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Australian Cuisine

One might think that most people will have no difficulty understanding the Australian cuisine but after watching many, many quiz programs (I’m a bit of an addict) have to laugh as quizzers try to find the food from the Australian slang. A few examples: Mudbugs which of course are Crayfish. Chook , chicken and my favourite Goog which  I am informed is an egg.

So it’s not the cuisine you have to learn, rather the lingo, as Australians love their nicknames.

It’s quite natural that an continent inhabited over so many years by so many nations would have a wild diversity of food and Australia has not let us down on that score. Italian, French, English, Caribbean, to name a few have all added to Australia’s cuisine.

As an Island sea food plays a very prominent part of the Australian diet, especially shell fish and of course the Yabby which is a small crayfish and comes from an Aboriginal word Yabij. (I don’t think you can see an Australian film, TV show without a Yabby being mentioned at least once. )

The land and weather is perfect for growing all types of foodstuff, settlers came and brought seeds, which were readily added to Australia’s food crops, so it follows that whatever you fancy eating it will almost certainly not be very far from you.

There are also every imaginable fast food and takeaway restaurants so you do not have to be homesick for that Steak and Kidney pie, or Curry on a Friday night with the lads watching the footie.

Every type of Veggie is now grown in Australia and there is a strong ‘be healthy’ campaign where people are being encouraged to eat more veggies, have less salt and eat more fruit.

 

So what is the indigenous food of Australia? Well Aboriginal, bush tucker. Native Australians hunted and gathered  for 40,000 – 60,000 years Kangaroo, Wallaby, Emu. They fished ate Bogong Moths, Witchetty Grubs , Snakes and collected indigenous fruits and berries.  If you  desire to experience this part of Australia’s history there are many bush tucker restaurants where they cook in the traditional style so you can sample a cuisine left behind  in the wake of  settlers from every part of the globe.