Tucker Track, Warren Fahey
Today I have a book about Aussie foodways for you to meet. It’s called Tucker Track: the curious history of food in Australia by Warren Fahey. It’s a folkloric approach, which makes it easy reading, and it also means that it’s close to the kind of way I like to think about the past. Everything fits together in my world, and if I haven’t found out how they link together then I don’t know nearly enough about the subject.
Fahey looks at ingredients (from meat and veggies to bush tucker) but he also looks at how dinner is served, what home cooking is all about, grace and iconic foods. (I’m cheating madly here and running my eye down the table of contents.)
This is one of those books I can’t give you a quick opinion on. I would need to sit down and spend some time with it first. I do like his approach, though, and the range of subjects his book encompasses. Fahey says that the book is “about us as a community, both an Australian and international community.” He’s talking about links. Ties that bind. Food that helps establish where we fit and how we fit. Links.
I like it that, from the very beginning, he’s aware that he’s writing in time. He calls his book “a time capsule” and recognizes quite clearly that the world is changing even as he writes and that the changes from the First Fleet till now are not the only changes, ever. So many folklore people keep an underlying theme of permanence in the work – I much prefer it if the change is acknowledged and understood, and time is appreciated as an important aspect of culture. The book is worth reading just for this.
The sort of things you expect to find are there, like a quick study of the values imbued in terms such as “born with a silver spoon” and “a dog’s breakfast.” (This makes me wonder how people who are born with silver spoons in their mouths avoid becoming dig’s breakfasts, but really, that is a frivolous concern and I shall rise above it.)
He also includes enough theory for the casual reader to make sense of things, plus a nice range of topics and ingredients.
I’ll return to this book again, I think. Not soon, but one day.
July 13th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Warren Fahey is a National Living Treasure. He started Folkways Music store in Sydney, and started Larrikan Records soon after (the label responsible for the Bushwackers etc). He helped kickstart the folk music scene in Australia. But he’s never precious. He truly believes that folk is something that is always evolving (unlike many in the folk scence that want to preseve things in aspic). He’s a hugely entertaining storyteller too.
I must get a copy of that book.
Here’s his website.
http://warrenfahey.com/wf_intro.htm
July 13th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Do you have his other book When Mabel Laid the Table The Folklore of Eating and Drinking in Australia?
Let me know if you don’t and I can get it for you.
July 13th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I don’t have a copy of his other book. My brain is hurting - right now there are so many books I want!
I knew who he was, but didn’t know his name, of all things. It wasn’t until you said “Bushwackers” that it all came together in my mind and I realised I knew about him without actually knowing who he was.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I have a copy on order for you. But I’m reading it before I give to you.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Thank you - and of coruse.
I was going to ask if you wanted me to find you a copy of the book I have, given I got it locally.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I should warn you - the copy of Mabel is pre-loved (thank AbeBooks). Only get me a copy if it’s not expensive. I can get a second hand copy fairly easily and cheaply via ABEBooks.
I’ll deliver it when we are down that way - although with everything that is going on I’m not sure when we will be down.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Pre-loved is fine. Me, I was thinking of CLouston and Hall - it’s just a matter of me getting to Civic (which may or may not happen while they still have copies).
July 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Okay then, but only if you’re going that way, and I’ll pay you back.