Too much tolerance risks violence and anarchy. Britain's turning somersaults to accommodate cultures whose values are opposite to our own: ROBERT TOMBS
Mice, lizards, bats and grasshoppers were considered delicacies. A toad, cooked and served in sauce, was considered a fine delicacy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Waverton bowls club was once a popular recreational spot - but what happened to the park after being handed back to Traditional owners has locals furious
The once bustling green lawns of an old Sydney bowling club are now an abandoned wasteland closed off to locals after it was handed back to Indigenous owners. An Aboriginal land claim on the site - that sits within a large swathe of parkland from Waverton Park to Balls Head Reserve on Sydney's lower north shore - was granted by a court in 2022. The old Waverton Bowling Club has been abandoned since the land claim was upheld, with the grass overgrown and the building which once housed the club left derelict. Residents who used to frequent the park told Daily Mail they are struggling to understand why the site can't be put to use for the whole community to enjoy Chair of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC), which took control of the site, Allan Murray, a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man, had said at the time of the take-over the group intended to work with locals. 'We are thinking of creating a Cammeraygal cultural centre,' he said. He added that the group wanted 'everyone to share' in the site, including 'local people [and] local businesses'. However, the 'waste of space' it has become is even more stark due to its setting overlooking the Harbour Bridge and surrounded by Waverton Park, which is maintained by North Sydney Council and well used by the community. One North Sydney resident explained the site was still being used by locals at one point 'when the lawn wasn't that unkempt' but then they were locked out. 'They started putting up warning signs and blocking access the area. 'And for the last couple of years, it's been left here in disrepair, which is a bit of a pity. 'I don't know what's gonna happen, if it's still going to be a bit of a space for a community or if it will be completely blocked off from the community.' Gio recalled the old bowling club which now 'looks like a waste of space' is a far cry from its heyday when it would host concerts and bring people together. Kerry, who regularly walks dog Ninja through the park, added: 'It was a thriving bowling club once upon a time and, it's really a pity that it can't be turned into something the community can enjoy.' She said residents have been kept in the dark over the future for the site. Kerry supports the MLALC's right to the site because 'we took the land from them in the first place', but suggested 'community sharing rather than isolating people more'. 'I think it would be really lovely if [the site] could be put to some use,' she added. Ross, who played bowls at the club years ago, noted it was a 'pity' to have a green space 'so close to the city, not being used'. 'I can understand Aboriginal people deserve to take some of their land back,' he said. 'I just hope they can find an effective use for it.' The north Sydney resident voiced his concern the space could be rezoned in the future for new housing. 'I think we're so lucky here,' he said. 'The city's over there, and here we are in peace and quiet, and it's green. What could be better? 'It would be unfortunate, if it was to be converted into more apartments. I think the simplest thing would be to knock the whole thing down and make it all green. 'Have a beautiful, big green park. Why not? What else? You can't always have cultural spaces everywhere, Sydney's only so big, it's not Paris. 'A little bit of appropriate cultural monuments to celebrate Aboriginal heritage would be the trick and just a bit of state government money to tidy the area up. It can't be that hard.' Another local, Claire, echoed Ross's sentiment and stated 'the biggest concern for people around here is that it remains a green space'. The old bowling club which has gone to 'rack and ruin' was used by the local community as an exercise space, especially during Covid. 'We're not allowed on it anymore, they have a lot of security signage up every now and then, telling us to keep out,' she explained. A representative of the MLALC said they 'inherited a disused bowling club that is unsafe and has a major termite infestation'. The building on the site also has 'infrastructure issues such as an unsafe balcony, non-functional windows and doors, a garage that was left open to the general public and severely damaged external fencing'. The MLALC notes 'large numbers of trespassers, break-ins and more malicious damages' at the site. 'MLALC is as result of NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (the ALRA) currently undertaking a mandatory Non claimant Native Title application to potentially allow MLALC to use the premises into the future,' the representative said. The ALRA was established to return land in NSW to Aboriginal peoples through a process of lodging a claim(s) for certain Crown lands.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
