October 30, 2017, 01:34 PM 
Imagine if you were stuck in a bad situation for months subsisting on a meagre diet of root vegetables, and if you're lucky, the occasional bread and jam.
For many civilians caught up in the war, food scarcity was a very real problem.
For prisoners of war (POW) caught by the Japanese, theirs was a harsher existence. Many had to get by on the kindness of locals who would occasionally slip them curry, tinned sardines, and even milk.
Example of a day's menu. Illustration by late POW William Haxworth. Via NAS.
Dreaming up imaginary feasts was a way of coping with the intense hunger and homesickness. For Australian POW, George Sprod, dreaming of the perfect Christmas meal was his way of tiding over a hungry holiday season:
Via NLB.
This little menu comes from the National Library's Rare Collection, and also features a wistful poem at the top right corner.
Surprisingly, the humble tau-gay (spelt "towgay" in the menu, referring to bean sprout) finds a fan in this ang moh. Unsurprisingly, the menu features plenty of fried foods (we would eat fried food everyday too if we could).
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Check out Sprod's ideal Christmas-day menu below:
Breakfast
- Sweet Pap (possibly a kind of mealy porridge) with Beans and Oil
- Fried Fish Rissole (a minced patty with potato and onions)
- Baked Cheese & Towgay Cup
We have no idea what a baked cheese and bean sprouts cup is, but judging from what it sounds like, it seems....interesting.
Fish Rissoles, for illustrative purposes only. Via Flickr.
Tiffin
'Tiffin' refers to a light lunch - a concept found in colonial India, and brought over to Malaya by the British.
- Vegetable Hash
- Baked Fish
- Fried Vegetable Pasty (puff)
- Fried Fish Rissole
Vegetable pasty, for illustrative purposes. Via.
Dinner
- Vegetable Stew
- Fried Fish Rissole
- Fried Whitebait Pasty
- Fried Savoury Pasty
- Fried Towgay Pasty
- Fried Jam Pasty
- Baked Jam Cup
Vegetable stew, for illustrative purposes. Via.
Sprod even included a little poem which goes:
When this war is over
And all the talking's done
We'll have three Christmas dinners
And birthdays rolled in one
After the war, Sprod returned to Sydney where he worked as an illustrator, and we believe, ate his well-deserved share of good food too.
If you're interested in recreating food eaten by people who lived through the war, you might want to check this out:
Top images via NLB and organicfacts.net
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