Things to do - Food, Wine & Beer
The Great Australian Diet
Typical Australian Fare
Australians tend to eat a much bigger breakfast than their European counterparts (and a comparatively smaller lunch and dinner). Breakfast might include toast with jam or vegemite, cereal with milk, muesli, yoghurt, fresh fruit, fruit juice, and tea or coffee.
Lunch usually consists of sandwiches or salads. Most Australians (particularly working Australians) don’t eat a hot lunch. Instead they bring a lunch from home or buy something on the run.
Dinner tends to be the most adventurous meal for many Australians, with a wide range of foods being eaten all over the country. An old favourite is ‘meat and two’ (a piece of meat and two types of vegetables) but newer additions to the dining room table might include pasta, laksa, noodles, stir-fry, risotto, lasagna or grilled fish.
Traditional Foods
Although Australia’s food scene is becoming more exotic and innovative every day, there are still some old favourites that, it seems, will never fall out of fashion:
Vegemite: an extremely salty spread made out of yeast, which is popular on sandwiches and toast. Many people say it’s a taste you have to grow up with in order to like it.
Lamington: a type of cake. A square of sponge cake (sometimes with cream in the middle) is dipped in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. Absolutely delicious.
Anzac biscuit: a biscuit made from rolled oats, coconut and golden syrup. These biscuits were created during the First World War.
Pavlova: a type of dessert. A meringue base is filled with cream and fruit salad.
Sunday Roast: okay, so this is more of an event than an actual food product! The Sunday Roast is an Australian institution, consisting of meat (usually lamb) and roasted vegetables, potatoes and gravy. Although it’s never made much sense in summer, it’s a wonderful way to end the week and a tradition for many families.
Australian Cuisine
Australia is becoming increasingly well known for its excellent food. The innovative chefs that work in our best restaurants and the amazing quality of the ingredients that they use go some way towards this reputation, as does the huge scope for creative flavour that comes from having unique herbs, spices and animals, as well as a thriving multicultural community.
Eating Out in Australia: The Essentials
There are a few guidelines to remember when eating out in Australia:
BYO: ‘Bring Your Own’ basically means that you can buy a bottle of wine or beer and bring it to the restaurant yourself, rather than ordering from their wine menu. Corkage is charged per person, but it’s usually only a couple of dollars a head, making BYO a much cheaper option.
Smoking: Is no longer permitted inside Australian restaurants. Some restaurants that have outdoor seating may have a designated smoking area, so if you want to smoke you should ask to be seated in this area.
Tipping: Tipping is not required at Australian restaurants but it is good manners to tip 10% if the service has genuinely been excellent. Check the receipt, however, as some restaurants will include a service charge (particularly on weekends and public holidays) and this takes the place of the tip.
Cheap Eats
Just because Australia’s food is so delicious doesn’t mean it has to cost a fortune. In fact, some of Australia’s most iconic and widely loved food is cheap as chips. If you haven’t got heaps of money but you still want to eat well, don’t worry. Food is not costly and because the ingredients are so fresh and easy to find, its easy to make something delicious even in a hostel kitchen.
The best place to start (and probably the cheapest) is the supermarket. There are plenty of supermarkets which offer (thanks to Australia’s multiculturalism) a huge range of different foods. The fruit on offer is fresh and delicious, and thankfully, not too expensive.
Another potential goldmine for starving backpackers is the local bakery or delicatessen. Bread is cheap and if you’re only buying small quantities of meat, you can have a round of sandwiches for just a couple of dollars a head.
Meat pies are an Australian essential and the good news is that as cultural experiences go, this one won’t break the bank. You can get a meat pie from almost any takeaway shop and most bakeries sell them too. For under $3-4 (Australian) you’ll get a delicious flaky crust filled with hot meat and gravy. Don’t think too hard about what’s in it; just enjoy the experience.
