Australia Day

What better way to celebrate Australia Day when you are far from home than a mix of great Australian treats! We were lucky enough to have a friend from 'home' come to visit her family in England for Christmas and she bought a fabulous selection of Aussie food over for my little family. We managed to save most of our Aussie stash until Australia Day...though you may note that the Cherry Ripe bag has been opened by a little mouse....not me!

You can get Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate here in England...but it is very different in taste from the Aussie version. When I was living in Shanghai I bought some from Australia and an English friend bought some from England and we had a blind taste test. All the Aussie ladies preferred the Aussie version, the English ladies preferred the English, both could tell their own in an instant. The Kiwis and Canadians had no real preference!

The Cherry Ripe! Dark Chocolate, cherries, hint of coconut, very Australian and found nowhere else! Yum!!!

I know you can get marshmallows in the UK, but nothing beats the pink and white marshmallow from Pascalls, Australia...delicious ...and fat free...what is not to like? Light dusting of icing sugar on the outside, soft sugary middle! An Aussie friend in Shanghai could inhale about 2 packs in one sitting and not get a sugar headache..very impressive...he wouldn't even share with his children! It was his entry requirement that all his visitors bought him some Pascall marshmallows...I heard rumours that he turned friends out, onto the street if they arrived without them!

Vegemite! I think part of the Australian New Citizenship test should be having to eat Vegemite on toast and actually enjoy it, before you can become an Aussie citizen! Nothing beats Vegemite on toast for breakfast when you are sick or slightly hungover. What Aussie has never made snakes out of butter and Vegemite by squishing two Sao biscuits together? Black gold. A taste of home. An essential to every Aussie pantry!

I'm off now, to refill my glass of great Australian wine, get the pies out of the oven and finish topping my Aussie pavlova for dessert! AC/DC has just replaced Cold Chisel on the stereo!

Happy Australia Day! May all Australians unite, wherever we have come from, whatever our backgrounds or cultures may be and celebrate what an amazing country we have and how fortunate we are to be able to call Australia home, wherever we may be now. I am proud and lucky to be a born and bred Australian!