What is Australian food?

What we actually eat in Australia is such a big variety and from all different countries so it’s hard to say what exactly Australian food is. There are very few foods invented in Australia because Australia, when referring to the start of European settlement (invasion), is very young. There hasn’t been enough time to really develop something specific and it’s a country of immigrants that brought their own amazing food.

There is one thing invented in Australia though, and I show Hugh in this video.

It can be hard to name food that is uniquely Australian. Since Australia has British heritage, and is multicultural, we mostly just have a mix of other countries food. The meat pie is something that Australians usually identify with and it’s definitely something I miss while in Korea. There are no big meat pie sections in the supermarkets here in Korea. Australia doesn’t have much street food either, so I think this is the closest we have to street food.

Harry’s Cafe de Wheels is an iconic place and although there are a few locations in Sydney, the original one at Woolloomooloo is the best place to get one. ‘The Tiger’, a meat pie with mashed potato, mushed peas and gravy on top is the big seller there. It was pretty good. I have to say that the best meat pies I’ve had have been from Farmers’ Markets out in the countryside though, where they have been made on someone’s farm. The quality of meat pies in Australia varies a lot. The cheap frozen ones from the supermarket are the lower end of quality, but pie shops also vary a lot. There are some amazing pie shops around, but then also some not so great ones. We had some amazing pies at a place called Hayden’s Pies in Ulladulla, down the coast from Sydney while on our Christmas summer holiday.

What is your favorite Korean meal and what is his favorite Australian meal?

 

Let’s start with my favorite Korean meal. I like a lot of Korean food. I really like samgyupsal (grilled pork belly) especially with kimchi. I do tend to order bibimbap a lot because I love all the vegetables. (Luckily I often take photos of meals I order so I can show some).

I also really like japchae and yukgaejang. And I love lots of side dishes!

While I do like a lot of Korean food I can still be picky. My husband orders this a lot but I refuse to eat it.

Yeah… pig intestines soup.

My husband is a lot less picky than me, especially when it comes to Australian food. The only major thing he doesn’t like is lamb, and I swear that’s just psychological, not to do with taste at all. He doesn’t have a particular favorite Aussie meal, he just likes almost everything. Something he has taken a real liking to here is cheese though. He said he hated cheese when in Korea, and having seen the cheese available in Korea, I can understand why. But here in Australia there is such a huge range of good quality cheeses so he has realised cheese is delicious. He also likes eating crackers with dips too, something not really done in Korea.

Over Christmas when we were with my family we had a lot of cheese and crackers. Now usually we set them out on the table for everyone to have for morning or afternoon tea, but my husband would just get them for himself and sit at the table stuffing his mouth. (I also drew my siblings in the background).

This is an accurate representation of our Christmas.

In particular he likes water crackers with Mersey Valley Cheese. (Seriously, Mersey Valley, we love your cheeses, they are the best).

My husband will eat lamb – if he does not know it’s lamb. He will eat it happily and enjoy it, but once I tell him that it was lamb he will say “I knew it tasted weird!” And yet he still ate it all?

I suspect it’s partly psychological, even though the taste of Australian lamb isn’t actually bad, there is enough underlying taste for Koreans to remember feeling repulsed at the taste and smell of lamb in Korea.

What food grosses you out?