Discover the Flavours of Australia: A Guide to Iconic Australian Foods

Australia has no single national dish, and any list of its iconic foods attracts argument. That is part of the subject. The entries below are a starting point, drawn from what Australians actually eat at home, at the footy, at the beach and on public holidays. Some begin with Indigenous ingredients and a very long history; others are recent arrivals that the country has made its own.

The meat pie

A flaky pastry shell holds a filling of minced meat and gravy, and for many Australians it is the default hand-held meal, sold everywhere from dedicated pie shops to service station counters. Eaten with tomato sauce at the footy, it is less a snack than a small institution.

Vegemite

A dark yeast extract spread thinly on buttered toast, Vegemite is the taste most Australians grow up with. It is strong and salty, which is why the word “thinly” does the real work, and it travels in the bag of every traveller who wants a taste of home.

Damper

Damper is a simple soda bread, historically cooked in the coals of a campfire by stockmen and travellers. It has a crusty outside and a soft middle, and it is still made today at camps, in backyards and on school excursions, usually eaten with butter and golden syrup.

Lamingtons

A lamington is a square of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. It is a mainstay of school fetes, bake sales and Australia Day spreads, and it is one of the few cakes that improves after a day in the tin.

Pavlova

Pavlova is a dessert of meringue with a crisp shell and a soft centre, topped with cream and fruit. Both Australia and New Zealand claim it, and the argument is unlikely to be settled here. In Australian homes it is most often a summer and Christmas table regular.

Anzac biscuits

Made from rolled oats, flour, coconut and golden syrup, Anzac biscuits are named for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and are baked around Anzac Day each April. They are sturdy, keep well and carry more history than most biscuits.

Fairy bread

Fairy bread is white bread cut into triangles, spread with butter and covered with hundreds and thousands. It is a children’s party staple and the rare food that makes no attempt to be grown up, which is exactly why it endures.

Tim Tams

A Tim Tam is a chocolate-covered biscuit with a cream centre. It is sold in most supermarkets, and the ritual of biting off two corners and using the biscuit as a straw for coffee or hot chocolate is well established, whatever the manufacturer’s original intent.

Barramundi

Barramundi is a large native fish found across northern Australia and prized in the kitchen. It has firm white flesh that takes grilling or pan-frying well, and it has moved from a regional catch to a regular item on restaurant menus and fishmongers’ counters.

Kangaroo

Kangaroo is a lean, dark meat with a long history as a food source for Aboriginal Australians. It is now sold in many supermarkets and served in restaurants, usually cooked quickly and served rare so it does not dry out.

Bush foods

Beyond the familiar list sits a wider native pantry. Wattleseed, lemon myrtle, bush tomato, finger lime and quandong appear in everything from spice blends to desserts, and they connect modern Australian cooking to the continent’s oldest food traditions.

A guide of this length can only scratch the surface, and every Australian will have a dish they think should have been included. That is the nature of the subject. What the list shows is a cuisine defined less by a single signature dish than by habit, climate and a willingness to borrow, from the campfire damper to the party plate of fairy bread.

Sources: Australian cuisine, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_cuisine)