Australian organic food enthusiast Varun Venaik who runs an organic food blogging website has been embracing trying out a whole range of different cuisines. Recently, he decided to extensively try out foods from Australia, the United States of America, and England. Below he discusses his experience trying out each of these cuisines.
Australian food
As a nation with a significant inflow of immigration from all around the globe, modern Australian food is heavily influenced by and adapted from a number of international cuisines, including British, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian cuisines. Given his enthusiasm for eating fresh organic food, Varun greatly enjoys the fresh salads that are commonly consumed by many Australians as main or side dishes. Varun also enjoys the fresh seafood that is a common feature of many Australian dishes (especially during Christmas time). Australians are fortunate enough to have access to a wide variety of wild-caught fresh seafood at affordable prices, like prawns, barramundi, oysters, lobster, tuna, snapper, and ling, amongst other types of seafood. Australians are also lucky to have a constant supply of seasonal fruits, more so than many other nations. In particular, there is a range of native fruits that can only be found in Australia, such as Tasmanian pepper berry, lemon aspen, and Kakadu plums. Varun Venaik has found that increasingly restaurants in Australia have started embracing the abundance of locally grown fruits and vegetables that are grown around them. Many of these restaurants have won awards on the basis of their philosophy of producing simple dishes that preserve the natural quality of these locally grown fruits and vegetables and choose to highlight them as the star of the plate.
American food
Recently, American food has experienced an exciting burst of creativity, with “fusion” restaurants gaining increasing popularity across the United States of America. Varun is a huge fan of this trend – he finds that fusion American dishes that are executed well are an exciting way to capture the idiosyncrasies of foreign or multicultural staple dishes whilst simultaneously recognizing the traditional roots of American food. In the United States of America, it is not uncommon to walk into a restaurant serving cheeseburger spring rolls (a fusion of American and Chinese food) or spaghetti dumplings (a fusion of Italian and Chinese food). Varun also enjoys the fact that restaurants in the United States of America is more generally also experimenting with creative spins on traditional fast food like pizza, burgers, and tacos. Modern American food is also starting to focus more on fresh, seasonal, and locally grown produce, with an emphasis on “farm-to-table” food, which is a trend that Varun has very much embraced given his interest in consuming fresh organic food as much as possible.
British food
British food centers around good quality fine ingredients, including locally sourced meats and produce. British food has been significantly influenced by the legacy of Elizabeth David who is one of the most popular British chefs who wrote a number of widely sold and read cookbooks. One of Varun’s favorite things about British food is its heartiness – you certainly won’t be feeling hungry after a complete British meal like a full breakfast, fish, and chips, or shepherd’s pie. Varun also greatly enjoys traditional British desserts like apple pie, trifle, and scones, which are a part of many good home chefs’ repertoire. As is the case in the United States of America and Australia, British food is increasingly being inspired by multicultural influences, and in England (and especially in the capital city of London) it is now very common to find many award-winning fusion restaurants which meld together the best of international food along with traditional British food.
If you are in need of any professional advice regarding the organic food of different cuisines, you can contact Varun Venaik on his LinkedIn.
