Typical Australian Cuisine

Food food food!

Every different place in the world is going to have different food and different traditional foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Americans, for example, are all about their bacon and eggs with a side of toast for a normal breakfast. For lunch, maybe a sandwich, and meat and potatoes for dinner.

But what is a typical Australian day look like for food?

Breakfast

For breakfast, a light meal typically includes porridge, cereal, toast and fruit. In the colder regions, or simply if someone wants a little heartier meal, breakfast in Australia can resemble a full English breakfast. A full English breakfast and a heavier cooked Australian breakfast will frequently include your typical bacon, eggs, sausages and toast with spread, but also mushrooms, baked beans and tomatoes. Vegemite is a popular black, salty spread which is put on toast or bread and eaten in the morning. It is similar to Marmite, which is made from yeast extract.

In seventh grade my social studies teacher asked if anyone wanted to sample Vegemite. I did. Let's just say my opinion of the stuff is less than favorable.

Lunch

Lunch is not big in Australia since they fill up on morning tea. However, if one was to eat lunch, chances are they would eat a Vegemite sandwich, or one made of pretty much anything they could find. For example, they would make sandwiches out of baked beans, sweet corn, mushrooms, fish paste, banana and sugar or even cold spaghetti. Also popular are hamburgers, but with their own flair of course. Some even add a fried egg, pickled beet root or pineapple.

Dinner

This is the biggest meal of the day. Australians have family dinners for the most part- sitting around the table with immediate family. Like America, there are various typical dinners according to each household and their background; common choices would be meat and vegetables, stirfry, pasta, pizza, casseroles, barbecue meat, vegetables, salad and soup. To me that seems pretty "Americanized." Restaurants serve the same type of food: salad, curry dishes, steak, chicken dishes, risotto, along with the red or white wines.

Specialities

Considered by some as national foods, ANZAC biscuits and pavlova are popular in Australia, though the oldest recipes trace back to New Zealand. ANZAC biscuits are made of rolled oats, flour, cocnut, sugar, butter and golden syrup and were highly popular during the war times since the ingredients didn't spoil. Pavlova is a meringue cake with a light, soft inner layer complete with a crispy crust. It was named to honor the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova after one of her tours in 1920 to Australia and New Zealand.

Meat pies and sausage rolls are big in Australia. There is even an annual competition to find the "Great Australian Meat Pie." Some places where they sell meat pies are Four-and-Twenty, Mrs Macs, Balfours, Villis, J. R. Pinders and Big Ben. The picture below is of a meat pie with tomato sauce on it. Look for my next blog about the weird foods of Australia!

Random Facts

It's always fun to know random facts about a place before you go there, so here is a list of random facts you might not have known before you read this!

-The Great Barrier Reef is the longest reef in the world. It's over 2010 kilometers.
-The average Australian will consume 165,000 eggs in his or her lifetime.
-The average family in Australia has 1.65 children.
-In 1838 it was declared illegal to swim at public beaches during the day. This law was enforced until 1902.
-It has been reported that the first European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per head of population than any other community in the history of mankind.
-Australia's first police force was a band of 12 of the most well behaved Convicts.
-In 1832, 300 female Convicts at the Cascade Female Factory mooned the Governor of Tasmania during a chapel service. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."
-A baby kangaroo at the time of its birth measures 2 centimeters.
-Kangaroos need very little water to survive and are capable of going for months without drinking at all.
-A kangaroo being chased by a dog may jump into a dam. If the dog gives chase, the kangaroo may turn towards the dog, then use its paws to push the dog's head underwater in order to drown it.
-The day of the Melbourne Cup (a horse race!) is a public holiday in Melbourne.
-The 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.
-Australians may refer to Americans as 'Seppos'. This is an abbreviation for 'Septic Tank' which is rhyming slang for 'Yank'.
-In 1967, Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia went for a swim at the beach and was never seen again. Theories about his disappearance include kidnapping by a Russian submarine, eaten by a shark or being carried away by the tide.
-Per capita, Australians read more newspapers than any other nation.
-It is estimated that 50% of Australians aged 14-19 are active users of Cannabis.

These facts came from:
http://www.australianhistory.org/australian-facts.php
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/facts.htm