Polydish city guide
Best Bush bread in London
“Crushed seeds baked in coals: high protein, labor-intensive, and deeply communal.”
What the real thing tastes like
Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Aboriginal Australians by crushing seeds into a dough that is then baked. The bread is high in protein and carbohydrate, and forms part of a balanced traditional diet. It is also sometimes referred to as damper, although damper is more commonly used to describe the bread made by non-Indigenous people. With the arrival of Europeans and pre-milled white flour, this bread-making process has almost disappeared (although women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in Central Australia in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot coals continues today. Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its labour-intensive nature. It involved collecting seasonal grains, legumes, roots or nuts, and preparing these into flour and then dough, or directly into a dough. One of the traditional ingredients was the seeds of kangaroo grass.
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Bush bread is ground seed cake—protein-dense, made by Aboriginal Australian women who crushed seasonal grains, legumes, roots, and nuts into dough, then baked it in hot coals. The labor was communal, often done by several women together, and kangaroo grass seeds were a traditional foundation. European arrival and pre-milled white flour nearly erased the practice, though the method persisted in Central Australia into the 1970s.
Order it here when it has
- high in protein and carbohydrate
- balanced nutrition
- tradition continues today
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