Milkbar Memories

This book has been squashed into a small section at the back of my brain since my first book, Grub: Favourite Food Memories, was published in 2007. That’s almost ten years of pondering and stuffing ideas back into a cerebral drawer. Somewhere during that period I decided to make Japan my temporary home, which was without a doubt the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I fell in love with my new home Kyoto, and met the love of my life, who just happened to be a fellow Aussie. We’d still be there now if it wasn’t for silly things like visas…

While I was writing my book Zenbu Zen: Finding Food, Culture and Balance in Kyoto, I became deeply connected to all kinds of Japanese cuisine, from the most healthy, to the crisp and comforting, to the downright challenging — but after a while I began to miss and crave certain foods from home. My humble abode, like most Japanese apartments, had no oven, which also meant there was no baking of any kind.

When we returned to Sydney I was drawn once again to the idea of writing a follow-up to Grub. That book was all about favourite foods from childhood that our mums and grandmothers cooked for family and friends; the kind of recipes that are often lost with the generations and rarely found in one modern compendium. My aim was to put them all in one safe place. The book was rather popular in Australia and the UK, and readers still contact me out of the blue to tell me how much they loved it and how they’ve bought one for every family member, and which recipes they’ve cooked out of it (sometimes with photos!) — often sharing food memories of their own.

While I hope people will connect as strongly with their own ‘milkbar memories’ as they did with their favourite family food memories, I wanted this book to be almost the opposite of homey — to include all those ‘fun’ foods from childhood: the stuff we ate on a Friday night when no one could be bothered cooking after work, or when mum and dad were going out for the night and takeaway was on the menu (with Tracey the cool babysitter who was heavily into KISS), the naughty stuff we snuck in on weekends when our parents weren’t looking, food finds from family road trips, and the sweet icy treats we craved on summer holidays at the beach. (I probably shouldn’t mention the lollies we nicked from the milkbar on our walk to school in the mornings. I blame it all on my bestie of 40 years, Vanessa — so dobbed on!) I wanted to paint a picture of freedom, mirth and frivolity, but also a connectedness to family and time spent together.

My food memories are predominantly fuelled by my dad, who was a foodie before there was a tag for such a thing. He LOVED his food, and he is without doubt responsible for my lifetime of really freakin’ enjoying it and making it an important part of my career.

Unlike me, dad was very sports active, right up until his rather untimely death (he was on a golf driving range at the time). And no, it wasn’t from overeating — just one of those unfortunate things. He was happy, healthy, didn’t drink or smoke, ran his own business where he worked harder but shorter days than most, and spent the rest of his time living life to the fullest, which made it much easier for us when he died at 58, knowing he had managed to fit ten lives into one.

He really got a kick out of life and all its glorious parts, but one thing he was almost obsessive about was good food. Even though he couldn’t cook a piece of toast, he appreciated fine cooking by others, so I was very fortunate to eat in some great restaurants from an early age, and we’d talk about the food, the flavours, the textures, how it was made and what country it came from. We formed relationships with restaurateurs, who were amused by my prematurely sophisticated palate; I’d want to know what was in that cake or salad dressing from the age of eight. Funny how these things can shape our futures.

When I was in primary school, my dad was on the road each day as a sales rep (and in the surf on either side of it), and was always excited to share his latest finds with me. If I was home from school sick (or ‘chucking a sickie’) he’d bring me something from the milkbar or the pie shop, and sometimes fish and chips. Often on a Friday night we’d have burgers from the Greek milkbar down the road, but when the shop changed hands and the burgers weren’t up to scratch, dad went on the hunt for the best burger elsewhere in the area. He was relentless in his quest for the tastiest grub, the most pristine seafood in his fish and chips, the flakiest pie pastry, and he was rather demanding when it came to the exact amount of malt in his chocolate milkshake. Like father like daughter. On weekends, if we did our chores — and sometimes just because — we’d get 20 cents to walk up to the milkbar on the corner and buy a bag of mixed lollies. Boy, those bags seemed so full as we carefully carried our sugar bounty back down the hill; we’d have to share them with dad, of course, when we returned.

While this book might at first appear particularly ‘naughty’ health wise, it is less so than it could be… and I’ve given lots of alternative ingredients and variations along the way. Besides, I’m not suggesting you cook everything in this book at once, or eat this food on a daily basis — these are the recipes you want around for when you do feel like a little trip down memory lane.

Most of us are aware now that we need to exercise and eat a balance of foods, but this whole anti-sugar, anti-carb, anti-this and anti-that does my head in. I don’t believe you should eliminate any one thing from your diet unless you have a medical condition — hey, none of us are built exactly the same! — but I do believe we should eat less of some things than others, and trial foods and different ways of eating until you find the right fit for you.

What concerns me most is not knowing where our food comes from, or what preservatives and chemicals are in it, how processed certain foods are, how clean the food preparation areas are, what frightening ingredients are included in certain fast foods — that kind of thing. I’m all for having a treat if you are generally eating healthily, but whether you are feeding yourself or a houseful of kids, wouldn’t you rather make your own version of that particular indulgence, and know it has been made with all care, love and real ingredients? Yes, shock horror, you will find fat, sugar, dairy, carbs etc in most of these recipes (pies, fish and chips, lollies, ice creams — you know, all the stuff we sometimes crave and wish we didn’t), but if you eat them in moderation or on a special occasion, what is the real harm?

I encourage you to stay away from the fast food joints, to buy organic to ensure you are taking in less chemicals generally, use less refined sugars where you can, replace dairy with an alternative natural creamy substitute if you have a lactose-intolerant person in the house, use your brain when it comes to nuts (if a child has a nut allergy, try sesame seeds or coconut in these recipes) — you know, just be reasonable and smart with your eating.

If you feel the same way, and like the idea of these treats being better for you — and often more cost effective than buying them ready-made — then you will get a lot out of this book.

If you are hosting a kiddies’ party and would like the lolly bags filled with more natural sweeties, or you live in a household not wanting to shell out a small fortune for a few gourmet pies or fish and chips, or you are simply being a little more conscious about what you put into your body, then you will find this book a useful reference. Sure, it takes a little more time and energy than driving up to a window and having your food handed to you in a paper bag, but the flavour, texture and health benefits are surely worth it.

In the Milkbar chapter you’ll find things like burgers, fizzy drinks, shakes, sandwiches and doughnuts — a selection of items spanning almost five decades are represented.

In Australia, just about every milkbar had a good selection of ice creams and ice blocks in their ice cream cabinet, so these icy highnesses have a dedicated chapter all of their own.

The Lolly Counter has all your old-time favourites: musk sticks, cobbers, coconut marshmallows, caramel buds, liquorice and chewy mints, to name a few.

The Pie Shop speaks for itself: savoury and sweet pies, tarts, sausage rolls, quiche…

No prizes for guessing what you’ll find in the Fish ’n’ Chip Shop chapter, but I’ve also included a wide variety of cookery methods, and a few items you’d only find in a more contemporary joint — and for those with a sweet tooth and memories as long as mine, pineapple and banana fritters!

In the Corner Store chapter you’ll find home-made recipes for all those staple pantry items such as tomato, barbecue and tartare sauce, syrups for home-made fizzy drinks, shakes and ice cream treats, as well as home-made pastry, mayonnaise and even peanut butter.

Enjoy your food. It is such a big part of our existence that it really pays to appreciate and love every bite.