CUISINE OF AUSTRALIA

Historically 'Australian cuisine' was based on traditional British cooking brought to the country by the first settlers. This generally consisted of pies, roasted cuts of meat, grilled steak and chops, and other forms of meat generally accompanied by vegetables (the combination known colloquially as "meat and three veg").
These origins have been mostly overtaken by the growing multicultural emphasis of Australian culture over the last forty to fifty years, with Australian cuisine now influenced by a variety of Mediterranean and Asian foods originally introduced by immigrants. British traditions still persist to varying degrees including in the takeaway food sector, with pies and fish and chips remaining popular.
A native Australian cuisine movement has also emerged, evolving out of the Australian themed restaurants of the mid-1980s. The discovery of the spice-like qualities of many native Australian plant ingredients formed the basis of a gourmet cuisine. This contrasted with the Bush tucker or foraged food unfamiliar to gourmets.

Contents

Background

Breakfast

Dinner

Takeaway food in Australia

Unique and Iconic Australian foods

Bush food

Desserts

See also

References

Background

Australian cuisine is some of the most diverse available anywhere, due to the many cultural influences. Modern Australian cuisine has been heavily influenced by the country's South-East Asian neighbours, and by the many waves of immigrants from there, and all parts of the world. Similarly, Greek, Lebanese and Italian influences are very common with many of these influences arriving in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. Fresh produce is readily available and thus used extensively, and the trend (urged by long-term government health initiatives) is towards low-salt, low-fat healthy cookery incorporating lean meat and lightly cooked, colourful, steamed or stir-fried vegetables.
Australia's wide variety of seafood is also popular and barbecues are common at weekend family gatherings. Barbecues are also common in fundraising for schools and local communities, where sausages and onion are served on white bread with tomato sauce. These are most often referred to as "Sausage Sizzles".
Some English trends are still evident in domestic cuisine. Among these is the widespread tradition of having roast turkey, chicken and ham with trimmings followed by a plum pudding for Christmas lunch or dinner, despite the fact that Christmas is at the height of the Southern Hemisphere summer.

Breakfast

The typical breakfast of Australians strongly resembles breakfast in many Western countries. Owing to the warm weather in some parts of Australia, generally breakfast is light but in the colder regions porridge or meals similar to the full English breakfast may be consumed. The light breakfast commonly consists of, cereals, toast (with a spread) and fruit. A heavier cooked breakfast will frequently include, fried bacon, egg, mushroom, baked beans, sausages, tomatoes, toast with spread. Drinks taken at breakfast include, tea, coffee, flavoured milk or juice.
A unique breakfast food to Australia is Vegemite, a black salty spread made from yeast with vitamin B and applied to toast or bread.

Dinner

The evening meal is the main meal of the day for most Australians, and when consumed at home, is often eaten with members of the immediate family or household. The dishes served will vary widely according to the tastes and/or background of the family. Common choices would be roast meat and vegetables; pasta; pizza; casseroles; barbecue meat; vegetables and salads; soup; stir-frys.
A typical 'Australian' cafe or restaurant (not adhering to any particular ethnic cuisine) might offer sandwiches and foccaccias; a range of pasta, risotto, salad or curry dishes; steak, chicken or other meat-based dishes; cakes or other desserts; and juices, soft drink and coffee.

Takeaway food in Australia

There is a wide variety of takeaway food available in Australia. Two of the most traditional takeaway dishes are the meat pie and sausage roll. These come in varying grades, ranging from the mass-produced factory outputs of 'Four-and-Twenty' and 'Big Ben', through to gourmet pies sold by specialist pie shops. There is an annual competition to find the 'Great Australian Meat Pie'.
American-style chain stores are common including Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, ''Hungry Jacks'' (a hamburger franchise owned by Burger King), Domino's Pizza, and McDonalds (commonly called ''Maccas'' by locals). An alternative to the US imports is offered by the Australian chicken fast food chain Red Rooster, pizza chains Eagle Boys and Pizza Haven, the Portuguese chicken franchises Nando's and Oporto, and by the corner Pizza shops, charcoal or fried chicken stores, stores selling items such as kebabs and gyros (referred to as 'yiros' or 'yeeros' in some regions), and fish and chip shops. Many of these sell high-quality food for reasonable prices. Typically found in many takeaway shops is the 'Australian Hamburger'. This is mainly distinguished from other hamburgers by the range of fillings available. An order with all fillings is known as a 'Hamburger with the Lot'. The fillings include lettuce, tomato, cheese, beetroot, grilled onion, bacon, a fried egg and pineapple.
A very wide variety of Chinese, Indian and various Asian restaurants provide eat-in and take-away services, and are very popular in the cities. With the high levels of immigration from the Middle East, South and South East Asia, Korea, China and other countries from all over the world to Australia, many authentic and high-quality restaurants are run by first and second generation immigrants from these areas. Chinese cuisine, however, ranges from a long established very Australian-Chinese style based on the cooking of the Chinese community established during the gold rushes of the late 1800s, to quite different cuisine only very recently imported from different regions of China.

Unique and Iconic Australian foods

"Research has shown that 85% of the products in the average Australian supermarket trolley are imported or made by foreign-owned companies with $100 million of profits a day going out of the country." (Dick Smith - quoted in Foodweek)
The foodstuff most regularly associated with Australia is Vegemite (owned by the American Kraft Foods).
Other unique or iconic national foods include the Chiko Roll, a deep-fried savoury roll akin to a spring roll; Violet Crumble, a honeycomb chocolate bar; Jaffas, a candy-coated chocolate; Tim Tams, a chocolate biscuit; and the breakfast cereal Weet-Bix.
Australians also enjoy their own small, hand sized meat pie, generally made with meat and gravy.
In South Australia this is served upside down on a bed of pea soup, covered in tomato sauce, and called a Pie floater.
Damper is a simple and traditional type of bread.

Bush food

Native meats and plants have long been traditional in Aboriginal diets and in rural white Australia. They can be seen on the menus of some of Australia's top restaurants and are now exported around the world. This has been due to the pioneering efforts of Vic Cherikoff and his colleagues who began the commercialization of around two dozen species for the wider food industry.
Meats and fish that are natively Australian include, kangaroo, emu, barramundi, possum, wallaby, trevally, Moreton Bay bugs, flathead and yabbies
Native food and spice plants include, Akudjura, Davidson Plum, Desert Lime, Finger Lime, Illawarra Plum, Lemon Aspen, Lemon Myrtle, Lili Pili, Mountain Pepper, Macadamia, Muntries, Quandong, Riberry and Wattleseed which was developed into a food flavoring by Vic Cherikoff in 1984.

Desserts

There are a small number of desserts and sweet dishes that are popularly thought of as being unique to Australia:

★ Anzac biscuits

★ Frozie cup

★ Lamingtons

★ Pavlova

★ Vanilla slice

★ Musk stick

See also

★ Australian wine

★ South Australian food and drink

★ Cheong Liew

★ Maggie Beer

★ Vic Cherikoff

References

★ Bruneteau, Jean-Paul, ''Tukka, Real Australian Food'', ISBN 0-207-18966-8.

★ Cherikoff, Vic, ''The Bushfood Handbook'', ISBN 0-7316-6904-5.

★ Kersh, Jennice and Raymond, ''Edna's Table'', ISBN 0-7336-0539-7.

★ Cherikoff, Vic and Christie, Benjamin, ''The Dining Downunder cookbook''. ISBN 0-9752-0210-3