FOOD SAFARI
QLD CUISINE
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Queensland on a plate
C L O C KW I S E FROM TOP LEFT
In the Sunshine State, you’ll get to taste some of the freshest ingredients in the world. Queensland prides itself on its seafood offerings. Visit Brisbane’s Eat Street Markets on Fridays and Saturdays from 4pm to 10pm. Dished at Indulge are created using freshly harvested local ingredients. A divine melt-inyour-mouth Nu Nu creation. Brisbane’s Jellyfish restaurant has riverfront views. Hanging planters emphasise the freshness of Nu Nu in Palm Cove. The Fish House is an award-winning establishment – and for good reason.
THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE DISCOVERING A DESTINATION BITE BY BITE – CULINARY ADVENTURES ARE THE GREATEST Words: Kerry Heaney
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service, all bundled with exceptional local and regional flavours. The warm, welcoming weather, blue skies and relaxed living that is the Queensland lifestyle is echoed by its dining scene. Here’s where you should go for the best grub… Photos © Ben Keating / Sass Studios, iStock, Facebook, Paul Beutel
If you think you know what to expect when it comes to dining in Queensland, think again. You’ll find casual dining and seriously edgy bistros and cafés as well as sophisticated food choices and friendly wait staff providing efficient
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FOOD SAFARI
QLD CUISINE
Try a Queensland icon
A good chef will tell you that it’s the quality of the produce, as much as their excellent and innovative cooking techniques, that makes a dish shine. With easy access to much of Australia’s best, many Queensland chefs let their ingredients do the talking. “Local produce is central to everything we do,” says Nick Holloway, chef and owner of Nu Nu Restaurant, Palm Cove. “Not only does it mean our food is fresher and in season, but we benefit by building close relationships with our suppliers. Using local produce gives our cuisine a time and a place geographically.”
W H E R E TO G E T T H E B E S T
Drawing from Bundaberg’s glorious food bowl, Indulge chef and owner Amanda Hinds packs powerful flavours onto the plate from the daily harvest that appears at her back door. Taking ‘growing your own’ one step further, The Waterline Restaurant at Keppel Bay Marina farms its own Banana Station cattle. Chef Cameron Matthews creates culinary masterpieces with produce grown in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and on site at The Long Apron in scenic Montville. Fresh and local is the focus on the sharing menu at Coast, Hervey Bay.
Breakfast – you beauty!
Gather with friends or family around large or small tables and enjoy sensational sausages at 2013 My Kitchen Rules winners’ EAT at Dan & Steph’s in Hervey Bay. Or opt for an Asian chicken omelette at Australia’s ‘best breakfast restaurant’ (a title awarded in 2014 at the Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering awards), South Townsville’s Jam Corner. In Brisbane, try The Gunshop Cafe, Shouk Cafe, Comfort At My Table, Anouk or Pearl Cafe. W H E R E TO G E T T H E B E S T
If a Nutella or salted caramel and pretzel cookie donut doesn’t do it for you, maybe the dippy eggs at The Paddock Bakery in Miami on the Gold Coast will. Part café, part retro museum, The Velo Project at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast offers organic ham and eggs and loads of local produce to purchase.
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Straight from the sea
Photo © Glen David Wilson
Eat local
Generations of Queenslanders can’t be wrong, and when a dish has stood the test of time on a restaurant menu, it’s for good reason. Which are the meals restaurateurs don’t dare take off their list? Bev Ruskey’s beef and shiraz pie at Spring Creek Mountain Cafe, Killarney, has been on the menu for 11 years, and her guests continue to say it’s the best pie they have ever eaten. Old-fashioned sticky date pudding has kept customers coming back for more for 17 years at Freestyle Cafe and Dessert Bar, Fortitude Valley, says owner Kellie-Ann Ashton. Philip Johnson’s simple mushrooms on toast have spent 20 years on the menu at e’cco bistro in Brisbane’s CBD. After all, who could resist thick olive toast with plump field mushrooms, rocket, parmesan, truffle oil and lemon? Salt and native pepper leaf prawn and crocodile has been packing a flavour punch at Craig Squire’s Ochre Restaurant in Cairns for 20 years. The grandaddy of them all is Il Centro’s sand crab lasagne, a rich dish that’s given an even bigger flavour boost thanks to the sea urchin roe in the creamy sauce. It’s been on the menu of this Brisbane CBD restaurant for 23 years.
C L O C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T
Plates from the sharing menu at Coast, Hervey Bay; Freestyle Tout’s sticky date pudding, adored by Fortitude Valley locals and visitors for 17 years; The Fish House restaurateur Simon Gloftis; Fat Frog Beach Cafe at Airlie Beach is dog-friendly.
Blessed with an expansive coastline dotted with local fisheries and a strong fishing fleet, Queensland has plenty of local flavours to tempt seafood lovers. Try Mooloolaba king prawns or sweet Hervey Bay scallops by the bucket, taste the clean ocean water in Stradbroke Island oysters or indulge in mud, sand or spanner crabs. Rebecca Clark of Fish D’vine in Airlie Beach says her restaurant buys what is required each day directly from local registered fishermen. W H E R E TO G E T T H E B E S T
For arguably the best dining view in Noosa, grab a coffee and muffin from the cart outside Sails Restaurant every morning and enjoy a brekkie on the beach. Try a sunflower rye bagel or a salted caramel donut with an artisan coffee at Ground Up Espresso Bar, Toowoomba. A favourite with locals, relaxed Fat Frog Beach Cafe at Airlie Beach features a water outlook, quirky tea cosies and food you’ll remember for all the right reasons. Discover an unusual coffee sensation, Kopi Luwak (cat poo coffee), at Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms near Townsville. Made from beans passed through the digestive system of the Asian palm civet, it retails for $50 a cup. The Chocolate Cottage and Cafe in Highfields, about 15 minutes north of Toowoomba, sells blueberry banoffee pancakes with butterscotch sauce and ice-cream, topped with toasted coconut.
You can still taste the ocean in the seafood served at The Fish House, Burleigh Heads, which made Gourmet Traveller’s 2014 ‘top 100 restaurants’ list. At Grunske’s by the River, Bundaberg, watch the boats
unload their catch while dining on freshly cooked fish and chips. Next door is one of the state’s largest retail seafood outlets. The Spit at Mooloolaba is where the trawlers come in and the fish and chips go out. Dine at the Mooloolaba Fish Market or take your dinner to the beach for a total seaside experience. Up to 14 species of fish feature on the menu at Brisbane’s Jellyfish Restaurant. Look for the freshly shucked oysters and crisp, tender salt and pepper calamari stands at Brisbane’s Eat Street Markets. When only sustainable will do, Swampdog Fish and Chips in South Brisbane has your needs covered. Head to On the Inlet in Port Douglas to feast on beerbattered, line-caught Spanish mackerel, served with a delightful caper mayonnaise.
Getting there
Visit your local Flight Centre for more advice on the best foodie finds in Queensland and the latest Queensland deals. Go to flightcentre.com.au or call 131 600 24 hours.
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