Wherever I travel in the world, I try local foods. My first day in Australia, I shopped at a “milk bar”, known as a general store, and bought Lamington Fingers and Timtams. After eating many of these treats, my final decision: I love dark chocolate Timtams! (As the woman on the grocery line said to me “You have to come to Australia for Timtams.” Well out of curiosity I discovered anyone can buy them on Amazon. Darn, my excuse to return to Australia is foiled!)

Hotels in Australia and New Zealand often have breakfast buffets. Not surprisingly, the hotels  here mostly cater to Asian and Polynesian people their more numerous guests. It made sense since they live so close to both Australia and New Zealand. When possible, I took advantage of made-to-order omelets, but in the bread area, one or two spreads may be found: Vegemite and Marmite. Vegemite an Australian product and Marmite a New Zealand product. They both have history about their arrival to the food world and are similar in ingredients: yeast extract, salt and malt extract … although Marmite has vegetable juice extract and not malt extract, from what I can understand. 

I truly should let you come to your own conclusion about these spreads. (FYI, they are available for sale on Amazon!) When home I toasted my bread, spread some butter on and then a thin layer of Vegemite. Next was the same process with Marmite. My final decision: no tastebuds of mine were happy with either! Don’t take my word for it since I know individuals who do like the spreads!

My “lollie” of choice as I travel the world is a Snickers bar. One town in New Zealand had no Snickers! Quite honestly, I could not believe it! But truth be told, I enjoyed various scones, croissant, tart and “meatpie” when wanting a second breakfast or morning snack.

Lunch was often fish and chips in Australia. I was truly tired of fried barramundi fish and steak fries, so in New Zealand the lamb meal or seafood chowder were a welcomed change. In Australia, “toasties”, ham and cheese was my choice for a lunch option. I discovered I liked ginger beer which is a non-alcoholic drink, slightly different than ginger ale. 

Dinner was often fried or grilled fish, lamb, prawns, NZ green-lipped mussels, fish and chips, salads with beetroot. I certainly don’t eat this way at home! Raw oysters were tried with some lemon, okay. I did eat kangaroo … isn’t this why we travel; medium-rare is the way to cook and serve this meat. It tasted like beef to me. Tasmanian-area of Australia had delicious pinot noir wines as did New Zealand. Many people enjoyed sauvignon blanc wine. For a few of us, dinner on our own was often at a good ole pub with grub and local beer! Australia’s James Squire pale ale okay. New Zealand’s Speight lager okay too, but Guinness is still my favorite! Oh memories of past travel in Ireland!

Desserts! I read about “Pavlova” and discovered it is often a holiday treat of strawberries, whipped cream and meringue. At our “home-hosted dinner” with a Māori family, we ate a Pavlova with passionfruit… light and delicious!

An advantage in visiting cosmopolitan cities, such as Melbourne, is eating dal and rice and drinking a mango lassi at a Nepali restaurant, enjoying a Japanese meal and biting into an Italian cannoli! I had sticky date pudding with caramel sauce while on this trip too … wow, that is sweet!

Our Australian group stopped at a hardware store, Bunnings, for a “sausage sizzle”. Fundraising groups often sell this item, but on election day in Australia it is free. There is mandatory voting in the country every 3 years and a sausage sizzle is available for free when you vote. It is a slice of bread with a barbecued or grilled sausage with grilled onions on it. Your choice of condiments: tomato sauce, mustard or BBQ sauce. The free sausage may be sizzling out as Australia continues discussion about requiring the civic duty to vote, but for now at least the sausage sizzle is a fundraising activity. (Did you notice, tomato sauce not catsup or ketchup.)

I’m home! Now I return to my usual eating habits, exercise routine, and savor the memories of foods eaten in Australia and New Zealand!

PS … I get no money from Amazon for mentioning they have Timtams, Vegemite and Marmite, just so you know! Go ahead; give those products a try and let me know what your tastebuds tell you!