The Top 10 ways to enjoy Australia like a gastronome

Visit a gin distillery inspired by Tasmania’s wild rivers and truffle-hunt with dogs called Simba and Nala. But not until you’ve sampled Adelaide’s thriving bar scene and swung by Kitchen by Mike’s new airport outpost: wining and dining in Australia this year is as dynamic as ever.

1. Check out Adelaide’s thriving small bar scene

Adelaide used to be the place where cool bars went to die. But no longer, because some of Australia’s best bars are now in the South Australian capital – you just have to know where to find them.

Maybe May Bar Cocktails Adelaide — Cute and intimate bar Maybe Mae will serve you great cocktails and great vibes all round.

We love cute-as-a-button bar Maybe Mae (15 Peel Street, Adelaide) for gorgeous cocktails and a Mad Men-in-Copenhagen interior.

Pink Moon Saloon is a lesson in refinement, with its steeply angled roof and walls squeezed into a laneway’s width, like Tokyo’s Shinjuku Golden Gai redefined for southern climes.

Stop in for a Rhubarb Iced Tea cocktail and consider yourself the embodiment of chic.

Mother Vine Adelaide Wine — Check out Adelaide’s ever growing bar scene, and grab a nice wine at Mother Vine.

Maybe a wine is what you’re after, though? No problem – head to Mother Vine for a huge variety of wines by the glass that are as lovingly selected as they are delicious.

2. Try Long Chim chef David Thompson’s top five dishes

Where: Long Chim; Perth, Sydney and Melbourne

Sydney-born David Thompson was the first chef to be awarded a Michelin star for Thai cuisine at his London restaurant Nahm, and over the past year-and-a-half he has opened three restaurants in his home country: Long Chim in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.

Restaurant food Sydney Perth Melbourne — Long Chim restaurant is open in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne (photo: Nikki To).

Here, he shares his favourite dishes to enjoy on the menu now, and to look forward to in the future.

Grilled Pork: Simple and smoky and fragrant, marinated in soy and garlic and grilled over charcoal and coconut.

Guay jap: Rolled Noodle Soup with five-Spice and Braised Pork. A rich and comforting dish.

Sen gati: coconut rice noodles with prawn, pork and yellow beans. The coconut noodles are nutty, sweet and riddled with prawns, pork and bean sprouts.

Plaa dtat dtiaw: sun-dried trevally with green mango. The semi-dried fish with fish sauce is deep fried and covered with green mango, chillies, mint and lime.

Rin’s thai tea ice-cream: The tea ice-cream is made with Thai tea and condensed milk – nothing more needs to be said about it, other than that it’s a compulsory dish with which to finish the meal.

3. Go for dinner at a world-class restaurant, for a fraction of the price

Where: Momofuku Seiōbo, Sydney, NSW

The best dish on the $185 dego at Sydney’s Momofuku Seiōbo is also available at the bar… for $8. It’s called ‘busted’ roti.

Momofuku restaurant Sydney — Busted roti with onion dip and muntries from Momofuku.

It’s based on the Trinidadian dish ‘buss-up shut’ (‘busted-up shirt’): a heaving mess of butter-drenched, crisp and soft, blistered and melting, stretchy paratha.

Order this and a glass of skin contact wine and enjoy a world-class dinner for under $30.

4. Drink more gin

Where: Southern Wild Distillery, Devonport, TAS

What are you drinking if you’re not drinking gin? It’s the hottest spirit of the moment and there are some excellent choices out there, many of which are coming out of Australian distilleries.

Southern Wild Distillery Tasmania Gi — Drink more gin at Southern Wild Distillery in Devonport, Tasmania (photo: Jason Loucas).

Southern Wild Distillery in Tasmania has released a range of three gins inspired by local rivers Dasher and Fisher.

They’re called Mountain, Meadow and Ocean and each tell a story about the spectacular landscape surrounding the distillery.

You can buy it online, but we recommend visiting the distillery in person to get the full experience. (And a hot tip for cooler months – try mixing your gin with Sin-kō-nah , a delicious and complex botanical tonic syrup, but warm it up first. It’s the Antipodes’ very own hot toddy.)

5. Eat amazing plane food

Where: Kitchen By Mike, Sydney Airport, NSW

Kitchen by Mike has opened its doors at Sydney Airport, within the T1 international terminal.

Kitchen by Mike Sydney Airport Food — Kitchen by Mike has opened in T1 International Airport in Sydney.

You can Check out Mike McEnearney’s healthy-eating, canteen-style fare by ‘dining in’, or picking up one of his customisable ‘Fly By Mike’ tray-packs to eat on the plane.

6. Go to Melbourne’s hottest new bar

Where: Longsong, Melbourne, VIC

Longsong is opening above Longrain in Melbourne this winter.

Hospitality royalty John and Lisa van Haandel are behind the project, and they’ve brought along David Moyle of Hobart’s celebrated Franklin restaurant to run the food.

With a Thai-style grill and Australian-focused drinks list – most of which will be served out of kegs or barrels – this is set to be the place to be as the temperatures plummet.

7. Go vego for the night

Where: Yellow, Sydney, NSW

Yellow in Sydney’s Potts Point has long been lauded for its vegetarian options. But last year, head chef and co-owner Brent Savage relaunched the restaurant’s dinner menu as 100 per cent vegetarian.

Yellow Sydney Potts Point — Press Curd, Charred Leek and Black Garlic dish from Yellow in Sydney.

Try dynamic dishes from its tasting menu – like curd, charred leek and black garlic – and you’ll see that vegetables can be just as delicious as any meat dish.

8. Visit a natural winery

Where: Harkham Winery, Hunter Valley, NSW

Find out what natural wine is all about at Harkham Winery in the Hunter Valley.

Spend the day sampling the wines at the cellar door (don’t miss the seriously interesting shiraz and zesty semillon) then (if it’s a weekend) pop into the pop-up restaurant next door for a laid-back dinner of Latino-style street food as the sun sets, before heading off to bed at the on-site accommodation.

9. Get all your favourite treats at one giant bake-sale

Where: Flour Market, Sydney, NSW, and Melbourne, VIC

You know all those artisan sweet treats that pepper your Instagram feed and fire up your appetite? Like Andy Bowdy’s crazy cake creations, Shortstop’s doughnuts and Butterbing’s gluten-free cookie sandwiches? Well at Flour Market they’re all in one place.The festivals take place throughout the year in Sydney and Melbourne. Check out their Facebook page to keep up to date.

10. Go truffle hunting

Where: The Truffle Farm, Canberra, ACT

It turns out that truffles grow extraordinarily well in Canberra. The Truffle Farm opened in 2016 and it’s so much more than a rustic homestead.

Go on a truffle hunt with truffle dogs Nala, Samson, Willow, Simba, Bear and Max and return to the farm for a deluxe truffle tasting.

Or go even more luxe after your hunt by heading to the warmth of the truffle shed for a six-course degustation prepared by ex-Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa executive chef Damian Brabender.

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.