Culture of Australia - Cuisine

Cuisine

Contemporary Australian cuisine combines British and indigenous origins with Mediterranean and Asian influences. Australia's abundant natural resources allow access to a large variety of quality meats, and to barbecue beef or lamb in the open air is considered a cherished national tradition. The great majority of Australians live close to the sea and Australian seafood restaurants have been listed among the world's best.

Bush tucker is the traditional diets of indigenous Australians. Much of this food may be considered as having been uniquely Australian - from such food items as macadamia nuts to kangaroo meat (which is undergoing a renaissance of interest on contemporary Australian menus). A popular modern exponent of bush tucker has been television personality Les Hiddins, known as The Bush Tucker Man.

Early British settlers brought familiar meats and crops with them from Europe and these remain important in the Australian diet. The British settlers found some familiar game - such as swan, goose, pigeon, and fish - but the new settlers often had difficulty adjusting to the prospect of native fauna as a staple diet. They established agricultural industries producing more familiar Western style produce. Queensland and New South Wales became Australia's main beef cattle producers, while dairy cattle farming is found in the southern states, predominantly in Victoria. Wheat and other grain crops are spread fairly evenly throughout the mainland states. Sugar cane is also a major crop in Queensland and New South Wales. Fruit and vegetables are grown throughout Australia. "Meat and three veg", fish and chips, and the Australian meat pie continue to represent traditional meals for many Australians. The post-World War II multicultural immigration program brought new flavours and influences, with waves of immigrants from Greece, Italy, Vietnam, China, and elsewhere bringing about diversification of the typical diet consumed.

Australia's 11 million square kilometre fishing zone is the third largest in the world and allows for easy access to seafood which significantly influences Australian cuisine. Clean ocean environments produce high quality seafoods. Lobster, prawns, tuna, salmon and abalone are the main ocean species harvested commercially, while aquaculture produces more than 60 species for consumption, including oysters, salmonoids, southern bluefin tuna, mussels, prawns, barramundi, yellowtail kingfish, and freshwater finifish. While inland river and lake systems are relatively sparse, they nevertheless provide some unique fresh water game fish and crustacea suitable for dining. Fishing and aquaculture constitute Australia's fifth most valuable agricultural industry after wool, beef, wheat and dairy. Approximately 600 varieties of marine and freshwater seafood species are caught and sold for both local and overseas consumption. Popular seafoods of local origin include barramundi, flathead, and the balmain bug, while the popularity of Australian prawns led to a successful tourism campaign in the 1980s in which actor/comedian Paul Hogan invited Americans to come to Australia where he would "throw a shrimp on the barbie for ya".

Vegemite is a well-known spread originating from Australia, though currently produced by the US-owned food company Kraft Foods. Iconic Australian desserts include pavlova and lamingtons. ANZAC biscuits recall the diet of Australia's World War I soldiers at the Battle of Gallipoli.