Kaikoura

Before heading back home to London, I am taking a short visit to New Zealand (I am currently sitting in Wellington airport). Poor little New Zealand is very overshadowed by its giant Australian neighbour, and I'm not quite sure why! It is utterly beautiful, a pleasure to simply drive around, and the food has been very good.

First stop was Kiakoura on the east coast, famous for its whale watching and for its crayfish (Kia means food in Maori, and koura means crayfish). The crayfish are exported out of New Zealand under the name rock lobster, and they do look more like lobster than crayfish - very big, with bumpy heads, but with no claws.

We had initially tried what Lonely Planet claimed to be the best restaurant in town, but we found it had closed down (which also happened to Nelson later on in the trip - which made us wonder whether Lonely Planet actually destroys rather than builds restaurants in NZ). But the ex-owner pointed us to Green Dolphin on the seafront instead, which had crayfish as their special that night, so of course we had to try it.



It appeared to have been steamed in riesling (the local Marlborough riesling is lurvely), and then quickly roasted and finished with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We were munching every last morsel - the tail tastes pretty much like lobster, but I liked in particular the bit joining the head where you get more of a combination of white and brown meat. The brains, as I like to call it, was very moreish. We were a little piggy though, we really didn't need to eat a whole one, especially as they are not cheap!

Kaikoura in general had great seafood. A great little place is Kaikoura BBQ. Ideally situated right by the seal colony, it is a simple hut by the beach with a bbq, and some very fresh seafood, all for under NZ$10 (about £4 right now with the favourable exchange rates!). We had bbq'ed green lipped mussels, fish, and my favourite, some crayfish fritters (kind of like a crayfish omelette). As you can see, we ate it in a bit of a hurry:


Just before we left Kaikoura, we dropped into Hislops Cafe, which sounded a little bit too wholesome in the guidebook, but I was pleasantly surprised with. The lunch menu was a bit limited, but it did have a "designer" fish burger on it. Sounds terrible, but it was really pretty good, with their own homemade tartare sauce, and very nice homemade bread.

Overall, Kaikoura was probably our favourite place we visited in NZ - gorgeous coastline with snowy mountains in the background. Also a big shout to the folks at Fairways at Ocean Ridge, the apartments we stayed in - gorgeous place, will definitely try to be back!

Queensland

I knew nothing of Queensland before my arrival in Australia, except that people move there in Neighbours when they need a life-changing experience, much like how people in Eastenders move to Manchester. It turns out to be the Sunshine State, with the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world (!), and unsurprisingly, filled with tourist traps keen to capitalise on silly sun worshippers from Europe.

Therefore, finding a one-hat restaurant along the strip in Palm Cove was most unexpected, and turned out to be the place to eat in this little sunny village. Nu-nu certainly doesn't look that great from the outside, to the extent that Albert, Michelle and I had already dismissed it for lunch before we found out its pedigree; "just another tourist trap!" we thought, particularly given the inclusion of spring rolls on the menu.

However, for once, Asian fusion works, with quite simple yet interesting dishes done very well, and given that every other place along the strip charges $30+ for a badly cooked main course, not bad value either. (Apologies for the bad quality photos, my blackberry died and had to rely on Damo's battered one for the pics here):

To start, blue swimmer crab tortellini with a saffron broth - the pasta admittedly was a bit thick, but the crab filling was very ... erm... crabby, and for once I understood the point of saffron in a dish:

The plate was one of those way-too-big-for-the-food plates, one of those where you can't lean your cutlery anywhere without your knife dropping into the food - highly annoying. Never mind though, because I was super super impressed with the main course. The menu was so eclectic that it was very difficult to choose. I was initially tempted by "Mary's feast", lamb rack, brains and something else I can't remember, but on impulse changed my mind to the mussaman fish curry - sounds simple and uninspiring, but was delicious:

The spicing was just right, extremely fresh tasting, very aromatic. You can just about make out in the picture that there is some sort of salad on the left - a very clever salad at that, with young coconut, squid, pickled cucumber and Thai basil, gorgeous gorgeous.

A special mention goes to Damo's main of roast goat which gave me a bit of dinner envy, mainly due to the perfectly cooked rack which you can just about see:

Great evening all round - accompanied by some yummy Tassie gewurtztraminer!

