Dateline Saturday 13th August - Food, Glorious, Food

For a country whose history is based on the forced shipping of convict labour, Australia has certainly come on, like its kangaroos, in leaps and bounds! From architectural icons such as the Sydney Opera House to the city's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with the world’s biggest gay pride parade, the country has long shed its colonial image and established its own identity, one demanding to be noticed on the world arena.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of food and drink. Australian wines have established a reputation that challenges the best that the "Old World" has to offer while the country's food is cutting edge - imaginative and inventive, these days drawing on the raw ingredients available as much as being a fusion melting-pot for the best that South East Asia has to offer. All this done in Aussie style, taking no prisoners! A couple of meals out this past week illustrated this perfectly.

The first was our return visit to the Surf Club at Woorim on Saturday. Jubbly had "Lamb Shanks Braised Overnight" (slow cooked overnight with braised winter vegetables, mash and roasted tomato reduction) while I elected to continue with the fish courses, this time with a Fisherman's Lunch (scallops in the half shell, salt and pepper squid, beer battered flathead and fresh king prawns with baby salad and tartare sauce). The club was rather busier than usual, it being the weekend and free tables were hard to find, although we were lucky in that respect. J had gone for two shanks, rather than one, but the portions were so generous, she could have done with a doggy bag, LOL. My meal was absolutely faultless, sheer perfection. Hardly surprising that the place was heaving, it deserves its success. Given the Aussie reputation for being brash and "in your face", this was skilfully understated - if you're that good, then you don't need to shout it out loud, your customers vote for you by putting their bums on your seats and ordering the food, which is what happens here. It's a real gem of a place, classy without being snobby. I love it!

We followed that up with a wander around Lions Park and then onto the beautiful beach. Lovely! And winter too, although you wouldn't know it!

The following day we made a proper visit to the Ettamogah Pub. I've previously described how I was bemused by the look of the place and the history behind it and the visit certainly didn't disappoint. I quote from the website:

"The original creator of the Ettamogah Pub was Ken Maynard who started drawing the Ettamogah Pub in 1959. It was made famous through his regular cartoons in The Australasian Post.

The Aussie World Ettamogah Pub was built in 1989 and the word "ettamogah" is Aboriginal for "place of good drink!" Now one of Queensland's leading tourist attractions it stands at an impressive 18m in height. It's a must to visit due to its quirky shape and caricature appearance. It was opened on 24th November 1989 with most of the furniture inside the pub built from trees cleared from the actual site.

There's a 1930 Chevy truck on top of the bright red roof of the Ettamogah Pub. In the cartoon the theory is the truck was washed up there in the floods of 1946 and none of the regulars could be bothered to get it down. There are also pictures of the cartoons hanging around the walls of the Pub along with other eclectic displays of everything Australian."

Can't say fairer than that! The whole place is wonderfully tongue in cheek and I adored the humour and fun surrounding the site, including the road signs on the roof! And the food was superb, too! We both had steaks, which were absolutely delicious and generous portions at that. Aussies have a reputation for not taking themselves too seriously and this place is a great example of that. If you're ever near the Sunshine Coast, this is a must-see!