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Gourmet Dining in the Country

The transformation of the Australian countryside

by Marieke Brugman

Only a generation ago, the prospect of a handsome dining room, a fine meal and superb wines away from an Australian metropolis would have been merely fanciful, unless one had the good fortune to be visiting a traditional farming family. In less than twenty years, there has been a virtual revolution across the countryside, both in terms of the variety of choices of character-rich. places to stay overnight and to eat regionally focused cuisine, and in terms of the agricultural landscape itself.

Long anchored in largely Anglo-Celtic traditions, the rural landscape was dominated by sheep, cattle and wheat. The farms (known as stations) supported the extended families of the rural "gentry" as well as their workers and families, and because of their isolation, were virtually self-sufficient.

The enclave of buildings would have included a schoolhouse, stables, shearing sheds, outlying buildings for machinery and repairs, and a meathouse in which to hang home-killed carcasses. Meat, because of its bountifulness, tended to form the major dietary staple. Rabbit and wild duck in season were shot for the table, poultry raised, the house cow milked, an orchard kept and a vegetable garden tended. Bulk dry-foods would be procured on long, infrequent forays to the nearest "town."

Homestead kitchens were the norm and the hub of social life. Huge wood-burning stoves allowed the preparation of copious quantities of food. A secondary kitchen or separate space was devoted to the processing and preserving of jams, pickles, chutneys and sauces. Often there was a stone-lined cellar beneath for the storage of orderly rows of preserving jars with their aesthetic placements of fruit and vegetables. Roast dinners were typical of fare which could be characterized as plain, simple, hearty, honest cooking with "fancy" cooking reserved for the dessert repertoire.

One of the many hundreds of delicious options throughout the Australian countryside, the Uraidla Aristologist in the Adelaide hills offers excellent cuisine.

Much of this is now a thing of the past, yet never before have the gastronomic opportunities in country Australia been more bright. The increasingly adventurous and curious nature of the Australian palate has not confined itself to city sophistication. From the 1950s, when Australians started to enjoy a somewhat Westernized rendition of Chinese food, they have consistently expanded their repertoire of flavors, so that now even ordinary households all over the country include ginger, garlic, cilantro and basil in their weekly shopping lists.

Country-fresh produce can be enjoyed in restaurants, cafes, country homes or simply on a picnic.

Where once the dining options outside major cities were limited to a counter-meal at a pub (basic variations on steak and chips or a mixed grill), Victoria's spectacularly scenic Great Ocean Road is now known as "the cappuccino coast," testament to a myriad of cafes serving proper coffee, lovely wines, and everything from focaccia and pasta to fresh salads and local grilled fish.