Epicure XI
This week we’re running two offbeat entries from BYPASS – THE STORY OF A ROAD [Picador2004], the soulful travelogue of Michael McGirr who thought cycling down the Hume Highway made good sense.
One evening, wheeling into Holbrook, the “submarine” town 50kms northeast of Albury, McGirr headed to the pub for tea:
‘The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook… is one of the many places on the road which provide evidence of the connection between Hume and sport.
‘In September 1933, the NSW cricket team, which included the likes of Kippax, McCabe, Oldfield and Bradman, came to town to take the field against Holbrook and districts, a somewhat less impressive outfit.
‘It was quite an occasion and was marked by a dinner where the visitors all signed a commemorative menu which now sits behind glass on the wall of the hotel, protected from stray tomato sauce.
‘The cricketers’ menu had included Lamb aux Oldfield and Consomme a la Bradman.’
Makes you drool at the modern possibilities – the Tait plate, Langer langouste or Warnie’s own Nokia gnocchi. [Foodies, cricket buffs or mad cyclists can likewise wheel into 131 Albury St. Phone 02-6036-2523]
Do you know of any other surreal relic hanging on a pub wall? I can recall the crumpled nose of a cropduster dangling in a pub like Benambra (V) but that’s clutching at straw. Drop us a post if you know any more curious tavern keepsakes, and we’ll give the curio a go.