Thursday 17 September 2009

Mango in the Seventies


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Sydney has Hair playing in Kings Cross and Victoria is in a Mango prohibition.
Its the The Seventies.
We liked to ban stuff in those days. The Little Red School Book, 6 Skyhooks tracks off one album, Khe San, pantsuits to work, Frank Hardy’s Power without glory. Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport was banned from the ABC and I kid you not Mangoes were banned in Victoria in the seventies. So when you made the pilgrimage to Sydney to see Tully and Keith Glass in Hair [statute of limitations] it was expected that you smuggled back a case of ripe mangoes in the boot. A recipe from OZ magazine [also banned] notes that the preferred way to eat mangoes in the seventies is in the bath with a couple of very close friends

5 comments:

BwcaBrownie said...

That's a lovely photo of Mr Floyd.
Bon Vivant.

The Establishment still existed in the 70's and it was On The Run, banning things in fear.

With the smuggled mangos, what happened at the fruit-fly inspection point ?

Thermomixer said...

Yeah, and in the 70's I had hair, long beautiful hair, shoulder length or longer... that's now nearly as hard to believe as a mango ban!

It is amazing how common it was to jump in the car and travel miles without thinking about it, while now, with vastly improved roads and vehicles, we don't just hit the road. Need to get down to SB soon.

Ann ODyne said...

I went to Sydney to see keith Glass in HAIR too.
Half of Melbourne did.
Here's the Tully story.
I saw them play Paddo Town Hall once, with an Ellis D Fogg lightshow.

Bon appetit!

George Biron said...

Sorry Steve Pressed the wrong button and deleted the post below.


steve has left a new comment on your post "Secret Artichoke Business":

Hi George-xlnt post as per usual. I worked for a greek family in Adelaide who regularly foraged for wild artichokes in the hills. The patriarch of the family would come into the kitchen with a bag full of 'em, his fingers calloused & torn from the effort. I was schooled in a dish that I still love to theis day. Aginaros e Khukia(forgive the spelling please Mr Colombaris)It was a simple dish og broad beans & artichokes flavored with garlic(of course) Olive oil, salt & mint. Embellished with a squeeze of lemon, some crumbled fetta & you have got yourself a GO dish- I love them so much. Why is it I gravitate toward the more 'prickly' & 'hard to get to know' fruit & vege?

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Posted by steve to Sunnybrae Restaurant and Cooking School at 28 September 2009 9:13 PM

Cardoons [I think thats what the wild? artichokes are] grow more vigorously and are part of a culture of foraging for food when we are hungry. Not many of us
[bloggers that is] know what real hunger is. We here compost turnip tops, beet leaves, lots of cabbage bits, much of what we discard to compost is fine nourishing food.
But many restaurants also love to use simple weeds as peasant dishes that make us feel rustic, often at very high prices. Margaret Visser explained why we go for the hard to get in a keynote address at the Symposium of gastronomy in Geelong about 18 years ago. The balance between the neophilliac and the neophobiac in all of us.
Also the foraging urge is strong and loves to find a wild free reward.
I get a giggle when high profile rechrche places feature the less than tasty forms of some wild weeds
and get away with it.

Thermomixer said...

Somehow the artichokes and mongoes have become intermingled, but that won't stop me.

It would be great for the landholders along the Calder if the foraging chefs decided to put cardoons (artichoke thistles) on the menu, and explain where they got them.

Like Steve - broad beans with artichokes is a favourite dish. The ex had the dish in Crete and bought a cookbook with the recipe. It is divine - can't wait for my bbs to produce a decent crop.

Not sure about the economics of chefs and staff from restaurants foraging. If nonno and nonna have nothing else to do, Ok Or, if patrons wish to provide some foraged produce (and also patronise the establishment - good point Steve) then that's fair.

Mushrooms, blackberries, weeds - any frebies - love em