The week after dad’s death, two gifts arrived on my doorstep: a foil covered tray of chicken enchiladas and a ceramic pot of beef Bourguignon. Both were homemade and left by friends. As different as one dish was from the other, they tasted equally of comfort. There is something about food and grief that are…
Category: Food & Death
Death and cupcakes
The old gold fields town of Castlemaine in central Victoria is where I go to write. I stay in a bed-and-breakfast, always the same house, the same room. It’s a simple space with a desk, a bay window and a view of the well-kept garden beyond. Often there are other guests about, though I go to…
Halligan on Food, Family and Melancholy
It is Christmas in Newcastle and the family home is full of family. We moved the big dining table into the garden, under the shade of the pohutukawas that I had given my parents for Christmas the year I was eighteen; a tree their size is a rare thing in this wind-scoured seaside suburb. I…
Southern Fare I
My beloved is in Texas; returned to the place of family, sweet tea and barbecue. In honour of her travels (without me!) I’ve been re-reading Michael Lee West’s Consuming Passions: A Food Obsessed Life. It’s a wonderful book, an easy-to-read memoir of family and food in the South. For the most part, the stories centre around the…
EATING HEAVEN 