Spending a solid portion of my life in Saskatchewan, it may come as some surprise that I'm much--perhaps even leaps and bounds--more well-acquainted with Australian fare than the average Canadian. So, why is that? No, sadly I did not make the trek Down Under after high school to travel and work abroad, like many of my comrades did. No, I did not have an unhealthy obsession with Crocodile Dundee.

When I was younger, my parents had (and still have) very demanding jobs in the medical field. There's a lot of late nights, last minute emergency calls, not to mention (literally) blood, sweat and tears that goes along with working in a hospital. As such, they opted for a nanny to take care of my brother, sister and me while they did their jobs. When I got a little older and watched E.R. regularly, I regularly asked them if that's what the day-to-day at the hospital was like. They told me it was not.

Enter Deirdre Brown--a lovely woman fresh to the Saskatchewan landscape from Melbourne, Australia--into the Clapson family. Being two-and-a-half years old at the time, I couldn't quite grasp just how far away or how different that piece of the world was, but I would learn. I would learn while we ate. I would sit down for breakfast and try a salty, yeasty spread on crispy, buttered toast. I remember that bright yellow-labelled glass jar just sitting in the cupboard above the counter, waiting (and perhaps fermenting?) for one of us to get up the nerve to try it again and again, more for shock factor than anything else. As I got older, way older, and visited Australia in my late twenties, I discovered although the intense flavour and high levels of sodium may be off-putting for some, it certainly could serve as a reliable hangover breakfast. The tar-like Vegemite is undeniably unforgettable. Although 98 per cent of it is produced in, and stays in, Australia, the majority of the remaining 2 per cent is found in Canada, likely feeding the many Aussies we have exploring and working in our country from coast to coast.

Then there was the fairy bread: a magical combination of lightly-toasted white bread, butter and rainbow sprinkles. In Australia, these sprinkles are refered to "hundreds and thousands" which makes them sound hundreds and thousands times cooler than just regular old "sprinkles". Nonetheless, the combination tastes the same and is equally appealing to a child's sweet tooth, regardless of geographical location.

Of course, pavlova would pop up every once in a while, mainly in the warmer months when it could be served up with fresh berries after a backyard barbecue. And meat pies? Well, most people know that those are an Australian staple, but the real showstopper to the Clapson kids, 25 years or so ago, were lamingtons; little squares of cakey, chocolatey, coconuty magic that I think everyone should be able to experience at least once or twice, even one thousand times in their lives.