Globetrotting media personality Lyndey Milan has taken viewers on a culinary journey around the country with her television series Taste of Australia. Here, she shares some of her favourite foodie experiences
1. Mud-crabbing in the traditional way with delightful indigenous guide Dom Matsumoto who works out of Eco Beach Resort south of Broome.
It’s 30 minutes by 4WD to Jack’s Creek from Broome. You’d never find it on your own. He was taught how to mudcrab by his father and is respectful of tradition, the land and the wildlife. When he catches a male mudcrab of sufficient size, he semi-smokes it over driftwood on the beach – it’s a taste experience you will never forget.
Tasty if you’re a seafood fan, but beware the crab’s nippers.
2. Foraging for wild mushrooms in a secret forest location near Oberon, NSW, with Bella and Katriina.
They draw on their Finnish and Polish heritage and go in search of exotic saffron milk caps (or pine mushrooms) and Slippery Jacks. The forest is eerily quiet – walk slowly but look quickly. If you see a little mound, push the needles away gently and there will be a mushroom, if not a pine cone! If you find one, look nearby – it will have neighbours. Check out their new website for more .
3. Jindabyne’s award-winning Wild Brumby Distillery to taste the raspberry schnapps made from estate-grown raspberries.
Brad Spalding and his Austrian wife Monika run an immaculate café with distillery on-site, Wild Brumby and make a wide range of schnapps, ideal for the alpine lifestyle. Try their Pink Lady schnapps, too! Here the bugs are kept away by companion planting of tansy, horseradish and garlic.
4. Venison and truffles in Orange, a fabulous destination for food, wine or art lovers where you’re spoilt for choice.
Book in for a Mandagery Creek Venison farm kitchen lunch, a cooking demo and farm tour or search for truffles then dance the night away at the Borrodell on the Mount annual Black Tie and Gumboots truffle forage and dinner.
5. A foodie fiesta at the Margaret River Gourmet Escape.
Rub shoulders with more than 25 of Australia’s and the world’s best chefs, winemakers and food characters at the Margaret River Gourmet Escape . Visit the Gourmet Village, attend the classes and dinners, hang out on the beaches and drink world-class wines like Cullens.
Beach-side foodie fest, Gourmet Escape, Margaret River.
Victoria’s ‘mussel capital’ is the source of exceptional shellfish used by top chefs far and wide. Step aboard a beautifully refurbished trawler to see how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.
A curtain is slowly winched from the placid, teal waters just off Portarlington , like a floating garland beside our boat. The ropes heave with blue mussels, the star attraction of our tour. But as we reach to pluck our own, it’s quickly clear they’re not alone; a mass of weird and wonderful creatures has colonised the ropes, turning them into a living tapestry. ‘Fairy’ oysters, jelly-like sea squirts, and tiny, wriggling skeleton shrimp all inhabit this underwater ecosystem.
We prize our bivalve bounty from the ropes, and minutes later the mussels arrive split on a platter. The plump orange morsels are served raw, ready to be spritzed with wedges of lemon and a lick of chilli as we gaze out over the bay. They’re briny, tender and faintly sweet. “This wasn’t originally part of the tour,” explains Connie Trathen, who doubles as the boat’s cook, deckhand and guide. “But a chef [who came onboard] wanted to taste the mussels raw first, and it’s now become one of the key features.”
A humble trawler turned Hamptons-style dreamboat
Inspecting the bounty. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)
It’s a crisp, calm winter’s day, and the sun is pouring down upon Valerie, a restored Huon pine workhorse that was first launched in January 1980. In a previous life she trawled the turbulent Bass Strait. These days she takes jaunts into Port Phillip Bay under the helm of Lance Wiffen, a fourth-generation Bellarine farmer, and the owner of Portarlington Mussel Tours . While Lance has been involved in the fishing industry for 30-plus years, the company’s tour boat only debuted in 2023.
See how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.
It took more than three years to transform the former shark trawler into a dreamy, Hamptons-esque vessel, with little expense spared. Think muted green suede banquettes, white-washed walls, Breton-striped bench cushions, hardwood tables, bouquets of homegrown dahlias, and woollen blankets sourced from Waverley Mills, Australia’s oldest working textile mill. It’s intimate, too, welcoming 12 guests at most. And yet there’s nothing pretentious about the experience – just warm, down-to-earth Aussie hospitality.
As we cruise out, we crack open a bottle of local bubbles and nibble on the most beautifully curated cheese platter, adorned with seashells and grey saltbush picked from the water’s edge that very morning. Australasian gannets soar overhead, and I’m told it’s not uncommon for guests to spot the odd seal, pod of dolphins, or even the occasional little penguin.
The sustainable secret behind Victoria’s best mussels
Blue mussels sourced just off Portarlington.
Connie and Lance both extol the virtues of mussels. They’re delicious. A lean source of protein and packed with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, iron, selenium, and zinc. They’re cooked in a flash (Connie steams our fresh harvest with cider and onion jam). And they’re also widely regarded as one of the most sustainable foods in the world.
Mussels served with lemon and chilli.
“Aquaculture is [often] seen as destructive, so a lot of our guests are really surprised about how environmentally friendly and sustainable our industry is,” Lance says. “[Our mussels] would filter 1.4 billion litres of water a day,” he adds, explaining how mussels remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. “And through biomineralisation, we lock carbon into mussel shells.”
Mussels are a sustainable food.
Despite their glowing list of accolades, these molluscs have long been seen as the oysters’ poorer cousins. “It was a really slow start,” explains Lance, who says that in the early days of his career, “you could not sell mussels in Victoria”.
But word has slowly caught on. Chefs as globally acclaimed as Attica’s Ben Shewry and even René Redzepi of Noma, Denmark, have travelled to these very waters just to try the shellfish at the source, sharing only the highest praise, and using Lance’s mussels in their restaurants.
Sampling the goods onboard. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)
According to Lance there’s one obvious reason why the cool depths of Portarlington outshine other locations for mussel farming. “The water quality is second to none,” he says, noting how other regions are frequently rocked by harvest closures due to poor water quality. “We grow, without a doubt, some of the best shellfish in the world.” And with Lance’s bold claims backed up by some of the industry’s greatest names, perhaps it won’t be much longer until more Aussies uncover the appeal of Portarlington’s mussels.
