My dad and I had an amazing opportunity to go to Australia for my dad’s work. Of course while we were there we wouldn't just be doing work, we would also be eating our way through Melbourne and Sydney; the two cities we would be visiting. Let's start off with Melbourne. Melbourne is best known for its coffee and its food so of course in my mind it was the best city to go on this trip.
When we got to Australia we started our food adventure off right away. We made our way from the Melbourne airport to the Queen Victoria’s Market. Keep in mind that we just got off the plane and we had been through two days of flying with really terrible airplane food, so we needed some good food. Lucky for us we got some boreks right when we got to the market.
A borek is a turkish bread that is stuffed with meat, cheese, and/or vegetables. I got the spinach and feta borek while my dad got the lamb borek. The bread which was the outer part of the borek, was almost like a flat bread and if you have ever been to Cosi, it is like that kind of bread. On the inside there was feta and spinach and it was amazing. The feta was all melted with butter dripping out if it and the spinach was cooked to perfection. The only thing that wasn’t good about it was that I didn’t have a second one.
The next place we went to was a breakfast place called Lune and it sold croissants. It wasn’t just your plain croissant or your chocolate croissant they had a whole variety of flavors. There were a lot of different kinds of croissants, but we settled on three plus a hot chocolate that we shared. We got a yuzu flavored croissant, an almond flavored croissant, and lastly a kwan aman. Lune was a cute little cafe but it had a very big line. The first croissant we had was the Kouign Amann. It was a croissant, but it was coated in sugar and twisted to look like two spirals. It was the best croissant I have ever had it was so crispy on the outside, but it wasn’t burnt and it had a nice brown color. It made that satisfying crunch sound when you cut it with a knife. The next one we had was the yuzu croissant. It had a yuzu jam with a vanilla pudding inside as well. A yuzu is a citrus fruit that is sour but also kind of sweet as well. I thought that the crispiness of the croissant and the sweet and sourness of the yuzu jam really complimented each other. The almond croissant was next. It was very crispy on the outside and had a sweet thick almond paste in the middle it wasn’t overly sweet, but it also wasn’t super nutty at the same time. I also though the sliced almonds on the top of the croissant were good they gave an extra crunch they were also arranged in a pretty pattern. Unlike American hot chocolate this one was not sweet at all. It was just hot chocolate with no sweetners and it was just like hot chocolate should be; chocolate not sugar.
The next few days my dad and I were at the first event he was working so we didn’t go to a lot of places at that time. After the event we had two days to explore Melbourne and I know this might sound as if I am over exaggerating but those two days were some of the best eating days I have ever had.
The first restaurant we went to was called The Kettle Black and we went there for breakfast. The whole place had a very nice vibe to it. From our hot chocolate experience at Lune we decided to get hot chocolate again and we also ordered an indigenous tea that was recommended by our waitress. The hot chocolate was of course delicious and after all of that amazing hot chocolate I found it a little hard to come back to the overly sweet hot chocolate here. The next drink we had was the indigenous tea. The tea was a mix of peppermint and eucalyptus. It came out clear so it looked like it was just plain hot water but when you actually tasted it the tea was so refreshing and calming it was nothing like any tea I had ever tasted my dad and I loved it so much we actually bought a little bottle of the leaves to take home.
For our actual breakfast we got ricotta pancakes and chili oil crab eggs on top of sourdough toast. Let’s start off with the pancakes. We actually had to order the pancakes right away because they take a little longer than everything else, but it is extremely worth it. The dish was one humongous pancake, it was topped with maple butter, purple sugar, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, flowers, and had blueberries on the inside. I am sorry if I am making your mouths water but mine is watering as well even thinking about it. We rubbed the maple butter all over the pancake so it could soak up that maple buttery goodness. Then, we dug in and we destroyed that pancake until was nothing left at the end except the flowers and some crumbs. The mix of the creamy maple butter, fresh fruit, and crunchy nuts was amazing. All of the textures and flavors went hand-in-hand perfectly. All of the ingredients were super fresh and the pancake itself was extremely fluffy from the ricotta. Next, were the eggs, to be completely honest I was not on board with the eggs at first because I like more of the sweeter breakfast foods in the morning. These eggs were the best eggs I have ever had and that is saying a lot because as I said I don’t really love eggs. These eggs were really spicy from the chili oil and extremely soft. I didn’t really taste the crab, but the eggs on top of the sourdough bread were awesome. You got the spicy, sour, and salty of the dish and the crunchy, soft textures. Overall it was an amazing breakfast.
