What first comes to mind when you hear the words "Australian cuisine?" Tim Tam is already one of the most common souvenirs for Japanese and some people even know about Vegemite, but they aren't cuisine, however. Although fish and chips and barbecue are also famous, I am not sure if they can be called Australia's "national" cuisine. To begin with, each of these is junk food. I hesitate to recommend any cuisine that may be a cause of obesity.

There is, of course, so-called "modern Australian cuisine" and healthy fusion dishes using Mediterranean or Asian ingredients and techniques. There is also "native Australian cuisine" using ingredients obtained from the plants and animals that Indigenous Australians collect. Although one TV program on tourism that aired recently in Japan reported kangaroo and crocodile dishes as Australian cuisine, these aren't dishes that one would eat every day. Kangaroo is closer to pet food and crocodile is a delicacy served only to tourists.

What, then is Australian cuisine? I always answer that question by saying, "There is no such thing." While I do not know if it can be considered cuisine, Australia has fruit. Striding over latitudes between 10° 41' and 43° 39' south, Australia covers a vast area ranging from tropical to subantarctic zones and is rich with a variety of tropical fruit such as dragon fruit and mangos, as well as winter fruit such as apples. The quality is superb as well.

A few years ago, I lived in London for a while. The day after I arrived in London, an Australian friend served me a pear at her home and I still cannot forget how it tasted. "Do people in England call such rotten fruit a pear and eat it?" Learning that such poor quality fruit was sold in Europe, I felt that I was very lucky to be an Australian.

The best way to eat fruit in Australia may be to make juice. There are juice bars in the cities and towns where they prepare fresh juice on the spot. You can have mixed juice made from the fruit of your choice, which definitely tastes different from the pre-mixed juice bought from shops.

Since the beginning of this decade, a number of juice bars that make smoothies, such as Boost Juice, have sprung up. Smoothies using yoghurt or ice cream in addition to fruit are more like snacks than drinks. They are popular among men and women and young and old because they are far healthier than traditional snacks such as doughnuts. Some young women even have them for lunch.