Try to describe Australian cuisine to a visitor and you’re likely to struggle a little. But there are some dishes that as a nation we recognise as quintessentially Australian – and they’ve started to pop up on menus from Brixton to Brooklyn.
Tori Haschka, author of A Suitcase and a Spatula: Recipes and Stories from Around the World, says Australia’s spreading culinary influence can be put down to Australians’ love of travel.
Wherever we go, she says, we like to share what’s best about our country. “That includes our fresh and sometimes laconic approach to food,” she says. “There’s a great focus on texture in Australian food; from the silkiness of the cap of milk in a flat white, the plushness of smashed avocado on crunchy toast or the bristle of coconut on a lamington.”
Ken Burgin, restaurant consultant at Profitable Hospitality, says looking closely at other countries highlights what makes Australian dishes special.
“I’ve just been in Italy for a month and it seems nothing there ever changes – good in some ways, and quite dull after a while,” he says. “Maybe our careful experiments with honest ingredients are what’s defining a distinctive Australian cuisine?”
Here are five Aussie dishes and beverages now taking the world by storm:
1. Flat white
Australia’s favourite coffee is fast usurping the cappuccino and latte as the drink of choice at cafes around the world. You can now order a flat white at Fondation Cafe in Paris and Little Collins in New York. The abundance of flat whites is such that FastCompany has dubbed the flat white “the latest must-sip beverage”.
Now even Starbucks in the US is on the bandwagon, serving flat whites to millions of bewildered Americans who are not even sure what a flat white is (read David Marr’s review of the Starbuck’s flat white). Its popularity is such that some outlets are reported to have taken cappuccinos off the menu. In an act of community service Australia’s Hugh Jackman tried to explain the flat white as “like a latte with a little less milk and more espresso”.
2. Smashed avocado on toast
It’s rare these days to find a cafe in Australia that doesn’t serve smashed avocado (usually with chunky salt, pepper, lemon and perhaps feta). Now the rest of the world has woken up to the joys of “nature’s butter”. You can order “smashed avocado with streaky bacon” at Lantana in London or avocado smash with poached eggs, ricotta and radishes at the Cupping Room in Hong Kong.
Diners love avocado for its health benefits and creamy taste while the appeal to chefs and cafe owners everywhere is immediately obvious: avocado smash is low on labour and high on profit margins. All you need is a fork and a squeeze of lemon – and a perfect avocado – and you’re in business.
The smashing refers to mashing it up roughly with a fork, as opposed to slicing it or puree-ing it.
3. Sticky date pudding
Sticky toffee pudding is a traditional British dessert beloved of gastropubs around the UK, but the Australian twist – sticky date pudding – is becoming an increasingly popular variation.
It’s worth noting that some British sticky toffee puddings actually contain dates but they are finely diced, disguising their presence, whereas in Australia the date is loud and proud. It’s irrelevant, anyway, as everyone knows sticky date pudding isn’t really about the dates at all but the lashings of caramel sauce it comes smothered in.
The Corner House in Bali serves up sticky date pudding with caramel and salty butter ice cream while Five Leaves in New York offers sticky date more traditionally, with the sole accompaniment of vanilla ice cream.
Hashka says Australia’s reinvention of the dish has eclipsed the original’s popularity. “Sticky date is a much more practical moniker,” she says. “Of course it’s going to be sticky if it’s got toffee in it it.
“But if there are dates in there, best let us know about them up front. It’s a straight down the line approach to food that makes sense.”
4. Corn fritters
Bill Granger has built an international empire on the back of his sweet corn breakfast fritters and other cafe owners have taken note.
Granger’s version is made with flour, eggs, milk, fresh corn, herbs and a pinch of paprika, delivering a savoury dish with pops of sweetness from the corn. But you can find any number of interpretations of the corn fritter on cafe menus from Lantana in London to Blue Stone Lane in New York.
For Nicholas Stone, Bluestone Lane’s owner, the corn fritter is a “quintessentially Aussie” dish. Bluestone Lane serves its fritters with with avo smash, smoked salmon, poached egg, beetroot relish and rocket. He says there’s no “exact science” behind New Yorker’s sudden insatiable desire for the corn fritter but thinks it coincides with an appreciation for more sophisticated cafe menu items among New Yorkers.
“This is quite a non-traditional brunch dish that they are quite curious about,” he says. “It’s very aesthetically pleasing and delicious.” In the Instagram age that does count.
5. Lamingtons
The delights of fluffy sponge cake, jammy filling, chocolate coating and dessicated coconut are going global. Now lamingtons are on offer at the Two Blur Guys cafe in Singapore while in London it’s hard to avoid Australia’s favourite cake. It’s a must-order item at Ozone Espresso in Shoreditch, east London, and Kaffeine in Fitzrovia in central London, doesn’t just sell lamingtons – it sells “pimped-up cushions of sponge”.
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