FOOD ABROAD

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 11

FOOD ABROAD

Sydney Americanised

“A ‘New York City,’ please,” orders the client in the David Jones tea-room in Sydney, scanning the menu prayerfully. Then he manfully tackles a salad consisting of breast turkey, oxtongue in jelly, asparagus tips, pineapple and iced paw-paw with straw potatoes, almond cheese and mayonnaise. Or perhaps he prefers a “Los Angeles,” a “Kansas City,’’ or a “Broadway.”’ Then he will receive mixtures equally diverting and in most cases equally tempting. This fact of the Americanisation of food was the first thing that was noted by Miss M. Trent, of Christchurch, who has just returned from an unusual visit to Sydney and Melbourne; unusual in the fact that while most visitors journey to see the city and its people, Miss Trent’s main idea was the restaurants and tea-rooms. She was out to gather new ideas and to observe methods and manners on the other side of the Tasman.

And she has returned with new ideas in plenty, with the memory of strange dishes on her palate, but pleasantly convinced in one fact. She can adapt those American dishes to suit New Zealand taste; she can apply many of the ideas she has absorbed; but so far as service quality of food and price are concerned New Zealand as she knows it has nothing to learn from the tearooms and restaurants of Sydney and Melbourne.

Tihe average New Zealander, revisiting Australia after some years’ ajbsence, finds on first (glance milk shakes to right of him, American bars to left of him, and sandwiches and American salads everywhere. Sandwiches and salads, of course, are both typically American and sandwiches and salads, in every conceivable and inconceivable form, figure largely on the menu in Sydney and Melbourne today. i “And salad is a comprehensive term,’* says Miss Trent, “A salad may include everything from sliced breast of chicken to liehi nuts and such trifles. One salad is a meal.. And, -though he orders ‘Broadway’ and. ‘Los Angeles” the Australian does not ask for ‘Billabong ’ or ‘Kurrajong.’ He has not yet learned to nationalise his salads.

“And the sandwiches IToasted sandwiches are popular. A toasted sandwich —idea straight from America—may consist of chicken salad, sliced tomato, lettuce, grilled smoked ham and so on. Three-decker sandwiches they are, and one, let me tell you, is a meal. “They don’t cater for variety as we do. The helpings are large—huge, in fact, but one dish at one meal is the usual thing. Just as well, too, considering the size of the restaurants and the number for which they eater. “The good old English boiled pudding has very little place on the menu, and even roast lamb and mint sauce are not as popular as they are here. Waffle steak, and such dishes are very ipuch to the fore. Waffle steak has a distinct American flavourl “Slendering dishes are favoured. You see young girls, already wisps, eating green salads and slimming Bread. And men, too, dine lightly in this way. The slimming meal finds its place on the menu of every large restaurant and tearoom. ’ ’

Much entertaining, said Miss Trent, is done at the tearooms. Children’s parties, for instance, are a regular Saturday morning feature in Sydney. ‘‘lt is all a part of flat life. The floor is cleared for games in the centre, and the children have their friends, and cut their birthday cakes in the good old-fashioned way.” Miss Trent was very impressed with the size and the management of the large tearooms in Sydney and Alelbourne. Two of these were in the charge of women who controlled some 200 waitresses and 10Q kitchen, hands, ijiduding men. “The rooms are beautifully decorated—so are the girls.. But the places are so large that there isn’t the personal service, as I know it. It’s impossible. Still, it’s interesting, just, literally sampling the flavours of another country. And I must say there was kindness and an eagerness to assist a New* Zealander everywhere.’’