Australia's top 10 culinary journeys

Our Top 10 Delicious Culinary Journeys are forks down the hottest (and tastiest) foodie experiences in Australian this year, complied from our 100 Incredible Experiences (right here in your backyard) special issue.

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Australia is one massive, scrumptious food bowl. From the abundant seafood across the length of the south coast, to fine dining in some of the best restaurants in the world, to the tropical offerings of markets in north Queensland, travelling Australia is a culinary tour of the best its many cultures and regions has to offer, compiled by Adam Liaw.

Words: Adam Liaw is food columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Sunday Life and The Guardian, and the author of four cookbooks. On television, Adam hosts the prime-time SBS food and travel program, Destination Flavour, and was the winner of the 2010 season of MasterChef Australia.

1. The roaming restaurant pop-up dining – various locations, WA

Paul Iskov has worked in some of Europe’s best restaurants and having Returned to his native WA, he and his friends set up roaming restaurant Fervor . using Native ingredients cooked over open fires in the WA outback and towns and presented in the finest fashion, this is a dining with a difference.

Why you should try it: It’s soul surfing but with food, and it might be the most ‘Australian’ dining experience you’ll ever have.

2. Doing the Barossa properly – Barossa Valley, SA

Everyone knows that a tasting tour of the Barossa Valley is an incredible wine experience, but if you forget the food you’re only getting half the story. Take a lazy lunch with local wine at 1918, a wood-fired bee sting cake from Apex Bakery and a truly local dinner at Appellation, and you won’t just have tasted the Barossa, you’ll have experienced it.

Why you should try it: The Barossa is a rite of passage for every Aussie.

3. Dining, Bondi-style – Bondi Beach

The restaurants at the two ends of Bondi Beach could be a metaphor for the two sides of Bondi culture. On the southern side, Icebergs is exquisitely cool, its polished glamour overlooking the famous Bondi Baths where the bronzed and beautiful can be found at any time of the day. On the northern side is Sean’s Panorama , casual and convivial with a European warmth to it. Locals stroll down for dinner with a bottle of wine under their arm and unwind at the tables perched on the footpath looking out to the horizon. The laughter and buzz of conversation echoes all the way to the beach.

Why you should try it: It’s a menu-less celebration of not just ingredients or cooking, but of the culture of dining itself.

4. King George whiting and chips – Port Lincoln, SA

The pristine waters around South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula host the best seafood in the world. While much of it finds its way onto boats en route to Tokyo’s best sushi restaurants, there’s nothing like a local favourite fresh out of the water. While the Eastern states sing the praises of flathead for their fish and chips, in SA whiting is the king in both reputation and name. Catch it yourself if you can, but if you can’t just grab a King George whiting and chips from The Fresh Fish Place (and maybe a dozen Coffin Bay oysters while you’re at it) and head down to the foreshore.

Why you should try it: Because fish and chips in Australia isn’t the same if you don’t share it with the seagulls. See portlincolnseafood.com.au

5. Coffee on Centre Place – Melbourne

Melbourne is stunningly beautiful, and Centre Place might be the most photographed spot in the whole city. Grab a coffee at Vicolino and soak up the unique atmosphere here; coffee-culture at its best.

Why you should try it: It’s the quintessential Melbourne laneway, the one that people make a bee-line for when they’re after a coffee in the city.

6. A World-beating affogato gelato – Cow & The Moon, Enmore, Sydney

Lining up for after-dinner ice-cream has become a fixture of Sydney culture in recent years, and Cow & The Moon has some of the longest lines in the city. Deservedly so, as its famous affogato gelato is a world-beater, winning the World Gelato Tour in Rimini, Italy in 2014.

Why you should try it: It beat the Italians, enough said.

7. Fruit picking Rusty’s Markets – Cairns

Tropical North Queensland moves at a pace of its own, whether it’s local families knocking green mangoes out of the trees that line the streets, or enjoying a slow bucket of prawns and a few cold beers watching the sun set at Palm Beach. Rusty’s Markets is a Cairns institution and it’s one of the most eclectic markets around. The tropical fruits are as good as you’ll find anywhere in the world, from carambola and jackfruit to mangoes of every variety, but what I love are the homemade local products. They’re a multicultural mix from around Australia and Asia that you won’t find anywhere else.

Why you should try it: Pickled mangoes, homemade Thai-style sai krok fermented sausage, native fruit jams – there’s always something to surprise you.

8. Grab an oyster from the sea – Freycinet Marine Farm, Tasmania

There’s truly no better way to eat an oyster than pulling it straight out of the water, shucking it, and tipping it straight into your mouth. And the best place in the world to do that is at the oyster shucking table at Tasmania’s Freycinet Marine Farm . Stand waist-deep in the water and just grab an oyster out of sea water as the fish swim around your legs.

Why you should try it: The only drawback is that it’ll spoil you for all other oysters for the rest of your life.

9. A sunset beach feast – Mindil Beach Sunset Market

Some compare the Mindil Beach Sunset Market to a South-east Asian hawker centre but it’s really so much more a temple to Darwin’s multiculturalism. Stroll from stall to stall as the sun sets into the ocean and try everything from hickory-smoked local mackerel and barbecued octopus to Thai laksa or nasi campur from Borneo. Go on an empty stomach and, if you can, make it for the last market of the year to enjoy live music and fireworks bursting over the horizon.

Why you should try it: You can’t beat the atmosphere.

10. Going native – Attica, Melbourne

Ben Shewry is one of the world’s most innovative chefs. He was pushing native Australian ingredients to the limits of fine dining long before Noma rolled into Barangaroo.

Why you should try it: The degustation at Attica isn’t just delicious – it’s thoughtful, nostalgic and beautiful; a meal you won’t forget.

