Mar 04 2009
Americans in Australia - Tea and Crocs
I must tell you that my most indulgent pleasure while traveling in Australia was having Devonshire Tea. This simple delight is not available where I live, but it was available all over Australia. It was often served as a quick food. Well, I don’t know if you could go so far as to call it food. Perhaps you could if you served it with fresh berries instead of jam.
This delight is shortcake biscuit, berry jam (usually raspberry jam) and a cream over the top that I wonder might be clotted cream. Perhaps Roz will tell us. The cream is wonderfully rich and not at all sweet.
Devonshire Tea is served biscuit on the bottom, then a layer of jam, then the clotted cream on top. You don’t have to eat it with tea. You can have it with coffee if you like. Anything else, and to me you haven’t got Devonshire Tea.
In the picture, I’m sitting in a boat, motoring around a lake on the tablelands above Cairns and having my Devonshire Tea. It was so common for me to do this in Australia that my hubbie just had to take a picture.
Somewhere near Cairns we also came into contact with a crocodile farm. In Australia, crocodiles are raised for meat. However, they keep a few penned to entertain the tourists.
I stuck my camera lens through a hole in the fence so I wouldn’t have fencing in front of my picture. It is a little unnerving to be so near to a croc and know he’s hungry. You can see, the person feeding the croc is making certain that the croc understands that the chicken is his dinner, not the person feeding him.
After this death-defying feat we walked around the farm to see pens full of crocodiles in all sizes from babies on up. (I’m surprised we didn’t also see a chicken ranch.) We also saw emus, ostriches, and cassowaries as well as a few kangaroos. I know the emus, ostriches and kangaroos are also raised as food, but I think the cassowaries were there just so we could admire them. They are similar to an emu or an ostrich in that they’re a big gawky bird with gorgeous feathers and other parts so ugly you wonder how they get along.
Tomorrow we’ll see what else I remember about our trip. I am amazed that I remember so much. The pictures help.
Marilynne
It’s funny - Devonshire teas seem to be more popular in Australia than they are in England, except perhaps in Devon, where they originate from! We call the biscuit a scone and spread it with butter, strawberry jam and cream in that order! I haven’t seen any ‘real’ clotted cream here but perhaps it does exist - that is truly a delicacy from Devon and Cornwall. They usually just have ‘normal’ whipped cream on top in Australia.
Gosh, the photo of the crocodile gave me a fright! My daughter was too scared to go close to a window at the zoo because there was a crocodile on the other side looking right at her. It was very frightening.
omg you can’t make me go near that croc! i might look like that kid in blue shirt (only more scared).