There are certain dishes that send you back to your childhood, as surely as if you’d stepped into a time machine. For me, two of those are the classic constructions of the 1970s and ’80s — cauliflower cheese and honey carrots.

Do people still eat these dishes?

Perhaps in the suburbs of Australia, mums and dads continue to boil carrots in water and honey until they’re mushy, and bake cauliflower with mornay sauce and grated cheese, just like old times. But I suspect not. For many, even reading of such dishes might make them shudder.

Not so Daniel Lanza, the young chef at the helm of the revamped Edinburgh Castle Hotel, a Solotel-owned pub on busy Pitt St.

Lanza probably never ate honey carrots and cauliflower cheese as a kid and no doubt views them as pure retro fun. And so they’re on the menu in his dining room that pays cheeky homage to the grand old Aussie dishes of yore.

There’s a playful, clever touch to the menu Lanza oversees at this grand heritage pub whose main claim to fame is that Henry Lawson used to drink here. Read down the menu to find dishes as cultishly retro as a devon and cheddar toastie ($14), savoury lamb mince ($23), a chicken and leek cottage pie ($24) and one I haven’t seen since at least the late ’80s — glazed ham with roasted pineapple ($21).

There’s something amusing and defiantly different about this approach that I like. It takes a stand against the relentless march of mod-Italian food in our pubs and plays up the essence of this venue — it’s Australianness. Cooee to that.

So, then, there’s really no other way to start than with damper ($8). Yes, damper. I can’t remember eating damper except on a school excursion to some dinky convict-themed tourist attraction. How is it?

Well, it’s quite delicious and surprisingly light — like a cross between sourdough and a scone. Fat cold slices of herb-laced butter elevate the concept of plain old bread-and-butter.

You could follow that with a pork and sage sausage roll ($14), or go straight to the hard-core stuff: a schnitty or a burger.

Fashionably, the Eddy’s schnitty ($22) comes with its wing still in to help retain the moisture of the chicken breast beneath the crisp bready batter. It’s good, and if the promise of saltbush in the batter is lost somewhat, well who’s to know?

Also quality is a barramundi burger ($20), with a soft milk bun lending an American air to a sandwich some may consider redolent of a Macca’s Fillet-o-Fish. That’s not an insult, but a compliment, for there’s something moreishly indulgent about this burger with its judicious use of iceberg and tartare that makes you finish it in seconds. Nice one.

There’s more along the classic pub food line: a 200g rump ($20), roast snapper ($25), beer-battered fish and chips ($25). Bargains all, and well handled.

As for the honey carrots and cauliflower cheese? We order them of course, for old-time’s sake. The verdict? Send them back to the ’80s.

Originally published on dailytelegraph.com.au