I am lucky enough to be friends with some folks from the land down under, Australia, and a few visited me not too long ago in my new SF home. I am even luckier that one of these Aussies was able to smuggle over not one but TWO bottles of Stone’s, my favorite alcoholic ginger beer. I rewarded the Aussie with a treat rare to an Australian: root beer.
This begs the question, what does one feed to an Aussie? Especially to give them a sense of what America is known for, culinarily speaking? Well, it helps to have some knowledge of Australian cuisine, a fusion of sorts created from British, Asian and native influences. Do you know that they have thing they call “bacon”, but it is NOTHING like the proper, smoked American pork belly we call BACON? A sad fact, indeed, but true. What to feed an Aussie: 1. Bacon (unless they do not consume pork. Then, just cry for their souls.) Australians don’t rock out peanut butter very much, so the magical combination of chocolate and peanut butter is virtually unknown over there! What to feed an Aussie: 2. gourmet Chocolate peanut butter candy bar (I sprang for Vosges) Also, rumor has it they like doughnuts. Mainly jam-filled ones that they like to call Berliners.
Australians love pumpkin, but mainly in savory dishes. It freaked them out a bit, but I made pumpkin pies (sweet, in the American tradition)with cranberry sorbet (a native U.S. berry that does not grow in Australia). What to Feed an Aussie: 3. Pumpkin pie and anything cranberry.
Once they realized pumpkin is very similar to a Portuguese custard tart (a famous dessert in Australia), they fell in the love. Finally, there are two things Australia does not do well: good pizza, and good gourmet ice cream. I almost died while living there and realizing I could no longer buy pints of Haagen Daas or Ben and Jerry’s for my sweet tooth. I was stuck with crappy, overly sweet vanilla made by Nestle. I had to (gasp) MAKE MY OWN. How dare another country give me more more to do. What to feed an Aussie: 4. Good ice cream!!! Ben and Jerry’s in this case.
Follow my list of what to feed an Aussie, and I guarentee you too could have a real like Aussie in your home too. But fair warning–stock up on beer. ~LTG!
