Iconic Australian foods

One iconic Australian food is Vegemite, a vitamin-rich, savoury yeast spread which is often thinly spread on buttered toast. Other unique or iconic national foods include macadamia nuts; Violet Crumble, a honeycomb chocolate bar; Cherry Ripe (Cherry Ripe (chocolate bar)); Jaffas (Jaffas (candy)), chocolate with an orange (orange (fruit))-flavoured confectionery shell, much like an M&M and the Chiko Roll, a deep-fried savoury roll similar to a spring roll.

Other popular Australian foods include Tim Tams, a chocolate biscuit; musk sticks; lemon delicious pudding; fairy bread, buttered bread with hundreds and thousands (Sprinkles); lamingtons; and the commercial breakfast cereal Weet-Bix.

ANZAC biscuits and the pavlova (Pavlova (food)) are both iconic Australian national foods.Pavlova page While the oldest known named recipe for pavlova is from New Zealand, it's often said in Australian history that the dessert took its name from Anna Pavlova at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth (Perth, Western Australia) during a tour of the state where she danced "as light as air" in reference to the light meringue. It has been suggested that the current pavlova is an improvement on the older recipe for a meringue cake found in a New Zealand magazine.Hands off our pavlova, Kiwis warned - The West Australian

In the pattern of foods named after famous singers and dancers, Dame Nellie Melba also has several dishes named after her; well known is Melba toast and the Peach Melba, but also less well known is the Chicken Melba, recipes of which can be found in ''Larousse Gastronomique''.

The meat pie (Meat pie (Australia and New Zealand)) (minced beef in a beef gravy, enclosed in a baked flaky pastry shell about 10 cm across) is a well-known party food, often consumed by tradition on AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final Day. Popular variants include steak, onion (diced fried onion), potato (mashed potato on top of a traditional pie instead of a pastry top), Indian curry and pepper. An iconic way of serving meat pies is as a "pie floater", on top of a bowl of thick pea soup. Sausage rolls are another popular take away item.

Lamb (Lamb and mutton) is very popular in Australia, with roasting cuts (legs and shoulders), chops (Meat chop), and shanks (Shank (meat)) being the most common cuts. Lamb will often form part of either a Sunday roast or a barbecue. It is also commonly found as an ingredient in doner kebabs, a dish of Turkish origin that has been popular in Australia since the 1970s. According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook for 2016, Australia consumes more sheep meat than any other Western country, and the third-largest amount worldwide (after Sudan and Kazakhstan). Annually, Australians consume an average of per person. By way of comparison, New Zealanders average 4.4fromSymbol and Americans just 0.4fromSymbol.

Kangaroo meat is widely available in Australia, although it is not among the most commonly eaten meats. In old fashioned colonial recipes, it was treated much like ox tail, and braised until tender forming a rich gravy. It is available today in various cuts and sausages.KIAA - Kangaroo Meat Cuts Also eaten (in specialist restaurants) is emu meat and crocodile meat.Australian food: 40 dishes locals like to call their own As these meats need specialist preparation they are not commonly found in mainstream restaurants or home cooking.

Damper (Damper (food)) is a traditional Australian soda bread prepared by swagmen (Swagman), drover (Drover (Australian))s and other travellers. It is a wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire.

The Australian hamburger consists of a fried beef patty, served with shredded lettuce and sliced tomato in a (usually toasted) bread roll. Tomato sauce (similar to ketchup but made with less sugar with a more liquid texture) or barbecue sauce are almost always included. Beetroot, pineapple and fried onions are also common additions. Other frequently-served hamburger options are bacon, fried egg and cheese. Pickles (Pickled cucumber) are rarely included, except in burgers from American chains.Australian burger recipe

Australia is one of the world's major quality wine (Australian wine) and beer producing nations. Australia has also in the past been known for producing high volumes of light lager style beers, mostly for domestic and export consumption, but since the 1990s has been producing many boutique and artisan quality beers that the general standard of public tastes have been improved as has local knowledge of boutique beers. Beers are served chilled in Australia, unlike in other parts of the world.

The nation also has a longstanding dairy (dairy product) industry (virtually from colonisation) and today produces a wide variety of cheeses, yoghurts (yogurt), milk, cream and butter products. Australians are high consumers of dairy products, consuming (on average) some 102.4 L of milk per person a year, which in part is due to its quality-coffee culture, 12.9 kg of cheese, 3.8 kg of butter (a small reduction from previous year, largely for dietary purposes) and a small increase to 7.1 kg of yoghurt products.Dairy Australia - Consumption statistics

The chocolate and malt powder Milo (Milo (drink)), which was developed by Thomas Mayne (Thomas Mayne (inventor)) in Sydney (Sydney, Australia) in 1934 in response to the Great Depression (Great Depression in Australia), is mixed with milk to produce a popular beverage.