Margeurite Patten, OBE, CBE, has sold 17 million copies of
her 170 books, which makes her an astonishingly prolific bestselling author.
And yet, she came up with dishes like these Darwin Steaks.
Interestingly, the city of Darwin is located in Australia’s
Top End, which is also the name for the part of the animal the top end cut
comes from. It’s called top end because it’s at the top and it’s the best bit.
Australians might have you believe this too. It would be a crime to mince a
really good bit of top end steak for this recipe. The city was named for
Charles Darwin, of the Origin of Species
fame, because the ship he had sailed on, The
Beagle, put ashore there. In those days, it was considered the right thing
to do to name a spot after illustrious members of your crew. On general
knowledge tests, when asked what The
Beagle was, people say “a dog.” This is because people have no love for
nautical history. Charles Darwin loved earthworms best of all, and his wife
(who was also his first cousin), bore him ten children. Whenever one of them
got sick he would fret that it was due to genetic weakness caused by marrying
your first cousin. The fittest, however, survived.
