In the pursuit of the ultimate hangover cure, two Dubbo men have blended everything that makes Australian food truly great: the devon scallop.

The creation hails from the Dubbo Meat Centre and Seafood, where manager Lewis Varty and a friend came up with the cheap and cheerful solution to too many tinnies and not enough pennies.

Varty told Hello Sport podcast host, Eddy Simpson, “We pretty much had this idea because we were eating devon and tomato sauce sandwiches… because we were broke.” We’ve all been there. Naturally, with access to a deep-fryer, the two friends couldn’t resist the temptation and the rest is history. 

The independent butchery has recently been struggling to meet demand for the crumbed, fried meat discs, selling up to 20 kilograms of the stuff each week. A tray of six devon scallops retails between $5 and $8, while a kilo will set you back $10; undeniably a bargain when you’ve got hungry mouths to feed.

Related story: Recipe rehab: dinners from the ’90s that left us traumatised

The unexpected hit has even grabbed the attention of the bigwigs at city hall, with Labor PM Stephen Lawrence sharing a video of the scallops on social media, vowing to serve the delicacy at the party’s Christmas bash. 

Devon, fritz, stras, Belgium, polony, dog log, whatever you call it – this pink roll of bouncy lunch meat is, for better or worse, part of our culture and darn it if it doesn’t slap on some white bread with tomato sauce.

What meat is devon?

If you really want to know how the sausage gets made, devon is technically pork. Similar in nature to mortadella (if you tell the Italians we said that, we’ll deny it), pork meat is ground very finely, and mixed with spices like white pepper, coriander, and nutmeg, before being steamed to cook.

Related story: 12 nostalgic foods every ’90s kid had in their lunchbox