A Chinese restaurant in Lismore advertises that it serves Australian and Chinese food. The Australian menu contains small items, like chicken and chips. It’s notable that a Chinese restaurant accomodates ‘Australian’ food, perhaps to provide food that locals and tourists are familiar with in a small, regional town. This got me thinking about race, culture and multiculturalism. What is considered ‘Australian’ food?

Diverse foods by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represent a unique set of national cuisine. Most other Australian cuisine is a local twist of migrant dishes, including Chinese restaurants in Australia, which often serve distinct dishes that differ from traditinal and modern meals common across China.

This example of ‘Australian’ food in a Chinese-Australian restaurant recalls what Australian sociologists Zlatko Skrbis and Ian Woodward might call cosmopolitanism (picking and choosing parts of other cultures without full acceptance), as opposed to multiculturalism (embracing difference). In this sense, food is an important marker of ethnicity, belonging and otherness.