fairy bread

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

fairy bread (uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) A snack made of buttered bread sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.
   • 1990, Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi, unnumbered page,

     ‘I was a fairy-bread hogger at parties,’ he told me seriously, his eyes immediately changing. ‘I used to put them in my pockets or hide them wherever I could, until one day I was exposed when my host handed me my parka and four slices of fairy bread fell out. I was seven years old and up till this day if I ever see fairy bread I palpitate and realise that psychologically I will never be cured.’

     I laughed at his theatrics and took the Tim Tam he offered me.

   • 2004, Ilsa Evans, Drip Dry, page 86:

     I notice that the rest of the party food has just about disappeared. All that is left are a few puddles of congealing tomato sauce, a couple of smashed meringues and the dried-out crusts from fifty-odd triangles of fairy bread.

   • 2005, Kris Webb, Kathy Wilson, Inheriting Jack, page 16,

     Robert cleared his throat. ‘Um, one of the airline hostesses took a shine to Jack and made him some fairy bread. You know, bread with hundreds and thousands? He was pretty happy with that’.