After we had breakfast we met up with our friends Lindsay and Anthony and we did some sightseeing and then Anthony dropped us off at our next food stop. It was at a very famous restaurant named Chin Chin. We got really lucky because usually Chin Chin is super packed, but we got to walk right into the restaurant and get a table. Even though we got a table the entire restaurant was still extremely crowded, but it had amazing style. Near the kitchen there was a humongous pink bunny that lit up and it brought a lot of style to the restaurant. From Chin Chin we got three dishes. Beef and noodles, string beans, and lamb. We felt like we had to get lamb because we were in Australia which is known as one of the best places to eat lamb. The first dish was the beef and noodle dish. The beef was bursting with flavors, and the noodles were shorter than normal noodles and they were super soft and a little slippery. They were more like rice cakes. The next dish, the string beans, was my favorite. They were tossed in a chili oil and the oil brought so much flavor and depth to the dish. I think chili oil is my new favorite ingredient, it was good in everything. The last dish was the lamb. I have never been the biggest fan of lamb, I would always try it, but it never was something that I favored. This lamb was super tender and it wasn’t really gamey. The whole dish was very powerful and had a humongous punch of flavour. It was overall an amazing meal that filled us up for our adventures until dinner.
For dinner we went to a restaurant named Tonka. It was an Indian fusion restaurant and it was located in a little alleyway kind of tucked in, but this place was hopping. Just like at Chin Chin, we got the last available table. We really lucked out that day! We sat at an elevated table with elevated chairs, the kind of chairs you would see by a bar. We had a lot of food at Tonka, but overall there were two dishes that stood out to me the most. The first was a crispy pastry shell and inside were curried vegetables served with a little glass of aromatic water. The waiter told us to pour the water into the shell and pop it into our mouths for the best possible experience. We poured the water into the shell and popped it into our mouths. For me there was a little technical difficulty because the shell was a little too big and I didn’t have enough room to chew, but I figured it out and it was amazing. You got the spiciness from the vegetables, the crunchiness of the pastry, and the taste of the aromatic water went perfectly with the dish. The next dish was definitely my favorite of the dishes we got at Tonka. It was a lamb curry with jasmine rice and naan. The lamb was so tender and the curry gave it bursts of flavor and when I was done the curry had soaked the rice and of course I dipped the naan in the curry. Just like at Chin Chin, the lamb wasn’t super gamey, but it still had nice flavour. Out of all of the restaurants we went to Tonka was definitely my favorite.
After everything we ate that day we decided to grab some dessert before going back to our hotel. We went to a place called Om Nom and we were there for one thing. The Dessert Cigar!! It was a completely edible cigar that was made of chocolate had a chocolate filling, and you dipped it into raspberry jam and chocolate ashes. They served it to you in a wooden box and the smoke that came out of it was rosemary smoke. The raspberry and the chocolate ashes balanced each other out because the rasberry was sweet and kind of sour and the chocolate ashes were bitter. The actual cigar was amazing. It was a chocolate shell filled with a chocolate mousse.
The next day we got ready to leave for Sydney, but we needed to bring food onto the plane and what better to bring than macarons and sushi. We got the macarons from a famous pastry chef in Australia, Zumbo. He is super famous and his bakery was named Zumbo. We got the salted caramel and the cookies & cream macaron. The macaron was crunchy and chewy and the fillings were both super smooth. I usually don’t have macarons that often, but these two were definitely one of the better ones. In Australia they have sushi stands on the streets it is basically fast-food sushi. There is a display glass of whole sushi rolls not cut up and just the entire roll, and you pick the ones you want. They put it into a plastic container for you and BAM you have sushi.
