Unlike in America where a lot of food options are Americanized, Australian restaurants stick to authentic cuisines. As a result, I have had the opportunity to try a lot of different foods here.
Prior to coming I was a very picky eater. I always preferred things plainer than most and I never really liked seafood. When I came here, I tried to step out my comfort zone and take the food as it came without making any adjustments to the preset item. Since here I’ve tried Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Balinese, Indian, and seafood.
My personal favorite has been Balinese food. They give a nice variety of things within each meal. I tried Nasi Goreng and Ayam Goreng, which is similar to a vegetable fried rice or noodles with chicken (Ayam has chicken), egg, and prawn crackers (which are actually really good). I had the opportunity to go to Bali (which is a must visit for everyone) during one of my breaks and the food in the Australian Balinese restaurant was the same as the places I went to in Bali.
Since in Australia, I have tried a lot of different Acai bowls; my favorite has been bowls with dragon fruit as the base. Dragon fruit is an exotic tropical fruit that is sweet and refreshing.
There are also a lot of different seafood restaurants here. Fish and chips is a staple meal here given the vast amount of ocean waters. I have grown to love calamari here. Interestingly, here I have only had these long pieces of calamari, compared to the circular pieces that are served back in America, and the serving is much larger.
Popular Australian foods consist of meat pies, Lamingtons, Tim-Tams, kangaroo, schnitzel, Vegemite, fairy bread, and sizzles. My reviews:
- Tim-tams are amazing, chocolate covered biscuits
- Meat pies are actually really good, they taste like a beef patty back in America, except with more dough around the beef
- Lamingtons are pieces of chocolate cake with coconut, which I love anything with coconut
- Schnitzel is similar to a breaded piece of chicken back in America; they often make it “parmigiano” which is when they add cheese, sauce, and ham to it
- Sausage sizzle is the bbq staple that is like a hot dog, except with sausage, which is pretty good
- Vegemite (I don’t particularly like) is a bitter dark spread they put on scones and bread
- Fairy bread is really good, it is basically just a lot of sprinkles on a buttered piece of bread
- Kangaroo, I have not tried, but I have been told a lot of different views on it, you either hate it or love it, it is a tougher meat