Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Wednesday 1 May 1940, page 6


FOR HOME and HOSTESS

Swedish Wife

Seeks Our

National Dish

Mrs. Wilfred Thomas, a Swedish visitor to Melbourne, is seeking Australia's national dish, and after five weeks in Sydney she is no nearer finding it than when she

arrived.

Mrs. Thomas is wife of the Australian singer who is visiting Australia for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Be-fore her marriage six years ago she danced as Marga Leinhart in the Monte Carlo Russian ballet company. She has forsaken the stage because she regards marriage as a career, and thinks that women should be able to produce certifi-cates for household proficiency to their prospective husbands as proof of good

meals to come.

Mrs. Thomas learned the art of cook-ing early, as all Swedish girls do. In every country she visits she seeks national dishes to make. She is enthusiastic about Australian fruits and vegetables, especi-ally custard apples, papaw, persimmons, and squash. Australian bread, she says, is sweeter and lighter than Swedish.

Swedish housewives were more inter-ested in cooking vegetables than meat, she said, because meat was dear. Veal and venison were staple meats, and cab-bage was eaten often. Cabbage, shred-ded and cooked with chopped onions and raisins, and, when cooked, mixed with sour cream, was a favourite Swedish dish.

"We serve green vegetables cold with

hot meat more than you do here," she said, "and we like spicy dishes, cheese, and savouries of all kinds. Lean meat, beef, or some other, is often cooked wrapped in slices of pork or bacon fat, braised in a casserole with nuts, raisins,

and onions. We like hot sauces with iced

sweets."

Mrs. Thomas prefers to take a flat and do her own housekeeping and cooking when she is in a city for a few weeks.

Swedish exercises every morning, even in the cold and fogs of London, keep Mrs. Thomas fit. She feels that good health is essential to a woman's physical and mental attractiveness—and to the happiness of her home.