Melbourne

Melbourne is really quite beautiful - it's such a shame that Sydney always steals the spotlight just because it has that Opera House. I had a wonderful time walking by the beautiful riverside, exploring the art museums, and having an eclectic weekend of food.

First off, I ate a lot of ice cream. I was kindly hosted by my cousin Sherman and his lovely fiancee Christine, and Christine has an impressive addiction to ice cream. The most interesting one we had was from Il Dolce Freddo in Carlton, obviously a favourite of the locals with people pouring out of the tiny entrance. Its specialty is durian gelato, which was as stinky and overpowering as I expected it to be!! (I figured out the other day that I only really don't eat about 4 things on this earth, and durian is one of those) But I enjoyed the pandan & coconut, and also the mango - makes me wonder how an Italian gelato shop came to make all these Asian flavours.

One curiosity that I discovered whilst getting lost through the streets of the city centre was Lord of the Fries, a fast food mini-chain with questionable motives. Its mission appears to be the first vegetarian and gluten-free chain specialising in chips/fries, the idea being that it cooks very good chips accompanied by a variety of gloopy sauces. Fake meat 'burgers' and 'chicken nuggets' are also on offer. I had the unfortunate impulse to try some of these nuggets, accompanied by their Belgian sauce (basically really thick mayo), which were incredibly greasy and cloying, although the few chips that sneaked in were pretty good. Food aside, I really disliked the idea of this place - why worry about being gluten free when you're stuffing your face with a ton of grease covered with more grease? Actually don't get me started on the modern "allergy" to gluten... :p

Slightly outside of Melbourne, we spent a day in the Yarra Valley, famous for its wineries and also above average eateries. I know very little about wine, only what I like to drink, and I concluded a long time ago that I don't like Australian whites. However, I do love Australian Shiraz, which is interesting given that I drink little red wine usually. The wineries are certainly not a cheap way to buy wine (pretty much the same prices as you would get in the city), but I did discover sparkling Shiraz, which I could happily quaff away on a lazy afternoon in the sun.

Last but not least, my final day in Melbourne coincided with the Chinese Midautumn Festival, so obviously we had to do a Chinese dinner. I can't quite remember where we went, but it was in the Vietnamese area in the west side of the city (given that I was leaving from Avalon airport, which is certainly not part of Melbourne!!). My favourite dish was snowpea shoots (豆苗, possibly my favourite Chinese vegetable) with salted and century egg:

Also had braised pork belly with tofu (pretty good, but as you can probably see, the pork was very fatty:

Accompanied by a steamed bass and a plate of barbeque meats, it made four dishes - sorry mum that it is not a lucky number of dishes, but they were enormous!

In the desert

I had the most amazing time in Ayers Rock/Uluru this weekend - thank god I didn't take the advice of everyone who said it wasn't worth going there! However many times you've seen the big old rock in postcards, in Lonely Planets, it is still incredible to see it right up in front of you. The best bit was seeing it in the pitch black, this enormous hunk of dark.

But anyway, this is a food blog. As you would expect in such a touristy place in literally the middle of nowhere, the choices are pretty limited, and the prices rather high. I stayed at at a hostel which modelled itself on a 1860's outback lodge, which included a self-cook barbeque area in the evenings accompanied by cheesy live "entertainment". When I first arrived, I stuck with the simple option, and opted for an "full outback burger":



From the top - cheese, fried egg, onions, bacon, beefburger, pineapple, beetroot, tomato, lettuce. Phew! And surprisingly good! I must say that pineapple really has no place in a burger, but I was completely converted to the beetroot. Having said that, this year (thanks to Abel & Cole) has been the year where I've discovered beetroot, a shame it looks like you've murdered someone in your kitchen whenever you try to cook it.

My hostel place also offered an "Australiana" buffet promising "authentic outback tucker", so how could I resist? It was certainly an experience, but at $47 per person, not sure one I would recommend:

On my count, 9 different animals died for this plate of food: squid, crocodile, mussels, prawns, emu, camel, kangaroo, barramundi, and the humble chicken - and for once I understand why the more unusual animals are not eaten more widely in the world! The smoked kangeroo was really very good (I am a definite convert, sorry Skips), but everything else was really pretty nasty, particularly the emu sausage. But then it was probably my fault in thinking that overcooked meat from a buffet would ever taste good.

This weekend for once wasn't about the food though. Best meal of the weekend was probably the 4 Nice biscuits I scoffed with my cup of tea, watching the sunrise hit the rock...