04.26.05
Anzac Day
Yesterday was Anzac Day… It’s hard to believe that a year ago we had left Australia and were already in Turkey! We spent last Anzac Day at Gallipoli, for the Dawn Service at Anzac Cove and the Australian service at Lone Pine. This year, my friends Nat and Cam have made the same pilgrimage.
Turkey was a wonderful, wonderful place to visit. For those of you who missed it, this is the letter I wrote about our travels in Turkey last year. Also, I have now published the travel article on Cappadocia, which I wrote for The Australian last year.
This Anzac Day was a little more low key. My boyfriend baked Anzac biscuits on Sunday and we both took a batch into the office to share with our workmates on Monday. That was it really.
I had to explain the concept of Anzac Day to a few of my colleagues so for anyone who is reading this site and doesn’t know … Anzac Day is a national holiday in both Australia and New Zealand. It commemorates the Anzacs (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Our troops were met by the defending Turkish army and slaughtered in our thousands but amazingly we managed to scale the cliff and capture a ridge where before battening down into trench warfare for the next nine months before the British finally pulled us out. It was a hideous military defeat with enormous loss of life on both sides for absolutely no gain. Australia and New Zealand were both young countries and it is regarded as coming of age for the identity of both nations.
There are some who argue that Anzac Day glorifies war, which is obviously something to be avoided. I’ve thought about this quite a bit but ultimately I’ve decided that I don’t see it that way. I believe it is important to remember the brutality and futility of war – and also the great courage and humanity shown by many individuals. It’s worth bearing in mind that on Anzac Day we are remembering a military defeat not a victory. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the Turks allow us into their country to commemorate Anzac Day at Gallipoli and they fly the Turkish flag alongside the Australian and New Zealand flags at the Dawn Service. I very much felt welcome in the towns in the days leading up to Anzac Day and felt it was something that we shared with the Turks.
I’m not sure why Anzac biscuits are traditional for Anzac Day unless perhaps they baked them at the front?
Rare Dragons said,
April 28, 2005 at 12.41 am
ANZAC biscuits are so named as they were baked in Australia and shipped to the troops on Gallipoli who were living on bull beef and not much else. The ANZAC biscuits were highly prized by the diggers for variety in food intake, dietary fibre, nutritional value and a connection with home. The biscuits were used as a currency in some instances and were responsible for the odd broken tooth by some accounts. They were also often dissolved and warmed into a porridge of sorts (which is delicious, by the way). Traditional ANZAC biscuits are quite simple to make and very yummy.
What recipe do you use?
Caitlin said,
April 28, 2005 at 4.31 pm
Jack found one on the internet – it was the basic version with flour, oats, golden syrup, butter but no sultanas or nuts.
Rare Dragons said,
April 29, 2005 at 5.16 am
No desicated coconut? Nuts and sultanas a definite no-no.
Caitlin said,
April 29, 2005 at 8.32 am
Sorry, yes there was dessicated coconut too – I don’t have the recipe in front of me so I forgot. It was a major mission to find the dessicated coconut though. Jack forgot to buy it so he sent me out instead. Everywhere I went, they kept trying to sell me coconut milk and looked at me strangely when I tried to explain. One place thought I wanted fresh coconut, which, being England, would be a bit hard to find.
Caitlin said,
May 2, 2005 at 7.50 pm
This is the recipe we used. It gives the quantity of butter in ounces so I’m not sure if the cup and table/teaspoons are metric but it seemed to work. It makes an enormous number of biscuits by the way, so you could easily afford to divide the ingredients.
1 cup plain flour
1 cup of quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon of golden syrup
4 ounces of butter or margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons of boiling water
Mix the flour, oats, sugar and coconut together. Melt the syrup and butter or margarine over a gentle heat. Dissolve the bicarb soada in the boiling water, stir in the syrup mixture and pour over the dry ingredients, stirring until well mixed. Put heaped teaspoons of the mixture, about 5cm apart to allow for spreading, on greased oven trays. Bake in a moderately slow oven (350F or 180C) for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave on the trays for a few moments and then lift off with a spatula.