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LAMINGTONS – and never did we expect
to flounder through the weekend in a morass of chocolate, dry sponge,
jam filling and emerge dusted in desiccated coconut. *** GOOD morning. We do indeed congratulate the many and varied readers who yielded to the temptation of sharing their vast, nay encyclopedic knowledge of the Oz cake shop favourite. Most agreed with the origin of the name “lamington,” but several added that Baron Lamington, one time governor of Queensland, was less than enchanted with having his name perpetuated by the confection. *** IN fact, he detested “lamingtons”and once remarked a tad sharply that he hated “those bloody poofy wooly biscuits”. The baron sounds like quite a character. The most common version of the naming has been offered by a team of addictive Quizzers, from among whose ranks we’ve chosen our correspondent Devjani Chaudhuri in Canada who reports as follows. *** “ON one occasion when a group of parliamentarians was unexpectedly dining with the governor, the cook was hard-put to create a dessert. Realising that there was a large amount of stale cake in the Government House kitchen and with the secret connivance of Lady Lamington, the cake was dipped in chocolate and then tossed in desiccated coconut in a desperate attempt to make it palatable.” *** “THE parliamentarians so liked this ‘gateau’ that they ordered their cooks to obtain the recipe from the Government House cook, and hence the “lamington” became an Oz icon.” Thanks to Devjani for that delightful answer. *** AS the weekend progressed, however, other facts emerged. Namarola Lote, another Quizzer, e-mailed from Goroka that he was attending the coffee festival with fond hopes of grabbing some lamingtons to go with his coffee. Nama added that the earliest known published recipe for the lamington appeared in 1902 in the cookery section of The Queenslander and that National Lamington Day is July 21 each year and the cake has joined the National Trust of Queensland’s list of Heritage Icons. Good grief. *** MORE lamington tales tomorrow; in the meantime, your proper Quiz question! “What was the connection between Neu-Mecklenburg, Albert Hahl and PNG?” Answers to DeeNesenolis@hotmail.com by Friday, please. Cheers! *** |
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| - Dee Nesenolis | |
| Editorial | |
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