Aussie Diaries: Food!

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to experience the food culture! I was interested in seeing exactly what "Australian" food was and to find new loves! Upon arrival, I asked my cousin-in-law what "Aussie" food was. He thought a little bit and said that there's a great steak restaurant called . . . Outback Steakhouse. *tires screeching to a halt* Excuse me?! Hahaha, for realz?! Outback? We didn't travel across the world to go to a place that's just down the street from us! We actually never came across one to check if their menu is the same . . . but yes, Outback Steakhouse is in 21 other countries (one of them being in Australia)! Too funny . . .

Sadly, Yelp (which I eat and die by) isn't available in Australia. Instead we turned to UrbanSpoon and Eatability for our foodie guidance, which isn't as good as Yelp, but as good as it gets. UrbanSpoon is a little bit more user-friendly. My cousin-in-law said that most Aussies just go to restaurants they happen across, then may check UrbanSpoon or Eatability, but don't really use it to base where they go to for food.

One of the first places we checked out was La Renaissance Cafe Patisserie, which is "famous" for their macarons. As soon as we saw the line outside the bakery, we knew it was going to be good! I experienced my first macaron in Paris and LOVED them! They're just so beautiful to look at (and to eat)! We tried the passionfruit milk chocolate ganache (fave!) and a marionberry one - they're quite pricey at $2.50 AU each.

Just down the street was another happening place called Lowenbrau, which is a German place. There we had their famous Schweinshaxn (aka pork knuckle) and a bowl of Klaus Goulaschsuppe (aka goulash soup). The pork knuckle was hearty (we only got the half portion) with a great crispy skin and really fresh sauerkraut. Pat kept commenting how good the sauerkraut was! The gouloush soup had a nice kick to it without being overwhelming! Lowenbrau set us back ~$40 AU, but as we quickly learned, EVERYTHING in Australia was pricey.

Aussies LOVE their meat pies (and I love food trucks) . . . so when you combine them, you get Harry's Cafe de Wheels! Well, it's actually not a food truck since it doesn't move, but it looks like one! Here we got their signature dish, Harry's Tiger which consists of a beef pie topped with mushy peas and mashed potatoes and gravy, a beef & curry pie, and their sausage roll. The "Tiger" was interesting - it's good and definitely something that you should try because it's so "unique". I'm just not used to mushy peas! The curry pie was a little too much curry for me and made it too spicy, especially since it was warm out. The sausage roll is super yummy!

Harry's Tiger Pie

So we totally gave up on the whole true Australian fare biz and just go with what's good! Mamak was rated pretty highly and when we got there, the long line was proof that it was going to be good. We went on a weekday evening and line was ~30 minutes for the 2 of us (always easier to just seat two). While you wait, you can watch them make roti, which is like Indian naan, only thinner. The service was pretty quick since they just want you to be in-and-out and the food came out really fast. We got the roti canai (original roti) that comes with curry dipping sauces (fresh and really tasty), Rojak (salad with shrimp crackers, tofu, and full-on sweet and tangy flavor - MUST HAVE), and Maggi roreng (stir fry ramen noodles). Nom nom nom . . . this place was so tasty and relatively cheap (~$30 AU for the meal), that we went back AGAIN a couple days later since we just happened to be in the area and saw that the line wasn't outrageous! Hahahah . . . this time we got the Kari ikan (fish curry which was filled with bones and so hard to eat) and Nasi lamak (which is the Malaysian "national" dish but is like a huge scoop of coconut rice with little mini appetizers next to it - i.e. anchovies, cucumbers, peanuts, egg, and we added curry chicken to make it more complete), and Teh ais (Malaysian milk tea which they swore is not like any other milk tea - actually, it just takes like Hong Kong milk tea!). This time we were disappointed with our meal and should've just stuck to what we knew was good! But we wanted to see if everything was tasty or just those few select dishes . . . now we know!

 Rojak Salad

 Maggi roreng

Roti

Mamak Visit #2 - Kari ikan and Nasi lamak

 

 

One of my favorite Asian dessert places was MeetFresh! Whenever we were in Chinatown, we always had to think twice about whether we should go there or try somewhere new! I loved it that much! I love Taiwanese desserts and this place made me miss Taiwan! There's always a crazy number of people in this store but employees are pretty fast and cranking these sweet lil' desserts out. I never quite know what to order because everything looks so good! We got the Taro Mania, which was their promotional item which consists of grass jelly, taro mochi balls, and tapioca balls. The second time we went, we got their classic herbal jelly which consists of grass jelly, taro mochi balls, and shaved ice. I don't know what other people get, but their bowls are always sooo full of red bean, chunks of taro, lotus seeds, etc. I want one that contains them all!

 Taro Mania!

 Crazy Asians and their desserts!

 

 

Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King - c'mon, if you're going to serve Whoppers here, you should just admit that you're really Burger King!) was a quick stop for us prior to heading off to do some sight-seeing. I wouldn't even bother noting them in this blog save for the fact that they have an Aussie burger! Hahaha . . . see if you can guess what's inside!

Aussie Burger = beef patty, cheese, ham, bacon, eggs, and BEETS!

