Those who know me know how much I love to eat weird and interesting foods. Being in a new country naturally means that I have to try everything. From Korean groceries to "roo" from the butcher to carny food, I'm trying it all! Here are some of my favorite finds so far.
Sausage Fest
Aussies love their BBQs. Within the first week of school there were at least fifteen "barbies" held all over campus to promote academic departments, advertise clubs, and reassure the poor college kids that free food still exists in the world.
Typical BBQ food usually refers to a variety of snags (sausages) eaten on a slice of bread with tomato sauce (their version of ketchup), and veggie burgers. I was fortunate to find sliders at one BBQ, and that was a rare and exciting find. But for the most part, my friends and I lived on free snags for a week - which holds the record for the longest running sausage fest of my life.
Here's a picture of Elle, my roommate, modeling with her sausage. This is not suggestive.
Street Sushi
Those of you who know me well know that I love sushi to a disgusting degree and that I am very picky when it comes to the quality of my sushi. Here, sushi is rarely rolled in front of you but that does not mean it isn't fresh. Sushi here is dirt cheap and among the best quality I've had. This is a photo of some of the best sushi I've found (Sea Salt on Lygon Street). I bought one inari overflowing with crabmeat, caviar, and rice for $2.00 (on left) and one eel roll filled with a generous serving of avocado and veggies for $2.60 (on right). Just two pieces tend to be deceptively filling, and suffice as a standard meal. Behind my rolls, you can see that soysauce comes in tiny squirt bottles shaped like fish so you can squirt your soysauce before each bite if you're eating sushi on the go!
The Korean Twister
(Sounds dirty)
Found at the Suzuki night market, the Korean Twister is a whole potato cut into a spiral and deep fried on a stick. Sounds perfect as is, but it gets better. See all of those plates on the table with different colored powder? These are your flavors. The Korean Twister can be sweet, salty, or savory depending on which flavor you choose. They have everything from salt to curry to chocolate. I got chicken salt flavored. It tasted like chicken soup french fries. $5 death on a stick. So delicious.
Brunetti's
(The Mike's Pastry of Melbourne)
I had heard about Brunetti's from all of my Australia friends before finally giving it a go out of peer pressure more than anything else. Who said peer pressure was a bad thing? Following everyone's advice was the best decision I could have made. There were so many delicious pastries to try - I felt like a kid in Willy Wonka's factory. I decided to get a couple of small things before making a commitment to one big pastry. It was a great idea. For $2 each, I got a chocolate and nut filled cannoli type thing and a sugar encrusted creampuff. Total adds up to a $4 orgasm. Up top, you can see a free chocolate sample they were giving out. It was a dark chocolate shell filled with passion fruit. Best day ever.
Honorable Mentions
(a.k.a. things I don't have pictures of)
Roo Stew
I decided it would be a really good idea to cook some kangaroo fillets, and in order to learn how to cook them I made friends with the butcher. He said two minutes in a pan on each side and it will be cooked to perfection. And it was. But I didn't like it. Roo is super gamey. So I decided to drown it in curry and surround it with potatoes and onion. Which was good for a bit. And then I got sick of the roo. Elle finished it for me. I'm glad I tried it. Next on my list of Australian animals is emu!
Dutch Pancakes
Elle waited on a huge line at the Suzuki market to get these, and they were totally worth it. About the size of quarters, these sweet, fluffy pancakes tasted like bites of doughy funnel cake. They were covered in chocolate, powdered sugar, whipped cream and came with a scoop of ice cream! Incredible.
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