#65 What We Can Learn from Australia about Food, Cooking and Dining

Today we’re going to be talking about what we can learn from Australia about food, cooking and dining! Hopefully it'll inspire something new in our kitchens. So, quite a few of their food traditions originally came from the indigenous or native Australians, often called the Aborigines. Later on there was a large British influence, as it was a British colony. Australia is now a constitutional monarchy with the King of England as its head of state, and it's a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, so you'll find that a lot of the things that are for sale in Australia are similar to what's available in the UK. I'll talk about things like vegemite and marmite - good old British things. If you haven't heard of those, I'm sure it'll be interesting.

Traditional foods and techniques from the Aborigines are things like using fire pits and earth ovens, smoking food, and eating bush foods like wattle seed, finger lime, kangaroo, of course, and the kakadu plum. These are very powerful flavors, and very recognizable in Australian cuisine.

Being a British colony, colonists brought with them ingredients and food traditions from the UK like flour, sugar, tea, potatoes, and dairy. There's obviously a lot of sheep in Australia - there's sheep farming, so beef and lamb are popular. They have classic British dishes like meat pies, roasts like roast beef and roast chicken, stews, puddings like Christmas pudding, and fish and chips. These are common in Australian households, and the British tradition of tea drinking also remains popular today.