In Australia, you don't say starter-main-dessert: you say tucker (food). The day is built around brekkie (breakfast, often a quick toast), smoko (the morning or afternoon snack break, with a biscuit and tea), a quick lunch on the go, and the big social moment: the barbie (barbecue) or footy where you devour a hot pie. Sweet treats aren't a separate 'dessert' but an institution of arvo tea (afternoon tea). This is a migration cuisine, relaxed, that embraces snacking as much as meals.

A black, salty, fermented spread made from yeast extract recovered from beer brewing. Invented in 1922, it is THE taste that defines an Australian palate: deep umami, salty, slightly bitter. You spread it in a thin layer, never thick — the tourist's mistake. It's the gustatory DNA of Iggy's country.