Next up was Sydney!
When we got to Australia we started our food adventure off right away. We made our way from the Melbourne airport to the Queen Victoria’s Market. Keep in mind that we just got off the plane and we had been through two days of flying with really terrible airplane food, so we needed some good food. Lucky for us we got some boreks right when we got to the market.
A borek is a turkish bread that is stuffed with meat, cheese, and/or vegetables. I got the spinach and feta borek while my dad got the lamb borek. The bread which was the outer part of the borek, was almost like a flat bread and if you have ever been to Cosi, it is like that kind of bread. On the inside there was feta and spinach and it was amazing. The feta was all melted with butter dripping out if it and the spinach was cooked to perfection. The only thing that wasn’t good about it was that I didn’t have a second one.
The next place we went to was a breakfast place called Lune and it sold croissants. It wasn’t just your plain croissant or your chocolate croissant they had a whole variety of flavors. There were a lot of different kinds of croissants, but we settled on three plus a hot chocolate that we shared. We got a yuzu flavored croissant, an almond flavored croissant, and lastly a kwan aman. Lune was a cute little cafe but it had a very big line. The first croissant we had was the Kouign Amann. It was a croissant, but it was coated in sugar and twisted to look like two spirals. It was the best croissant I have ever had it was so crispy on the outside, but it wasn’t burnt and it had a nice brown color. It made that satisfying crunch sound when you cut it with a knife. The next one we had was the yuzu croissant. It had a yuzu jam with a vanilla pudding inside as well. A yuzu is a citrus fruit that is sour but also kind of sweet as well. I thought that the crispiness of the croissant and the sweet and sourness of the yuzu jam really complimented each other. The almond croissant was next. It was very crispy on the outside and had a sweet thick almond paste in the middle it wasn’t overly sweet, but it also wasn’t super nutty at the same time. I also though the sliced almonds on the top of the croissant were good they gave an extra crunch they were also arranged in a pretty pattern. Unlike American hot chocolate this one was not sweet at all. It was just hot chocolate with no sweetners and it was just like hot chocolate should be; chocolate not sugar.
The next few days my dad and I were at the first event he was working so we didn’t go to a lot of places at that time. After the event we had two days to explore Melbourne and I know this might sound as if I am over exaggerating but those two days were some of the best eating days I have ever had.
The first restaurant we went to was called The Kettle Black and we went there for breakfast. The whole place had a very nice vibe to it. From our hot chocolate experience at Lune we decided to get hot chocolate again and we also ordered an indigenous tea that was recommended by our waitress. The hot chocolate was of course delicious and after all of that amazing hot chocolate I found it a little hard to come back to the overly sweet hot chocolate here. The next drink we had was the indigenous tea. The tea was a mix of peppermint and eucalyptus. It came out clear so it looked like it was just plain hot water but when you actually tasted it the tea was so refreshing and calming it was nothing like any tea I had ever tasted my dad and I loved it so much we actually bought a little bottle of the leaves to take home.
For our actual breakfast we got ricotta pancakes and chili oil crab eggs on top of sourdough toast. Let’s start off with the pancakes. We actually had to order the pancakes right away because they take a little longer than everything else, but it is extremely worth it. The dish was one humongous pancake, it was topped with maple butter, purple sugar, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, flowers, and had blueberries on the inside. I am sorry if I am making your mouths water but mine is watering as well even thinking about it. We rubbed the maple butter all over the pancake so it could soak up that maple buttery goodness. Then, we dug in and we destroyed that pancake until was nothing left at the end except the flowers and some crumbs. The mix of the creamy maple butter, fresh fruit, and crunchy nuts was amazing. All of the textures and flavors went hand-in-hand perfectly. All of the ingredients were super fresh and the pancake itself was extremely fluffy from the ricotta. Next, were the eggs, to be completely honest I was not on board with the eggs at first because I like more of the sweeter breakfast foods in the morning. These eggs were the best eggs I have ever had and that is saying a lot because as I said I don’t really love eggs. These eggs were really spicy from the chili oil and extremely soft. I didn’t really taste the crab, but the eggs on top of the sourdough bread were awesome. You got the spicy, sour, and salty of the dish and the crunchy, soft textures. Overall it was an amazing breakfast.
