Google’s Year in Search report and Uber’s Cravings report have both revealed the big Australian food trends of 2022. While some results were entirely predictable (eg, chips were the most popular side), other findings ranged from the eyebrow-raising to the downright inexplicable. Let’s take a look at the scoreboard.

Inquiring minds

Home cooking might not be as big a thing now that lockdowns have happily faded into distant memory, but Aussies are still keen to get in the kitchen. This year, the most commonly searched-for recipe on Google was dahl, with drunken chicken, mashed potato, fish tacos and jaffles also all making it into the top 10. 

We’re also heartily sick of sourdough, with COVID’s biggest baking trend not even making it into the top 10 ‘how to cook’ Google searches. Instead, it seems we were all about trying new things. Case in point: the most popular ‘how to cook’ search this year was ‘how to cook tripe’, with ‘how to cook bunya nuts’ at number 3. 

The price of lettuce also had googlers agog, with ‘Why is lettuce so expensive?’ making it into the top 4 of ‘Why is…’ searches, which also included the unexpected ‘Why is plain yoghurt good for females?’ in the number two spot, just below ‘Why is Russia invading Ukraine?’ It’s good to see we’ve got our priorities in order. 

Takeaway trends

Moving on to Uber Eats, the bird was the word in 2022, with chicken burgers and chicken burritos making up half of all orders in the top 10 most popular orders list. 

When it came to our favourite cuisines, Asian was the most popular choice, with Indian leading the pack, ahead of Thai and Chinese. These were followed by Italian and Middle Eastern food. No surprises there, but what is perplexing is that while all these onion-forward cuisines made it into the top five, the most common item that was requested to be removed from Uber Eats orders nationwide was… onion. 

Breaking things down into locales, Melbourne was the fussiest capital, with Melburnians asking for no jalapenos, no prawns, no bean shoots, no spring onions, no ham and no barbecue sauce more than 50,000 times. 

Perth peeps were much more positive, adding extra mayo and crispy bacon (respect); while Sydneysiders were more likely to ask for their meal folded (?) or for extra chicken salt. 

Related story: We tried pilk, Lindsay Lohan’s Pepsi and milk drink – and it’s kinda fetch

Local legends

The highest percentage of healthy Uber Eats orders came from Byron Bay (natch), while the most polite customers hailed from Bairnsdale, Victoria – these lovely folk included a ‘please’ in more than a third of their orders. Compare this to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart, where only one in 10 customers said something polite in their order. Lift your game, city folk. 

Grocery trends

While our penchant for cooking tripe might indicate that the cost-of-living crisis was really starting to bite in 2022, our insatiable appetite for smashed avo clearly hasn’t waned, with the Hass avocado making into the top 3 grocery orders on Uber Eats. State-wise, South Australians craved croissants and Victorians had a thirst for milk, while in NSW, white bread was at the top of the shopping list. How vanilla. Over in WA, potatoes were the order of the day, while Queenslanders bought up big on bottled water. 

When it came to convenience, it seems we really didn’t have time to get to the supermarket much, with 2022 seeing an uptick in convenience store orders. But, curiouser and curiouser, one of the most common coupled orders from convenience stores was fabric softener and cucumber – a combination that makes Lindsay Lohan’s pilk sound quite pleasant in comparison. Other big convenience buys included doughnuts, ice cream and chocolate. 

Finally, booze. Beer is back, after it dropped out of favour during lockdown, with four beers in the top 10 alcohol orders in 2022. Meanwhile, Victorians were more likely to order vodka than VB, while NSW went for white wine. 

So there you have it. We’re a tripe-loving, onion-hating nation that enjoys a good chicken burger. Stay tuned for our next delicious. taste test, where I’ll make Mark Mariano drink a fabric softener and cucumber smoothie.

Related story: Matt Preston lifts the lid on the biggest food trends for 2022