Oh the FOOD!!!

Breakfast at The Tower Lodge…



SallyK asked about the food here. Oh my, I figured it would be easy to be careful here but not so! Our breakfasts or brekkies (yikes, spelling may be off) as it is called here are included in our packages at the first 3 hotels. Now each hotel is more like a scaled up B&B so I am not sure if breakfast is standard fare for Australians or standard fare for tourists. We have what all of the hotels are calling a full Australian hot breakfast which included the continental buffet and a hot dish. We’ve had familiar fruits such as kiwi, strawberries, grapes but we’ve also tried stone melon ( tastes like cantaloupe), passion fruit (tart with seeds that just seem to go down before you know it), and pawpaw which reminds me a bit of papaya Thinly sliced meats and smoked salmon are almost always out along with European type cheeses and an assortment of delightful pastries that I attempt to ignore. Cereals and yougart are always on the sideboard and some cereals are standard but I have tried something called Wheatbix which is a biscuit of cereal somewhat like Shredded Wheat. Muselix is almost always served and I believe it is a mixture of yougart, granola and fruit. This is my favorite dish. We’ve ordered hot dishes like Eggs Benedict, eggs, bacon, toast, porridge, crepes and Josh’s favorite smoked salmon is served in many different ways. The bacon looks a bit like Canadian bacon but in strips and the eggs look like free range with beautiful deep orange yolks. Coffee is often served plunger style…that’s a French press... and the milk can be trim milk or full milk with cream. Now the most interesting food I’ve tried is the vegemite. I still don’t understand this food but I was advised to put butter on toast and place a few dots of vegemite. Oh dear…it is unusual but I do not have any description for the flavor. I’ve given it 2 tries but both times I spread the vegemite before I was told to dot it so I will give it one more try.

Pumpkin soup is big here now and I had a try the other day. It was served with a damper which was a large roll…large enough to share with Kip and Josh. Fish and chips seems to be a favorite here along with meat pies and smashed peas.

We’ve only eaten dinner a few times. Once we’ve had the huge breakfasts, we’re not hungry until late afternoon so we sort of miss the lunch and dinner hours. We did have meat pies, smashed peas and mashed potatoes at one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. Dinner in the Blue Mountains was one of those fancy places and we had pork with pork belly, barramundi(fish) and beef cheeks. Kip’s desert was decadent and Josh had cheese for his desert.

We are in Hunter Valley now and they not only have grapes , but they also grow olives and citrus. I saw some pumpkins in one of the wine shops and they were green with a slight tinge of orange. The inside is bright orange and is used for the pumpkin soup.

Pastry shops abound and I look and drool. The bread can not be resisted! I’ve seen several small butcher shops but Woolworth’s or Cole’s seems to be the major places to shop for foods. Funny to see Woolworth’s again and I wonder if it has anything to do with the 5 & 10 stores of my youth.

Oh my…this is my longest post yet. Just goes to show that food is one of my top priorities!!