Sorry - I forgot to look back at the posts! Yes - the pie floater. well, not being a native of South Australia I did actually try one of these one night (it’s the sort of food you eat very late at night after a long evening of partying). I have to say that it was quite delicious, but at 3.30 in the morning maybe anything would be. For those who don’t know about this culinary delight - it is a steak pie upended in very thick pea soup. How it ever got to be a South Australian food item amazes me - they have the most beautiful food in Adelaide, not to mention being in the middle of a premium wine growing district. So they invent the pie floater. Maybe it was a back-lash against trendy restaurants!
It’s always funny watching non-Aussies try vegemite for the first time. The problem is they smother it on too thick and then run around retching. I’m sure every country has running jokes like this.
Actually, the people who say “nile” for “nail” are usually (a) non-Australians trying to imitate an Australian accent or (b) residents of Queensland (the Deep North). When I used to go there for holidays when I was a kid my sister and I used to mimic the accent and fall about laughing hysterically. I think TV and radio have “smoothed out” a lot of these accents, a pity because we could all do with a few laughs!
Vegemite: it is one of those things that you have to be trained to like from infancy. I love it - especially on crusty fresh bread. It apparently is rich in Vitamin B but I wouldn’t care - I just eat it! There is even a Vegemite song (ask your Australian friends to sing it - it is the most idiotic tune ever written and sticks in your brain like…Vegemite).
He was born and raised in WA. A super nice guy. He came to Canada for about 9 or 10 months, found a nice Canadian girl and then both went to Australia.
It was a lot of fun, especialy at first, to get used to the different ways we say things.
I am a carpenter so the word ‘nail’ came up the first day.
When I figured out what he meant when he said ‘nile’, I asked him what he calls that long river that runs North through Africa. He laughed and said that he pronounces it the sime. Oh well, maybe his Aussie friends find that he has an accent too.
It is not a brown gravy. Here is a link from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravy. The thickened kind mentioned in the article is what I am talking about.
To make it, you first cook your meat. Then remove the meat from the pan. This leaves only the fat/juices and small pieces of meat in pan. Add flour and stir until brown. Then add milk. Stir until all/most lumps are gone and it thickens. You take this and put it on a biscuit, it is very good. Wait, my mouth is watering again…must clean off the keyboard.
It is very popular in the southern US, especially in rural areas.
Yes, that is interesting, because most of us say it “nay-ill” - not “nale” as BBC announcers would. There is a noticable difference between the way Sydney people (me f’rinstance) and South Australians speak. We say “a” as in “cat” in words like “plant” and here they say “plarnt”.
And have you heard the Vegemite song yet?
Wow! I don’t know if this is just really clever or if we’re under some kind of surveillance here . . . But the talk about vegemite made this Google ad appear here at Textkit:
Buy Vegemite Online
Can’t find anwhere to buy Vegemite We’ve Got Your Toast Covered
And as a result of the mention of aussie food in general . . .
Dining Downunder Cookbook
Deliciously easy recipes and ideas for an authentic Australian flavour
And by the way: perhaps Vegemite Online is not such a bad idea. I’ve met Australian students abroad who brought their own supplies along, not relying on being able to find this food abroad . . .
hehehe, I realised it was a savoury scone and not a sweet one
Thanks for the detailed description Rhuiden, but I’m still having trouble with this… just put it down to cutural differences, eh?
Vegemite is the Aussi equivalent of Marmite, right? Well, my cousin lives in the US and of course he can’t survive without Marmite any less than I can, so he has some jars of Marmite which he just brought back from the UK. Apparently to an American Marmite ‘smells like shoe polish and tastes worse’.
I think it tastes great though, but according to a survey from the Marmite company, if you weren’t exposed to this toxic smelling substance before the age of four, the chances that you’ll actually like it are very slim.
Marmite’s official slogan is Love it or Hate it!
After living in MD for a few years, I’ve come to really like crab cakes. For the most part I hate sea food (fish included), so I resisted for some time, but there is a crab shack on every corner here, and even my local pizza place has homemade crab cakes, so after awhile, I couldn’t resist. They’re yummy. - especially the spicy ones.
But I used to live in San Diego, how I miss all the little taco places…
Marmite is the poor cousin of Vegemite. Real Vegemite is tangy and kind of salty, Marmite just tastes like a beef stock cube. There is no substitute, and also Marmite doesn’t have a song!
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