The weekly roast dinner may have gone the way of church attendance, but new rituals have sprung up in its place.
Sunday lunch doesn’t carry the weight that it used to. The Sunday roast was once as indisputable as the Sunday visit to church. It had the distinct advantage of being able to be shoved in the oven as you headed off so you could take it out, massively overcooked, on your return.
In my family, the Sunday roast was always lamb. Beef was too expensive and roast chicken was reserved for birthdays. The smell of blistering fat and roasting parsnips would take possession of the house, luring us out of our bedrooms and in from the backyard. Pan drippings would be poured off for keeping, and out would come the special gravy boat, as my elder brothers set the table.
The Sunday roast may have gone the way of the dripping pan and church attendance, but new rituals have sprung up in its place. Now we have avocado-laden brunches in restaurants, smoky barbecues in the backyard, round-table yum chas in Chinese restaurants, and post-kayaking smoothies in local cafes.
Without the formality of tradition, Sunday lunch is allowed to be whatever it wants to be. This is a good thing, but we mustn’t let it become the same as lunch on any other day. I would never, for instance, eat my typical, weekday office lunch on a Sunday – unless I’d momentarily forgotten what day of the week it was, which has been known to happen.
Staying home for Sunday lunch is a delightful thing to do because you can call it brunch and start eating halfway through the morning, then crack a beer at noon.
Going out for Sunday lunch is also delightful, however, because someone else gets to peel the prawns, find the perfect avocado and toss the salad.
Besides, the food is Lunch Food, which is different to Dinner Food. Lunch Food is oysters, prawns with Marie Rose sauce, beer-battered fish and chips, tomato and burrata salad, lobster rolls, simple grills and very big cheese plates. It’s light and easy, with a greater sense of freedom and time. You don’t have to bolt your food down and race back to work.
Do more Sunday lunches, and your digestive system will thank you. Take your mother, and she will thank you. Just make sure you eat enough to warrant a post-lunch nap, thereby not wasting a perfectly good Sunday afternoon.
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Terry Durack is the chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food.
