Australia, traditionally had a very British based diet, and traditional Aussie cooks were famous for food like lamb roasts, with potatoes and two vegetables, sponge cakes, huge steaks (well done), and fruits like apples, pears and oranges. Because of this, I love going to funerals catered for by the local ladies in country towns - not for the death, tears and mourning, I hasten to add, but for the great food! Absolutely yummy passionfruit sponges, asparagus rolls, cucumber sandwiches, lamingtons and pavlovas, for instance. I also enjoy the more British food that my Aussie husband whips up, like these date and lemon scones .
Surprisingly, in the past, there was very little food eaten that was native to Australia - except maybe the macadamia nut. When I arrived here, in the 1960s, it was very difficult to buy any other type of food and Anglo-Aussie was what most people ate. However, the Chinese have had a very long association with this country, mostly because of the gold rush, and most towns had a Chinese restaurant, where you could buy such Aussie Chinese specialities as dim sims, chow mien, and chop suey ( all containing cabbage, chopped up carrot and mince, in my recollection). And by the 1960s, the Italians and Greeks and Jews in Melbourne had begun to introduce Australians to delicacies like percolated coffee, European style cakes and biscuits, spaghetti and salami. No doubt other cities in Australia were more influenced by some migrant groups than others, but Australians tended, in my opinion to be pretty wary of "strange" food from overseas. Needless to say, my parents were a bit horrified at the lack of variety when they arrived, having travelled a lot, and lived in Hong Kong and the West Indies. My mother , in particular, bemoaned the fact that so many ingredients were unavailable in Australia. My father took to taking us on excursions to dodgy little cafes dotted around Melbourne, where no- one appeared to speak English and the customers mostly seemed to be shady looking men, in order to fulfil the family craving for "exotic" food.
Things have certainly changed. I think Australians nowadays are some of the most adventurous and exciting diners and cooks in the world. Plus, in my humble opinion, Melbourne is the capital of the food world. You could eat your way around the world in this one city. From Tibet, to Mali, from France to Mexico, from Sri Lanka to Argentina, you can get the food in Melbourne. (Of course, there could be even more variety. I, for one, would like to see more of a representation from Papua New Guinea, West Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands in the restaurants available). Furthermore, the cooks in this city have the confidence to put their own spin on the food and create their own food culture. It is fantastic. There is good food available for any pocket. A lot of this is because of the influences of each group of migrants. A lot of the change is because Australians are keen travellers. Even the most conservative of travellers ( like the woman I shared a tour with in Vietnam who would not eat fish that don't swim in Australian waters), seems to be influenced by the food they discover in their travels. Even in very traditional Australian homes, I have been been offered food as diverse as buffalo bocconcini, basil and tomato entrees, home made pizza, barbecued kangaroo, curried fish, quinoa salad, lamb souvlaki, paella and Wiener schnitzels. A lot of the change is because Australians are pretty adventurous. In addition, Australians are rediscovering and learning to value native foods, so nowadays, you can buy kangaroo in most supermarkets, emu and crocodile from some speciality stores, and "bush food", for instance: seasonings like lemon myrtle, mountain pepper and aniseed myrtle. Food companies are beginning to incorporate bush foods in their sauces and seasonings. Chefs are using bush foods in their cooking. Gardeners can grow native plants like warrigals (a green, sour spinach type of leaf) finger limes and lily pillies in the kitchen garden.
My cooking certainly reflects this change. Like many people who live in Australia, I am very fond of fresh food, so Asian food has a big influence on my cooking, as does any nationality which uses a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I also love trying new things.
For instance, I had a salad at a cafe in James street, Fortitude Valley, a few years ago, that included Freekeh. I had never heard of it, so searched around until I discovered that it is young green wheat which is roasted, and commonly eaten in the Middle East. It is now grown in Australia and I finally found a packet and bought it. we have continued to use it in our meals since then. We went for a long walk last weekend, trying to build up my fitness after a period of sloth, and rewarding the dogs for having to be stuck in the house during the recent rain. I decided to make a salad to keep up the good work, and made up this recipe using Freekeh. Probably not authentic middle eastern at all, but influenced by the Middle East.
Freekeh salad.
Ingredients:
1 cup Freekeh
2 cups boiling water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 diced lebanese cucumber
1 cup diced sweet orange potato
kernels cut off 2 cobs of corn
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 cup pepitas
Pulp of 1 pomegranate
3 chopped up spring onions
Salad dressing:
2 teaspoons date syrup
Juice of I lemon
3 dessert spoons olive oil
salt
pepper
Method:
Pour water on Freekeh and salt in a microwave proof bowl. Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes in microwave. Add sweet potato and cook for 5 more minutes.
Cool, then stir into a salad bowl with other ingredients.
Mix all the ingredients for the dressing and pour on the salad. Mix.
There was lots left over - and we liked it- so we decided to have it for dinner too. Of course, we had to have a middle eastern style addition to it. Claudia Rodin came to the rescue providing the inspiration with a marinade for the two chicken thigh fillets I had ( I found it in her "Tamarind and Saffron " book).
Grilled chicken kebabs.
Ingredients
2 chicken thigh fillets, cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt
pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon paprika
Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate for an hour or two.
Soak the bamboo skewers in water.
Thread the chicken cubes onto the skewers and grill.
We have also had a fairly simple meal of fresh mackerel, marinated in lemon juice and coated in flour, coconut, salt and pepper, then fried, with a sweet potato and potato mash, corn and French beans:
as well as curried vegetables, and asalted duck egg salad. See? More mixed ethnic influences.
Apart from that, we have eaten out. We were given free tickets to see "The Company You Keep" in Indooroopilly by a very kind friend. We enjoyed it, but it is a long film and we were starving when we emerged. Luckily, we spotted a little take-away place just outside the cinema, called Phuc Deli -Viet. We ordered Hainan chicken and rice:
and spicy seafood hu tieu:
and had fresh cocnut juice to drink. They were both very good indeed, though there was a considerable gap between the deliveries of the dishes. In fact, they were so good, we decided to try out their strange looking Malaysian Ice Kachang:
Thank God we only ordered one! It was huge - and rather wonderful. From what we could work out, it had shaved rice with two syrups poured over ( was one made from cochineal and the other from pandan leaves added to palm sugar?) and coconut milk, all on top of sweet corn, grass jelly, kidney beans, palm seed and another jelly. Very refreshing!
...............................okay, I confess, Australians also eat a lot of junk food too, and food that is bad for you - full of fat, sugar, preservatives and salt. And Australians are beginning to be among the most obese people in the world. In addition, there are, of course, people here who only eat pre-packaged food and never cook at all. But, we still have an enormous variety of foods from many different countries available to us here, and it is of very good quality, compared to many countries that I have visited. All countries have good local food, but not all countries are open to the foods of other countries. I am lucky enough to live in a country which has excellent local food and cuisine, is open to the cuisine of others, and has absolutely disgusting but often tasty, junk food.
