This Year, Australian (And, We're Back!)

Well, I hope you had or are having a nice seasonal celebration, if you have one. Our family had a very nice Christmas, celebrated in what has become our usual way—a traditional Polish Wigilia on Christmas Eve, ably hosted by my sister-in-law's brother, Ed Noyszewski, and his wife Mary—Wesołych Świąt!—and then a family-traditional internationally-themed dinner on Christmas day hosted by my brother and sister-in-law.

They are good enough cooks that their adventures in cooking are not only edible year after year, but delicious. This year the theme was Australian, so dinner consisted of, among other things, pumpkin soup (outstanding), a fish and lobster-claw appetizer, and kangaroo (what else?). You Ozzies out there might think kangaroo common, but it's exotic in the suburbs of Chicago. It's the only time I've ever tasted it (and the first time I've had red meat in almost three months). Strong but tasty. Dinner was topped off by a dessert concoction that would be better described as "out of this world" than Australian—it was called—it was called (brain struggles with proper-noun-aphasia...)—a "Pavlova," I think, after the famous dancer. I have no idea how common a dish that is in Australia, but I put forward a motion (that was seconded, and carried) that we make it a traditional dessert of ours. Yum.

We suspended our gift exchange a few years ago—there's only one child in the extended family at the moment, who is showered with plenty of gifts—so I took an amount of money and divided it between three charities. This year it was St. Joseph's Medical Clinic, a free clinic for the uninsured and underinsured in my hometown; the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation, in support of the Lakota kids, which I started helping to support on the recommendation of photographer Aaron Huey*; and the Philippine Red Cross, for Typhoon Haiyan relief. It's a great privilege to be able to give.

('Tis good to remember that the original Santa Claus, Nikolaos of Myra, a half-historial, half-mythical Greek bishop around whom are gathered many stories of gift-giving, gave to the poor and the needy. Sometimes it's good to give yourself a present too, though.)

After dinner we had a Bible reading by my nephew David, who recently converted to Mormonism, and a reading of fun facts about Australia collected by my neice Mari, who is thinking of becoming a teacher. Very interesting—lots that I did not know about our neighbors Down Under.

Ed and Mary are good friends, and it's always nice to stay over with them—this year we solved the world's problems until 3 a.m., which is always fun (Ed works as a night-shift nurse, so he was just getting into his usual day when I finally faded).

But talk about aphasia...I left my camera at their house, which is why this post doesn't include a photo. That's not middle age, however. I've been leaving cameras hither and yon all my life, starting with my first serious camera which I lost at age 14. I haven't lost more than that first one, but I misplace them often enough that I have anxiety dreams about it. Too bad there's not an app for that.

More later today—

Mike
(Illustration by Elisabeth Ivanovsky)

*Be a bit careful, though, because they sell your name and address. Although the Red Cloud School is bona fide and does good work, some of the "Indian Relief" organizations are faux-charities that donate very little to native Americans and keep most of the donations—93%, in the case of one I researched—for "administration." Just sayin'.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Peter Gilbert: "I'm an Aussie from Melbourne. Aussies, not Ozzies. Crayfish, not lobster. Kangaroo would be 5% or less of the meat department at the supermarket and rarely seen in a butcher shop. Glad to hear you liked the pav, they are pretty good.  :-) "

Pritnam Singh: "The nationality of the creator of the Pavlova dessert has been a simmering controversy between Australia and New Zealand since forever. I'd be loath to allow the credit for it to be handed to the Ozzies so facilely. If anything, it weighs in favour of the Kiwis so far as I know. In any event, it is an enduring controversy with a mostly good-natured tug-of-war between the two countries and a far less robust one than, say, rugby or cricket."

Mike replies: Not Ozzies, Aussies.

Peter: "Don't let anyone from New Zealand try to tell you pavlova was invented there. They do this all the time."

