Skin and clean possum or bandicoot, then quarter the animal. (Video tape this please. I have no idea how to do it. Also "first you have to catch a possum or bandicoot", but then that's another story.) Place it in a large pot or camp oven along with water and salt. Cover and simmer gently for 3 or 4 hours. (Tough little devils apparently.) Add vegetables and simmer for another 1 1/2 hours (Still tough. Even the vegies are resisting being associated with this.) Strain soup through a large holed colander when meat has left bone and remove bones, especially small ones. Return soup to the pot and add parsley and celery leaves. Thicken with a little flour or gravox. Cut fried bread into 1 inch squares and serve soup over toast, boiling hot.

*For those of you that haven't met a bandicoot, it is something between a possum and a raccoon, sort of, I think, maybe.

*Tin of corn? Well a can I guess, 16 oz.

*Now, when you boil this meat for 5 1/2 hours, strain it and throw it away, it does make me wonder why you started in the first place.

*Gravox is a meat concentrate seasoning I think. The dish must be need some flavor.

*Fry the bread any way you want to.

*All things considered, a brick or stone would be a reasonable alternative if you don't happen to have a possum or bandicoot available.

Recipe by scotlyn@juno.com (Daniel S Johnson) on Mar 25, 1998.