Unlike most countries there is not a specific diet that Australian people follow everyday. Due to the thousands of migrants to Australia from other countries around the world, they have a great influence on what Australians eat. Australians eat everything from American hot dogs to Italian pasta. Some of the Australian Aborigines eat their indigenous foods.
MIGRANT INFLUENCE ON FOOD
The Italians were one of the first arrivals to Australia and they introduced pasta dishes such as risotto. The Turkish community opened ethnic resturants and donor kebab takeaways. Greek migrants added moussaka, baklava, feta cheese, black olives and olive oil on salads to the menu. There are numerous Greek, Chinese, Lebanese and Vietnamese restaurants throughout Australai but are more often situated in the city areas.
The biggest fast-food chains have come from America. Numerous Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, McDonald restaurants and Pizza Hut restaurants are spread throughout Australia almost everywhere. In South Australia, Barnacle Bill is a seafood take-away chain that is very popular in that state.
Butcheries now sell more exported types of meat like shish kebabs as well as the original lamb and sausages. Bakeries sell a type of Arab bread called khoubz.
INDIGENOUS FOODS
The indigenous people of Australia have been around for some 40 000 years. Aboriginals or Kooris, as they now like to be known, used to eat indigenous foods and ' bush tucker'. They didn't grow their own food on the land so they used berries, nuts and other food sources from plants and ate native animals.
There are approximately 4000 different types of edible native foods in the Australian bush. Terminalia ferdinandiana is one of the native foods and is the world's richest vitamin sources. Aborigines used to eat mangrove worm, goanna and honey ant from the bush.
The Aboriginal men used to hunt animals for their meat. These include kangaroos, emus, dugong (a sea-cow), snakes, lizards, possums, bandicoots, wombats and wallabies. When they went hunting berries, shellfish, oysters and mussels would be eaten.
Links to Australian recipe sites:
Australia's own Bush Foods - information on food and books
List of restaurants complied by Canberra's Tourism Service