The Meat Pie
The Meat Pie is very common (and very self-explanatory). It’s a small pie (usually about 4” (9cm) in diameter) filled with ground beef, gravy and covered with "tomato sauce" (which is very similar to ketchup, but not quite as sweet). It is served at "tuckshops" (school canteens) or eaten mainly as a takeaway food. Meat Pies can also be served on a bed of "mushy" peas or mashed potatoes. This is called a "pie floater."
Meat Pies are very popular at sporting events and on construction sites. Generally speaking, it would be very difficult to find an Australian male who disagreed with the sentiment that Meat Pies are about as Australian as you can get.
The Sausage Roll
Another popular tuckshop favorite is the Sausage Roll. It is puff pastry filled with sausage meat that has been spiced with onions and various herbs. Like the meat pie, it is also served with tomato sauce on top.
Fish & Chips
Fish & Chips down at the beach is a perennial favorite.
The fish (often shark) is usually coated in a light, golden batter (often made with beer) with a side of hot chips or potato scallops covered in salt and vinegar. These days, it’s quite the norm for fish & chips to be served with Thai sweet chili sauce instead of the more old fashioned tartare sauce.
Hamburger with “the lot”
When we say "the lot", we mean it. A hamburger with “the lot” consists of a beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, a fried egg, a slice of canned pineapple, bacon rashers and a slice of canned beetroot. The additions of egg, pineapple and beetroot seem particularly amusing to tourists.
Be warned, unless you have really big hands (and the ability to dislocate your jaw), it can often be a real effort to hold on to and bite.
Shrimp on the Barbie
The phrase “slip a shrimp on the barbie” was made famous by a television advertisement developed by the Australian Tourism Commission in the mid-1980s. The ad starred Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan and was aimed at increasing American tourism to Australia, which it did very successfully.
The ad is somewhat misleading. While the word “barbie” is short for “barbecue” and commonly used in the Australian vernacular, the word “shrimp” is never used. Australians call it a “prawn”.
Hangi
The Hangi, pronounced “Hung-ee,” is a traditional Maori method of slow-cooking meat, seafood and vegetables in wire baskets that have been lowered into a pit dug out of the ground. The baskets are wrapped in wet sacking which in turn produces steam that cooks the food. The pit is then covered tightly with dirt and the food is left to cook for several hours.
The result of this long process is tender, off-the-bone meat and delicious vegetables, all infused with a smoky, earthy fragrance.
Kumara
The nutritious kumara, also known as the sweet potato, has been cultivated in New Zealand for thousands of years. It is believed that the kumara was introduced to New Zealand by early Maori settlers in the mid 1200s.
Today the kumara is mainly grown on the semi-tropical North Island of New Zealand. It comes in white, gold and red varieties with red usually being the sweetest.
Methods of cooking kumara are endless, they can be used in soups, salads, sweet or savory pies or even eaten raw.
