Hey friends of yummraj, this is not a review. This is a short culinary travelogue of YUMMRAJ’s visit to Melbourne and Adelaide , Australia………… Experiences in Australia as seen thru the eyes of an inquisitive indian

I do not remember seeing this in india or for that matter in some other countries I have been travelling so far – Wine from a tap. Yes, beer from a tap is common world wide but wine from a tap was new to me. Seen at Melbourne.

Melbourne has few nice river cruises. The ground floor is like a restaurant with glass windows on all sides. First floor has all side open seating , with an option to cover up the walls with transparent plastic.

They have set menu options that need to b ordered in advance and the same is served aboard. The food on the boat is usually good but not excellent. Fresh ingredients were used.

In Australia Mc Donald is called macca’s. Not just in colloquial usage but it is written on the signboard!!!!!

In Australia Burger King global chain applied for permission and found someone else already has that name. Do they had to settle for a new name ‘hungry jack’ !!!! National bird of Australia is Emu & National animal is Kangaroo. Australians eat the meat of both…..Needless to say, I too got excited to try these – Ended up having ‘Jerky’ – Dried spiced meat, similar looks as Aam papad. Tried Kangaroo meat in 2 flavors – Regular & spicy. The regular one was full of flavours of meat & tasted very good. On a relative scale Kangaroo meat jerky was a bit chewy.

The spicy one has an edge but here the flavors of spices and hotness of chilly interfered with the flavor of meat. Loved this too.

The emu meat jerky was a bit less chewy but again flavorful & tasty. The most exciting stuff was crocodile meat jerky…. ah ha ha..

Interesting read on back of the cover –

We went to an Asian restaurant in Melbourne and found this very interesting spicy-meter on the menu card.

At Melbourne cricket ground there was a mammoth mobile Volvo truck that was actually a merchandise selling store. While many of u had heard about food trucks , this one was selling World Cup merchandise

Near the truck was a Indian food stall named Auto Rickshaw – speedy Indian street food:)

Australia produces some very nice wines. Many of them have quirky / funny names

Both in Melbourne and Adelaide we found cycle rickshaws. Needless to say they look much sturdier and funkier.

I was told college kids also drive these for pocket money. Supposedly initiative by green peace. Had a lovely experience at cleland conservation park.

Just calling out the things that I found different from zoos / natural parks in India.

Kangaroos of all sizes were in open spaces and visitors cud interact with them. The national park shop was selling animal food that one cud feed the Kangaroos

We came across many birds of different shapes and sizes, freely roaming around, coming in front of us …

There was an aviary section too for smaller birds that fly all the time. In india we stand outside the netted cage and peep in. In this national park we cud enter the cage and see them from near.

I saw an animal named echidnas – they called it living fossil coz it is a mammal that lays eggs. It has a beak and has spikes like porcupine.

The koala section was very interesting. Once again there was an option to lift the koala and get clicked with it.

It was one of my best national park experiences so far. I have not seen so many birds together in Bharatpur bird sanctuary Also.

Post this we went for a wine tasting session at a vineyard that was more than a century old. It had a restaurant that served outstanding food.

At the d’arenberg restaurant we had churros that were not sweet – salty churros with a lovely sauce, goat curd and a mouthwatering salad.

We additionally ordered salmon on a toast with caviar garnish. As each ball of caviar wud burst in the mouth, I wud close my eyes in total enjoyment.

We also had lamb shoulder that was awesome. Soft, juicy, flavours of good meat – in short, YUMM.

Wine tasting session happened in a shed that was once a stable. The hosts explained the different kinds of wines, what was the differences, how each was made and why they were different.

They gave us a black ‘k’ shaped vessel to pour back the excess drops of wine left out in the glass ( so that those do not interfere with the new glass).

Had dinner in another restaurant by the sea in the evening. What is worth mentioning is ‘mushroom cubes’ – layers of mushroom made into a cube shape ( half the size of a brick), cooked with herbs and served – an instant hit with not only the vegetarians in the group but also the hardcore carnivores.

Must mention that I was blown away by the trams. They were in all shapes and sizes and miscellaneous antiquities.

While there were single coach ‘ made of wood’ trams from earlier days, there were double coach , triple coach and also quadruple coach trams. They were fast and comfortable. A localite told me trams were faster in peak traffic hours. Hope someone is listening, at KolkatA tramways.

Interiors of these trams were as good as delhi metro. Overall lovely trip with lots of new experiences that I cud not resist sharing ……