Comments

[steven Ralser]

a few comments - it's Aussie not Ozzie. kangaroos are common, like deer here in the US, but if i a correct is not eaten as much as deer is here. a kangaroo is on the the australian coat of arms.
Pavlova is heaven, especiallly topped with passionfruit,kiwi and mandarin slices. to make it properly you need extra heavy cream (from King Island in Bass Strait); this type of heavy cream is, as far as I know, not available here in the US.

Steve, from Aus, but now living in Madison.

[Alastair]

As in the traditional Scottish joke:

"Is that a pavlova or a meringue?"

"Naw, yer quite right: it's a pavlova."

All the best for 2014!

[Hugh Smith]

Mike:
I thought I might add my two pesos for the approaching New Year. To bring you up on my ability to predict photographic trends, I present the following past predictions I made (which were unerringly accurate):
“No one will ever invent auto-focus.” (One of my most accurate prognostications)
“Digital will never replace film.” (Kodak consulted me on this)
“No one will manufacture an ink jet printer capable of photographic quality.”
Rather than bore you with the details of my unerring predictions, I want to wish you a great 2014 (which I also predicted would never arrive) and a prosperous New Year. Thank you so much for TOP. I read it every day (when you aren’t taking unnecessary time off).
(BTW…phones will never have the quality of cameras for serious work.)

[Paul Mc Cann]

If you like Pavlova you'll love Eton Mess

[Kalli]

Oh, but there is an app for misplaced cameras. Well, you need more than an app, but there is a solution. It's called

[Kalli]

Seems like my HTML was bad in my first attempt to post this reply.

The doohickey is called Tile: http://www.thetileapp.com/

(I'm in no way associated with tie and this is not an attempt at buzz marketing. Just an attempt at a friendly suggestion of a thing I haven't tried but find to be clever.)

[Bruce Crawford]

Mike,

A quick Australian eating guide: Pavlova (we typical just say "Pav") is commonly eaten, Kangaroo is rarely eaten and seems mostly to be a restaurant meal.

Cheers,

Bruce

[The Lazy Aussie]

Kangaroo, the eating of it, is still fairly "exotic" here in Australia. Still struggles to make the jump from pet food. Pavlovas are very popular. New Zealand claims to have invented it, but we just ignore them.

[David Bostedo]

When visiting both Australia and New Zealand last year, I managed to find a Pavlova at any of the restaurants I visited only in New Zealand... so as far as I'm concerned, it's clearly a Kiwi dish.

[Peter McK]

What a great idea! We are in Hobart (Tasmania) this year, had a crayfish salad and home glazed ham for Christmas dinner - you also need to add an old favourite, a Barossa Valley sparkling shiraz. Let me know if you need buying advice. :-)

Best wishes for the New Year as well.

[Paul Byrnes]

If only you'd had the cricket on the telly (Australia vs England aka The Ashes) and a bushfire nearby, you'd have a full Aussie Christmas. Top it off with a family 'blue' (a row) and you'd be even more ridgy-didge (meaning real). Merry Xmas, Mike, and thanks for another stimulating year of posts. Onyer, as we say down 'ere - short for goodonyer.

[Paul Amyes]

A bit of 'roo is quite a nice treat, usedto eat quite a bit, but now very rarely as I don't eat a lot of red meat. The tail is the best bit, makes a nice casserole if cooked slowly. Roo is not farmed, well not here in Western Australia, and so most of what is shot is passed not fit for human consumption as they are prone to parasites and liver fluke so it used aspet food. My dog loves it.

The Pav, well the Kiwis always try to claim it as their own but the reality is if they'd of invented it it would not be named after the dancer but one of the All Blacks, thenational rugby team.

This is the first year we've not eaten crayfish at Christmas, it was just too expensive at $30 AUD for a tiddler. Most of them go to the lucrative Asian markets where they can get $60-100 AUD each for them wholesale. The catches have been pretty low over the last few years with many in the industry saying that it has been over fished..

