I think that photo is kind of cool … Australian flags! Green and gold salad! (Australia’s sporting colours for anyone who didn’t already know. The salad was tasty too, by the way)
The Indian Banana Salad was made and decorated by my friend Conny Dietzschold for the Australia Day recipe swap at my home. There was no menu. The group brought whatever they liked. We trusted the balance of dishes to the day. We swapped recipes. We shared food. And we also celebrated the diversity of our backgrounds.
My friends Jeremy Bluhm and Susan Wolfe brought this dish, Ceviche del Mercado (Lime Cured Halibut with Avocado and Tomatillo Salsa) and the recipe (from Dona Tomas – Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking by Thomas Schnetz and Dona Savitsky with Mike Willie)
Everyone brought a recipe. On Australia Day we also ate Smoked Salmon Mini-wraps from Jo and Robert Rixon, Mila’s Tortilla and Poached Pears cooked by Kerry Pintado, and Georgie and Janos Horvath made traditional Hungarian Gulyas (Goulash). And, Conny Dietzschold and Florian Schaeffer also made another vegetarian delight, a Pumpkin and Spinach salad.
There’s more than one post in all those recipes. (each of the recipes will feature in its own blogpost) One of my contributions for the day is the previous post Summer Sunshine Aubergines a la Parmesan facon Crumble.
Was it surprising that we didn’t eat lamb, lamingtons or ANZAC biscuits, or have a BBQ? Chatting with some of my twitter friends earlier that week, they’d given their opinions on Australian Food.
OtherAndrew It may be uncultured of me, but it’s not real Aussie fare if it doesn’t involve a BBQ…
ideaswoman not much! Although do love Goldsteins meat pies on the Gold Coast. Meat pie is English?
ebbye funnily enough lamb. Australia Day makes me want to eat lamb chops
yohanik Fresh prawns with nothing but lemon. I miss them sooo much.
ideaswoman ok love macadamia nuts and Morton Bay bugs and of course Vegemite
GuitarDragon IS there a “typical” Aussie food? Like Vegemite?
dancourtois Vegemite on toast.
BigB3n honestly, I don’t quite know BBQ? but the Brazilians are so much better, I really don’t think Aust food has a real identity
KerryPintado Loads of fresh seasonal produce: seafood, cheese, wine & fruit
davidlmorris It means trying to avoid @SamKekovich at the BBQ., even if I do like to sprinkle a bit of rosemary on it.
goingwithmygut Aussie food: Great meat esp beef & lamb; great seafood; great diary esp ice-cream, & macadamias! All my major food groups 
BigB3n anything that was called Mod Aust was really a light version of European techniques and recipes and i really don’t think that counts
BzzyLzzy mmm lamb roast, lamb chops .. yummm .. not very original, but hard to resist ..
paulwiggins Bok choy
sandieb321 fresh foods from all around OZ cooked well light a fresh salads from diff parts of the world and bright colours
jsenft Could there be any doubt about what to eat on #AustraliaDay ? http://bit.ly/5xt3CI
What did you eat on Australia Day?
Could not grab feed.
February 08 2010 at 2:37 am
I made a hybrid dessert for Australia Day – macarons + lamingtons = macingtons!
http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2010/01/to-australia-with-love.html
and I brought my bewildered but soon converted Canadian colleagues regular lamingtons to try. They loved them!
February 09 2010 at 12:08 am
Oven-roasted lamb chops with Pavlova for dessert. Imagination fail on my part I suppose. But good.
February 10 2010 at 9:42 pm
Great post! I spent my Australia Day at Balmoral beach where I got fish and chips, another ‘Aussie’ food (shared with our British ancestors, of course). What I loved though was the picture of the countless other cultures sharing BBQs on the beach. Of course, the make-up of the items on the BBQ varied significantly, but I think the commonality of the iron hotplate was a great picture.
February 14 2010 at 5:38 am
Happy belated Australia Day! I was hiking in the coffee slopes of Coorg, India on the day, and eating way too much tandoori chicken and garlic naan. The pears look great by the way
Wen
http://www.goingwithmygut.com
February 14 2010 at 6:01 pm
I’ve been to (and hosted) lots of get-togethers where everyone brings a dish to contribute to a buffet-style dinner, but I LOVE the idea of a recipe swap dinner.
As for what I ate on Australia Day: my family got together for a picnic and I made pumpkin scones: not the sweet variety favoured by Flo Bjelke-Peterson (though I will try them sometime) but savoury scones with cheddar and parmesan. Yum. They were a big hit.
February 14 2010 at 6:22 pm
Tracey I just love savoury scones. I make little cheese ones with dill to serve with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. (Haven’t made them in a while though).
Our Australia Day lunch was buffet-style, it just so happened the dishes balanced out to a couple of starters, a couple of mains, a couple of salads and some dessert.
Think I’ll be hosting another bring a plate get-together soon. They’re terrific fun, and really highlight the ‘sharing’.