Tasty Treats

This, my friends, is Vegemite. It is about as Australian as a food spread can get. You might recall it being mentioned in that 80's song, "Land Down Under" by the band Men At Work. It tastes like eating pure salt, and is dark brown and hard to spread without mixing with something like margarine. It's rather nasty, but somehow its a vital condiment to Australians. The can we bought was used once and is still sitting in our glovebox many weeks later.



This is the Roadkill Cafe, a booth at the Mindil Street Market in Darwin. Darwin is somewhat famous for this marketplace (I think I mentioned that previously). The Roadkill Cafe, sporting the "You kill it, we grill it" slogan, sells a variety of delightful Aussie bushtucker (bush = outdoors, tucker = food) such as Emu Sausage, Kangaroo Meat, and Camel Meat. Here is Girlfriend just before trying a Kangaroo Kebob:



Yum yum. It tasted like steak, with an slight and odd aftertaste. The important thing to remember is that it didn't taste better than steak.

Back in Adelaide, Faizah showed us the wonders of Aussie snack food:



Meet Twisties, Cheese and Chicken flavored. They look like Cheetos, they have the same thickness and texture as Cheetos, but brother, they ain't Cheetos. The cheese one was like Cheetos minus all of the zest and spicy zing you've come to expect from American Cheetos. The Chicken flavored ones tasted like Chicken I guess. But that's the problem. Who would want snack food to taste like chicken? According to Faizah's mother, everything tastes good with chicken seasoning. At least Australians think so. Almost every bagged snack food comes in a Chicken flavor variety. Honestly, both flavors weren't that bad. Just take some getting used to.


Following the snack food theme, say hello to a Nutella snack packet. We like Nutella, and have made it our road trip car food of choice. It's made of hazelnut, but tastes like eating chocolate. You can spread it on bread as we have been, or eat it out of these little packets like a snack. It may be available in the U.S. but it's much more popular out here. Good stuff.



My cultural sensitivity ends, unfortunately, when confronted with a snack food designed to taste like bacon. Such is the case with the Cheetos Brand Cheese & Bacon Balls (You've sold out, Chester The Cheetah, you've sold out!!!). Or the dreaded bag to the right, advertising Burger Rings with "BIG BURGER TASTE." This is just wrong.

The package art in supermarkets looks similar, but strangely different than American supermarkets. With many foods, though, the major change lies only in the naming of the product. It's like being in an alternate universe:


Kellogg's Rice Bubbles (as opposed to the American version, Rich Crispies)

Lastly, there is one huge difference between American packaged food and Australian packaged food that affects almost everything: they use real sugar and not fructose corn syrup. Fructose is probably illegal. Soda, chips, candy- everything uses real sugar. It changes the taste slightly, but not in a bad way. I wonder if I will miss non-corn-syrup Soda when I return to the States, or if the free refills *star spangled banner plays in background* will be enough to make me forget.