Australian cuisine

Traditional Australian cuisine was based on the old-fashioned English cooking brought to the country by the first European settlers. Sunday roasts, grilled chops, and other forms of meat predominated, generally accompanied by 'three veg' - mashed potatoes, overcooked beans and/or peas, and soggy carrots. This trend has declined considerably with the multicultural emphasis of Australian culture over the last thirty to fifty years.

Today's Australian cuisine is often considered some of the most diverse available anywhere, due to the many colliding 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 common. 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.

Some English trends are still evident in domestic cuisine, among them a widespread tradition of having a hot roast turkey, chicken and/or ham with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner, followed by a heavy Christmas pudding.

Fast Food in Australia

Despite the best intentions of government health schemes and cultural marketing initiatives, the traditional Australian palette is amply serviced by an extensive fast (known as 'takeaway') food industry. One of the most traditional fastfood 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', sold on every street corner in the milkbars and delis, through to gourmet pies sold from specialist pie shops. There is an annual competition to find the 'Great Australian Meat Pie', and the winners are light years removed from their soggy grease-laden antecedants.

American-style chain stores are common including Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King (known as Hungry Jacks due to a trademark issue), and of course McDonalds. An alternative to the US imports is offered by the Australian chicken fastfood chain Red Rooster, and by the corner Pizza shops, charcoal chicken stores, fish and chip shops and a wide range of small enterprises. Many of these sell high-quality food for reasonable prices, but the only way to find the good ones is to try them.

Chinese and Asian restaurants provide eat-in and takeaway services, and once again they cover the gamut from Europeanised watereddown 'faux' Asian food (soggy sweet-and-sour chicken) to the authentic. Most Australians prefer the genuine article, and the number of high-quality Asian restaurants is ever-increasing.

Uniquelly Australian Dishes

There are very few dishes that are unique to Australia but among them are a number of desserts and sweet dishes.

Meats and fish that are uniquely Australian include:

kangaroo
emu
barramundi
trevalla
Moreton Bay bugs
yabby

These meats have long been traditional in Aboriginal diets, and in rural white Australia. They can be seen on the menus of many of Australia's top restaurants.