What kind of foods do Australians eat?
 

My grandson is autistic and he has been obsessed with the Wiggles and all things Australian for a long time now. He is 12. So we were talking last night about whether anyone eats kangaroo and that proceeded by what kind of foods do they eat in Australia? Are they British influenced or Aboriginal influenced or American influenced?

So we are curious. Would love it if any of our Australian members would like to offer an opinion and or favorite foods. thanks!!

Vegemite!!! LOL

Hi Rhonda. Yes, Aussies eat kangaroo, but also all the more common meats. Our food was probably more British many years ago but we now have a great range of foods from different cultures.
DH and I make most of our meals from scratch- soups, curries, stews, meat and veggies / salads. At the moment I am getting creative with eggplant as we have a lot growing- eggplant lasagne, eggplant dip, eggplant pickle, stuffed eggplant...................................

A lot of Aussies eat too much take-away these days though, for convenience I guess.

Any more questions I will be happy to try and answer. :)

Agree with all of that, and we can also get emu and croc meat. Vegemite is in just about every cupboard in the country. A couple of Aussie baked goods are lamingtons, vanilla slices and pavlova. These are sweet, the latter being very sweet indeed.
Vanilla slices are my favourite. Recipes for these are fairly easily found on Google, but mine is here. Anzac biscuits are another traditional food, eaten on 25th April (Anzac day). Recipe here, extremely easy to make.
Mike

Thanks Mike. Those recipes look good and the Anzac is easy and cheap too.

The Italians and Greeks have had a great influence on Aussie cuisine since the 1950's when many migrated here after WW2. Then in the 70's the Vietnamese arrived and showed us yet another delicious cuisine, and different vegetables and flavourings. ie Bok Choy, lemon grass. The Chinese also have influenced what we eat and dragon fruit is available in the fruit shops. Our recent migrants are from Africa and I'm sure they will also teach us about different foods too. Halal food also will soon begin to become more common as more people from Muslem countries arrive in Australia.

Thanks everyone I'll have to share this with Zach. He's only 12 and autistic but he has been obsessed with all things Australian for along time. He can mimic almost anything he hears and he watches alot of youtube stuff on Australia. He can sound very authentic. At least to my ears LOL

I have heard of vegemite but never seen it. We also have emu here in Iowa believe it or not! We have farmers who raise them here. I will have to look up some of the things you mention and check them out!

Thanks so much for answering my question!

The biscuit/cookie recipe looks delicious. What is golden syrup? Could I use pure maple syrup instead or honey?

Over here, every time someone asks about a different meat, we're told it tastes like chicken. What does kangaroo, emu, etc taste like?

Kind of a pale molasses sugar syrup. Has a treacle buttery flavor. Maple syrup would change the flavor. You could try Karo dark syrup or molasses with honey. World Market and Whole Foods carries golden syrup.

We've got McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut here too ya know...lol