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Traditional Australian cuisine was based on English cooking brought to the country by the first European settlers. This cuisine generally consisted of Sunday roasts, grilled chops, and other forms of meat, and was generally accompanied by vegetables (often known colloquially as "three veg") such as mashed potatoes, beans, peas, and carrots (often served soggy or overcooked). This trend has declined considerably with the multicultural emphasis of Australian culture over the last thirty to fifty years.

1 Background

Today's Australian cuisine is some of the most diverse available anywhere, due to the many cultural influences. Modern Australian cuisine has been heavily influenced by the country's South East Asian neighbours, and by the many waves of immigrants from there, and all parts of the world. Similarly, Greek, Lebanese and Italian influences are common. Fresh produce is readily available and thus used extensively, and the trend (urged by long-term government health initiatives) is towards low-salt, low-fat healthy cookery incorporating lean meat and lightly cooked, colourful, steamed or stir-fried vegetables.

Some English trends are still evident in domestic cuisine, among them a widespread tradition of having a hot roast turkey, chicken and/or ham with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner, followed by a heavy Christmas pudding.

2 Takeaway food in Australia

Despite the best intentions of government health schemes and cultural marketing initiatives, the traditional Australian palate is amply serviced by an extensive takeaway food industry. Two of the most traditional takeaway dishes are the meat pie and sausage roll. These come in varying grades, ranging from the mass-produced factory outputs of Four-and-Twenty and Big Ben, sold on every street corner in milk bars, through to gourmet pies sold by specialist pie shops. There is an annual competition to find the 'Great Australian Meat Pie', and the winners are greatly removed from their fat-laden antecedants.

American-style chain stores are common including Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King (known as Hungry Jacks due to a trademark issue), and of course McDonalds (commonly called Maccas by locals). An alternative to the US imports is offered by the Australian chicken fastfood chain Red Rooster, and by the corner Pizza shops, charcoal chicken stores, fish and chip shops and a wide range of small enterprises. Many of these sell high-quality food for reasonable prices, but the only way to find the good ones is to try them.

Chinese and Asian restaurants provide eat-in and takeaway services, and once again they cover the gamut from Europeanised 'faux' Asian food (soggy sweet-and-sour chicken) to the authentic. Most Australians prefer the genuine article, and the number of high-quality Asian restaurants is increasing.

3 Uniquely Australian dishes

Probably the most well known Australian food is VegemiteVegemite (pronounced "VEH-gee-mite", SAMPA: ["vEgimait]) is the registered brand name for a dark brown almost black salty food paste mainly used as a spread on sandwiches and toast, though occasionally used in cooking. It is based on a yeast extract., a strong tasting, yeast extract spread, common in sandwiches or on toast. Some Australian sweets, such as the Violet CrumbleViolet Crumble is an Australian chocolate bar that is manufactured in Sydney, Australia. The slogan for the chocolate bar is "It's the way it shatters that matters". The chocolate bar is a crumbly honeycomb-like substance coated in chocolate, made from in chocolate bar, are manufactured in Australia and are sold within the country, as well as a few international places such as HawaiiFor the 1959 novel and 1966 movie, see Hawaii (novel). Hawaii ( Hawaiian/ Hawaiian English: Hawai‘i with the ‘okina is the archipelago of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii constitutes the 50th state of the United States, and as of the 2000.

There are a small number of desserts and sweet dishes that are uniquely Australian:

• PavlovaPavlova is a light and fluffy meringue dessert named after the ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova. The originator is not actually known, and there is great rivalry between Australians and New Zealanders who both claim the recipe originated in their countries. (New Zealanders also claim this as their dessert too)
• Anzac biscuits
• Lamingtons
• Pumpkin scones
• Vanilla sliceVanilla slice is a type of cake. It consists of a thick custard sauce, which is traditionally flavoured with vanilla, and which is sandwiched between flakey puff pastry and iced with either vanilla or raspberry glaze. It is commonly sold in milk bars and

Meats and fish that are uniquely Australian include:

• KangarooMacropus rufus Macropus giganteus Macropus fuliginosus A kangaroo is any of several large macropods (the marsupial family that also includes the wallabies, tree kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons and the quokka: 45 species in all). The term kangaroo is some
• Emu
• Barramundi
• Trevalla
• Moreton Bay bugs
• Yabby

These meats have long been traditional in Aboriginal diets, and in rural white Australia. They can be seen on the menus of many of Australia's top restaurants.