Characteristic products
Australia, which is 14 times the size of France, is largely desert, but has large agricultural areas which, like the rest of the country, offer a wide variety of climates. You'll find a wide variety of crops, from wheat in the south to sugar cane in the north, as well as a host of fruits, vegetables and cereals: potatoes, sweet potatoes, beet, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes, pulses and avocados. The same applies to fruit, with a choice between the classics (apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, etc.) and exotic fruits such as pineapple, mango, papaya, guava, coconut and passion fruit. Note: macadamia nuts come from a tree in Queensland, in the north-east of the country.
Australian beef and mutton are renowned for their flavor and exported worldwide. The country is the world's2nd largest beef exporter after Brazil. Both meats are widely consumed, as are pork and chicken. Depending on the region, you can also try "wild" or bush meat: water buffalo, crocodile, emu, kangaroo, python and more. Prepared as steak, smoked meat or pâté, they are eaten mainly by Aborigines and remain rather folkloric for the rest of Australians.
With almost 38,000 km of coastline, seafood is one of Australia's great specialties, and several regions are proud of the names given to their products. These include salmon from Tasmania,oysters from Sydney,mussels from Bruny Island,scallops from Coffin Bay and barramundi from the Northern Territory. Tuna, grouper, swordfish, dolphinfish, trout, needlefish,abalone, lobster, shrimp, octopus and squid complete the picture. Numerous varieties of seaweed are cultivated along the coast, often destined for the Asian market.
Invented in 1923 by Dr. Cyril Percy Callister, Vegemite is a staple of Australian cuisine. It's an almost black paste made from brewer's yeast, very rich in vitamin B. Almost 22 million tins are sold every year. Despite its powerful smell, its very salty taste - reminiscent of bouillon cube - is not as strange as it is often made out to be. To get used to it, it's best to taste a very small quantity, ideally on buttered toast at breakfast.
In terms of eating habits, breakfast is unsurprisingly very similar to British Full English, with egg, sausage, bacon,baked beans and toast with milk tea or coffee. Lunch is generally very basic for working Australians, but you'll find a variety of options in the restaurant. In keeping with the Anglo-Saxon influence, dinner is usually served early, between 6pm and 7pm.
Aboriginal and Mod'Oz cuisine
The term " bush tucker " refers to the ingredients consumed by Australian Aborigines, both as food and as traditional medicine. While the term generally refers to plants, it also includes animals (kangaroo, emu, python, varan, etc.) and insects such as witchetty grubs, which are the larvae of butterflies and beetles. Some freshwater fish, such as the barramundi, are wrapped in the soft bark of the paperbark, or niaouli, before being deposited and covered with glowing charcoal. Niaouli bark imparts a unique smoky flavor.
Among the plants are countless indigenous ones. Warrigal, for example, is prized for its fleshy leaves, while saltbush, which grows by the sea, is rich in vitamins. Illawara plum, lemon myrtle, Tasmanian pepper and eucalyptus leaves are used as spices. Lemon aspen, quandong,apple berry, desert lime, dog-apple and rock fig are popular fruits, as is the bush tomato(kutjera), whose fruit is dried like grapes and is very nourishing. Not forgetting, of course, the famous lemon caviar or finger lime. Golden lily, milkmaid, murnong and several indigenous yams are sought after for their roots. Kakadu plums, found in the north of the country, are a real superfood, with an incredibly high vitamin C content. Acacia and bunya pine seeds are also highly prized.
The traditional Aboriginal diet was severely affected by the colonization of Australia in 1788, both through the acculturation of the native population and the introduction of exotic, sometimes invasive, plants and animals that threatened the survival of local species. However, from the 1970s onwards, non-indigenous Australians began to recognize the nutritional and gastronomic value of native foods, and the bush tucker food industry has been slowly developing ever since.
It was at this time that a new wave of chefs appeared in Australia, keen to promote excellent local products (meat, fish and seafood in particular) while at the same time honouring these long-neglected wild ingredients. Deeply Anglo-Saxon, often heavy and unsophisticated, Australian cuisine, like that of the United States, underwent a revolution from the 1970s-1980s. The gradual arrival of migrants from Asia, the Mediterranean and the Middle East also enriched local cuisine. This Modern Australian cuisine, or mod'Oz, was born in Sydney thanks to restaurants such as Bayswater Brasserie and Claude's, founded by French chef Damien Pignolet. Other representatives of this movement include Tetsuya Wakuda, Neil Perry and Peter Gilmore. It's worth noting, however, that while Oz mod cuisine has had an impact on the way Australians open up to new flavors, it remains largely confined to restaurants that are rather upscale, or at any rate aimed at a city-dwelling public.
The classics of Australian cuisine
The barbecue(barbie) is an indispensable ally for weekend meals or evenings out with friends. The main meat on an Australian barbecue is beef, including delicious t-bone steak and rib eye steak. However, lamb, mutton, pork and chicken - sometimes emu or kangaroo - are also very popular, not forgetting sausages, smoked or otherwise. If barbecue is an event that brings family, friends and neighbors together, you'll also find a host of restaurants serving barbecued meat. Another popular meat dish, created by Italian migrants in the 1950s, chicken parmigiana is inspired by eggplant parmesan: here, breaded and fried chicken is placed on a bed of tomato sauce, covered with mozzarella and parmesan, then baked au gratin. It appeared around the same time in the United States.
