I seem to be thinking a lot about Australia lately: From September 2011 to February 2012 I called it home and while there I was missing Canada, but being back here I’m now missing Australia.
Today as I write this, snow is forecast and it’s currently raining out, there’s a chill in the air, so maybe I’m just wishing I were somewhere nice and warm, after all it is summertime in the southern hemisphere.
As I sat in my office I began yearning for delicious items from Australia, like a flat white, which is a type of coffee people in Australia and New Zealand lay claim to having invented. Upon investigation it is a lot like a latte, but the milk is prepared in a slightly different way, luckily Michael Ellis knew how to make one over at Michael’s Coffee Shop and Bakery.
I next thing I missed was a meat pie. Now, other than being more closely related to British customs in my opinion than Canada and when I think of meat pies I think of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street when I think of meat pies which could turn you off of them… but, I’m not sure why a piping hot meat pie is considered a great Australian dish, however, although it’s considered a humble meal they are absolutely delicious.
Basically I love stew and a meat pie is essentially stew inside of a delicious, flaky pastry baked to perfection. In fact there are a wide variety of meat pies from beef to chicken to vegetable. While in Sydney my friend and I found ourselves stopping at this place called Pie Face. We had discovered pies were quite a popular meal for Aussies and decided we should check it out.
We not only ate there once, but subsequent times to taste the variety of pies they had, including an absolutely delicious butter chicken pie and the chunky steak pie… yes I was craving a meat pie badly enough I searched out the Pie Face menu online, so I could then search for a recipe in an attempt to create a meat pie at home here.
I’m thinking if I can get a flat white at Michael’s then maybe I should attempt to hint that they should begin making meat pies popular around here.
The beauty of the meat pies in Australia is that they’re a hand held size perfect for lunch. I’m a little disappointed our British ties didn’t bring a love of meat pies in Canada; after all they’re a deliciously warm handheld meal that would be perfect on a cold day… and let’s face it there’s a lot of cold days in Canada.
My absolute favourite ice cream is also found in Australia, it’s called a Golden Gaytime, and is absolutely amazing. It’s a toffee and vanilla ice-cream dipped in chocolate and wrapped in honeycomb biscuits and comes on a stick like a Fudgsicle does.
Come to think of it… it’s probably a good thing Canada doesn’t have them, I’d likely eat so many that I’d no longer care for them, but other than going back to visit family that lives there again, I think I need to go back for the food: fresh prawns, baked pumpkin, and fruit that you can smell just walking by it. You can literally smell the mangoes as you near the fruit section there… here I can’t even smell them if I hold one to my nose.
However, I definitely don’t miss the abundance of poisonous spiders, I was always scared I’d put on a shoe and die. I don’t miss having to watch out for numerous poisonous snakes. Nor do I miss helping my second cousin in her garden and looking at a spider the size of my fist while she tells me, “Oh that’s just a common garden spider.” Or when their cat, Louie, brought in things to play with like a baby huntsman spider the size of my fist, which we have to like because huntsman eat the small poisonous spiders… eeeeewwwww. That darn cat would also bring in snakes, lizards which he proceeded to cut off their tales, and grasshoppers as long as my finger.
But, the food… Delicious!