 

 

We also went to an Italian restaurant to get some pizza with the family (sorry, can't remember the name of it) and came across the Australian pizza! When asked if they really do eat Australian pizza normally (and not just for our benefit), they said yes, that's what they normally order!

Australian pizza = bacon and egg topping

 

 

Another really hyped about cheap eats in Sydney is Chat Thai. Where Mamak has the organization to handle long lines, Chat Thai does not. The "queue" as they say in Australia, was about ~45min for two people but once they seat you, there's a considerable amount of wait time for service and food. I kept saying, hey, those people came in after us, why do they already have their food?! All that can be disregarded if the food is amazing. Upon the advice of our waiter, we got the Pu Nim Pad Pong Karee (soft shell crab curry) and the Nahm Dtok (grilled pork salad). The crab curry was definitely unique, although it presents almost like a dry curry since there was hardly any sauce to it! The salad was outrageously spicy. Our waiter asked if we can handle spicy (and we can), but never asked how much spice we wanted and this salad was highly unenjoyable. It was work just to eat it and we told him so. He was nice enough to remake the order for us, but this time, the salad wasn't spicy, but it was super salty. There were huge chunks of coarse sea salt in it that again made it hard to get down. Needless to say, we left most of the dish on the table. The worst part of the whole meal was that they charge $2.50 AU per person for rice! $5 for a bowl of rice?! Insane! I definitely don't think Chat Thai lives up to the hype - it's not anything special (I've had better in my hometown), some dishes being inedible, and not worth the money!

 Soft Shell Crab Curry & $5 Bowl of Rice

Even the Mango Sticky Rice couldn't save the meal!

 

 

The Surry Hills neighbourhood is really where you wine and dine. We traversed over there in search of good eats and came upon Cafe Ish. It's very unassuming and one could easily just walk right by it. It's a Japanese-Australian fusion fare and quite small but cozy inside. We got some free triffle (yogurt parfait courtesy of some coupons found at the Visitor's Center in The Rocks), crab omelette, crocodile, and the wattle macchiato (no idea what that is exactly, but they're known of this coffee). Everything was really good - the yogurt parfait isn't anything of note, but the soft shell crab omelette was unique and flavorful. The crocodile  was ok - we just got it just to try crocodile (which tastes like tough chicken) and anything that is deep fried will taste good, right?!

 Crocodile skewers with miso-like soup

Crab omelette

The #1 place to eat (according to UrbanSpoon) is the Bourke Street Bakery. I love French patisseries and this one is no expection. They're known more for their tarts and so that's exactly what we got! We tried their creme brulee tart (MAGIC) and the lemon curd tart. According to their menu, they actually have a lot of things to try, but maybe because we got there in the afternoon, our selection was more limited. They do have a cookbook if you ever want to try your hand at making one of their delectable treats! I know I'm going to give a shot at the creme brulee tart - soooo amazingly good!

While walking in Chinatown one day, we noticed a huge line forming in front of this cream puff counter and immediately we jumped in it - if there's a line, there's a reason, right?! Emperor's Garden Cake and Bakery serves traditional Asian baked goods (i.e. pineapple buns, bbq pork buns, etc), but they also have a window that sells cream puffs! The cream puffs were 4 for $1 and the line was a good 20 minute wait. In the end, I could've passed on the cream puffs - they were good, but not amazing to me!

  

Another tasty option to try out is Pancake on the Rocks. There are multiple locations, but we went to the original - the one located in The Rocks. We went for dinner and were a little skeptical since we didn't really feel like having breakfast for dinner, but we were pleasantly surprised! It was pretty busy and so the service was pretty slow. We had to hail down waiters to bring us water and to take our orders and such. We decided on a savory and a sweet pancake - Chicken & Mushroom Pancake and the Hot 'N Troppo. We should have had them bring out the dessert pancake later because as we were eating our savory pancake first, the ice cream on the second pancake was melting! =( Both selections were really tasty. I just wished we had more time to try them all!

While in Melbourne, our tour guide told us that a classic Aussie thing to do is to go to a pub and order a "Parm & Pot" - chicken parmesan and a pint of beer! So we set off to Young & Jackson per her recommendation to do so! And unfortunately, they didn't have that there! So instead, we spied that they had kangaroo on their menu and decided to be uber adventurous and try that instead. We got the rare cooked kangaroo salad and the Morton Bay bug and prawn spring rolls. They also have an amazing cider bar upstairs which is awesome since I HEART ciders! I tried the raspberry apple cider which was really tasty and very alcoholic! Anyways, back to the food - the kangaroo tastes very similiar to beef only smokier and the Morton Bay bugs tasted like shrimp, only squishier. We're like, are these like real bugs that crawl around? And the waitress was really sweet and was like, no, they're in the ocean but they don't look like bugs. Ah-ha . . . okay! They're both something that you can't get elsewhere, so it's always good to try it once!

Morton Bay Bug & prawn rolls

 Morton Bay Bugs

 Kangaroo Salad

So in conclusion, I've realized that there is no real "Aussie" food - they love their pubs, fish & chips, and if you want to go exotic, you can try kangaroo, crocodile, Morton Bay bugs, and emu. But there's actually a lot of different ethnic groups in Australia and thus a lot of food tend to be "fusion"!