Food Culture - Sydney - page 475

HISTORY & CULTURAL INFLUENCES
While the First Fleeters came close to starvation in the early years of Sydney Town, the
local Aboriginal tribes had millennia of experience in living from the land. You can check
out examples of edible plants harvested by the Cadigal, Dharug and Dharawal peoples in
the Cadi Jam Ora (First Encounters) beds of the Royal Botanic Gardens. The existence of
huge middens under the city centre shows that shellfish were a staple, with fish, birds,
snakes and kangaroo providing further protein.
The colonists, though, hankered for their bland English food - roast meat, pies and
boiled vegetables. In lean times, the city's poor would fall back on rabbit. Eventually, 'meat
and three veg' followed by tinned fruit with cream became the standard Australian home-
cooked meal, with 'throwing some prawns on the barbie' the domain of the adventurous.
Waves of immigrants brought their cuisine with them, starting with the Chinese in the
1850s. Mediterranean migrants (particularly Italians, Greeks and southern Slavs) influen-
ced local fare from the early 20th century, especially around Kings Cross. They also started
Sydney's love affair with coffee, which has spread to every corner of the city.
In the latter half of last century, wars in Vietnam and Lebanon brought new refugees and
new ways of cooking - although it's only recently that these cuisines have crossed into the
mainstream. In the 1980s and '90s the number of young Thai students burgeoned, firmly
establishing Thai as one of Sydney's most popular ethnic cuisines.
In Sydney today you can experience a different culture's cuisine every night for a month
without doubling up - everything from Cambodian to Colombian can be found within a
few kilometres of the city centre.
ETHNIC EAT STREETS
» Thai Campbell St, Haymarket; King St, Newtown
» Chinese Chinatown; Chatswood
» Korean Pitt St near Liverpool St in the city
» Indian Cleveland St, Surry Hills
» Italian Norton St, Leichhardt; Stanley St, East Sydney
» Vietnamese Chinatown; King St, Newtown; Cabramatta