Bokhara2

Northie - you can buy marmite in Coles & Woollies. Or at least up here, I can.

That list with the chicken salt, pavlova et al missed the quintessential Australian food - a meat pie, except as an oblique reference on the way to mentioning sausage rolls.

northie

Probably here too Bokhara -I just never thought of looking for it - too loyal to vegemite LOL

Meat pie at the footy - that's how we celebrate the beginning and end of the season . I'm sure we eat more meat pies than sausage rolls.

Bokhara2

Saw Marmite at Coles yesterday, Northie. along with Promite & that abomination some US marketing genius thought would be a way to combine "cheese in a tube" with Vegemite - " cheesymite" or whatever it was called.

They're baiting foxes & rabbits in some of the parks - perhaps they could use " Cheesymite." Sure as heck it would kill a brown dog

tasmangirl

Give 'cheesymite' a try! Baker's Delight (bread/bun chain bakery in NZ) do a cheesymite scroll which is delicious!
We live in NZ but go mental in Australia for the huge range of seafood and the crab in particular. And the fresh tropical fruit is so cheap compared with NZ. When I first went to Melbourne as a teenager in the early 80's I was blown away by the food there. I can still remember my first cappuccino and the Greek pastries. Australia has fabulous food and I really like the huge variety.
There was a restaurant (Crooked House I think) in Surfers Paradise years ago that served kangaroo, crocodile and emu steaks. Hubby being a big meat eater wanted to try everything. I managed some crocodile which tasted like chicken.
Mohitsingla -you really have to try a home made pavlova for that combination of crunchy sweet crust and marshmallowy middle and topped with kiwifruit and strawberries. Supermarket ones are okay but the best are home made.

northie

Bakers delight is a chain n Australia as well Tasman girl. I've seen that cheesy mite roll there.

tasmangirl

Good to know. We bypass any brands/chains available in NZ when we are in Oz as we are adventurous eaters and love to try something different.
Australian nuts are delicious - maybe they are fresher. That nut shop in Sydney in the old fashioned arcade is legendary in our house.
I love Australian supermarkets but the prices make me sit in the aisle and cry! Milk and bread for $1.99 is so cheap.

annhig

We were told that pies were quintessentially Aussie [though being from the UK we had eaten pies before] but I don't remember pea and ham soup at all.

What I do remember are excellent fusion-style dishes, and lots of great fish/seafood.

farrermog

There you go -

"The group allegedly stole an eclectic mix of groceries, including avocados, camembert cheese, mussels and cured meats, along with Arnott's Barbecue Shapes, donuts, biscuits and chocolate eclairs."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-0...stores/8866596

"The man was refused bail...
There were also concerns he may tamper with the mostly food evidence."

farrermog

And a good selection of greens for snacking at the local garden centre -

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-0...t-says/8868900

CounterClifton

I've found your typical neighbourhood fish and chip shop experience in Australia somewhat different than the UK or Irish version (and of course, the US really has no such thing of its own). Different fish, different battering (usually sustainable gummy shark aka "flake", but you'll find a variety available). Additionally, the ownership of such shops has changed over time and picked up traditions from each. So you have the original English F&C origins, adding on things like souvlaki from when Greeks typically owned them (at least true in the Melbourne area), and now they're often owned by Chinese immigrants, so you have spring rolls and things as well. Dim sims grew out of this tradition. Like big, hand held dumplings with mince inside. A lot of them of questionable quality, but some aren't too bad.

In the almost eight years living here since moving from the US, I'd agree though that the best eating is to enjoy the wide variety of what has been brought here. Excellent Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Lebanese, even Texan BBQ... with some of the best local produce anywhere. The fine dining has really moved up lately as well, with top chefs opening 2nd locations or popups in Australia, such as the Heston Blumenthal restaurant in Melbourne. In addition, Sydney has one of the top 50 restaurants in the world (Quay), and the Melbourne area has two (Attica and Brae).

Finally, coffee. It's become like a competition to see who makes the best coffee and consumers have gotten quite serious about it. Not sure about how it works throughout Australia, but in Melbourne, hidden laneways are full of little cafes serving top notch coffees (especially known for the "flat white") along with dishes with a twist of some sort or another. It's all very foodie-centric.

farrermog

Spot on from CC I'd say - pretty much the same in Sydney and Canberra, and probably elsewhere, especially Tas which has developed a real food culture.

Btw, I'm guessing that many of us wouldn't have gone anywhere near a Tim-Tam for at least 25 years, and don't know what chicken salt is (I don't); pea and ham soup was usually something horrible we had to endure at an elderly aunt's.

farrermog

Although I suppose with Tasmania it's probably more of an emphasis on really good local produce done in a local/Australian/'international' style??

