My son Reid had to work in Sydney, Australia, so at the end of his work week, he had planned to take a few days off so he could show me around and meet up with some of his fellow workers.
Australia is a very cosmopolitan country as there were diverse places to dine. The first night we ate at a Szechuan restaurant with Eric, Reid’s boss. We dined on boiled chicken feet with chile peppers, wood ear mushrooms with chile peppers, soup with pork won tun, Australian barramundi, or Asian sea bass done Chinese style.
The next day we took a flight to Brisbane and arrived in time for lunch. The food court had a variety of ethnic food and I opted for a salad with calamari and dory fish while Reid had a Thai pork rice bowl. We walked around our hotel and I saw a sushi, Taiwanese, Indian, hot pot, Italian and an Irish pub restaurant walking distance from our hotel. We opted for Thai food and ordered green papaya salad, cashew chicken, pad Thai, chicken yellow curry with sticky rice.
Brisbane is surrounded by waterways, but there is no swimming as there are sharks and crocodiles and someone had just gotten bitten by a shark a few days ago. In the mornings I would go walking for an hour along the bike and running path along the water. There are so many people on the path, either running or biking.
Brisbane is called the Las Vegas of Australia as there was a newly built casino walking distance from our hotel.
Reid’s coworker, Simone, took us to Felon’s Restaurant, situated along the water. I ordered the sea bass with a salad. Felon’s is part of a brewery.
Back in Sydney, we ate at a Malaysian restaurant and I ordered Hainanese chicken with rice and okra with pork.
We walked to the Sydney Opera House where they are setting up for a promotional performance of the cast of the movie “Wicked.” Lunch was Hong Kong noodles with crispy chicken with sweet chili sauce.
The final night in Sydney was dinner with two associates of Reid’s who met us at an Italian restaurant called La Bufala, which got written up in Broadstreet Food &Wine. “Every morning La Bufala’s “pizzaiola” kneads, stretches, separates hundreds of pizza dough balls. They’re not going to use them that same evening. All of these dough pizza babies will need to ferment for at least 36 hours. Look, it’s double the price, this flour and it’s difficult to manage, you need to be ready all the time” says Nicholas Sottile, La Bufala’s owner. Why do they go to this much effort, you ask.
They’re determined to use a healthier unrefined flour with a natural yeast (lievito madre). While many of Sydney’s more passionate artisan pizziolos use ultra-refined, the easiest one to use, La Bufala uses a stone ground, less refined flour called San Felice, (a type one flour).
So I asked Simone, Ben and Jade what they considered the foods of their country. Interestingly, if they were at home and having a asked gathering, it would be a “barbie” or barbecue. Ben and Jade took me to the Woolworth’s, a grocery store with all kinds of goodies and walked me down the aisles to pick out the Australian foods. Vegemite is eaten for breakfast on toast which has been buttered first. I actually enjoy it on my toast.
Vegemite is made of brewer’s yeast, a by-product of beer production and vegetable extract. It is rather salty but is said to have vitamin B, including niacin, thiamine and riboflavin. It is not sold in the United States because the Food and Drug Administration does not allow the import of Vegemite, simply because the recipe does have the addition of folic acid.
Ben said all Aussies must drink Milo (pronounced “my-low’). It is mixed in with hot or cold milk. It is made of malt barley, rice, milk solids, sugar, cocoa, and minerals such as calcium and iron.
But Milo has some controversy in Japan and Malaysia. Too much Milo has been blamed for the obesity in Malaysia. In Japan, it is popular malt drink that was out of stock for awhile after people heard that it gives you more energy.
Non-food note:
On your flight back from Sydney to Los Angeles, we sat in Business Class with some of the cast from the movie ‘Wicked’ while Ariana Grande sat in First Class. So when we got back to Hilo, we had to go to see the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait for part 2.
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808@gmail.com.