How to make the perfect peach cobbler – recipe
'If you go to a picnic in the south,' wrote the late South Carolina chef Emily Meggett, 'and there's no peach cobbler, someone's got some explaining to do.' Cobblers, a rustic variety of fruit pie that seems to have originated in the rough-and-ready environs of the American west, are now principally associated with the US south and are, as chef Brad McDonald observes, 'unglamorous' yet 'rarely fail to please'. As befits frontier food, they're extremely adaptable to a variety of climates and kitchens, too, but, as the southern food critic James Villas once explained, 'no matter how you construct a hot cobbler, the main principle is that the filling should never be either soggy or dried out and the crust must be crisp enough to create a good counterpoint with the soft fruits or berries – not to mention the obligatory scoop of ice-cream on top'. Far easier to pull off than a pie, but more impressive than a crumble, cobblers are a great way to use a bargain tray of overripe or bruised fruit, should you be lucky to come across such a thing. Peaches, obviously – but peaches in the UK will not usually be as fresh as those in the American south, which means we have to adjust our expectations accordingly. A couple of recipes call explicitly for 'ripe but firm' fruit, which does not mean those cannonballs sold as ready-to-eat in many British retailers; I speak from bitter experience when I assure you that a peach that is crunchy when raw will still be al dente once baked. Though not squashy, the fruit ought to give a little under your fingertips (a good fruit vendor should be happy to pick some out for you, though sadly our supermarkets do not offer that service, so you'll have to take it on trust or do some discreet and gentle squeezing). That said, even in the south, there's a delightfully bitchy hierarchy of peaches, with Villas instructing the reader of The Glory of Southern Cooking to 'forget most of what you've heard about Georgia peaches. Yes, Georgia peaches are certainly far superior to the pulpy, bitter peaches they grow in California, but where I go for sweet peach perfection is to the South Carolina Piedmont region, intersected by Interstate 77 and, more specifically, to the Peach Tree and other orchards in and around Filbert. Peach fanatics from as far away as Pennsylvania and Kentucky flock to the Peach Tree every summer to see and smell and taste the luscious early belles, white ladies, lorings and indian red clings'. Meanwhile, I head to the greengrocers. Controversially, I will not be peeling the fruit. Everyone peels the fruit, I know, because they seem to have an aversion to what America's Test Kitchen (ATK) terms 'any unpleasantly leathery bits of skin', but, as with apples, tomatoes and even potatoes, I happen to like a bit of chew – a skinless peach feels like a tinned peach to me, and though tinned peaches have their place (a hotel breakfast buffet), it's not what I'm after here. Plus, a ripe peach is a pain to peel. (I can almost hear the southerners murderously murmuring: 'Bless her heart'). Ripe peaches are a very wet fruit, which proves a problem in recipes such as the one in McDonald's book Deep South, where they're used raw – this proves the first clue to perhaps the most important lesson I learn about peach cobbler: the dish should always be placed on a rimmed baking sheet, because if it can bubble over, you can bet your bottom dollar it will. Cutting the fruit into chunky wedges, as he suggests, rather than slices, is a good start; too thin, and they have a tendency to dissolve into perfumed mush in the oven. Like ATK , McDonald uses cornflour to thicken those juices (Edna Lewis prefers plain flour) but, to my mind, more muscular action is required to stem the tide. While this shouldn't be a dry dish, equally, too much juice will make the topping soggy. Chef Joe Randall's recipe in the book he co-authored with Toni Tipton-Martin, A Taste of Heritage, marinates his peaches with sugar, flour and spices to draw out the juices, then simmers them until those juices start to thicken – yet with similarly liquid results. I'm beginning