Something from Down Under - Billy Tea with Lamingtons

I would like to share with you 2  photos which I took on my recent  trip to Australia.

This is billy – not the goat! It’s just a metal can with wire handle – nothing high tech about it, you may say….and I would not argue about it. But what makes Billy interesting is how it is used.

I was told that the early Australian settlers brewed their tea in a billy – out of necessity. A billy is filled with water and then placed over a fire.  When the water comes to a boil, the billy is removed and tea leaves are added. I don’t know how true this is but I was told that you will need to throw in a  fistful of tea leaves for each person and add one more. For example if there are 3 people you will need to put in 3+1 i.e 4 fistful of tea leaves.

You then leave it to brew…….then comes the interesting (and may I say challenging) part…..reminds me of what I see on Malaysian tv – DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!!

The billy is swung at arm’s length. You have to ensure that you do not bend your arms…or else they will be an ugly sight , not to mention scalding! Swing the billy in a full circle. The reason for this is to allow the tea leaves to settle at the bottom of the billy so as to avoid any tea leaves in the tea cups later on.

I personally found the tea made to be  top notch--- more aromatic and when drunk in the cold weather kept me warm for hours.

This is Lamington – a very popular cake in Australia. You can find it in the shelves of Woolsworth. I wanted to grab some and bring them back with me, but upon looking at the expiry date (at the time I was at Woolsworth) which was a mere 3 days away, decided otherwise.

Anyway, I did have some Lamingtons, compliments of my friendly guide (and yes…the ‘missing ones’ in the picture above were eaten by  me).  Lamingtons are cakes (could be anything from butter, pound or simply sponge cake) typically cut into squares, dipped into chocolate frosting and then rolled in dessicated coconut….hence their limited shelf life!

There are many versions of stories regarding the origin of Lamingtons, but my favourite one has to be this:-

Lord Lamington was the Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. He often attended meetings and when tea was served he often lamented about the lack of creativity of the people preparing the food. So one day he complains again…and the chef did not know what to do. He looked at what he had in the kitchen. So he cut the sponge cakes into 2, dipped them in frosting & rolled them in dessicated coconut…Thus begins the Lamingtons era!

Another story has it that the Lamingtons resembled the homburg hats favoured by Lord Lamington

Another claim is that the Lamingtons' chef at Queensland's Government House, French Armand Gallad, was called upon at short notice to provide something to feed unexpected guests, Gallad cut up some left over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut. Coconut was not widely used in European cooking at that time, but was known to Gallad whose wife was from Tahiti where coconut was used in cooking.

Whatever the origin is I would say that these ‘woolly’ looking cakes are a must try when you go Down Under.

Til then, G'day mate!