Australian Cuisine

I have eaten many meals since arriving in Australia. Some of them were excellent and others just filled me up. Where I'm staying in Melbourne, I have eaten like a king since the day I arrived. But I got to thinking about Australian cooking - and I mean specifically Australian dishes, rather than cooking carried out in the country.

Australia suffers in this respect by being descended in large part from Britain. This means that it was always going to struggle in terms of contributing to world cuisine. These days, you can eat pretty much what you want from anywhere in the world, and it will be excellent, but what might you call Australian cooking?

Well, if I were here in summer, it might be the barbecue. Yes, of course, everyone cooks stuff on open grills, but the Australians have elevated it to high culture. But I'm here in winter and so I'd like to nominate the pie. Specifically, meat pies, but vegetarian options are also available.

Everywhere I've been, pies have been too. Steak and kidney, steak and mushroom, steak and pepper, “meat pie” (probably best not to ask), vegetable (with or without cheese). The first day I arrived in Melbourne, we had pies for lunch from the award winning café along the road. I had a pie on Rottnest Island over in Western Australia.

Pies were not served on the Indian Pacific. Perhaps there's a snobbery attached to them – they're probably a bit too down market for the IP.

I had a pie for lunch in Bendigo. While I was paying my bill, I glanced across to the back shop where more pies were being prepared.

It's not that great a picture, but you can see that there are more than a few pie cases there. That's not even a day's worth. They'll make that lot a couple of times a day to keep up with demand.

So, that's my nomination for Australia's contribution to world cuisine. The pie. Long may it continue.