If you’re feeding a few and it’s a beautiful day, you could head down to the nearest park or beach and fire up the barbecue. Meat from the butcher is good quality and not too expensive, and the most you’ll pay for the privilege of using the public barbecue is a couple of dollars. One Aussie classic you shouldn’t miss is the sausage sandwich: a piece of white bread, buttered, wrapped around a piping hot sausage, topped off with barbecued onions and lashings of tomato sauce. Yum.
If you really can’t be bothered cooking, head down to the beach for fish and chips. Most beaches have at least one place that sells this delicious, flaky, battered, salty meal. And if they don’t, they should!
If you’re after variety, try a food hall. They can be found in all big cities and shopping centres, and are an affordable place to get a good meal. A filling lunch (including a soft drink) will probably set you back about $10.
Multicultural food is not expensive either. Italian staples like pasta and pizza are everywhere, and both Melbourne and Sydney have more Thai restaurants than you can count. Unlike many European cities, Asian food is extremely cheap here because of the volume of immigration from Asia. For example, lunch for two in a no-nonsense city noodle bar will fill you up and leave you with change from a 20 dollar note.
Eating in a pub can also get you great value. The food is usually filling, fast and fresh, and (bonus!) often includes a free drink. If you’re after haute cuisine, maybe a counter lunch isn’t for you, but the basic options (such as shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, steak, lasagna and a vegetarian option) are delicious and affordable.
Learn To Cook Down Under
There are plenty of ways to get a feel for Australian food and cooking (such as eating it!) but one of the best has got to be a cooking school. There are plenty of schools offering tuition in all different styles of cooking, all of which will hopefully give any aspiring chefs a feel for Australian flavours.
Modern Australian Cuisine
Modern Australian Cuisine is a fairly general term that’s applied to, well, modern Australian cooking. What distinguishes Modern Australian food from traditional Australian food is the influence of the immigrant population. This influence is so great that Australian food is now, by turns, Asian, European, African, Middle Easter: pick a region and you’ll find traces of its flavours on the menu of at least one fancy restaurant.
Rural Retreats
Tucked away into some of Australia’s prettiest countryside are a smattering of gourmet retreats: holiday destinations designed around food. Usually gourmet retreats are run by food lovers and cater to small numbers of like minded people at a time. They tend to be found in the winegrowing regions of Australia.
Bush Tucker
What is it?
‘Bush Tucker’ is the name given to the traditional diet of Aboriginal Australians and consists of native plants, seeds, fish, animals and fruit. Despite the fact that it has been eaten by Aboriginal Australians for more than 50 000 years, it has only recently become more popular among the general population. It’s becoming much easier to find and traditional herbs and plants can now be seen on the menu at some of Australia’s trendiest eateries.
Where can I find it?
You can take a bush tucker tour, guided by Aboriginal people who can not only point out the various types of food, but also explain how they are prepared and their various uses. Many bush tucker foods can also be used for medicinal purposes.
Contemporary Australian cuisine has also been influenced in recent years by the inclusion of lemon aspen, bush tomatoes, Illawarra plums, lilli pillies (a type of berry) and muntari berries, kangaroo and emu meat.
Other, more exotic, types of bush tucker include witchetty (witjuti) grubs, a type of larvae which are found in trunks and roots of wattle trees; and bogong moths. The moths are roasted in a fire and then eaten like peanuts.
Wine
Australia is the sixth largest producer of wine in the world and one of the best, as seen by the results of many international competitions. Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most famous wine, has won over 50 gold medals.
The major wine-producing regions in Australia are:
- New South Wales – The Hunter Valley, Mudgee and the Riverina
- Western Australia – Margaret River and Swan Valley
- Victoria – the Goulburn Valley, the Grampians, the Mornington Peninsula, the Pyrenees, Rutherglen, and the Yarra Valley
- South Australia – the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, Padthaway and Riverland.
Australian wine is becoming increasingly popular not only overseas but in Australia itself. Many Australian consumers are choosing local wines over overseas wines due to their excellent flavour and general affordability. There are nearly 2000 wine producers in Australia, which means lots of variety.
