OVERSEAS
Australia
Travel journal from Australia, with 11 notes on the places I ate, the dishes I cooked and the sights: Fernvale and the Somerset Region, Bacon and eggs with the owner's fresh eggs, Barbecued kangaroo steak, Bottletree Hotel.
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 11
Journeys
01
Cook the local flavors once more
Dishes made in borrowed kitchens, and how each one connects to the land.
Somerset Region, Queensland
Bacon and eggs with the owner's fresh eggs
Eggs fresh from the farm owner's hens, fried in an iron pan alongside bacon.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
Barbecued kangaroo steak
Kangaroo from the town butcher, grilled on the barbecue in the yard.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
02
A little of each town’s story
Sights, specialties and how the towns came to be: small cultural notes beside each journey.
Somerset Region, Queensland
Fernvale and the Somerset Region
Fernvale is a town in the Somerset Region, about 61 kilometres west of central Brisbane, with a population of 3,629 at the 2021 census.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
The Australian meat pie
A hand-sized pie of minced or diced meat in gravy, baked in pastry.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
Lamington
Squares of sponge or butter cake dipped in chocolate sauce and rolled in coconut.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
XXXX and Great Northern, the beers of Queensland
XXXX is the beer of Castlemaine Perkins, a brewery founded in Brisbane in 1878; the XXXX brand dates from 1924 and is still brewed at Milton in Brisbane.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
Vegemite
A thick, dark brown spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with vegetable and spice additives: salty, slightly bitter and malty.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
The Ned Kelly wanted poster
On the veranda wall hung a poster reading "WANTED NED KELLY £2000." Ned Kelly (1854-1880) was one of the last of Australia's bushrangers.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
03
Places we stopped along the way
What we ate and bought, with shop details checked against published listings.
Somerset Region, Queensland
Bottletree Hotel
The pub of Glamorgan Vale, the locality next to Fernvale.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
Old Fernvale Bakery & Cafe
A bakery and licensed cafe with big red signs on Fernvale's main street.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Somerset Region, Queensland
Fernvale Butchery
A red-roofed weatherboard butcher on Fernvale's main road, with a "Last Country Killed BEEF" sign out front.
From: Borrowing a small house in the Australian countryside
Other places in Overseas
Overseas
Cebu
Mactan Island and Lapu-Lapu City, Vaño Beach, Longsilog
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 14
Overseas
Hualien
Pine Garden (松園別館), Dongdamen Night Market and Indigenous Street, Breakfast of purple waxy corn and Taiwanese sweet potato
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 13
Overseas
Hsinchu
Dongmen Market, Hsinchu City God Temple, Hsinchu Station
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 10