Luke & Olivia in Oz: The Food (this one’s for you, dad!)

If you’ve visited Australia, you know … the cuisine here is just fantastic. Fresh seafood, strong coffee, beautiful fruit and “veg," yummy “bikkies” (biscuits, or cookies), flavorful “snags” (sausages) and full-fat everything. We’ve had more than our share of “chips” (French fries) and Luke has been eating fried calimari (squid) almost every day; believe it or not, it’s a staple on the kid’s menu!

One of the true joys of traveling to different countries is to take a stroll down the grocery aisle. I love supermarket tourism. In our first week at Manly Beach we had a kitchen, so cooked meals at least once a day. We had to take a bus to the “shops," so we were grocery shopping almost every day as well. We felt like locals as we picked out our items. I had a joyous reunion with my old friend Arnott’s, maker of all flavors of cookies and crackers (can you believe they now have 6 versions of Tim Tams?!!).

We’ve visited a fair share of seafood shops. Last night we found a place across from our hotel on the Sunshine Coast called Pete’s Seafood. They lay out the fresh fish and shellfish on ice-filled tables; you select what you want for your meal and they will cook it for you. Luke, of course, had calamari rings. Olivia likes to work for her food and she’s learned how to properly approach a prawn. “Head, tail, legs, peel!” After our meal, we walked to the water where a fishing trawler was unloading the catch. We were amazed as hundreds of Mahi Mahi averaging 4 ft. long were unloaded into a waiting van.

We’ve just stopped for petrol and I’m reminded of the bad side of the Australian food scene. Diet coke is $3 a can, beer is $15 for a six-pack, eggs are $6 a dozen and a bottle of water was $9 in our hotel room.

Our favorite meals so far:

- Rick – burger with fried egg and beetroot

- Lisa – salmon with salad nicoise

- Olivia – prawns and fried calamari

L Luke - cocoa puffs