to suspect that ATK's claim that 'most of the juices are not released until the peaches are almost fully cooked' is correct. My multi-prong solution, like ATK's, is to drain off some of the liquid produced by mixing peaches with sugar and leaving them to sit, then to thicken that with cornflour and to pre-bake the fruit before adding the topping, to give that liquid more time to evaporate, as well as to leave enough gaps in said topping to encourage further evaporation. Everyone uses sugar, naturally, and some in quantities that are a little too much for those not weaned on sweet tea. Randall's dark brown sugar feels a little too treacly for this fresh fruit, but I like the idea of a lighter brown sugar with peaches – it just feels apt somehow. Almost everyone adds butter to their filling – I want to say it's too much, but I'm afraid it does help make the syrup deliciously rich, so omit it at your own risk. Lewis, or Miss Lewis as she was properly called and is always referred to in her book with Scott Peacock, The Gift of Southern Cooking, also adds a pinch of salt, which, like the lemon juice in Meggett's, Randall's and the ATK recipes, helps to make the peaches taste … peachier somehow. If you happen to have some knocking around, I'd also highly recommend a dash of the almond essence in Villas' recipe – not so much as to make the filling taste nutty, but just enough to enhance the flavour of the almond's close cousin, the peach. McDonald mixes the peaches with raspberries – which, personally, I don't care for when cooked (they break down completely in the peach juice, but if you like the idea, stick a handful in). She also adds vanilla and cinnamon, which we all like less than Miss Lewis and Randall's nutmeg; peaches and sugar are sweet enough, after all, without enhancing that with cloyingly sweet spices. Randall's ground cloves prove a surprise hit, but one spice feels like quite enough in a place where peaches hardly grow on trees. I thought I knew what a cobbler was until I started the research for this dish and found myself rolling out a lovely, delicately crumbly pastry for Randall's double-crust version. Peacock helpfully explains that 'in the US south, the term 'cobbler' is applied to a host of baked fruit desserts. To Miss Lewis, 'cobbler' meant a kind of deep-dish pie with fruit baked between a bottom and top layer of pastry … to other southern bakers, a cobbler might have only a top pastry crust. In Alabama, we called anything a cobbler that had fruit covered by a baked topping.' (He goes on to reminisce about 'one of the more distinctive cobblers of my childhood', from a local barbecue joint, that involved 'canned peaches covered with a box of Duncan Hines Yellow Cake mix – dry – with melted butter poured over the top'.) The most distinctive cobbler I try comes from Meggett's book, Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, co-authored with Kayla Stewart and Trelani Michelle, on the Lowcountry cuisine of coastal South Carolina, and particularly her lifelong home, Edisto Island. Instead of a top crust, the dish is filled with a buttery sponge batter topped with peaches – it's light, fluffy and very quick to make, though, good as all the recipes are, I like the scone-like toppings in McDonald and the ATK recipes best; if I'm serving up something called a cobbler, I don't want it to feel like a pie or an upside-down cake, but something distinctively different, as well as emphatically American. Both recipes use fluffy drop biscuits, rather than the flakier rolled kind – for a British audience, these are more like dumplings than rowies/butteries – which makes sense, because they're better suited to soaking up juice (and, in keeping with the spirit of the cobbler, much quicker and easier to make). The method is similar to scones, but uses a wetter dough, moistened with McDonald's tangy buttermilk, which my testers prefer to the more neutral but richer yoghurt in the ATK recipe. But we all agree some raising agent is required; an unleavened dough, though tasty, does have tendency to sit heavy as a stone upon the fruit. Adding it to a filling that's already hot helps it to cook through in time, and though the biscuit itself shouldn't be too sweet, in contrast to what lies beneath, a final topping of granulated sugar adds a delightful crunch. Miss Lewis served her peach cobbler with 'an unusual' (but very tasty) nutmeg syrup, but more common pairings are vanilla ice-cream (McDonald and Randall), whipped cream (ATK) and even, non-canonically, creme fraiche or yoghurt. But ice-cream is, in my opinion, the American dream. (Note that this is good served warm as well as well as hot, but not chilled, because that