Melbourne, as a multicultural capital, brings together gourmet food from all over the world. Here, only you can't imagine, you can't eat without you, but do you want to know? What do those who first lived in Melbourne eat every day?
Melbourne was officially built in 1835, when it was said to have a population of only a few hundred and only 10,000 by 1840. The earliest urban immigrants were British colonists. Their food included bread, oatmeal, cheese, bacon, dried beans, vinegar, sugar and tea.
All of this was imported into Australia through merchant ships, which lasted until the 1880s.
But long-term dependence on imported food is not a long-term solution, so to survive, the original Mohvies began to live on Melbourne's local food.
Fish, oysters, prawns and crayfish soon became a delicacy at the dinner table, and they even started experimenting with Australia's native wildlife.
They traded sugar and flour for animals such as kangaroos, parrots, koalas and emus, and then used their meat to make delicious dishes. Kangaroos have since become a home-grown dish on the tables of the Moemurn people at the time.
The English and Australian Cookery Book, written by Edward Abbott in 1864, collected recipes prepared by these colonists in combination with native and British cuisine and ingredients.
It was written about a kangaroo steamer modified from the British rabbit stew, which stuffed the sliced kangaroo meat with salted pork and bacon into a clay can, slowly "steaming" the meat with kangaroo sap.
In addition, this book also records kangaroo tail soup, boiling kangaroo brain, roasted Australian koala and other recipes.
Apart from kangaroo, parrot was also a favorite food at the time. Parrot pie made from parrot was an indispensable delicacy for every household.
A newspaper at the time also recorded a New year's dinner in 1841, including kangaroo soup, roast turkey, boiled sheep legs, parrot pie, potatoes, green beans, and raisin pudding, which included kangaroo soup, roast turkey, boiled sheep legs, parrot pie, potatoes, green beans, and raisin pudding.
The resident, who likes parrot pie very much, said: "White parrots are the best, followed by white chicken-headed parrots."
In addition to parrots, the giant dove is also a kind of bird that is often used as food by the Mohcun people at the time. They will roast the white and fat breast meat of the giant dove and eat it with the traditional English bread sauce, which is said to taste like a pheasant. It's very delicious.
In addition to this meat, the most commonly eaten vegetables of the Mohcun people at that time should be pumpkins.
The first pumpkin seeds were said to have been brought by British settlers to feed pigs, but when wheat and other crops introduced to Australia did not grow well, the seeds thrived and produced a large number of pumpkins.
As a result, pumpkins began to grow in large areas, and pumpkin cakes, pumpkin soup and pumpkin became one of the most popular delicacies of the Mohcun people at the time.
Kangaroo, emu, parrot, kangaroo, giant dove. I can't imagine that these strange animals are the food of Melbourne's early settlers! Dare the earth Australian people to eat kangaroo meat of the long history of the fight has already begun!