The Australian public started eating at Chinese restaurants from the 1930s, or brought saucepans from home for takeaway meals. Chicken chow mein, chop suey and sweet and sour pork were the mainstays.
Fast forward to the 1970s, and Chinese restaurants had popped up all over Australia, including in small country towns. Since that time, dishes have evolved with food trends and the changing Australian palate.
Asian food was introduced to the United States in the mid-1800's when Chinese immigrants from Canton began settling in California. At that time the food was consumed primarily by the Chinese community. Chinese food became popular with young cosmopolitans in the 1920s because it was considered exotic.
The Chinese first came to Australia in the mid-1800s as part of the gold rush. Many ended up as cooks for camps and then ended up staying in Australia, opening up restaurants in small country towns and in bigger cities across the nation.
Americans began embracing their neighborhood Chinese restaurants as special places where they could be treated to a meal they didn't have to cook. And began appreciating the flavors of the exotic cuisine. “They were among the first to deliver food into the hands of consumers,” Chen said.
It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that the United States got its first taste of “authentic” Chinese cuisine.
1) Chinese food is one of the healthiest in the world.
Most dishes are filled with huge quantities of vegetables, grass-fed meats, seafood and herbs and spices. Every ingredient is handpicked for medicinal purposes. The Chinese people rarely eat canned/frozen food.
Veggies themselves haven't changed too much. In the '50s, they were served boiled or roasted, with potatoes, pumpkin, peas, carrots and beans as the staples. If you were able to grow your own backyard produce, chokoes, tomatoes, silverbeet and leeks were also a popular choice.
Locally sourced meat, seafood and vegetables were complemented by imported ingredients such as Cantonese sausage, tofu, lychee nuts, black fungus and bamboo shoots. By the late 1800s, about a third of commercial cooks in Australia were Chinese.
“Over 14.2 million Australians now like to eat Chinese cuisine (70%), up from 13.5 million four years ago and there have been particularly strong increases for Japanese cuisine to 8.5 million (up 1.6 million), Indian cuisine to 10.4 million (up 1.3 million), Middle Eastern cuisine to 5.7 million (up 1.2 million) and ...
Since the 1970s, Chinese food has been considered part of American cuisine (Tunç, 2018). As reflected in the NYPL data, dishes like chow mein, Kung Pao chicken, hot and sour soup, egg rolls, Broccoli Beef and General Tso's chicken are most common in American Chinese cuisine.
Chinese restaurant menus from the 1950s primarily feature chop suey and chow mein. Chinese cookbooks of the time period usually omit dumplings, or only include Cantonese variations such as deep-fried wontons or shu mai.
Noodles are one of the oldest traditional Chinese foods. Chinese people have started eating noodles about 4,000 years ago.
Although the first Japanese restaurant in Australia opened as early as 1953, it wasn't until the mid-'80s that Japanese food became mainstream. Following the collapse of the South Vietnam regime and the end of the war in 1975, Vietnamese refugees began to arrive in Australia.
Migrant numbers exploded with the gold rushes of the 19th century. By 1890, a third of all cooks were Chinese. Historians believe exemptions for Chinese chefs under the White Australia policy led to the eventual spread of Chinese restaurants across suburbs and country towns.
Most of the diversification has been with grain (rice), legumes (soy), greens, root vegetables, and various 'exotic fruits'. Food acculturation with migration is generally bi-directional.
British and Irish food habits heavily influenced early Australian cuisine until the 1950s, and for most Australians it reminded them of 'home'. Our meat-and-three-vegetable dinner regime, hearty puddings and fondness for tea and beer came from our Anglo-Celtic forebears.
The 1970s: Schnitzel with mashed potatoes and lemon.
Things like schnitzel and kiev became a key dish on many Aussie dinner tables. The 1980s: Beef Stroganoff and Fettucine This hearty, creamy dish was commonly served over pasta or rice, and became a family favourite in many Australian homes.
Focusing on food, however, we find that, as well as the aforementioned French fries, the hot list included smoked kangaroo fillet, baby barramundi, white bread, onion rings, couscous, yoghurt-coated almonds and peanuts, and Brussels sprouts.
No list of popular Australian dishes is complete without the classic meat pie. These come under the national dish of Australia and are small, pastry-wrapped pies filled with minced beef, vegetables, gravy and other savoury ingredients.
Worst: General Tso's Chicken
The breaded, fried chicken is smothered in a sugary sauce. One order clocks in at around 1,500 calories and 88 grams of fat, and it delivers more sodium than you should get in a day. Other fried dishes to watch out for: sesame, orange, and sweet and sour chicken.
Generally, Japanese foods are considered healthier and more nutritious than Chinese meals. The reason lies in the use of fats, carbs, and proteins. Japanese cuisine uses a lot of proteins, and the primary source is seafood. Usually, the Japanese serve raw seafood. However, some prefer steaming and stir-frying.
1/ Okinawan diet – Japan
Widely considered to be one of the healthiest diets in the world, the Okinawan diet has numerous health benefits. So much so that Japan has the lowest obesity rates and second longest life expectancy of any developed country.