Foreign food

"Great food is about how you feel. Not where you're from."

Jamie Oliver

When does the immigrant describe himself as an Australian, a Frenchman, a Canadian, or an Englishman - whatever the nationality is that he has chosen to take on? When does the food that he brought with him become part of the culture he has adopted? When do both the immigrant and the food cease to be foreign?

To take a food example. Fish and chips is considered to be a quintessentially English (and therefore much mocked and disdained food). But no it was brought to England by the Jews in the nineteenth century - or from Portuguese Jews who came to England in the 17th century, according to Claudia Roden. Jewish anyway and originally with a breadcrumb casing. I do not know at what stage it became English and battered, but certainly by the turn of the twentieth century I suppose.

Here in Australia there are still fish and chip shops but many of them also sell souvlaki and salt and pepper calamari. And here is a picture of a modern Australian dish of fish and chips. And so typically Australian. The beer, the battered fish - the fish being Australian King George Whiting not English plaice, cod or haddock and the batter being a beer batter. Accompanied by salt and pepper calamari - Italian - and chips of a non-traditional shape. With lemon, not vinegar. A fusion platter. And that dish will continue to change. Tempura batter is a common refinement - from Japan, or served with sauce Tartare (France), salsa verde (Italy), chimichurri sauce (Argentina), etc. etc. So I wonder at what point does fish and chips cease to be English, already an assumed nationality, and become Australian and what will make it quintessentially Australian?

The idea for this post came from my viewing of the film Ladies in Black, a film set in 60s Sydney and featuring the influx of European immigrants at that time and their effect on the Australian people. In the film we see some cultured and extrovert Middle Europeans, initially somewhat despised gradually becoming accepted, even loved and admired, partly through the way they behaved, but also through their food. Salami, and duck liver paté, being two of the dishes that were mentioned. In the film these foods were readily accepted, and indeed they are both of them now 'ordinary' foods that you will find on your supermarket shelves and in everyday dishes. But their ready acceptance by the 'ordinary' Australians in the film was perhaps a bit too immediate. In Wog Food, John Newton talks about sitting next to an old lady on a plane who refused the lasagne she was offered because it was unfamiliar and she was 'too old'.

"None of the ingredients of that lasagne would have been unfamiliar to my flying companion - flour, water, eggs, minced meat, tomato and cheese - but it was the way in which they were put together and served that was foreign to her." John Newton - Wog Food

So how long does it take? In Australia that major influx occurred in the 50s through to the 70s followed by the Vietnamese in the late 70s, the Chinese, since forever, the Indians and Sri-Lankans and now the Middle Easterners and the Africans. Now - some 40 years later we are reaping the benefit of this rich mix of nationalities to the point where out of the over 60 recipes in the current Coles Magazine, just two - Roast Beef with Red Wine Gravy and Roast Lamb with Mint Jelly Glaze could be considered Australian - for which substitute British. Plus one dessert I suppose - Apple Pie with Cinnamon Sweet Pastry. And really all of these three have 'foreign' touches. Red wine gravy?, the lamb sits on sliced potatoes very like the traditional French dish Lamb à la Boulangère and the apple pie pastry is just a modern concoction. And the Woolworths magazine is not much better - I think it has about four 'Australian' recipes and it's cover features Tandoori lamb cutlets.

These magazines represent what the ordinary Australian is cooking today. If they are cooking that is. If they are eating takeaway, hardly any of that could be considered Australian/British. Fish and chips perhaps. What Coles and Woolworths are featuring are dishes that are tasty, quick, easy and frequently based on products found on their shelves. And they are all foreign foods. The Coles list covers all of Europe, North Africa, the Middle-East, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent, America, Mexico and Cuba and Woolworths adds Japan and Mongolia. It's a very typical mix.

Not only do we cook their food but we also use their utensils. What Australian kitchen does not have a wok, cheese grater, a pizza stone or a tagine? Well maybe a few more specialist items like the tagine may not be in every kitchen, but you can buy these items in Aldi and the latest electrical gadgets include electrical tortilla makers.

And what does Australian food mean anyway? Doesn't it really mean British? At what point did sponge cake become a quintessentially Australian thing? Or vanilla slice, roast lamb or the aforesaid fish and chips? At what point did those first settlers from Britain and Ireland start calling themselves Australian? And ditto for all of the other British and other colonialist nations' colonies? Did they ever take on Britishness, Frenchness, Dutchness? India for example, the jewel in the English crown, and definitely a colony, has never really been British. Although even there there has been a bit of cross-cultural mixing. There are a few Indian dishes like Country Captain that were influenced by the British - though not many. and the British of course, were much more enamoured and influenced by India - at least in food - than the other way around. Maybe the Indians were influenced more by a way of governing than anything else. Maybe there were just too many Indians and they had too strong and ancient a culture anyway to absorb another one.

