Adventures in American Food

We bought some of what we considered quintessentially American food and drink. Some of this you can find in Australia, like Hershey's chocolate, but none of the kids had ever had any of it.  Then we had a tasting session. 

Here is the general consensus (from the kids)

Would willingly eat again : the wieners, the goldfish crackers, butterfinger, pop-tarts.

Would eat again to be polite : tootsie roll, Hershey's chocolate, Kool aid, cheezits.

Would never eat again: collard greens, chipotle peppers, goobers peanut butter and jelly (all in one jar), key lime pie flavoured yoghurt, twinkies (that surprised me, Lily wouldn't even try hers), Dr Pepper (like medicine with fizz in it), instant Mac'nCheese, dill pickles.

I read a blog written by an American woman who had relocated to Australia and she bemoaned how tasteless she found the food in Australia. We are finding a lot of things are much sweeter or saltier (or both) than we are used to and I guess if you grow up with that as default Australian food might well be comparatively bland.  We are constantly surprised at how many things can be combined with peanut butter - icecream, muffins, donuts, cupcakes, cookies - you name it and you'll find a peanut butter combo.  In fact multiple flavour options generally seem to be popular. Red velvet coffee. 'Moose tracks' milkshakes (chocolate bits and marshmallows). Pumpkin spice icecream.  I'll let you know the feedback if we sample any of these more exotic varieties.  So far the brownie batter icecream with a scoop of mini freckles stumped even sweet-tooth-Ruby.

Monster Mash

Old jumpers, old tights, scraps of felt, odds and ends.  Kim made these with the girls last school holidays but Ruby's (top) disappeared for an extended visit with the dust balls under her bed and only re-emerged last weekend for photographs.

Letters to Santa and an unexpected visitor

Ruby 'I like cute things and yeah'

Grace - 'hug, mini chimney'

Nina - 'if I had to deliver ALL those presents it would be quite hard'

Lily - 'toys, I want'

We live in a very urban environment, so I am usually delighted when nature makes itself felt: the raucous laughing of the kookaburras by the creek, the screeching flock of lorikeets (I think they are) that settle in the gum each evening, even the pesky possums. But the news that our neighbours had seen an Eastern Tiger Snake in their garden, or 'nake' as Lily would say - is more nature than I'm comfortable with.

Suddenly those ideas that foreigners have about all the venomous beasties that threaten Australians seemed slightly less laughable. My kids run around barefoot all the time, and the weed situation is not (ahem) always kept under control. Plenty of lovely long native grasses, and a nice sunny deck to lie on for any passing snakes. One blind terrier that won't see them and one black pug whose only interest is snaffling dropped food present no threat.

Our neighbours called the 'snake man' who couldn't find it and reassured them that it wouldn't be settling in their garden. It was most likely passing through, kicked out of its creek environment in a territorial dispute, and making its way to the more popular snake habitats of Alphington and Ivanhoe, where gardens are bigger and more likely to incorporate the large rocks beloved of these reptiles. To get to our neighbour's place from the creek it would have had to cross a very busy bike path, two sets of railway tracks and a bitumen road. That blows my mind. I'm a bit 'good on you snake' and a bit 'bugger off and stay by the creek whydoncha?'