Fast-food cuisine is popular throughout the country. Discover the burger with the lot, a classic cheeseburger topped with a fried egg, sliced beet and canned pineapple. With its British influence, fish & chips can be found everywhere. Another emblem of Australian cuisine, the meat pie is an individual pie filled with minced meat (beef, pork, chicken or lamb), although there are variations such as the Ned Kelly pie, where the meat is not covered with a second layer of pastry but with a mixture of bacon and beaten egg, or the scallop pie, with scallops and curry, originally from Tasmania. Meat pie is sometimes served on a bed of thick pea soup. It is then called pie floater. Cheesymite scroll is a salted rolled brioche flavored with cheese and Vegemite.
Asian influence, particularly Chinese, is particularly strong in Australia, which has attracted numerous migrants from the Far East and South Asia since the late 19th century. There are countless Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and, of course, Indian restaurants. Like Sino-American cuisine, which emerged in California, Australian Chinese cuisine includes local versions of Asian dishes such as dim sim, derived from Chinese dim sum, a type of steamed ravioli originally made with mutton and vegetables, or Chiko roll, a breaded egg roll. Billy Kee chicken is a recipe for fried chicken flavored with Worcestershire sauce.
Desserts and hot drinks
If we had to mention only one Australian dessert, it would of course be the pavlova, a meringue topped with fruit and whipped cream, created in 1935, in honor of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova who was on tour in Australia from 1926 to 1929. Don't forget the lamington (cake cubes coated with chocolate and rolled in coconut), the ANZAC cookies (coconut cookies originally sent to theAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps during the First World War), the passionfruit sponge (very light sponge cake with a passionfruit cream filling) or the lemon delicious (soft pudding with a melting lemon cream center).
In Australian pastry shops and tea rooms, you will most often find what are called " slices ", i.e. rectangular slices of cake with a crumbled cookie base topped with a layer of cream or filling with chocolate, vanilla, coffee, caramel, apple, red fruit, coconut, etc. Other examples include the Boston bun (orange peel and raisin bun with coconut glaze), the hot jam d oughnut (doughnut with jam filling, often served piping hot), the kitchener bun (doughnut with whipped cream and raspberry jam), and the cruffin (flaky pastry in the shape of a muffin with a variety of toppings: lemon, vanilla, chocolate cream).
Many of these pastries are still eaten during tea time, although the tradition is somewhat lost. Indeed, the British colonization made tea a very popular drink in Australia. In theoutback, workers drank billy tea, a tea brewed in a metal can over a wood fire and flavored with eucalyptus leaves. Coffee has become increasingly popular since the 1990s and cafes are springing up all over the place. You can taste the unmistakable flat white, a full-bodied coffee with milk, topped with a thin layer of milk foam.
Wines and beers
When the first fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed grapevines from the Cape of Good Hope and symbolically planted them on the site of today's Botanic Gardens. Pioneers began to cultivate vines gradually, but it wasn't until the mid-19th century that viticulture really took off. Vineyards were mainly concentrated in the southeast and far south, where the climate was sunny but cooler than in the rest of the continent. By 1850, viticulture was flourishing in Australia, and the wine - which was rather full-bodied - was sent mainly to Great Britain, where it was much appreciated by the British. Unfortunately, the outbreak of phylloxera in 1875 was catastrophic, and it was not until the early 1970s that wine production began to recover. Since then, Australia has become one of the world's leading wine-producing countries, with great vintages exported to China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Red wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Merlot. Whites include chardonnay, semillon, riesling and sauvignon blanc. With the exception of the Northern Territory, vineyards can be found in every region of the country, each with its own special character. From the cool, wet valleys of Tasmania to the hot, dry hillsides of South Australia and Queensland. The states of Victoria and New South Wales are Australia's two largest wine-producing areas. In each wine-growing area, the tourist office and Wine Centers provide excellent information for planning your own wine route. In addition to tourist maps and information brochures on the region's wineries, they also list upcoming events.
Australians are also big beer drinkers. Australia's first official brewer was John Boston, who produced a beer from corn in 1796. That same year, James Larra, a freed convict, opened the Mason Arms, Australia's first pub, in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. Today, the oldest Australian brewery still in operation is Cascade Brewery, established in Tasmania in 1824. Today, Australia's three biggest brewers - Foster's Group, Lion Nathan Ltd and Cooper and Sons - face competition from the microbreweries that have sprung up across the country in recent years.
There are two main types of beer: ales and lagers. Ales are the quintessential English top-fermented beers, requiring meticulous production conditions and a rich, dense, fruitier taste. Conversely, bottom-fermented lagers are lighter and more refreshing. Each state has its own cult beers: Boags and Cascade in Tasmania, Swan and Emu in Western Australia, Tooheys and KB Lager in New South Wales, Victoria Bitter (VB) and Melbourne Bitter in Victoria, West End and Cooper's red, green or yellow in South Australia, XXXX (pronounced " four X ") in Queensland, and NT Draught in the Northern Territory.
When it comes to ordering beer in Australia, you can choose between a jug (1,140 ml), a pint (570 ml glass), a schooner (425 ml glass) and a pot (285 ml glass). A beer on tap is a bottled beer served over the counter, while a draught beer is a beer served on tap. It should also be noted that Australian legislation on the sale of alcohol is rather strict. There are no direct sales in supermarkets or food stores: you'll find specialist stores or sections in supermarkets selling spirits only. In restaurants, the BYO(bring your own) sign allows you to bring your own bottle of alcohol. A supplement may be charged, but this can be a good option, as alcohol is quite expensive in restaurants.