"I like to think of Great Britain as a magpie nation because throughout our history we seem to have collected beautiful flavours from elsewhere and worked them into our own culture." Jamie Oliver

The English were immigrants in Australia too. Initially they were colonist immigrants with limited resources and limited minds - either because they came from the criminal classes or the upper classes - neither of them considered to be particularly open to outside influence. And so they imported their food and imposed themselves on the environment and the less sophisticated population. Without the infrastructure they had left behind they were unable to produce fine food for the table I guess. And anyway by then English food had a poor reputation, which had not entirely recovered at the time of the other great influx of British - the ten pound poms - of which I am one. Yes I am an immigrant and 'foreign' too. A fact that I do not think that the Australians really recognise.

"Although historically Britain had been famous for some spectacularly rich food traditions, a mighty industrial revolution, two world wars accompanied by years of food rationing and the rise of processed foods, among other things, soon put an end to our impressive food culture. Where Britain's food had once been respected and admired by foreign visitors, it was instead known for being fairly confused and uninspiring." Jamie Oliver

Only now is there a burgeoning respect for British food. And I really do think that Britain and the British personality, if you can call it that, is, against all the evidence to the contrary because of its colonial years, really open to outside influences. It has ever been thus - from the ancient invasions from the nordic tribes, through the French and Dutch in the middle ages, to the massive waves of immigrants from their old colonies in the twentieth century and now from Europe.

Those European countries too, whose food has so influenced the world - Italy and France and Spain. Those cultures have also adapted and evolved. Whatever was Italian cuisine like before noodles, before tomatoes and corn? What did the northern parts of Europe eat before potatoes? What did the Middle-East do without beans? When did Italian cuisine - pizza, pasta, risotto become Italian? When does foreign stop being foreign and become the nationality of the adopted country?

For this post I checked out a few of my cookbooks, one of them being The Great Australian Cookbook. It was an interesting browse. The concept of the book was to ask well-known Australian chefs for favourite recipes. Some were 'foreigners' and their food reflected this. The 'foreigners' seem to be clinging to their traditions more. Or maybe it's just that it's too soon to know how and if they will change their food tastes. It was the Anglo Australians who were interesting, for many of their favourite dishes showed the influence of other cultures. Does this mean that they have no culture of their own, or does it show an open-mindedness which is in direct opposition to their reputation as conquerors and colonialists with closed minds?

Perhaps the most amazing example in that book was that of Ross and Jane Fargher who own a pub in outback SA and whose families have lived there for 150 years. How more Australian can you get you would think. But even here in a remote outpost their proffered dish was slow-cooked harissa goat!

Harissa! Goat! And their second dish, though more 'Australian" - Stockman's Roast Lamb Fritters, might have had very Australian ingredients but the method was gleaned from here there and everywhere.

My last photograph is of a market. It looks very Asian - the food and the people at the market both. But this is Darwin. Closer to Asia than the rest of populated Australia, and so it's no surprise really. But take a trip to Box Hill market near here, or Victoria Street, or various other immigrant enclaves throughout Australia and you will see something very similar. And we Anglo Australians are intrigued by all this new produce and what to do with it. There is a plethora of eating places in which to try it out, and if we like it we can check out our latest Coles or Woolworths magazine and rustle up a foreign meal ourselves.

But Australian food should surely mean Aboriginal food? They are the true Australians, but only now are we beginning to look at native Australian foods, and they are not catching on at speed. The English did not adopt much of their food culture. Kangaroo perhaps and maybe damper. I'm not sure where that came from (another time). Maybe because they were nomadic mostly they did not do much 'cooking' and what they did was basic roasting or frying? I am ashamed to say I do not know. We are beginning to look at native plants but so far this is a very niche thing.

In the meantime - define Australian. When it comes to food it is almost impossible these days. When it comes to nationality - that too is becoming increasingly difficult. I am 'too old', like the lady in the aeroplane. Too old that is to consider myself truly Australian - I was born and spent the first 23 years of my life in England. My children though, I am sure, consider themselves Australian and their children certainly do. I'm not sure about the children of other more 'foreign' nationals though.

We are so, so lucky to have such a richly varied population. Tonight I am dining out as a Mother's Day treat. French at Paris Go. I think the owners of the restaurant is Greek/Australian. Isn't it wonderful.