Australian Foods

Lamingtons

Vegemite Toast

Meat Pie

Pavlova

What exactly is Australian food?

While locals dine on fried rice, Thai curries, Mediterranean cuisine and the like, those dishes don't really belong to Australia. Australia is a multicultural country, with immigrants from many different places. So there are also dishes from a variety of countries.

Fried Rice; brown rice with prawns, bacon, peas, potato

Pizza; ham, cheese and pineapple

Curry; rice, chicken, zucchini, capsicum, basil

Traditional Aboriginal Foods“Bush Tucker”

Before the English colonised Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal people lived a simpler life. They hunted animals and gathered plants and berries. Some traditional Aboriginal foods are;

InsectsWitchetty grubs. The larva of a moth found in central Australia. They can be found in the root system of the Witchetty Bush and the taste is similar to scrambled eggs.

Honey Ants – underneath a Mulga tree, Aboriginal women will gather honey ants.

The nest can be a metre or two deep.

Bush Tucker – Plants and Seeds

Bush Tucker – Animals

The Colony - Pre Industrial Revolution 1840

The First Fleet brought seeds and animals such as sheep, cows and pigs to Australia in 1788. However many of the crops died as the climate was so different from England. The Aboriginal people showed them local animals and plants.

The diet of a settler was made up of mostly native meats; kangaroos, emus, pigeons, duck, stuffed wombat and fried echidna were on the menu. Often these meats were baked in pies or pasties.

Bread or ‘damper’ was baked in the ashes with no need for an oven, cooks often leaving the damper to cook in the underground ashes overnight.

Vegetables were a combination of local plants and anything that could be grown easily, like pumpkin.

Tea was considered a necessity, even when other items were scarce

1840 - 1945

In the mid-1800s, large numbers of Irish people came to Australia, to escape both the Potato Famine and religious persecution. They brought recipes for Irish stew with them which depended upon gentle stewing, rather than boiling of the mutton or kangaroo meat.  The meat was cooked with potatoes and a few other vegetables.

Rabbits were introduced, the first sugar cane plantantion was built in 1862, coffee was imported and new products were made in Australia, such as refined sugar, granny smith apples, and Arnotts biscuits.

1945

After WWII many immigrants and refugees moved to Australia. Australian food began to be defined by the changes brought about by new styles of cooking, especially Mediterranean, Asian, Indian, and African.

Now Now in the 21st century 'fusion cooking' seems to be

the way to go, mixing all the different cuisines of the world, as demonstrated by countless 'this is how you do it' TV chefs in cooking shows. Common meals are;• Steak, vegetables and potatoes• Roast dinners• ‘Spag Bol’• Pizza• Curry• Fried Rice• Meat Pies• Fish and chips• Steak, sausages, kebabs (really anything) on the BBQ• Takeaway meals; Fast food, Italian, Thai, Chinese,

Japanese, French, Mexican, Indian, Greek and many more.

Uniquely Australian Vegemite Barbecues Tim Tams (all Arnotts biscuits) Macadamia nuts Weet-bix – a cereal Lamingtons BBQ’d snags, sausages Pavlova Fairy Bread Hamburgers with beetroot and pineapple