When captain Arthur Philip of the Royal British navy landed at Sydney Cove January 26 1788 with 700 convicts he had no idea what the land had to offer and how hospitable the indigenous population would be.
At the time, and estimated 200,000 aboriginals inhabited this, one of the largest islands of the world, and the smallest continent. Still toady, the English heritage in Australia is palpable in architecture, education system, planning, administration and cooking.
The country is tropical in the north and Mediterranean in nature in the south. Practically every vegetable and fruit western societies know is grown, including substantial amounts of grapes.
Lamb and beef were introduced, and thrive very well. Australian cattle graze and walk freely, thus are leaner than American meat, but also tougher to masticate.
Kangaroo meat is used, as are wild pigs, partridge, venison and pheasant.
Australia has a wide range of fish resources and a well-developed commercial fishing fleet.
Although the country welcomed thousands of immigrants from Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Italy and many other countries gastronomy was writ short and never evolved to more than BBQ seafood, roast meat and potatoes along with English style cooking.
Of late, however, Australians decided to become adventurous in their eating habits. The descendents of European immigrants opened restaurants and started making good use of impeccable ingredients available.
Cooking schools train young, highly motivated Australians to supply the industry, and wineries encourage gastronomic fairs/events to promote their products.
One could say Australians have become food-impassioned, Close to Adelaide and in the Barossa Valley many restaurants attached to wineries offer imaginative plates, as do others in the Limestone Coast southeast of the city.
Australia’s great gastronomic leap was possible, yes, imperative because there nothing there, and young, well-travelled and well-heeled people provided the right market.
Today you can eat rare tunand oyster tempura with frizzled vegetables; Tasmanian hop shoots with your roast, herb-crusted rack of lamb, ave a breakfast of grilled portobello mushrooms and poached eggs laced with perfect Hollandaise sauce.
Fusion dishes are also starting to appear on restaurant menus influenced by Chinese immigrants and their European colleagues.
Should you want kangaroo meat, chefs oblige effortlessly with lean grilled tenderloins or stews. Kangaroo meat tastes somewhere between beef and venison, and treated properly, can be delicious. Australian’s love with BBQ is well known and the carpetbagger’s steak accommodates two staples of the land well; it is a butter flied steak stuffed with oysters and grilled. Other specialties are duck rolls, egg ad bacon ie, grilled lizard, triffle, yabbies (king prawns), and all types of cookies.
Australia’s rock lobsters grow huge and taste sweet and delicious, as do shrimps.
If you want to experience inspired cuisine, you must visit this land of friendly people and spend a few days in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania and Perth in Western Australia. You will be gland you did.
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Tags: AUSTRALIAN, COOKERY
