What I really miss?

What do I miss?

I miss being able to drive just 2.3 km to our local Coles supermarket to buy the products we want that they no longer bother to stock.

Leggo’s Original Chunky Pickles

McLean’s Run Free Range Eggs

Ingham’s Chicken Products

Thick Sponges

Paul’s Physical Milk

Kabocha Pumpkins

Pea Beu Insecticide Spray

Etc, Etc, Etc, Etc.

But not to worry. I now drive 4.5 km to our local Supa IGA store to get them and much more.

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What are “kombucha” pumpkins please?

Oh here’s another one. We used to be able to buy milk from the deli on our corner that was in a glass bottle. Return the bottle for a discount next time and they reuse it. With how much milk people use in a year that must have saved so much waste!

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My mistake. It should be Kabocha pumpkins.

This is what they are.

The ones that Coles used to stock had an orange coloured skin similar to a Golden Nugget pumpkin, but were the most delicious pumpkins we have ever tasted.

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Aha. Thanks Fred. They’re sold here (ACT) as Jap or Japanese pumpkins and we grow them. We love pumpkins, so thought there was a new variety we’d not heard of before (though I didn’t think they were called kombuchas because I know what that is).

The Jap pumpkin is also known as the Kent pumpkin and is different to the Kabocha pumpkins that Coles previously sold which had an orange coloured skin similar to a Golden Nugget pumpkin.

Whilst a properly ripened Kent pumpkin is nice, it is nowhere as delicious as the Kabocha pumpkins that we have eaten.

Might have to look for some then, though I thought a Kent is just a variety of Jap. We havent had Golden Nuggets for years and think we’ll grow some this year.
Our favourite is an old variety called Ironbark, which we’re lucky to have seeds of that we keep each year. We also grow an Ironbark/Qld Blue cross. Both delicious.
Also, you mentioned anchovy paste in another post - did you now you can get a really nice one in tubes from a lot of delis? Much nicer than Pecks, which is very insipid.

Thanks for the tip but whilst my late mother ate anchovy paste, we do not.

It is hard to find any varieties of pumpkins other than Jap/Kent and Butternut, even at our local markets.

Our local Supa IGA sometimes has a Grey pumpkin which is similar to the Ironbark and Qld Blue varieties.

I tried to grow some Kabocha and Golden Nugget pumpkins a few years ago, but whilst the plants grew and flowered, they produced no pumpkins.

We have no Italian honey bees in our area to pollinate the flowers. I tried to hand pollinate them but it did not work.

I am going back a million years but I miss the taste of Smith’s Chicken Chips as it was in the seventies. They were the best chips around by a mile, but then some moron changed the recipe. I have never eaten another one since because they now just taste like crap. Another one is Savoury Shapes. When I was a kid, they were the most magnificent biscuits that I used to eat by the packet. I just could not stop until I had licked up the last bit of salt. Now, they are a mere shadow of what they once were. Once again, I have stopped buying them because they are just rubbish. Very First World problems, but to me it just shows that standards are non-existant and manufactures now pay lip service to quality.

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Ice Cream tastes best at age 5, after that it’s all downhill. The recipe doesn’t need to change to get this effect.

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This is one of mine. There is an Australian nougat company that does a good job. No rice paper though :slightly_frowning_face:.

I really miss Violet Crumbles. They left the shelves about five years ago, replaced by the clearly inferior Crunchie. That said, it appears that the Violet Crumble is going to make a comeback!

Milk deliveries have gone the way of the dodo - until they start delivering milk by drone.

I miss sports as played by real people. Back when the Raiders won their first Rugby League premiership, the players all had day jobs. That has gone as all sports have become professional - including the hallowed Rugby Union! I miss Olympic Games that were amateur-only affairs.

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Thanks for the tip.

Where do you buy your Golden Boronia nougat from as there seems to be only outlets in capital cities or online ordering from the manufacturer?

Whilst we loved the edible rice paper on the Callard & Bowser’s nougat, does the Golden Boronia nougat taste as good as the Callard & Bowser’s nougat?

I did post a topic on this forum about Violet Crumble returning.

No there was a clear change in the recipes of both. There is no age issue here. They were brilliant one day and terrible the next.

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I have been forced to order it online, direct. My first encounter was in Melbourne Airport, if I recall correctly, so it is sold in a few places. I have also seen it on Ebay, but mostly for crazy prices.

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One thing I really miss is the Sunbeam Toastermatic. Drop in the bread slices and they would gently lower as the toaster heated up. When they were toasted to the degree you liked, they would gently rise up for you to take. You simply couldn’t burn toast in this thing! I remember it featured in Choice sometime in the 1960s.

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Absolutely. We are still using one from the '60s.
Today we strive to make the perfect toaster, not. The perfect toaster has been and gone.

No modern electronic toaster has been able to replicate their “Radiant Heat Control”, a simple bi-metallic strip that ended toasting when the toast colour was dark enough to reflect enough heat back.

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I do not miss the time waiting for connection!

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You can still buy Mushy Peas and I currently have a can or two in the pantry. They are a UK brand Batchelors “Original Mushy Peas” in a 300g tin. International section of Woolworths from my scatty memory.

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A pressure cooker might be a consideration!

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My Grandma didn’t need a pressure cooker any vegetable that she touched was sure to turn to mush.

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