Bokhara2

Chicken salt can be found in fish & chip shops in Sydney. I'd hazard a guess that it owes more to chemicals than to any chook that ever lived.

Pea & ham soup can be really good, if it's made properly. I make a few in winter & they are always well received, but I wouldn't regard it as any type of typical or "iconic" Australian food. And I wouldn't order it in a restaurant - why pay for an inferior product

Tim Tams are too sweet & too chocolate for me, but from the variety & sales, I'd think they are a pretty popular biscuit.

northie

I make pea and ham soup and my family loves it but I would not say it's Australian.

CC - only Victoria has flake . Fish n chips when I was a child in 40's and 50's were the same as in UK and Ireland .
Hamburgers were also introduced into fish n chip shops well before McDonalds came to Oz - with egg, bacon, tomato, lettuce and beetroot .
Elizabeth Chong a celebrity chef here tells the story of her father William Chen Wing Young inventing the Australian dim sim in the 1940's . He also commercialized the Chiko roll - absolutely no chicken but on all dish n chip menu boards

Melnq8

I've seen chicken salt on restaurant tables in Germany and other parts of Europe. I don't associate it with Australia though, although I know they sell it there in supermarkets. Reminds me of ground bouillon cubes.

I do miss my Aussie flat whites. Nothing quite like them.

Bokhara2

We have flake / shark too, Northie.

Pea & ham soup has always been a favourite in our family & I imagine it came from the Brit ancestors. Traditionally, the bones & scraps from our Christmas & New Year's hams would go into one when we finished it.

You wouldn't think pea & ham soup would be on the menu in the peak of summer, but after all the rich foods of Christmas & New Year, it was always nice to have a simple soup & salad.

CounterClifton

My British raised FIL likes to offer to drop off a batch of pea and ham soup when he forgets neither of us care at all for peas. But I can't say I've ever seen it on menus. Maybe more so in the past?

I do see at home, like at kid's parties, little glimpses of Britishness still surface, such as automatically pulling out that box of "party pies and sausage rolls". But at my daughter's last b-day party at home, all the 8 year old of any background passed on the sausage rolls with tomato sauce (ketchup) until nothing else was left and devoured the Chinese style spring rolls with chilli sauce instead. So maybe things used to be more a mainstay of the culture than they are now?

Northie and Bokhara, I wondered if I'd wandered into a unusual F&C shop in NSW that did have flake on the menu, but it was south of Sydney...

(I couldn't bring myself to recommend those F&C shop burgers, especially if the OP is a fellow N. American)

Bokhara2

I loathe sausage rolls, CC. Always have. Not overly mad about tomorrow sauce, either. Except a bit slipped under the lid of a good meat pie. That's essential.

I know those "party pies & sausage roll" packs you're referring to.
Our English former neighbour used to bring them out too - and the men vacuumed them up.

The kids of our group have pretty eclectic tastes - sushi & other Japanese is a favourite, with Thai, Italian, Chinese & Korean close runners up. One little chap won't eat green peas,for love or money & is a dab hand at picking them out of fried rice. Everyone loves BBQ chicken.

I wouldn't think your southern Sydney flake experience is exceptional - I think most people ordering the usual battered fish & chips would be eating flake, unless they specifically ask for something else.

CounterClifton

<i>One little chap won't eat green peas,for love or money & is a dab hand at picking them out of fried rice.</i>

Man after my own heart right there.

Your group of half-pints sound similar to those my daughter brings around. Her best friend's from Punjab and along with a number of others who were born somewhere on the subcontinent, so samosas and curry puffs are very popular for snacks too. Well, everyone seems to like those though. I've had pretty good pies, mind you, but those frozen packs are pretty awful... must have been a staple of parties when my wife's generation were growing up.

Bokhara2

Ah ha! You do know, don't you, that "Peanam" soup is made with dried, split peas, not your detested slippery little green suckers?

I our mobs would mingle pretty well, CC. The youngest of our gang started on lemons when he must have been about 1, or perhaps younger. J was in his high chair, when he spied something interesting on his father's plate. Kept gesticulating & squawking like a baby galah, but nothing he was offered satisfied him. His Dad, thinking he was being a smart A, handed him the quarter of lemon. To our collective astonishment, J shoved it in & sucked it dry. Happy Chappy. He's still a lemon fan, but his claim to fame these days is asking for more, and hotter Kimche at Korean restaurants. It's not too astonishing at 7, but at 3 or 4, it used to turn heads.

We have a couple of good pie shops in my area & I like several of their varieties. Thankfully, they are nothing like those terrible frozen packs!