Weirdest food you can try in Australia (and where to find it)

Australia’s food reputation overseas usually starts and ends with brunch culture and Vegemite jokes, but the country’s actual food landscape is a lot stranger and more interesting than that. Between native bush ingredients that have been eaten for tens of thousands of years, genuinely odd regional specialties, and a few dishes that exist mostly to shock tourists, there’s a whole category of Australian food most visitors never encounter.

I’ve made a point of trying most of what’s on this list, sometimes reluctantly, and the results range from “genuinely delicious, why isn’t this more famous” to “I understand now why this stayed a local secret.” Both categories are worth knowing about before you land.

A quick note on the native ingredients section: a growing number of Australian restaurants now work directly with Aboriginal-owned food businesses and knowledge holders to source and prepare native ingredients respectfully. Where possible, seek those out rather than novelty tourist versions.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🐊 Crocodile is genuinely mild and mainstream now. Available at plenty of regular restaurants in the north, not just tourist traps.
• 🍯 Vegemite is a texture and salt experience, not a flavour bomb. Spread thin, always on buttered toast.
• 🦘 Kangaroo is lean, sustainable and widely available. A genuinely good red meat option, not a novelty.
• 🐛 Witchetty grubs are a real bush tucker staple. Traditionally eaten raw or lightly cooked, with a nutty flavour.
• 🍬 Fairy bread is a genuinely beloved kids’ party food. Buttered white bread covered in sprinkles, and every Australian has strong opinions about it.
• 🦪 Moreton Bay bugs aren’t actually insects. A small, sweet lobster relative found in Queensland waters.
• 🌰 Native ingredients are having a real culinary moment. Finger lime, wattleseed and saltbush are showing up on serious restaurant menus now.

🐊 Meats that surprise first-time visitors

Australia’s unusual wildlife inevitably shows up on menus, and a few of these have moved well past novelty status into genuine mainstream popularity.

1. Kangaroo. Lean, low-fat and sustainably harvested, kangaroo meat has a rich, slightly gamey flavour closer to venison than beef. It’s sold in ordinary supermarkets across the country, not just as a tourist novelty.
2. Crocodile. Farmed crocodile is common across the Northern Territory and Queensland, with a mild, slightly chewy white meat often compared to chicken or firm fish. It shows up in everything from pies to skewers at regional markets.
3. Emu. A darker, richer red meat than kangaroo, emu appears less often but is worth seeking out at farmers markets or specialty butchers, particularly in South Australia.
4. Camel. Central Australia has a genuine wild camel population, and camel meat occasionally shows up on outback menus as a lean, slightly sweet alternative to beef.

👉 Book an Outback Bush Tucker Experience on GetYourGuide →

🐛 Traditional bush tucker worth trying respectfully

Aboriginal Australians have eaten native bush foods for over 60,000 years, and a growing number of tour operators and restaurants now offer genuine, respectfully sourced access to these ingredients rather than gimmicky “extreme food” framing.

• 🐛 Witchetty grubs. A large, protein-rich larva traditionally found around witchetty bush roots. Eaten raw, the flavour is often described as nutty and slightly like scrambled egg; lightly cooked over coals, the outside crisps up almost like a tiny roasted chicken skin.
• 🌰 Wattleseed. Ground and roasted, wattleseed has a rich, coffee-and-chocolate flavour profile that’s increasingly used in native-inspired desserts and even coffee blends at specialty cafes.
• 🍋 Finger lime. Sometimes called “lime caviar” for its small, popping citrus pearls, finger lime has become a genuinely fashionable garnish on high-end Australian restaurant menus.
• 🌿 Saltbush. A hardy native plant with a naturally salty flavour, often used as a herb substitute in cooking, particularly with lamb and native meats.
• 🐜 Green ant. Found in parts of northern Australia, green ants have a sharp, distinctly citrusy taste and are traditionally eaten live or used to flavour drinks and dressings.

🙏 Finding these ingredients the right way

Seek out tours and restaurants that work directly with Aboriginal-owned businesses or employ Aboriginal guides and chefs, rather than generic operators using native ingredients purely as a gimmick. It makes for a genuinely richer experience and supports the right people.

🍞 Beloved (and divisive) everyday classics

Not everything strange about Australian food is exotic wildlife. Some of the most polarising dishes here are things Australians grew up with and genuinely love, despite how they sound on paper.

1. Vegemite on toast. A thick, salty, savoury yeast spread that visitors almost universally apply far too thickly on their first attempt. Spread it thin, on well-buttered toast, and it makes a lot more sense.
2. Fairy bread. White bread, margarine, and a generous layer of rainbow sprinkles, cut into triangles. A genuine kids’ birthday party staple that most Australian adults still have real affection for.
3. Chiko rolls. A deep-fried pastry roll filled with a cabbage-heavy, meat-adjacent filling, sold at almost every fish and chip shop and footy match. Not gourmet, but a genuine cultural institution.
4. Fairy floss on a stick at the Royal Show. Not unique to Australia, but the specific ritual of show-bag culture and fairy floss at agricultural shows is a distinctly Australian childhood memory.
5. Lamingtons. Sponge cake cubes coated in chocolate icing and desiccated coconut. Simple, but genuinely a national obsession, with entire bakeries built around perfecting the ratio.

🦞 Seafood that isn’t quite what it sounds like

Australian seafood naming gets confusing fast, and a few “weird-sounding” items are actually some of the best eating in the country.

• 🦞 Moreton Bay bugs. Despite the name, these are a small, sweet crustacean related to lobster, not an insect. Best simply grilled with butter, and a genuine Queensland specialty.
• 🦑 Balmain bugs. A close cousin of the Moreton Bay bug, common in New South Wales waters, with a similarly sweet, delicate flesh.
• 🐟 Barramundi. A large, mild-flavoured native fish that’s become one of Australia’s most popular restaurant fish, particularly across the tropical north.
• 🦪 Sydney rock oysters. A distinct native oyster species with a more intense, briny flavour than Pacific oysters, and a genuine point of pride among New South Wales oyster farmers.

👉 Book a Cairns Food and Market Tour on GetYourGuide →

🍽️ Where to actually try this food

A few practical starting points if you want to work through this list rather than stumbling on it by accident.

1. Regional and farmers markets. Kangaroo, emu and native ingredient products show up regularly at farmers markets across the country, often from small producers happy to talk you through how to cook them.
2. Aboriginal-guided bush tucker tours. The most respectful and genuinely educational way to try witchetty grubs, green ants and other traditional foods, usually available around Uluru, Kakadu and parts of Far North Queensland.
3. Native ingredient-focused restaurants. A growing number of higher-end restaurants in major cities now build entire menus around native Australian ingredients, offering a more refined way to try these flavours.
4. Suburban fish and chip shops. The single best place to try a Chiko roll or genuinely good fried seafood, and a proper slice of everyday Australian food culture rather than a tourist-oriented version.

Whatever you end up trying, go in with genuine curiosity rather than treating it as a dare. Most of what’s on this list has a real, sensible reason for existing, whether that’s tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal food knowledge or a genuinely practical, sustainable protein source. The “weird” framing says more about outside perception than the food itself.