And another thing

it’s nice getting invited to someone’s place for dinner. Not so much for the social aspect. I’m more excited about the fact that we don’t have to make dinner at home. But there’s always the question of who else is going to be there? And what are they going to serve? Not, one hopes, eggplant. I can’t abide eggplant. Is it even a food?

We went to a friend’s house for dinner recently and I’m delighted to report that the company was great and the food magnificent. It was good plain Aussie fare and it was Australia Day and I am quite happy to celebrate that and even happier to eat roast lamb followed by pavlova. I know the Kiwis reckon they invented pavlova but

I don’t believe it. The lamb came with baked vegies and the pavlova featured mango and pineapple. Queenslander!

Forget all the fancy food in expensive restaurants, this is the sort of tucker that interests me. We had a few meals such as this in France recently. In Lyon we ate at a very traditional restaurant which the late Anthony Bourdain loved – Le Cafe Comptoir Abel. We had real comfort food there and I ate kidneys in gravy. So good.

Where can you get that here I’d like to know? Growing up we used to eat kidneys and mum would make lamb’s fry and sometimes crumbed brains were on the menu. And we used to have tongue sandwiches. Remember them?

My Irish grandmother used to make an Irish stew with dumplings which was pretty damn good and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding was also on our menu at home. My mum made a terrific Yorkshire pudding. My wife makes a pretty good damper. That’s good plain Aussie fare too. I eschew camping but would happily eat stew cooked in a camp oven and served with damper chased down with strong, sweet tea. Maybe I would have made a good swagman? On second thoughts, maybe not.

Oh you can have your expensive restaurants. The other night I had an extra serving of roast lamb and more spuds and I had two helpings of pavlova and I was in heaven. It doesn’t take much, does it?