Melbourne, Australia’s, Food Scene Is a Buffet of the World’s Best Cuisines
Everything is so different in Australia. Christmas falls in the middle of summer, and colorful or strange animals are seemingly everywhere. As for culinary tastes, we might assume that Aussies “throw another shrimp on the barbie” and call it dinner, but that’s wildly inaccurate.
In Melbourne especially, when it comes to coffee, food and wine, the attitude is less larrikin (Down Under term that means “rowdy” or “hooligan”) and more connoisseur. You’ll find long lines outside hole-in-the-wall coffee shops or even convenience stores because Melburnians will happily wait for their fix, making Starbucks strictly for tourists.
The flat white (espresso with steamed milk) became popular in Australia in the 1980s, long after it became a favorite among Italian immigrants to the Land Down Under.
Brothers Leo and Vildo Pellegrini, said to have bought one of the first espresso machines to Australia, opened Pellegrini’s, a neon-lit coffee bar, in 1954.
Grab a stool at the bar and ask what’s on the menu (it’s not always listed on the chalk sign) or sit in the back opposite the blackened, flaming gas oven that keeps pasta and sauce on the simmer.
The city grew in population a century earlier, during the gold rush of the 1850s to 1860s. At its peak, the Treasury Building was accepting two tons a week, and the city earned the nickname “Marvelous Melbourne.”
You can explore the Central Business District, or CBD, the oldest part of the city, by foot or on one of the city’s many trams (photo at top). Melbourne, which has one the largest tram networks in the world and a free-to-ride zone in the CBD, saves time and feet. Take the historic No. 35 yellow and green “rattler” tram, which does a continual circuit that gives you a sense of the area.
So much in Melbourne to choose from
Melbourne is a mélange of people from Asia and the South Pacific who now call Melbourne home and have given rise to Chinatown and Koreatown. You’ll also find high-end sushi, and colorful stores blasting K-Pop and selling goods sweet and frozen, thanks partly to Melbourne’s large international student community.
Recommendations from locals are my pots of gold and have led me to such places as the Shark Fin Inn in Chinatown. Past the bubbling aquariums of lobsters and abalones at the entrance, you’ll find a small dim sum restaurant offering seemingly endless meat and vegetable options presented in steaming baskets on seemingly never-ending trolleys.
Asian food, traditional, modern and fusion, prevails, but it sometimes seems as though every country has a restaurant, or three, in the CBD.
If you’re looking for something comforting, the Meatball & Wine Bar on Flinders Lane is a frequent go-to, not just for the pork, beef, chicken, lamb, fish or veggie balls but also because its full-size front windows provide great people watching.
The French Brasserie, Grossi Florentino and Bar Lourinhã offer high-end European cuisine; Movida, a Spanish tapas place, is great for sharing. Cumulus on Flinders Lane, in the art and fashion district, is especially known for seafood, and Punch Lane is your choice if you’re after local lamb and duck. Taxi Kitchen is worth a visit, if only for the view of the CBD.
Thai cuisine is especially popular, available from the mural-filled Cookie on Swanston Street to food trucks parked outside museums or at the Queen Victoria Market.
Queen of the markets
The 17-acre Queen Vic, opened in 1878, has expanded considerably in the last few years. It showcases fruit and vegetables you probably won’t find at your local grocery. Among the huge outdoor sheds, you’ll find long lines for “American” doughnuts, a wide selection of pies and even Turkish Delight, a gel confection often flavored and sprinkled with fine sugar.
We also found vegetarian Ethiopian food and the eye-catching Twistto, a Korean spiral cut potato fried and placed on a stick.
In the Art Deco Dairy Hall, the many delis offer samples of honey, cheese, bread, olives, jams and more and in the adjoining Food Court, the family-run Chicken Pantry offers kangaroo, crocodile and emu, among many other meats.
Cows weren’t introduced to Australia until European settlement began in the 1780s. The land practices of Indigenous Australians, coupled with self-reliance and practicality, have long meant that native animals were eaten for their lean, protein-rich meat or dried as jerky.
Today they are farmed and sustainable meats, and the concept of farm-to-table is seemingly second nature to Australians, who proudly care about their environment and what it produces. You may run across a wallaby burger on a menu, but it’s worth trying.
Melbourne is also a great place if you have a sweet tooth because the diverse population here means candies from around the globe are ready to pick and mix. More traditionally, Cadbury’s chocolate is celebrating its 200th birthday. (Its first factory outside England was built in 1918 in Tasmania.) The company recently released a chocolate slice flavored with Lamington, an Australian vanilla cake with jam and sprinkled coconut pieces.
For gourmet chocolate, seek out Haigh’s, established in 1915. Its flagship in the CBD is off Collins Street, inside the Art Deco Block Arcade, one of several breathtaking arcades that feature domes, stained glass, mosaics, marble friezes and stained-glass-like lead lighting.
Keep an eye out in the Arcades, the place to go for an afternoon tea, croissant, unique jewelry or eclectic fashions. If you see stairs, go explore: You may come across a basement that is home to the snug, welcoming Charles Dickens Tavern (also in the Block Arcade), or a small, traditional Indian restaurant such as Gourmet Curry Hut in the Hub Arcade.
Finally, seasoned travelers know that it’s hard to find a bad glass of wine, red, white or in between, in Melbourne, but seek out Arlechin, down an alley off Exhibition Street at Mornane Place, for a romantic cocktail.
Alternatively, even the ubiquitous Victorian-era pubs – called “hotels” because until the 1980s they needed rentable rooms to get a liquor license –offer excellent food and drink, regardless of the décor or number of screens showing Aussie sports.
British colonizers brought beer to Australia on the first fleet of convict ships that arrived Jan. 26, 1788, at Botany Bay but settled at what’s now Sydney Harbour on Jan. 26, 1788. Millions of Australians celebrate this annually as Australia Day, but whenever you are in Melbourne ask, for a pot (smallest), schooner or pint (largest) of the locally brewed Victoria Bitter.
Despite its name, it is, in fact, a lager. Everything is so different in Australia. Cheers, mate.