“Like Wolf Kempa and Irene Wheatley,I too suffered culinary shock in the 1950s (C8),but in England not Australia,” writes Penny Ransby Smith of Lane Cove. “Being sent from Africa to boarding school in England in 1955,I was introduced to the culinary delights of Grandmother’s Toenails (shrivelled baked apples,soggy on the outside but hard on the inside from being incompetently cored) and scrambled egg,hard,smooth and round as if set in aspic,not looking or tasting remotely like egg. Apparently,it was made from powered egg left over from the war which had ended ten years earlier.”
“My mum died at the ripe old age of 92,having chip sandwiches (C8) as a regular part of her diet for many decades,” says Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown. “Now there’s a good ad!”
There’s a lot more love out there for the chip sandwich,following Steve Lyons’ recent salutation,however,a number of readers,perhaps with a connection “up north” in England were quick to point out the correct term (hot or cold) is chip butty,“with appropriate accent,” adds Richard Hambly of Potts Point.
For Colin Taylor-Evans of Lane Cove it’s a reminder of a profound time:“A staple diet during the first weeks of lockdown in a South East Asian capital city (with police patrolling the streets with loudspeakers),meant quick dashes to obtain food and return to incarceration at the hotel with fresh bread rolls and packets of potato crisps! Those were the days!”
“Paris 2024’s Olympic surfing at Teahupo’o in French Polynesia,15,716 km away,has to be the furthest distance an event has ever been held from the host city?” suggests George Zivkovic of Northmead. Nope. The 1956 Melbourne Olympics equestrian competition was held in Stockholm,Sweden due to quarantine laws.
Matt Bottomley’s discoveries during a home excavation (C8),which included a Pecks Paste bottle,reminded Andrew Brown of Bowling Alley Point of his favourite find:“Comstock’s Bone and Nerve Liniment was the best of numerous bottles I unearthed under my home.”
Some sweet advice for Pasquale Vartuli (C8) from Chris Roylance of Paddington (Qld):“The best place for a Polly Waffle is Parliament.”
Column8@smh.com.au
No attachments,please. Include
name,suburb and daytime phone