Spud Life
A rainy start to the weekend, so the perfect weather to head to the Southern Highlands - about 2 hours south of Sydney - for the Robertson Potato Festival, in a small town L-SP & I have passed through often, mostly for its cheese shop, 2nd-hand Bazaar & the better of its 2 pie shops, on our way to other places. We had noticed the giant rusty metal 'sculpture' in the middle of town, claiming to be 'The Big Potato', but hadn't thought much of, or about it...
Maybe it was the rainy weather, or maybe it was that the Festival is in its infancy, but there wasn't much going on at the Robertson Showground yesterday. There were some food & craft stalls, including one selling varieties of potatoes by the bag or sackful, a Cooking Tent, where chefs of varying degrees of 'celebrity' did presentations to what looked mostly like representatives of the Country Women's Association & their passive spouses. We stopped in to watch one by 'not as much of a celebrity as I used to be' chef Ed Halmagyi, who ruined his otherwise entertaining slot with a cheap gag about 2.30pm being 'Chinese Dentist Time'. L-SP & her sister were both vocally negative about the comment & earned dark looks from the old, white crowd. It seems the battle to eradicate casual racism isn't doing as well on some fronts as others... For my part, I had only groaned at his use of a 'joke' that was funny when I was a kid in the 1970s, but is not only likely hoarier & longer in the tooth than that, but also not in good taste - something a chef should know about! I wish I'd groaned a little louder & got my own dark look from a Country Woman...
Leaving the cooking tent, we headed over to the music stage, where an acoustic duo were just finishing up & were followed by an electric band doing a mix of covers & originals, most notably a slowed-down version of the Angels pub-rock classic 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' - without the customary audience response
Over at the Cattle Yard, there were various potato-related activities going on - a spud peeling contest, speed potato-picking, spud & spoon races (like egg & spoon, only more unwieldy), the inevitable potato sack race & later in the day, the mash-eating contest - which my possibly-future-brother-in-law had expressed interest in, but sheepishly backed out of yesterday. These events were being hosted & commentated by 2 guys who sounded like the 'larrikins' you encounter in any rural pub, anywhere in the world, who have lived their entire lives in the town if not in the pub itself!) & think they're hilarious with their slightly derogatory, politically-incorrect banter. Sure, it's funny for a few minutes, but when they started belittling the 2 young women doing all the actual work to make the events happen - signing people up, wrangling the contestants, fetching & carrying sacks of potatoes... - it quickly loses its rustic sheen & becomes a depressing display of how some people still think 'punching down' makes for good comedy...
But look, I don't want to sound like we had a miserable time amongst the mud, spuds & bigotry. Overall it was a fun day - we ate some potatoes, had some laughs & did our bit to put city money into the rural economy without hesitation or regret. And we would go again next year, when the weather will hopefully be better & there'll be more & varied stalls & participation
Maybe it was the rainy weather, or maybe it was that the Festival is in its infancy, but there wasn't much going on at the Robertson Showground yesterday. There were some food & craft stalls, including one selling varieties of potatoes by the bag or sackful, a Cooking Tent, where chefs of varying degrees of 'celebrity' did presentations to what looked mostly like representatives of the Country Women's Association & their passive spouses. We stopped in to watch one by 'not as much of a celebrity as I used to be' chef Ed Halmagyi, who ruined his otherwise entertaining slot with a cheap gag about 2.30pm being 'Chinese Dentist Time'. L-SP & her sister were both vocally negative about the comment & earned dark looks from the old, white crowd. It seems the battle to eradicate casual racism isn't doing as well on some fronts as others... For my part, I had only groaned at his use of a 'joke' that was funny when I was a kid in the 1970s, but is not only likely hoarier & longer in the tooth than that, but also not in good taste - something a chef should know about! I wish I'd groaned a little louder & got my own dark look from a Country Woman...
Leaving the cooking tent, we headed over to the music stage, where an acoustic duo were just finishing up & were followed by an electric band doing a mix of covers & originals, most notably a slowed-down version of the Angels pub-rock classic 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' - without the customary audience response
Over at the Cattle Yard, there were various potato-related activities going on - a spud peeling contest, speed potato-picking, spud & spoon races (like egg & spoon, only more unwieldy), the inevitable potato sack race & later in the day, the mash-eating contest - which my possibly-future-brother-in-law had expressed interest in, but sheepishly backed out of yesterday. These events were being hosted & commentated by 2 guys who sounded like the 'larrikins' you encounter in any rural pub, anywhere in the world, who have lived their entire lives in the town if not in the pub itself!) & think they're hilarious with their slightly derogatory, politically-incorrect banter. Sure, it's funny for a few minutes, but when they started belittling the 2 young women doing all the actual work to make the events happen - signing people up, wrangling the contestants, fetching & carrying sacks of potatoes... - it quickly loses its rustic sheen & becomes a depressing display of how some people still think 'punching down' makes for good comedy...
But look, I don't want to sound like we had a miserable time amongst the mud, spuds & bigotry. Overall it was a fun day - we ate some potatoes, had some laughs & did our bit to put city money into the rural economy without hesitation or regret. And we would go again next year, when the weather will hopefully be better & there'll be more & varied stalls & participation