Today we celebrated ANZAC day, which is a national day of remembrance (always April 25) in Australia and New Zealand commemorating all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. It's the Aussie and Kiwi version of Veteran's Day, if you will. There's a few traditions for ANZAC day that we fully embraced - ANZAC biscuits and Two-up.
The biscuits (aka cookies), which I made yesterday, are supposed to resemble the biscuits that women on the home front made and sent overseas to soliders. There are no eggs used in ANZAC biscuits as eggs were scarce in war time. Instead the binding agent used is a golden or treacle syrup. Here's the recipe I used that Arley sent me after making these for a friend of hers. They are quite buttery and sweet!
Two-up is a gambling game that is *only legal* in public on ANZAC day as a way to remember the soldiers who played it extensively during WWI. How great is that? Consequently, most every pub in Australia is packed with people drinking beer and playing Two-up on ANZAC day. Mike and I followed suit of course.
We met up with one of our Aussie friends, Tim, and his mates at a pub in Balmain called The Dry Dock Hotel. We played Two-up for nearly five hours - it was so much fun and of course addictive! The game is basically a heads or tails coin toss (game of chance) so anyone can take part in the action. The bets hover around $5 to $20 so no one is losing big money. I tripled my money and Mike had a few highs and lows and unfortunately ended on a low. So, I bought dinner :)
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