A NEW study of Australian eating habits has found that Asians go out to restaurants far more than any other group in this country, with people of Chinese background spending up to three times more on eating out than the average Australian family.
Top of the dining-out list are people from Hong Kong, Adelaide restaurateur and food sociologist Dr Michael Symons, has found.
Dr Symons, who has a Phd in sociology and runs a restaurant at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills called the Uraidla Aristologist, has released his findings in a new book called The Shared Table: Ideas For Australian Cuisine.
He used the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 1989 household expenditure survey (the latest figures - the survey is done every five years) to reach his conclusions.
He found people from Hong Kong spent up to A$34 (HK$180) a week per household eating out at restaurants, hotels and clubs, compared to A$10.94 spent by Australian-born people.
The next highest spenders were people from Malaysia at A$19.77, and China at A$6.70.
''It bears out what we all knew, that when you go to an Italian restaurant in Australia you don't see many Italians, but in Chinese restaurants you see a lot of Chinese,'' said Dr Symons, who interviewed migrants from many backgrounds to discover reasonsfor the differences.