Australian Cuisine: the Country's Pride
Not the Outback. Not the Sydney Opera House or the nearby Harbor Bridge.
Not the kangaroo or the Tasmanian devil. Australia, though known for
those, considers them just ordinary tourist attractions. What truly
brings the country pride is its cuisine—an interesting food and wine
culture shaped by Australia's history and natural bounty.
Australian cuisine, much like the Australians themselves, is born from
the clashing and eventual melding of indigenous and local societies. It
is made up of a wild, sometimes eclectic, sometimes exotic mix of
Indigenous Australian diet that dates back 40,000 to 60,000 years ago,
British and Irish culinary customs that were brought to the Australian
land mass during its colonization from the 18th to the early 20th
century, and Mediterranean and Southeast Asian foods from the influence
of migrants after the 1940s.
Part of what is now known today as Australian cuisine are the bush
tucker diet, which has for ingredients indigenous Australian flora and
fauna (kangaroo included!), the bushfoods, roast dinners, meat pies,
fish and seafood concoctions.
In one hand, barbecues—cue in open fields, rugged terrain, laidback
atmosphere enjoyed by hardy men and women in a warm circle—are a
particularly interesting, image-defining part of Australian cuisine that
perfectly shows the country's communal culture and its relationship with
food taken straight from Mother Nature. On the other hand, there are
modern haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine and fusion food that allows a
glimpse into Australia's growth as a modern nation that is willing to
embrace the new and the foreign.
Oh, and don't forget Australia's famous regional wines which are perfect
for pairing with any of Australia's flavorful food or enjoyed by itself.
These are world-renown vintages that have Australia's topography branded
into their distinct taste and quality.
Read on, experiment and enjoy...
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