This past month has been busy as my husband and I planned a surprise trip to Tasmania, Australia for my mother-in-law’s birthday. Happy 90th birthday Mama! I love my mother-in-law, she is fierce, bold, and so full of life. She published a book at 89 years old and has raised a beautiful family who I am proud to be a part of. My husband and I try to go back home to Australia every year to visit our family and create new memories.
My husband, a Welsh-Tasmanian, grew up in the beautiful state of Tasmania for most of his life. If you are not too familiar with Tasmania, it is an island state off Australia’s south coast and home to one of the largest conservation reserves in Australia. During this trip my husband and I decided to visit as much of Tasmania as we could. We hiked, we swam, we ate, we drank, we explored all the beauty and wonder of this amazing state. The Tasmanian Wilderness, Macquarie Island, Brickendon & Woolmers Estates, Cascades Female Factory, Coal Mines Historic Site, Port Arthur Historic Site, Darlington Station are all on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As we drove through most of this island state I could see why so much of it was protected- it is like a land lost in time, beautiful, historic, and majestic. There is so much geological history found on this island state that will help scientists and historians protect our future.
My husband and I started our trek with a culinary seafood experience going through the Derwent River and into the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island on a boat. We had a diver help get fresh abalone, Tasmanian Rock Lobster, oysters, sea urchin, and salmon. It was simply decadent and helped me appreciate the simplicity of seafood. It was a clean, fresh, pure culinary experience. This seafood experience brought it back home for me, eat it pure and fresh, just clean ingredients and as all good cooks always say, “keep it simple”. This seafood experience was just that, add a little lemon, a little butter, or a simple sauce to complement the dish and plenty of champers as my brother-in-law Owain nicknames Champagne. Australia has the best seafood I have ever had in my life and is big on beef, lamb, cheese, wine, and champers. Being from Texas it is hard for me to see anyone else in the world having the best beef but as we drove through much of Tasmania I saw many farmers raise their animals in a sustainable way to produce great tasting beef.
Which brings me to this post and the big question of what Australian Cuisine looks like. Many friends have asked me what the cuisine of Australia is and what the main dish is. This is difficult question for me to answer because over the past five years as I have gone back and forth to my beloved adopted country of Australia I have tasted a variety of dishes. Australia which was a British colony up until the early 1900’s still has British influence in its food – in that it they focus on quality ingredients with simple spices and sauces that help flavor the dish and not hide it. For some, British food can be a bit bland, and lacking in spice and for someone like me who is a Texan from El Paso chile and latin spices are almost not on the menu-which can be hard. Most of the towns in Australia will have traditional British foods like fish and chips, pasties, beef wellingtons, shepherd’s pie, and plenty of meat pies. However, I have seen more fusion of foods as more people start settling in Australia. In Hobart and Sydney, I have seen more Asian Fusion, in Melbourne I have seen more trends like farm to table, and new creations that rock the culinary world, and in small towns like Strahan I have seen an homage to British influence and Australian cuisine with deconstructed pavlovas to gummy shark. Australian cuisine reflects its settlers and integrates flavors that complement the dish and is on the rise of rocking the culinary world with new creations as many people from all around the world are discovering and settling into this country from down under.