Many of the major wine regions offer wine tours, which allow visitors to Australia to not only see the beautiful landscapes of some of Australia’s most fruitful regions, but also to sample the wines themselves.
Beer
Australia is a country of beer lovers and nowhere is this more apparent than at the pub or the bottle-shop, where the sheer range of varieties available is breathtaking. There are many large breweries, such as the Carlton or Tooheys breweries that produce very popular, mainstream varieties of beer; there are also many small boutique breweries that produce their own specialty beer. To sample Australian beer, head straight to the nearest pub and try out some different Australian beers such as Tooheys, Boag’s or Cooper’s. Another interesting way to get a good feel for Australian beer culture is by heading to a beer café. There are a number of them in both Sydney and Melbourne.
There are a few standard sizes of beer glasses in Australia, but confusingly they all go by different names depending on which state you’re in. To help you in your next shout (one’s turn to buy a round of drinks in a pub), we’ve put together a guide:
| Size | Called | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA |
| 200 ml | Beer | x | x | |||||
| Butcher | x | |||||||
| Glass | x | x | ||||||
| Seven / Seven Ounce | x | x | x | |||||
| 285 ml | Pot | x | x | x | ||||
| Schooner | x | |||||||
| Middy | x | x | ||||||
| Beer | x | |||||||
| Handle | x | |||||||
| Ten Ounce / Half Pint | x | |||||||
| 425 ml | Schooner | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Megapot | x | |||||||
| Three-Quarter Pint | x | |||||||
| Fifteen Ounce | x | |||||||
| 570 ml | Pint | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| 1140 ml | Jug | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Australian Fresh Food Markets
Australia is world-famous for its amazing fresh produce. Seafood is a big hit, along with traditional foods and spices. The best way to experience Australian cuisine is by visiting a fresh food market, where you’ll find the best ingredients without having to pay a fortune.
Mindil Beach Market
Held at Mindil Beach in Darwin (Northern Territory) each Thursday evening, this market is a great place to taste a variety of flavours. There are food stalls selling ready-prepared meals, and the beach is a great place for an impromptu picnic, particularly at sunset.
Adelaide Central Market
Leaning towards the more gourmet end of the spectrum, this market showcases amazing olive oils, bread, cheese, wine, and organic vegetables. It’s also a great place to sample the best of Australia’s multicultural food, with Asian food a specialty.
Good Living Growers Market
This market is held on the first Saturday of every month at Pyrmont in Sydney. It started in 1999 as a way for consumers to get the full story about their produce from the actual growers. With over 85 stalls, there’s something for everyone at this market.
Tasting Australia
This ten day celebration of all things food-related is held every two years in Adelaide. It showcases not only the best in food, but wines as well.
Sydney Fish Market
The famous Sydney Fish Market is one of the largest in the world – only Tokyo’s is larger. There’s a huge range of the freshest seafood available and it’s on every weekday morning. This market supplies nearly all of the best restaurants and retailers in Sydney, and is also a great place for individuals to come and pick up something fresh and fabulous for lunch. Some of the best picks include lobster, prawns and oysters, all of which are as fresh as you’ll find anywhere.
Queen Victoria Markets
Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Markets started out in 1859 as a livestock market, but have evolved into one of the best shopping experiences to be found in Australia. There is a huge range of stalls selling almost anything you can think of, including a wide range of food products and fresh produce.
Taste Cities
Appetizing Adelaide
Adelaide is one of the food capitals of Australia. With over 700 restaurants, there’s something to suit every one, and every budget.
- Rundle Street is the place to go for al fresco dining. There’s a wide range of choice: Italian, Greek, Japanese, Thai, Indian and Mexican food is all available. Most restaurants have open-air seating under large umbrellas, making it the perfect place for a relaxed lunch or dinner.
- Gouger Street, the home of the fresh food market, is where most leading chefs buy the ingredients for their daily specials. Alongside the seafood restaurants on this busy strip are Malaysian, Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese restaurants.
