Macquarie Dictionary

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To cheeseslaw or not to cheeseslaw?

In a nation divided over sausage sandwiches and sausage sizzles, potato scallops and potato cakes, and parmie and parma, it is refreshing to come across a new undiscovered Aussie food icon.

We are always looking for new words and encourage you to suggest words and meanings you think should be entered into the Macquarie Dictionary by suggesting them to our editors. Last month, we were thrilled to discover a local resident of Broken Hill had suggested cheeseslaw.

A sandwich filling common in Broken Hill – grated carrot, grated cheese and possibly mayonnaise with some herbs/ onion. Can be toasted. Broken Hillites are proud of this contribution to gastronomy but mostly shunned by others once tried.

We of course, did some investigation and found cheeseslaw (or cheese slaw) as found in Broken Hill and other parts of Australia, to be something of a hidden, and valued, gem.

Every region of Australia has some language which is particular to it and it’s always a pleasant discovery for the editors at Macquarie Dictionary to come across such a term. The Macquarie Dictionary’s role is to record language which is in use. The term cheeseslaw, comprising grated carrot, grated cheese, and mayonnaise, has been in frequent use in, and around, the Broken Hill area for a very long time. For this reason, we believe it’s time we share it with the rest of the country.

cheese slaw  noun
1. coleslaw with grated cheese. 
2. Broken Hill a salad of grated carrot, grated cheese, and mayonnaise. 

Also, cheeseslaw.

[modelled on COLESLAW]

We would love to hear more local cuisines for consideration as entries. We also encourage you to explore our Australian Word Map for a plethora of community-sourced words and definitions unique to Australian English.

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