From Australia's Multiculturalism, Bizarre and Brilliant Food is Born

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The beauty of multiculturalism is that you don’t need to wander far or travel overseas to taste global cuisine. Growing up in Western Sydney, I’m no stranger to multicultural food, from kebab shops to noodle bars to Indian takeaway places, and so much more. But living and eating here is not just about enjoying the food from your home country, or someone else’s. It’s also a uniquely Australian experience, because foreign recipes merge with local ingredients and food trends to create something new and special. Many Western diners might value some idea of “authenticity” when they eat the cuisine of a foreign place—but in Australia, they’re actually getting something so much better. Take what my family eats, for example. My mother, who immigrated here from Palestine, ostensibly raised us on traditional, geographically-specific foods: makloubeh (rice, potatoes, cauliflower and chicken), dolma (wrapped vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice), and mjadarra (rice and lentils) were all daily staples alongside desserts like baklava, maamoul and knafeh. The menu stepped up a notch during Ramadan, Eid, and at family dinner parties. But my mother didn’t stick to what she knew. For my parents, being raised in a rural village in Palestine meant that fruit and vegetables were often self-grown and therefore only available in season. Part of this tradition remains: we have a garden here in Sydney. Yet Australian supermarkets make many fruits and vegetables available year-round—so we incorporate them in different ways. For example, potatoes and onions are frequently incorporated into several dishes. We use local fruit—both fresh and tinned—in our desserts and cakes. Yellow rice is another staple of Palestinian cooking. Back home, it’s dyed with saffron—here, my mother opts for a cheaper and more easily attainable replacement, like turmeric. Even within one realm of cuisine, there are hundreds of micro differences determined by geography. In the Middle East, there are multiple methods of making the sweet cheesy dessert knafeh. The Lebanese do it differently, so do the Palestinians, and so do the Turks. Once you get to Australia, the differences multiply again. Are you using semolina for the dough base, or shredded filo? Are you tempted to substitute traditional nabulsi cheese for ricotta from Coles? A friend of mine, Nidaa, who is a Palestinian raised in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, is used to merging Australian and Middle Eastern palates. In her family, they make the traditional semolina base of their knafeh using crushed up cornflakes. Her mum also makes makloubeh differently—instead of regular chicken fillets, she uses crunchy chicken schnitzels from a supermarket. These differences aren’t confined to households. You see the fusion of cuisines in high level cookery, at our finest restaurants, and even on Masterchef. One of the most diverse shows on TV, Masterchef Australia features contestants of many cultural heritages and ethnic backgrounds and offers an insight into the richness of Australia’s long-standing culinary tradition. It encourages and inspires contestants to recreate standard dishes with different—and, perhaps, foreign—ingredients due to imposed constraints, like the mystery box challenge. Replicating a struggle that many immigrants have felt on that first trip to an Australian supermarket, contestants are inspired and encouraged to fuse ingredients together and create something new. Nowadays, immigrant Australians basically have the best of both worlds. When my mother arrived in 1994, she found it hard to source the ingredients she was familiar with. Now, Middle Eastern ingredients are much more readily available, both in brick and mortar stores and online. But there’s still plenty of freedom to experiment when you want to—or enjoy a burger and chips on a lazy night after work. I think this is why Australia is sometimes called the “lucky country”. Our everyday interactions with people of different cultural backgrounds open our eyes to the endless possibilities that exist, especially when it comes to food. Blending multiple cultures together expands and enriches both our taste buds and worldview. Follow Kowther on Twitter