- Hutt, Melbourne & O’Connell Streets are ideal for brunch or coffee with friends. They’re less known for fancy restaurants than they are for laidback cafes with good hearty meals.
- Gleneg, Henley & Grange are beachside suburbs where you can go for a quick bite of fish and chips, a woodfired pizza or a cocktail at one of the slick bars in the area.
- King William Road, Unley Road, The Parade are all great destinations for a slightly more special meal out, with restaurants serving up high quality, delicious and fresh meals.
Beautiful Brisbane
In terms of food, visitors to Brisbane would be well advised to try some of the local specialties. Seafood is very popular (try Moreton Bay Bugs, prawns and barramundi), and the Rockhampton steak is out of this world. Fruit like bananas and mangoes, as well as macadamia nuts, are also culinary highlights of this city.
There are a number of fine dining restaurants in Brisbane’s city centre but they can be a bit pricey. For something a bit more cheap and cheerful, try neighbouring suburbs like Fortitude Valley, New Farm, West End, Petrie Terrace and Paddington.
Canberra Cuisine
There are a number of restaurants and eateries in the nation’s capital, and luckily they all tend to be found in the same general locations.
- Civic, in the city centre, has more restaurants than any other area in Canberra. There’s a huge range of diversity both in terms of eatery type and food type, with food courts and high-end restaurants serving all types of food.
- Kingston, Manuka and Griffith are good food districts where you’ll find more upmarket selections covering a wide range of food types, from Spanish tapas to Turkish meatballs and Atlantic salmon.
- Dickson is a small suburb that boasts an excellent strip of Asian eateries at good prices.
Delicious Darwin
If it’s cheap and cheerful options you’re after, you’d be best to start off in the transit centre arcade, where you’ll find plenty of good, hearty, fresh food to fill you up. Other options include the fresh food markets, quick and delicious cafe food, or the delights of Darwin’s top-shelf restaurants.
Down by the Wharf Precinct or Cullen Bay you’ll find great restaurants serving mouth-watering creations, all with the benefit of a harbour view.
Heavenly Hobart
Although the central business district has heaps of good options for a light lunch, some of the best restaurants and cafes are found closer to the water’s edge, where delicious fresh seafood is always on the menu, or in various historic precincts where you might find yourself savouring a hearty pub meal.
Mouth-watering Melbourne
Melbourne is renowned as the coffee centre of Australia. It’s not only coffee, but also great food, that makes this city a dream destination for would-be gourmands. Tucked into the city’s romantic alleyways are many tiny little ‘hole-in-the-wall’ eateries and cafés. Venture further out of the business district to Lygon street and you’ll discover a little slice of Italy, with not only restaurants, but gelato bars and delicatessens.
Palatable Perth
The city centre is where you’ll find plenty of fusion restaurants serving up creative food in beautifully appointed scenery. If tricked-up eateries aren’t your thing, try one of the many food courts, all serving up heaps of different varieties of food for reasonable prices.
Northbridge, one of Perth’s surrounding suburbs, is one of the best food districts in the area. It has the bonus of not just a large variety of foods, but also a large variety of price ranges, making it perfect for everyone.
Scrumptious Sydney
As Australia’s largest city, and one of the most diverse, there’s a huge range to choose from in Sydney, food-wise.
- Chinatown is the place to go for yum cha, noodles and dumplings. You can pay a lot or next to nothing, depending on where you go; but the food is more or less uniformly great; higher prices may indicate more attentive service or more up-to-date interior design in the restaurant.
- Surry Hills is known to some residents as ‘little Thailand’ because of the amount of Thai restaurants that are found there. Crown street is thai-food heaven; part of the fun is marveling at the names of the restaurants (think Thai-riffic and Thai-foon just to give you an example).
- Norton Street in Sydney’s inner west is Italian food central, with more trattorias, gelato shops and delicatessens than you can shake a stick at.
- The city centre also has a good range of different eateries. No matter what you’re looking for, be it an up-market restaurant, a food court or just a really great coffee place, you’re guaranteed to find it in the urban centre.