Food, Glorious Food!

I've decided to wrap up my blog posts of New Zealand and Australia with a series of food photos--a feast for your eyes!

Look at what we saw at a bakery in Melbourne!  The dog cakes were incredible!  And each cake comes with a chocolate dog bone.  How cute is that?  I wish I could have figured a way to bring one home for our grandsons.

Next are some of the delicious foods we enjoyed.

When we first arrived in New Zealand, my friend Vivien introduced us to the "flat white".  After a while, this became a habit for us either mid-morning or mid-afternoon.  Yum-yum.  Tom recently bought an espresso machine and is currently fine-tuning his technique for making flat whites at home.

On occasion, we would get a treat to have with our flat whites.  These are salted caramel macaroons.  Wow!!  They are incredible!  I saw them only once, at a cafe at the Botanical Garden in Melbourne.  Perhaps it's best I only saw them once because I think I could easily get addicted to them.  Yum-yum!!

Sometimes our meal included fruit or cheese.

Other times, we might indulge.

We had a food tour one day in Sydney.  When I first heard about it, I thought to myself, what a crazy idea of something to do.  I was in for quite a surprise.  The food tour consisted of five stops around the city at  iconic places.  This adventure was interesting and tasty.

We started with the P. R. Raineri Deli.  This Italian deli has been in operation by the same family for over 35 years and is very popular with the locals.  We got to taste olives, cheeses, olive oils and bread, and cured meats.

Next was the Sydney Fish Market.  This is the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.  Every day about 50 tons of seafood is auctioned to about 150 commercial buyers.  The auction floor, which opens very early each morning, was already closed, but we got to look in the large room. 

There were also many retail seafood shops and restaurants in the building.  We enjoyed a delicious catered lunch outside.  

Then it was time to clean our palates with some gelato at Messina Gelato.  This place was voted the "best gelato in Australia" by the Good Food Guide.  There were over 40 different flavors to choose from.  When I saw one with salted caramel, I looked no further.  I can't remember what Tom got, but it probably had chocolate and peanut butter.

Then we were off to Harry's Cafe de Wheels.  This place began as a simple pie cart in 1945.  On the walls are photos of many of the famous patrons.  The most famous dish is the Tiger Pie, so that is what we tried. Actually, I was already full after the deli, fish market, and gelato shop, so Tom got a tiger pie and I had a couple of bites of his.  A tiger pie is a meat pie with mushy peas, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

Out final stop was the Old Fitzroy Hotel.  In  the pub area, we tried three of  Australia's most popular beers.  (Foster's is not among the most popular beers in much of Australia but is mostly exported or brewed around the world for local consumption.)  Needless to say, after such a food tour, no one was very hungry that evening.

And so ends our trip to New Zealand and Australia.  Thank you for your lovely comments and helping me to re-live this incredible trip.

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with members of the Queen City Sampler Guild, my local guild.  In the morning, we'll be hearing a lecture by Joanne Lukacher on Norfolk samplers.  Joanne's name may sound familiar to many of you because she is the author of the wonderful book Imitation and Improvement--The Norfolk Sampler Tradition.  In the afternoon, we will have a stitch-in.  I hope to remember to take lots of photos to share with you next week.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with some time for stitching.