Our Best Eats – Australia and New Zealand

After six months of ordering every single meal off a menu - breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks – it was an enormous relief to finally be able to eat home cooked meals. Australia and New Zealand offered great backpacker hostels equipped with big kitchens and communal dining and chill-out spaces, which Asia had completely lacked. From day one, we were able to buy ingredients from proper supermarkets and cook our own food.

We rarely ate out as we often couldn't afford to, but when we did the food was generally pretty good. Like Britain, though, Australia doesn't really have a strong food identity of it's own, and instead everyone cooks and eats quite multiculturally. Supermarkets have a huge variety of spices and 'exotic' ingredients, and there are restaurants from every corner of the world.

Without a doubt, the best food we had was during the two work exchanges we did. It wasn't just that it was great to be eating home cooked food, the meals themselves were absolutely delicious, very varied, and made from home-grown produce.

So the list below of our best food experiences is a mixed bag. It included food we bought, food cooked for us, and food we cooked ourselves. I have to say, over the two months that we spent in this part of the world, we really ate very well!


Pie – Australia does good pie. It's different from the pie we get at home. Here, they eat it more as a snack food, something to grab on the go, and it has been designed with this in mind. The filling has lots of thick gravy that oozes out a bit when you take a bite, but not so much that it starts to escape the pie altogether. We had a lot of pie in Australia, and whether the pastry was thick and crisp or thinner and flaky, it was always delicious.

The best ones we had were at Tommo's Pies in Darwin (they do a great chilli steak pie, with big bits of chilli) and at the bakery in Glenreagh where we did our work exchange (Karl had steak and green peppercorn, I had cheese & bacon.Both brilliant). We also popped in to the renowned Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Sydney for one last pie experience before we moved on to New Zealand.

Fish & Chips – Almost as good as back home. In terms of the fish, it probably was better than home, actually. I had some good barramundi, with lovely soft, chunky white meat. Their chips aren't bad either, and they even have vinegar in their chippies! (Although they don't call them 'chippies' over there). You get a big wedge of lemon too, which is a great, posh addition.

Homemade paneer – Annie's homemade paneer is delicious, and I used some of it to make some spinach & panneer curry, which we ate with lentils and chappatis.

Masala dosas – Annie and I had a go at making our first ever batch of masala dosas, which were extremely successful.

Bundaberg Gingerbeer – The perfect drink to have with your pie. The same brand also does a tasty lemon & lime bitters drink.

Enjoying a few bottles of Bundaberg with lunch (pie!)

Strawberry cheesecake – Made by Annie, for Karl. Lucky bugger.

Campfire food – Delicious stews (one bean stew, one lamb stew), plus corn on the cob, and Lynney's fab spinach & cheese pie.

How awesome is this set up?

I definitely intend to have one in my garden when I'm grown up.

Apple turnovers – Hanks Bakery in Glenreagh does the best turnovers. Crisp and flaky pastry, big chunks of apple that still tasty slighty tart, loads of fresh whipped cream, and a generous dusting of icing sugar (enough to make you choke a bit if you accidently inhale a little before taking a bite).

Getting stuck in, no messing about

Burgers, Aussie-style – In Australia, apparently no burger is complete without a big slice of beetroot and an even bigger slice of tinned pineapple. The beetroot is pretty good, but not essential in my opinion. The pineapple on the other hand is incredible. We had them at Rick & Annie's, and also made them ourselves whilst camping at Woolgoolga.

Lamb chops – One of our first camping meals. BBQ'd lamb chops, served with a bean, feta, red onion and tomato salad. And a good squeeze of lemon.

ANZAC cookies – Australia, New Zealand Army Corps. These were made and sent to members of the army by their wives and girlfriends because they keep really well and taste fantastic. Maryanne (our second work exchange host) had a huge batch of them in her biscuit tin to eat with coffee twice a day. As well as some of the usual biscuit ingredients, they include oats and golden syrup which create a nice crunch.

Jan's homemade bread – Jan, at our second work exchange, makes bread from scratch every few days. Loads of different varieties, all delicious. While we were there, we had fruit bread, coconut & mango bread, and a yummy selection of buns flavoured with things like rosemary, garlic, olives, curry powder and rock salt.

Maryanne's dinners – Maryanne is a fantastic cook. While we were staying with her and Jan, we enjoyed her lasagne (with homemade pasta), risotto, mezze, pizza (with the base made by Jan) and quiche.

Passionfruit – Straight off the vine at Rick & Annie's. Greeny yellow on the outside, they looked a bit like crazy eggs. Inside they had britght orange flesh, really sweet and really tangy.

Mulberries – Considering the song (Here we go round the mulberry bush), you'd assume that these are a traditional British thing that are as easy to come by in the UK as blackberry bushes. But I'm sure I've never seen one, which is a shame because mulberries are delicious. Just as tasty as blackberries, if not better actually. Plus they're great for mulberry fights. The stains never come out.

There'll be a post on food in Chile soon, so keep an eye out! Xx