After we had breakfast we met up with our friends Lindsay and Anthony and we did some sightseeing and then Anthony dropped us off at our next food stop. It was at a very famous restaurant named Chin Chin. We got really lucky because usually Chin Chin is super packed, but we got to walk right into the restaurant and get a table. Even though we got a table the entire restaurant was still extremely crowded, but it had amazing style. Near the kitchen there was a humongous pink bunny that lit up and it brought a lot of style to the restaurant. From Chin Chin we got three dishes. Beef and noodles, string beans, and lamb. We felt like we had to get lamb because we were in Australia which is known as one of the best places to eat lamb. The first dish was the beef and noodle dish. The beef was bursting with flavors, and the noodles were shorter than normal noodles and they were super soft and a little slippery. They were more like rice cakes. The next dish, the string beans, was my favorite. They were tossed in a chili oil and the oil brought so much flavor and depth to the dish. I think chili oil is my new favorite ingredient, it was good in everything. The last dish was the lamb. I have never been the biggest fan of lamb, I would always try it, but it never was something that I favored. This lamb was super tender and it wasn’t really gamey. The whole dish was very powerful and had a humongous punch of flavour. It was overall an amazing meal that filled us up for our adventures until dinner.
For dinner we went to a restaurant named Tonka. It was an Indian fusion restaurant and it was located in a little alleyway kind of tucked in, but this place was hopping. Just like at Chin Chin, we got the last available table. We really lucked out that day! We sat at an elevated table with elevated chairs, the kind of chairs you would see by a bar. We had a lot of food at Tonka, but overall there were two dishes that stood out to me the most. The first was a crispy pastry shell and inside were curried vegetables served with a little glass of aromatic water. The waiter told us to pour the water into the shell and pop it into our mouths for the best possible experience. We poured the water into the shell and popped it into our mouths. For me there was a little technical difficulty because the shell was a little too big and I didn’t have enough room to chew, but I figured it out and it was amazing. You got the spiciness from the vegetables, the crunchiness of the pastry, and the taste of the aromatic water went perfectly with the dish. The next dish was definitely my favorite of the dishes we got at Tonka. It was a lamb curry with jasmine rice and naan. The lamb was so tender and the curry gave it bursts of flavor and when I was done the curry had soaked the rice and of course I dipped the naan in the curry. Just like at Chin Chin, the lamb wasn’t super gamey, but it still had nice flavour. Out of all of the restaurants we went to Tonka was definitely my favorite.
After everything we ate that day we decided to grab some dessert before going back to our hotel. We went to a place called Om Nom and we were there for one thing. The Dessert Cigar!! It was a completely edible cigar that was made of chocolate had a chocolate filling, and you dipped it into raspberry jam and chocolate ashes. They served it to you in a wooden box and the smoke that came out of it was rosemary smoke. The raspberry and the chocolate ashes balanced each other out because the rasberry was sweet and kind of sour and the chocolate ashes were bitter. The actual cigar was amazing. It was a chocolate shell filled with a chocolate mousse.
The next day we got ready to leave for Sydney, but we needed to bring food onto the plane and what better to bring than macarons and sushi. We got the macarons from a famous pastry chef in Australia, Zumbo. He is super famous and his bakery was named Zumbo. We got the salted caramel and the cookies & cream macaron. The macaron was crunchy and chewy and the fillings were both super smooth. I usually don’t have macarons that often, but these two were definitely one of the better ones. In Australia they have sushi stands on the streets it is basically fast-food sushi. There is a display glass of whole sushi rolls not cut up and just the entire roll, and you pick the ones you want. They put it into a plastic container for you and BAM you have sushi.
Next up was Sydney!
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