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

The majority of Australians do not often eat kangaroo or emu etc and some of our wild animals are protected so that Aborigines are the only ones allowed to kill and eat them. However, I have had witchety grubs and I thought they had a nutty/ woody taste. I quite liked them. Snake was like a cross between chicken and fish and kangaroo was like a beef. I have never had emu or echidna. I was given wattle seed " coffee" to drink which was very nice. I ate these only when I went bush with some Koori and Torres Strait Islander friends of mine. Mostly we go to the supermarket or butcher to get our meat, the same as you do.

Vegemite has changed in its flavour since the American company bought it. I used to like it until then. I suppose they were trying to make it palatable to other people as well as Australians. It is definitely not as good. The same can be said of the Arnott's biscuits as well. They are half the size and have a different flavour. I this way, food is becoming much more similar and gradually loses the individuality which keeps it attractive.

Try Golden Syrup on ice cream. Add chopped nuts and it is a delightful Sundae. Hugs

I make Anzac cookies and use white corn syrup or Golden corn syrup.

I have a couple of Kiwi community fundraiser cook books. Most the baking recipes call for golden syrup.

Golden syrup is lovely if you can find it , buttery taste on pancakes and makes gorgeous flapjacks

My late husband was English so I know all about marmite and vegemite. I believe you take a whole cow and cook him horns, hoofs and innerds and the last bit of him is put into a jar. I absolutely refused to let him eat it at the table with the rest of us, the smell was atrocious. I know that when we travel overseas, I take my peanut butter and you all take your marmite and vegemite. You can have it ! (I am saying all this with a big smile on my face so please do not be offended !).

LOL - you sound like me and the way I feel about liver! I'm guessing you would not like to be a contestant on fear factor where they have to eat something really yucky!

I love this thread! I am so glad Rhonda asked the question. Now if I only knew what really went into marmite and vegemite. If it smells atrocious what does it taste like?:confused:

You may know this already but if you finely chop eggplant you can mix it in with ground meat (any kind) you get 4xs the burgers or meatloaf or meatballs and way fewer calories!

Molasses, treacle, Golden Syrup
Golden Syrup is the next step in processing from treacle. It's delicious and we have it on hot buttered toast.

Vegemite doesn't smell. Every Australian child use to be given Vegemite on toast from an early age. Vegemite is a yeast extract and can be quite salty. We spread it thinly. We have such a multi cultural population now that we have a wide variety of foods, most of them delicious.

Vegemite is made by Kraft which has always been an American company.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_syrup it's treacle derived from sugar cane. I'm sure you'd have it there.

Mike

Sorry Katesnanna, but that's totally not true. I ate it on toast just this morning for breakfast and it definitely smells!
It smells (unsurprisingly) like yeast, or beer brewing (since that's where it comes from).

Mike

Marmite is English and is derived from meat. Vegemite is a beer by-product which has always been made in Australia and contains no meat whatsoever (but does contain a lot of salt).

This one makes me laugh too. It is actually made from a yeast extract ( possibly discovered whilst brewing beer) - however, I've heard worse descriptions than yours...obviously an acquired taste. Incidentally, peanut butter made me sick the first time I ate it but I don't mind it now as it is OK on raisin bread.

I stand corrected, I knew Kraft made it, but thought it was a more recent purchase re the American side of it. It was as far back as 1939 - so my idea was way off. They inform me that the change has been that they have reduced the salt content from 10% to 8%. I guess I like the salt.

We brought a very small jar of vegemite back with us when we were in Australia in 1999. It is still almost full, smells and looks the same as it did the day we opened it. There is a Veggie Tales song that has "vegemite" in it, so we brought it back so our friends could see what it is. No one, so far, has taken more than a tiny smidgen of it. :) Guess it'll last another 10 yrs or more. By the way, in Australia "biscuits" are cookies and "slice" is their term for what I would call bar cookies. The kind you bake in a pan like brownies and slice them to serve. (I noticed one of the posting used the term slice.)

Cizzors asked what kangaroo tastes like. I'm not an Aussie, but I have spent time there and I would say kangaroo is a dark meat that takes like a liver-y beef. I like liver so the flavor didn't put me off. Perhaps others would describe it differently, but that's what I recall. I liked it.

OMG....who made up the story of cooking a whole cow, hooves and horns....I have never heard such rubbish.....we in Australia eat the same food as you do in the States.....maybe we have different names for some of the products...which I have found when trying to follow a recipe. We have different nationalities living here, and they have introduced the different foods etc. and the restaurants, so we have such a large variety of menu.....which I found to be the same, when I lived with my niece in New York.....apart from the odd Kangaroo meat, which I feed to my dog, and the old Vegemite, which is a yeast product.....our supermarkets are the same as yours.

Very interesting thread!

Hey now I LOVE live and onions! LOL I had that at a restaurant yesterday. My husbands is so much better tho! He fries up lots of onions in butter. Love it!

I'm also very partial to liverworst and brunsweiger spreads. My dad loved liver and I did everything my dad did. so I guess I learned to love it early on..

I love to try vegemite and see what I think of it. I quite often like the things other people don't like.

Thanks for all the answers and the discussion! Zach will be here next Tuesday so I will let him read all the answers. It has been informative and fun to read all of your answers!

Ok I have tried Vegemite, Not a fan.. with that being said.
No jokes please.... who can tell me what this is.

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Isnt that like the potted meat ive seen in the supermarkets? Dont eat them ... the names can be off putting, but then again I could be mistaken! :-)

Looked it up says its steamed suet pudding with currants in it.

The title makes me want to throw up. Gross. Texas boys would get a big laugh looking at that. I thought that was cute the lady calling it "Take away." In Texas we get take out. We order pizza and have it delivered, it is still take out. Other people in other states say order in or order out. This always sounded strange to me. Funny the phrases we all have for things and the foods we eat. A true Texan doesn't put beans in their chili but up north & midwest they do & some eat it over spaghetti. Wonder what ya'll would think of our Tex-Mex cusine. Big wide world out there but we all sit down to the table just the same. Would love to visit Australia.

according to Wickipedia

Spotted dick is a steamed suet pudding, popular in Britain, containing dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) commonly served with custard. Spotted refers to the dried fruit (which resemble spots) and dick may be a contraction or corruption of the word pudding (from the last syllable) or possibly a corruption of the word dough[1] or dog, as "spotted dog" is another name for the same dish with the use of plums rather than currants. Another explanation offered for the word "dick" is that it is the German word for "thick."

Yep I looked it up on WIKI, too, I didnt want to google it.
It is sold at Meijer and It sits next to the Vegemite.
So its kind of a Dried fruit pudding It don't sound very good, and it very expensive for a tiny little can... soomething like $10.
So has anyone tried it.

Haha!! This is my husbands FAVORITE pudding! Served with LOTS of custard!! Marmite is also derived from the hops used in Beer making! The factory is in Burton-upon-Trent in the middle of England the home of the Brewing Industry!!