Family Food Fare and Favourites
Join me as I dig through my memories, and recipes, to rediscover my family’s food “back in the day” and how those food habits have changed over the decades to today’s diverse and multi-cultural cuisines. This is my theme for the 2021 A to Z challenge.
THEN
There’s a paucity of U foods in my then and now recipes. Does it count that I remember drinking unpasturised milk while on a Guide camp on a farm near Brisbane? It was still warm from the milking and unusual enough to have it unpasteurised that it’s remained in my mind.
One food that stood out for me was mum’s Upside Down Cakes and puddings. These were quite popular back in the day and I’ve found two of her recipes: a Ginger Upside Down Pudding and Spicy Fruit Upside Down Cake with fluffy custard. I’m quite intrigued by the fluffy custard I have to say.
NOW
Since I couldn’t think of a single food or recipe from our current repertoire that started with U, I’m going to share some Unusually named recipes from mum’s collection.
April Showers, BoPeeps, Black Devils Food Cake, Chinese Chews, Coconut Brambles, Cupboard Loves, Dandy Pudding, Drover’s Damper, Hard times, Cake, Heavenly Tart, Kola Sandwich, Lady Betty Sponge, Moonbeams, Peach Floss, Rock and Roll, Senorita Cake, Spumoni Parfaits, and Sunny Peach Pie. Aren’t they great names? In honour of our April A2Z challenge I’ll share the April Showers recipe.
NEW FOOD FARE
Yes, Udon is a current food in Australia but as we haven’t delved into Japanese cuisine except in the most cursory way (sushi anyone?), I can’t lay claim to it myself.
I do have an unusual fruit to share with you, though – one we saw at an Open Garden a couple of years ago. It’s called Buddha’s Hand and we were intrigued to see it in temples in Vietnam. Our daughter said on Facebook she thought it was sweet potato chips….lol.
Do you cook any dishes that have Unusual Names?
Have you taken to Japanese cuisine and udon?
Family history across the seas 
Milk straight from the cows, yes I grew up on unpasteurised milk but it was fresh every day. My mother in law made a delicious upside down pineapple cake but my favourite upside down recipe now would be Tarte Tatin. Love the collection of unusually named recipes.
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I’m feeling the urge for a pineapple upside down cake 🙂
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Ok you got me — that photo of Mr. Cassmob with the Buddha’s Hand Fruit enticed me to scan down this post quickly. What a fascinating looking food! And kudos to you for finding an April recipe 🙂 My favorite U food is Pineapple Upside-down Cake — specifically my grandmother’s — and I can taste it even as I write this! https://mollyscanopy.com/2021/04/undaunted-seventh-blogiversary-atozchallenge/
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All this talk of Pineapple Upside Down cake is making me hungry! Do you have your grandmother’s recipe? I’m feeling a bit left out because I don’t remember my grandmother cooking much except perhaps gem scones.
Yes, that Buddha’s Hand is pretty strange…if I see another one I’ll have to see if we can get a taste.
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I’ll take a look.
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Hmmm – dishes that have unusual names??? I don’t necessarily cook any but I collect recipe books that are unusual in their own right. The Davis Gelatine cookbooks are my favourite by combining all sorts of ingredients and then burying them in gelatine and thinking that makes it okay. Here are some unusually named recipes from the Canberra Grammar School recipe book published in goodness knows when (PJ McKeown was the headmaster which gives us a long time-frame as he was headmaster from 1959-1985!) but I’m thinking early 1960s. There are Afghans (a type of biscuit I think), Coffee Cockles and Powder Puffs. Or how about Sloppy Joes? I think they’re a kind of mince meat pattie. Ooh I found a recipe for Parsnip Souffle. There are simply not enough recipes for the humble parsnip. Now this is an interesting one – Zombie’s Secret which is a dessert featuring avocados. I know right? Basically you cut two avocados up into cubes, add them to banana slices, together with a packet of cream cheese cut into cubes. Sprinkle the lot with grated coconut and cinnamon mixed with sugar. Chill. Wait for it. Whip cream, stir in strong sweetened coffee and pour over the mixture. I think I’m going to be sick. Page 57. I kid you not. Apparently the recipe is from Haiti.Lady Hicks supplied a recipe for something called Melbourne Snow. A quick and easy dessert apparently. I am delighted to find a recipe for Kimchi in there as well from K.S. Choi
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LOL Re the gelatine. An interesting hobby to collect unusual recipe books…do you have many? Parsnip Soufflé made me wrinkle my nose as I’m not a parsnip fan. As for Zombie’s Secret!!! Perhaps a recipe for Halloween? Who knew Kimchi was even known in Oz until recently.
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My mother talked about drinking raw milk right from the milk pail but not sure I’d like the warm milk. You could do an A to Z on the unusual recipe names.
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I think that was my plan when the theme started in my mind last year but why keep things simple? Lol
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