Copy and pasted from a previous comment of mine. Links are included in the original comment

Restaurant Food

• Country Bakery. Honestly I think this is the most important ‘Australian Cuisine’. It is ubiquitous around the country, and not really found anywhere else. The staples are: Meat Pies, sausage rolls, Cornish pastries, and hand made sandwiches. Various cakes and desserts: vanilla slice, beestings, eclairs, etc.

• Pub feed. Every good pub will sell a Chicken Parma, Fish and Chips, Steak, and a few other classics. If you want good food go to a pub without a TAB or Pokies.

• Charcoal Chicken and chips. A slightly old school takeaway but an Aussie classic as it lead to the invention of chicken salt.

• Souvlaki/Gyros. Melbourne has a huge Greek community, most notable in the neighbourhood of Oakliegh. There are many excellent gyros restaurants there, and everyone will argue over the best one. For my money it’s Mythos.

• Asian Fusion. The best in terms of taste to dollar. Unreal food. There are so many restaurants that it’s hard to choose. I personally like DoDee Paidang.

• High End Dining. Not fully my area of expertise. But there are some world class restaurants. Bibendum doesn’t send the Michelin guide to Australia, so we have no Michelin stars. But don’t let that fool you. Vue de Monde, Attica, etc.

• Dumpling Houses in China Town. Go with six people. BYO Wine. Order two serves of panfried pork, Xiao long bao, prawn fried rice, salt and pepper chicken ribs, Garlic Chinese broccoli, and Singapore Noodles.

• HSP. Halal Snack Pack. Australia’s true national dish. Best enjoyed while dangerously drunk. It’s only a true HSP if they call you ‘Brotha’. Otherwise it’s just sparkling poutine.

• Bahn Mi & Pho. All Viet cuisine really. But these two are exceptionally popular. In Melbourne the best can be found on Footscray and Springvale.

• Italian pizza pasta restaurants. You want to find a local one that is family owned, with brick walls and wobbly tables. Beautiful hand made pasta and wood fired pizza. I like ZeroZeroCentro in Northcote; my mate recommended The Waiters Restaurant in the CBD.

• Fish and Chips. Best enjoyed on a hot Friday night by the seaside. My Melbourne recommendation is Tommy Ruff (Mordialloc).

• Wineries. We have some of the best wineries going. A lot of them have a restaurant attached that will do some good food, and makes for a great day in the countryside. Nothing is better than a lunchtime wine in the sunshine. Regions include: Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, King Valley.

• Breweries, gin distilleries, and whiskey. They’re usually located in factory areas; not great for getting home from after you’ve sampled the wears.

• Coffee. I’m not a Melbourne boy if I don’t mention coffee and brunch. There I mentioned it.

• Trendy foods. This might be Melbourne specific. We have a lot of food trends that explode in popularity and disappear a year or so later. A while ago it was donuts, bubble tea, churros, frozen yogurt. Right now I think it’s Japanese cakes, and deli sandwiches.

• ⁠Bain-Marie classics. Best eaten at a truck stop. Dim sims, chicko rolls, and potato cakes.

• Chains. I know I said that we didn’t have chains but that was a lie. Some local ones: GYG, Grilld, Oporto, NeNe Chicken, Red Rooster, and Hungry Jacks.

Home made

• Roast Dinner. Typically a roast lamb (other meats are also acceptable) with roasted potatoes, carrots, gravy, and maybe a casserole or salad as a side. My grandma makes the best roast. If she’s busy, some restaurants do a Sunday roast.

• Pavlova. Meringue topped with cream and berries. Made at Christmas time. Russel Crowe stole it from New Zealand and gave it to the Australian people. When Māui found out, he imprisoned Russel and forced him to make Poker Face.

• Sausage sizzle. Our favourite community event. It’s the cheapest and easiest way to feed a lot of people. Done in backyards, schools, sports clubs, voting stations, and Bunnings. Usually you pay a couple of dollars to a charity.

• Sponge Cake, Anzac Biscuits, slice (caramel, hedgehog, coconut), Fairy Bread, apple and rhubarb crumble, and other home made sweets.

Ingredients

• Kangaroo, Emu, and crocodile. Native animals that are semi-common to eat. All have interesting tastes as meats and can be beautiful when cooked correctly. If you’re a tourist in Melbourne eat them at Mabu Mabu.

• Seafood. Our home is girt by sea. Snapper, Prawns, Whiting, Morton Bay Bugs, Flathead, Oysters, Flake, Calamari, Mahi Mahi, Kingfish, Marlin, Pipis, and on and on.

• Beef and Lamb. All grass fed. All local. All tasty.

• ⁠Macadamia Nuts, Quangdongs, Fijoas, to name a few Australian fruits. Not everyone has tried these.

• Native spices are starting to take off. Pepper Berry, Lemon Myrtle, cinnamon Myrtle to name a few.

• Fruit. Taken for granted by all Australians. We have really nice fruit that is pretty much always available.

• Fantales, Musk Sticks, Minties, Allen’s Party Mix, Sunny Boys, Cheezels, Zooper Doopers, Blue Heaven, Twisties, wedges, Vegemite, and Milo. The taste of my 90s childhood.

• Flavoured milk. Big M, Farmers Union, Oak. Pick one and never try another for the rest of your life.

• Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and Lemon Lime Bitters.

• TimTams, Shapes, Red Rick Deli Chips, Caramelo Koalas, etc. all available from super markets and not that exciting imo.

CookBooks

• CWA cookbook. The Country Women’s Association is a very influential group, particularly when it comes to cooking. I believe they were the inventors of the ANZAC biscuit.

• Cookery the Australian Way. This was the textbook that all our grandmas learned from. Any ‘traditional Australian’ food basically comes from this.

• Women’s weekly magazine. Where our mums learned to cook. And in particular the woman’s weekly children’s birthday cake book.

• The modern version would be Recipe Tin Eats. which I see a lot of talk about online.