[Brian]

I believe to Kiwi's Australia is Oz so they call them Ozzie's

[Mike R]

Mike,
A nice surprise to see a something po Polsku in this article. I try to keep the wigilia tradition going in my family - I'm the cook, as no one else has that memory. Our tree has one ornament that reads "Wesołych Świąt" - we capture on video the kids, and now grandkids as well, doing their best to say it.

A Happy New Year to you. (The Polish is a mouthful - I won't even try)

[Clayton Jones]

*Be a bit careful, though, because they sell your name and address.

Yes! After that terrible Indonesian tsunami in 2004 that killed over two hundred thousand people, I felt moved to make a contribution. I did some research and chose a relief agency that seemed non-political and got good marks on the low-%-for-admin scale and mailed a check.

My PO box was immediately inundated with it's own tsunami of requests for donations from over two dozen organizations that lasted well over a year, and even today I still get things from a few of them.

Lesson learned. I now make donations only through my church's national relief organization, which I did recently for the Philippines.

[Wesley Walker]

Yeah, the Pav is a controversial one, but it was apparently invented by a chef for a visiting Russian dignitary. Hmmm, does that make it Russian, then? Agree on the kangaroo comment by Peter G - small following (among consumers) and with Mike - very strong taste and bloody difficult to cook well (due to low fat content).

[Don Smith]

The first recorded Pavlova was created in New Zealand:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11897482

[Ross]

The best topping for Pavlova is Kiwifruit also popular in Australia.

But…no after lunch game of backyard cricket? Sorry Mike and family, you're out for a duck.

Season's greetings.

[Warren Hinder]

To really make that Pavlova sing try adding slightly roasted nectarines and pistachio's on top and if you like to go a little Italian add some vanilla and PannaCotta. You won't be disappointed

[Jeff Grant]

If you lived in Sydney, you would call it a lobster not a crayfish.

[John London]

Mike, Happy Seasonal Greetings and glad to hear you had a good Christmas. If you ever come to the UK you are welcome to stay at my place, bring ALL your cameras for discussion etc and on departure I really hope you do not have an aphasia attack - please. lol

[Nigel from NZ]

Hi Mike,

In a similar vein we had a New Zealand Christmas dinner in Hamburg. Pineapple on cheese on toothpicks as an entree, grilled (i.e barbecued) lamb and ... pavlova.

As per this link

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/last-word-new-zealand-created-pavlova-3933575

the Oxford English Dictionary has declared pavlova to be 'ours', i.e NZ's.

We might just let the Aussies have Phar Lap in return. Or not.

[Tim F]

Funnily enough we had the pavlova debate after our xmas pavlova this year. Of course it was invented in Australia proper but it is hard to prove. The best google offers is the earliest known recipe in an Australian book. And yes they are great! Although not something you'd ever find in an Australian restaurant, they probably aren't fashionable enough. BTW very few Australians I know would eat kangaroo ever ;)

[Phil]

Kangaroo is free range, ethically harvested and very low in fat. It's a bit gamey, like strong venison, and needs to be cooked very rare or else long and slow. I cook "Coat of Arms" stew for any overseas visitors we get (I'm in Adelaide). It's a ragu of kangaroo and emu, with wattle seed dumplings. Try doing that in Britain! You might be able to get a big cat somewhere, but a unicorn - no way!

Australia's coat of arms has a kangaroo and emu holding up each side of a shield, with a sprig of wattle (Acacia) behind.

[Mac Young]

As a 6th gen Aussie, we never eat kangaroo. I don't know anyone who does. It's a bit like like an American chowing down on bald eagle. :)

As for pumpkin soup, it's never eaten at Christmas. Most Aussies cannot afford lobster (crays) but as for medium king prawns, now you're talking. We had 5-6 kgs for lunch last Wednesday.

As for pavlova, the Kiwis would steal the harbour bridge if they could. It's Aussie through and through. And yes, it is best with Chinese gooseberries, the real name for "kiwi fruit". Having said that, there are some good things to come out of NZ. Air New Zealand, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. (Love baiting the Kiwis :))

Happy new year!