COVER STORY
Dining out – a taste for change From prawn cocktails to duck and cognac parfait, our tastes and expectations of fine dining have changed dramatically during the past 50 years. JULIE LAKE whets the appetite with a look at the food revolution.
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ack in the day, dining out in Queensland was a simple business. Food was fresh and familiar. Seafood, lamb and beef were comparatively cheap. On the other hand, many foods and flavours now common even on pub menus were unknown to us. We’d never heard of truffle oil or kipfler or cipollini onion. Turmeric and Indian takeaway were unknown. Olive oil was found only in Italian restaurants. We didn’t know jus from juice. In the 1970s and ’80s, leading Brisbane restaurants included the revolving Tower Mill, Gino Merlo’s Milano and the Brekkie Creek Hotel for steaks. At Brad Garrett’s
bistro in the Brisbane Arcade you chose one of half a dozen grilling meats from the showcase and this came served with salad and a baked Idaho potato with sour cream, which we thought very sophisticated. Baxter’s at Deagon was worth the journey for superb whole mudcrab and for class, you went to Leo’s where there was a gypsy violinist and the food was distinctively European. The advent of Ken Lord’s two theatre restaurants offered the novelty of fun with your food – their standard entrée was half a very large avocado stuffed with prawns. You seldom see such avocadoes now.
Noosa was already making a name for fine dining with Barry’s on the Beach offering a simple but popular brasserie menu, shortly to be followed by Annabelle’s which raised the bar in fine food and service. Chefs like Leonie Palmer, Luc Turschwell and Pierre Otth followed to put the town on the gastro-map. Whatever their age, people didn’t worry about what they ate back then. We hadn’t heard about cholesterol, or Type 2 diabetes. And the lack of ubiquitous fat and sugar-filled foodstuffs in shopping malls and elsewhere meant less temptation and thus fewer weight problems. Women of my generation, raised to cook featherlight sponge cakes, scones, layer cakes and lamingtons, tended to what was called the “middle aged spread” but this was considered normal. It’s all very different today. Our average life expectancy is being drastically prolonged by medical science and technology – and also by our own improved knowledge because everywhere we turn – magazines, TV, health websites – and what we now call our “health professionals” are telling us what we should and shouldn’t eat if we want to live long, fit, active lives. And look forever young. Much of the information is contradictory, some of it misleading but the result is a change in our dining out habits and expectations. “We eat out regularly,” says Leonie Schott, who is in her early 70s. “And the choice is endless. But I like to keep fit and am on pills to reduce my cholesterol level,
so I search the menu for low dairy dishes. “My husband is Type 2 diabetic so he has to avoid sugar and starchy foods and prefers restaurants which offer tasty alternatives to potatoes, rice and pasta. For example, our favourite restaurant serves a variety of pastas made from beans, zucchini, lentils and other other unlikely foodstuffs. Also a great goat curry with cauliflower cous cous.” Menus in most eateries offer at least some low carb, low fat dishes but according to Leonie these tend to be boring and repetitive – “The same old Caesar and Thai beef salads, grazing bowls and smashed avocado,” she says. “That’s why we look for restaurants that build at least a significant part of their menu around food suited to the people we are today.” Vegan restaurants, which Leonie describes as “overpriced and yuk” have become popular but according to dieticians they are not the best choice for older people who need more protein, iron, calcium and cooked vegetables because those high in cellulose such as celery, can be hard for ageing digestive systems to break down when served raw. The same goes for most beans, except green. Indeed, one of the big contradictions for us oldies is that while dairy products put on weight, their calcium content is important for helping prevent osteoporosis. The answer is moderation – watch the fat, salt and sugar but remember that for life to be worth living a bit of what you fancy does you good. As we age, we opt for smaller portions and while most good (i.e. expensive)
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Book your appointment online pacificsmilesdental.com.au 4 YOUR TIME MAGAZINE / July 2021
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30/06/2021 10:14:12 AM
