Forget about underarm bowling or who Sonny Bill will play with next season.

Just mention ­pavlovas.

I saw a report not so long ago that said pavlova was an Australian ­delicacy and my immediate thought was “here we go again”.

In general terms Australian papers will say pavlova is an Australian delicacy and New Zealand papers will say it came from New Zealand.

It’s one of those arguments that seems not to have a resolution.

Just a bit of background, for those who came in late:

Russia once had a ballet dancer called Anna Pavlova, who toured Australia and New Zealand.

Her mother was a laundress and we’d better not mention her father. 

She toured Australia and New Zealand on a couple of occasions between 1926 and 1929. 

Some might say she was getting on in years at that stage, because she died in 1931, but I’m not sure if that was from eating pavlovas. 

I don’t know much about ballet, except that I got into trouble once during a school excursion for ­laughing out loud when a male ­ballet dancer fell over during a ­performance at Newcastle Town Hall.

Anyway, the Australian story is that a chef from the Esplanade Hotel in Perth was so impressed with Anna Pavlova’s performance – “it is as light as Pavlova” – that he invented a ­delicacy, called the pavlova, in 1935.

That’s OK, except that a New Zealand cookbook called Davis Dainty Dishes, published in 1926 by Davis Gelatine, New Zealand, had a recipe for pavlova cakes.

Some people say a chef in Wellington created the pavlova.

I would give you the recipes for pavlovas, as they are known in Australia and New Zealand, but they are different and anyway I am always told to “get out of the kitchen” so don’t regard me as an authority on anything.

Generally, however, the pavlova is a desert, or cake, made with meringue, whipped cream and fruit.

A comment in Practical Home Cookery, 1929, said “they are delightful and simple to make besides being a novelty”.

I did notice that many New Zealand publications referred to “pavlova cake” while in Australia the dish in most cases was called simply “pavlova”.

So, can I put in my tuppence worth and say the pavlova is a dish that belongs to both Australia and New Zealand? 

I think the pavlova was invented independently by various people who just happened to have been mesmerised by Anna Pavlova’s ­performance during her visit to this part of the world.

Even though the dictionaries say the pavlova came from Australia or New Zealand – take your pick – I did find a comment suggesting the dish came from neither country. Susan Butler in the Dinkum Dictionary quotes Nancy Keesing as saying in Lily on the Dustbin, 1982: “We did not invent the pavlova, and neither did our New Zealand cousins, though they, like us, cling to this mistaken belief.”

Nancy Keesing, however, does not back up her statement. I think she was probably having a bad day when she wrote that.

The fruit could be anything. Some publications said strawberries and some said pineapples, cherries or apricots.

Others mentioned kiwi fruit, but you if you want to start another argument with our friends across the ditch you can call them Chinese gooseberries.

lbword@midcoast.com.au