Like a hug from Nan - dig into Retro food

Remember sitting down to mum’s roast dinner or hanging around just for a piece of grandma’s pineapple upside down cake?

Get into retro food and drag out your dog-eared copy of any early Women’s Weekly cookbook or give Margaret Fulton some love and drool over her photos Beef Wellington, Chicken Kiev or hand-rolled chocolate truffles.

We are talking about a world filled with lobster mornay, smoked oysters, prawn cocktails, sticky date pudding, scotch eggs, brandy snaps, sun dried tomatoes, Baked Alaska and vol-au-vents, both large and cocktail size.

While you’ll still find plenty of restaurant menus featuring food tricked up with foams and soils or so deconstructed it’s hard to remember what you ordered, there’s also a splash of retro food around bringing back the warm memories of childhood.

It doesn’t matter what generation you are, there are always family favourites passed down filled with aromas and flavours that are just like a big hug from Nan and will take you back to sitting on the couch with Pop waiting for dinner to be served. Where can you find these retro gems? Here’s a few picks from Brisbane’s menus.

Read more of my story in the June edition of Brisbane Where Magazine or click on the image below to expand. Browse the fab retro food photos, like the English pork sausage from Hamptons, Paddington, that follow.