried scones with golden syrup for lunch.

Well Vic and Zondrae, I don't remember the tomato sauce soup, I do remember the Vegemite soup ( same method of preparation )

And Zondrae some people used to get a ticket on the Manly Ferry and just stay on board going back and forth on a cheap harbour cruise.

Ah saveloys Vic, that takes me back. battered savs were my favourite.

Hi Neville you reminded me of a little incident that happen to me when I lived in
Maryborough VIC I had a Basenji dog Called Rebel and he lived up to his name.
Now as I lived only 300 yards from the back of the butchers shop and Blue'y Diamond the butcher used to make his own Sav’s and they were dam good he would cook them in his copper at the butchers shop and then hang them up to drain. Well Reb climbed out and decided that they looked good so he grabbed some and took of back home. Now Bluey saw the rear end of Reb running out the yard dragging a trail of sav’s with him now bluey saw where he went and came to my place later that evening laughing and complaining about my dog and my remark to him was this Now Blue I told you never serve him as he has got no money to which we adjourned to the pub and had a few beers you see I used to train Buey's Trotter and he was a handy horse

Bill Williams

Don't know if this was generally the case but when we were in Tasmania about two years ago the bloke in a fish and chip shop said he had never heard of battered savs and doubted if they were sold on the island. After I explained the intricacies of a battered sav to him he reckoned he would corner the market in Tassie.

Similarly, I threw a sandwich shop in New Zealand into chaos by asking for a salad sandwich. Had to instruct them vegetable by vegetable how to make one which completely confused them because they then didn't know how much to charge me.

Vic

Bad dog, bad dog, Bill

Tasmania and New Zealand Vic. what would you expect, cultural wildernesses.

When we were kids and lived on a farm, shopping trips happened once a month, the treat was a big pot of saveloys, served on thick slices of bread cut from the old tin loaves you could buy then[their just not the same anymore] with tomato sauce, looked forward to those saturdays, your right, savs just dont taste the same these days.We got our supplies from the corner store in Young, us kids got a shilling to spend, you could get a big bag of bullseyes for a shilling, dont see those lollies anymore.Bread and milk for breakfast was a regular thing. Does anyone know if you can still buy Fritz, mum used to make our sandwiches with it, yummo.

For three or four years I worked for a company (who will remain nameless) that produced saveloys. Sales were falling and we tried to tell them that our customers were getting complaints about the taste. They didn't believe us and were so sure of themselves they arranged an anonymous taste test. They lined up plates with little pieces of all the savs you could buy locally and made us silly sales people rate them. We couldn't agree on the best one but were unanimous about the worst one, and it was ours. Fail.

I always found it interesting when I was doing that job that so many deli managers, and butchers for that matter, were vegetarians. Probably says it all.