Geek, Garden and Cook

When people travel the world they usually tell stories of the architecture, the people and the food. Nationalities have their own food that has evolved from over hundreds if not thousands of years. It’s usually very healthy for you. Michael Pollan, author of “Food Rules”, described the “French Paradox” in that the French are healthier than Americans despite eating cheeses, wines and foie-gras in large quantities. Makes sense right, if the food wasn’t nutritious and allowed a full and healthy life then that culture would probably have died out!

So what is Australian food? And to be clear I’m talking about the 2nd Australians – western / Caucasians, not the original people of the land (and without a doubt their food is nutritious and mostly pretty nice). With Australia day upon us I’ve seen commercials and advertisements for various “Australian” food. And while I know what Australian food is definitely NOT (like hot dogs, doughnuts and probably pickled food) there’s a lot of grey area. 

Take this list for instance that I found in the Daily Telegraph

1. A seafood platter
2. A burger with the log (presumably they are including beetroot and pineapple). 
3. A mixed grill (just a fancy BBQ in my mind). 
4. Fish and Chips
5. Pumpkin Soup
6. A table of salads
7. Avocado and vegemite on toast. 
8. Sticky Date pudding
9. Pavlova
10. The Tim Tam suck

Pumpkin soup?? Sticky data pudding?? Not sure about those – sorry Matt, another thing we disagree on. 

Here’s another list from Aussie Farmers Direct

1. Lamingtons
2. Lamb Chops
3. BBQ
4. Souvlaki
5. Pavlova nests
6. Coleslaw
7. Salad
8. Wraps

Definitely some front-runners in that list. How could the Telegraph miss Lamingtons and Lamb Chops. But again, some things that I probably wouldn’t have thought traditional Aussie food. What I like about this list though is it’s nod to the multiculturalism of Australia with the souvlaki. While the greek immigration to Australia is well known and quite influential, particularly in the southern states, I’m not sure a food is allowed on 2 countries list of national foods. 🙂

And with all the recent news surrounding SPCA (disclaimer: I do work for their parent company Coca-Cola Amatil) and their push for support of Australian grown food has found a friend in comedian Dave Hughes. This article says starting the day with tin of baked beans is a national past time! Not so sure of that but I agree baked beans are pretty Aussie. 

There’s some notable omissions in the above lists so I’d throw these into the ring as well:

1. Vegemite and cheese sandwich (vegemite anything!)
2. Watermelon
3. Meat pies
4. Sausage rolls
5. Tuna bake
6. Trifle with jelly and sponge cake
7. Macadamia nuts

What else is there? What really reminds you of Australian food? Did you grow up with something particular or if you visited what was the standout food you tried?

Tags: Cooking

Boiling the Bottles by CraftyGoat, on Flickr

Day 2 lacking a microwave has been fairly uneventful as far as the microwave goes. It’s amazing how you just adapt.

• The usual breakfast of porridge was substituted for weetbix though had I got up a little earlier I would have made it on the stove top! Maybe tomorrow.
• Lunch was simple tuna and tomato mini-pizza’s. Lunch is usually defrosted left over’s so here’s another example of eating fresher. Though we kinda of cheated somewhat by using the toaster to defrost the bread. 🙂
• Baby bottles were boiled using my largish sauce pan on the stove. I agree with some of the comments I’ve received that you don’t have to sterilise them but something in me thinks I should.
• As a facebook friend says she does we bought some diced lamb fresh and marinaded in a souvlaki-ish marinade of 4 squeezed limes, bay leaves, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary and olive oil. Pan fried and served in some left over tortilla wraps with lettuce, tomato and onion.

So all in all we didn’t “need” the microwave. Sorry for the mundane post. 🙂

Tomorrow’s sunday and I love a good Sunday cookup so the original plan was to make a corned beef silverside from the freezer and get it out to defrost overnight but we’ve switched to some freshly bought chuck steak for a slow cooked casserole of sorts – recipe to be decided at time of cooking.

While it’s only day 2 I’m starting to think of other seemingly essential kitchen items as a waste of space. Could I get rid of my kettle? I know I “could” get rid of the dishwasher but that’s just a supplement for me. What else do you have that you could get rid of and free up the space?

Tags: Cooking