Lygon St. Stories and recipes from Melbourne's melting pot

From the time it was laid out across the bushland to the north of the Melbourne city grid, Lygon Street became a melting pot. Even in its earliest days, the days before the distinct waves of Jewish and Italian immigrants washed over Carlton, the people who lived, worked and owned businesses on the street came from many different ethnic backgrounds and economic circumstances.' So starts the unique and remarkable tale of Lygon Street in the heart of the inner-city suburb of Carlton, a street that was without doubt responsible for bringing authentic home-style cooking to Australia, introducing the first espresso machine, the first pizza house and the first produce store to stock extra virgin olive oil and fresh mozzarella cheese. This absorbing and entertaining history features a collection of recipes from iconic Lygon Street restaurants and celebrates the rich diversity of caf s, shops and businesses that have existed on this colourful shopping strip over the past 150 years. Since it first appeared on the maps of Melbourne in the 1850s, Lygon Street has faced it's fair share of adversity - from severe economic depression, to ravenous developers and misguided social experiments, the street has been home to an ethnic mix of the working-class, bourgeois, artists, bohemians, criminals and intellectuals. Aside from its unique influence and contribution to the world of gastronomy, Lygon Street is home to the oldest Trade Union headquarters in the world and the birthplace of the Australian Labour party. Above and beyond all this, it is a harmonious melting pot of different cultures, a place where people have historically mingled together in a unique way that has seen the blossoming of one of Australia's first alternative theatre scene and the first fully-fledged Street festival in the country. It is a street that gives multiculturalism a good name.