makes the topping turn a little doughy. You could marinate the peaches in advance, but don't make the biscuit dough until just before baking.) Prep 10 min Marinate 30 min+ Cook 45 min+ Rest 15 min Serves 6 About 800g ripe but fairly firm peaches (about 4-5 medium-sized ones)2 tbsp soft light brown or demerara sugar, or white sugar if preferredA pinch of salt 15g butter, diced, plus extra for greasing1½ tsp cornflour 1 tbsp lemon juice ¼ tsp almond extract (optional) ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg Ice-cream, to serve For the topping100g cold butter 175g plain flour 2 tbsp caster sugar ¼ tsp fine salt 1 tsp baking powder 150ml buttermilk, or 145ml milk mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar1 tbsp demerara sugar Cut the peaches into chunky wedges, scatter with the sugar and salt, then leave to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/gas 7, and grease a baking dish just large enough to hold all the fruit in a single layer. Grate or dice the 100g butter for the topping and put it in the freezer. Drain the juice from the steeped peaches and reserve. Arrange the drained peaches in the base of the rimmed baking dish. Put the cornflour in a small bowl, stir in two tablespoons of the reserved peach juice, plus the lemon juice and almond extract, if using, until dissolved, then toss this mix and the nutmeg with the peaches. Top with the diced butter. Put the peach dish on a rimmed baking tray, pop the lot in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the juices are bubbling. Meanwhile, put the flour, caster sugar, salt and baking powder for the topping in a large bowl. Add the frozen grated butter, toss to coat, then rub in with your fingertips just until the mix resembles coarse crumbs with visible pieces of butter still in there – it shouldn't be fully rubbed in. Once the peaches are bubbling, turn down the oven to 200 (180C fan)/gas 6 and stir the buttermilk into the flour to make a wet, shaggy dough. Dollop this on top of the fruit, leaving spaces between the blobs for them to expand. Top with a sprinkling of demerara sugar and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until golden. Remove, leave to cool for at least 15 minutes, then serve with ice-cream. Proper southern peach cobbler? Go on, tell me how it's really done!
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
'Multiple millions' needed to fix sea defences in Hunstanton
"Multiple millions" of pounds will need to be spent to repair a coastal resort's sea defences to protect it from flooding, a council has erosion has led to the beach dropping at Hunstanton, Norfolk, meaning parts of the sea wall's foundations have become exposed and Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council said more than 300 of the concrete slabs on the promenade could need replacing as health manager Dave Robson insisted the prom was not "structurally hazardous" and "it's safe to come to the beach". Stretching 1 mile (1.5km) across the front of Hunstanton, around £200,000 is spent on maintaining the town's sea defences every last year, the council began a deeper investigation into their condition and found that some sections – including those near the Oasis leisure centre and pier – were "at risk of future structural failure".Changes to offshore tides had washed away sections of beach, whilst the promenade surface – built in the 1950s – was "reaching the end of life".The council said parts of the sea wall's base would need "extra protection" and other sections may need repairs, whilst up to 338 concrete slabs on the promenade could have to be cost "will be multiple millions" warned Mr Robson, who said that although a 10 tonne vehicle weight limit had been added to the prom, it was "still safe to come to the beach"."It's not structurally hazardous at the moment. We're not going to close the prom off and say don't come," he added. Planning the work could take up to 18 months whilst rebuilding is expected to take at least two the council hopes it can get funding from the Regional Flooding and Coastal Committee, which allocates money from central Squire, the Cabinet Member for Environment and Coastal, said that given the age of the seafront, the authority had already expected major works would have to happen in the next decade:"At the moment we're spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year putting in mortar to repair cracks and joints when that can be washed out with the next winter storm," said Squire, a member of the Independent Partnership which runs the council."So this is really looking to the future of the prom and securing its future." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
