Explaining food
Today I’m all about cultural dynamics over long periods of time. Since most of this concerns facets of history other than food, I won’t go into it, but since it’s haunting me, I thought you might like something a little related.
On the food front, Australia has tried to define its food history at various times. Many countries do. Self-definition is hardly a unique phenomenon. What’s really interesting, though, is that the definitions occurred in Australia just as a national food awareness exploded. The moment when the amazing fusion food coalesced is the exact same one that an advertising jingle was released that listed our national emblems. They apparently were ‘football, meat pies, kangaroo and Holden cars.’ You can see it for yourself here:
Back then, the meat pie was just the meat pie. Old-fashioned – white flour pastry with a solid beef or lamb filling. These days meat pies are full of everything from curried vegetables to steak and kidney. It’s still a part of our food culture, but it has changed to meet a more sophisticated country.
In Adelaide you can still buy pie floaters, where the pie is served upside down on a plate of mushy peas. I’ve been told it’s a great delicacy. The rest of us shake our head at such antics and argue about how you put the sauce on and the best way to actually eat the pie. We also argue whether gourmet pies are really dinkum. And while we argue about authenticity, we walk through the supermarket passing six or eight packs of old-fashioned meat pies. So far, they have outlasted every single food fashion. This probably explains why they were used as part of an advertising jingle in the 1970s.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
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March 11th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Brilliant - but with a slight cringe. I used to drive a few of those, and eat a few of those other things as well. Shot a few of those jumping things but I never did quite catch on to VFL (just keeping comment in tune with the age of the advert). Were we ever that crass? Oh dear, I guess we were.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:33 am
What’s great is we’ve grown out of most of it. Still a way to go, but we can look back and say ‘That was us,’ which is a start.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Driving to the football in the Holden, eating meat pies and missing the kangaroos - an essential part of Aussie culture.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:02 am
If you go home to a barbie, after the footie (driving a Mazda), there might be a roo steak on it. Things are changing, after all.