The Great Ocean Road has captured the hearts of Australians with its astounding scenery since 1932, but going off-course can enrich your experience with untouched nature, foodie delights and charming towns.

It’s a chilly 16 degrees. My husband pulls on a steamer and jogs – as all seasoned surfers do – into the water. We’re at Bells Beach , the legendary break on Victoria’s Surf Coast that’s home to the Rip Curl Pro, the world’s longest-running event in competitive surfing. Each year, over the Easter long weekend, up to 40,000 people descend on the region for the event. Today, though, we have the beach almost to ourselves, and the less-than-favourable temperature doesn’t deter my husband from surfing this famous break.

Torquay to Anglesea and Aireys Inlet

The red dome of Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet. (Image: Tourism Australia)

The nearby surf town of Torquay marks the starting point for the Great Ocean Road . Unfolding our map, which we have marked out with a highlighted route for our children to follow, we set off for lesser-known Anglesea, a chilled-out town 20 minutes south of here. Its wide, sandy beach is a gentler swimming option for our young family. Groms can learn to surf here with Go Ride a Wave, which also runs stand-up paddle boarding on the Anglesea River.

Split point lookout — The lighthouse overlooks the Shipwreck Coast. (Image: Tourism Australia)

After a couple of nights in Anglesea, we hit the road again, first stopping at Aireys Inlet. Here we stretch our legs at Split Point Lighthouse, which was made famous by the 1990s television series Round the Twist, before driving under the Memorial Arch that welcomes us, officially, to the Great Ocean Road.

This 243-kilometre coastal road was built by returned First World War servicemen and serves as a permanent memorial to those who fought and died during the war. Carved into rock using hand tools and horse-drawn carts, it was a huge engineering feat and provided much-needed access to isolated coastal communities.

Lorne to Birregurra

Lorne is a delightful beachside stop for lunch and browsing boutique stores. It’s also the gateway to Great Otway National Park , which comprises a varied landscape of old-growth forests, cool-temperate rainforests, heathy woodlands and rugged coast. With the highest rainfall in Victoria, the region is home to many waterfalls – 10 of which are within 10 kilometres of Lorne.

Turning slightly off the main drag, we wind along a gum-shaded road to Erskine Falls. Here, our son leads the way through the hyper-green rainforest and down 200-plus stairs to the cascade that drops 30 metres into a lush fern gully. We hop over large boulders to get closer to the falls, enjoying the entire place to ourselves; it’s worth the return climb.

From Sheoak Falls Picnic Area, there are walking trails to Henderson Falls, Phantom Falls, Won Wondah Falls and Kalimna Falls, some of which follow an old timber tramway from forest-logging days, which only came to an end in 2008.

You can follow your appetite north to the town of Birregurra, which is part of the Otway Harvest Trail that connects farm gates, markets, wineries, breweries and distilleries. It’s home to three-hatted modern Australian restaurant Brae , helmed by celebrated chef Dan Hunter, set among native gardens and an organic farm, and Otways Distillery, which produces small-batch spirits using local produce and botanicals.

Brae restaurant — Brae is a three-hatted restaurant in Birregurra. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Apollo Bay to The Otways

Back on track, the cliff-hugging stretch between Lorne and Apollo Bay is breathtaking. At Teddys Lookout, we overlook the winding road ahead and St George River spilling into the ocean. We spend languid days in Apollo Bay, a buzzy seaside town that boasts a three-kilometre-long, crescent-shaped beach with a backdrop of rolling green hills. One evening, as the sun sets, we take the steep 10-minute walk to Marriners Lookout, which affords panoramic views of the ocean, hinterland and town.

A 15-minute drive along the road, Maits Rest is a lush rainforest gully that has been protected since the early 20th century. Wandering along the 800-metre boardwalk, we inspect the delicate moss-covered forest floor and the gnarled roots of 300-year-old myrtle beech trees, then crane our necks to see their canopies, some 50 metres above us. It’s therapy in nature.

Cape Otway to the Twelve Apostles

The southernmost tip of Cape Otway is a delightful detour, home to the 1848-built Cape Otway Lightstation, the oldest surviving lighthouse on mainland Australia. We climb the narrow winding staircase to the gallery deck, explore the keepers’ quarters and telegraph station, and enjoy a coffee and some ‘famous’ scones at the charming onsite cafe.

It’s a pinch-me moment to finally see the Twelve Apostles in person. This unmistakable cluster of limestone stacks rising abruptly from the sea were never 12, however. When coined this in the 1890s as a marketing ploy, there were only nine; today, only seven remain after two collapsed in 2005 and 2009. We admire these Aussie icons from the viewing platform, in awe of Mother Nature’s ever-evolving artwork.

The Grotto is another natural attraction within Port Campbell National Park. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Edging the wild Southern Ocean, this part of the coast – dubbed Shipwreck Coast – is made up of many sea-carved natural wonders including London Bridge, The Grotto and Gibson Steps. After exploring the lookout trails of Loch Ard Gorge/Poombeeyt Kontapool – its English name taken from the site of the 1878 shipwreck – we nestle into the sandy beach encircled by towering sandstone cliffs, as our children splash about on the water’s edge, and soak it all in.

Port Campbell to Timboon

Timboon Fine Ice Cream is part of a regional foodie trail. (Image: C McConville)

Just north of Port Campbell National Park, the region of Timboon is part of the 12 Apostles Food Artisans Trail, filled with purveyors of delicious foodstuffs such as Timboon Fine Ice Cream , Timboon Railway Shed Distillery and Apostle Whey Cheese. As an antidote to the indulgence, the 20-kilometre Poorpa Yanyeen Meerreeng Trail is a self-guided ride or walk between Port Campbell and Timboon through tall forests, over historic bridges and past sparkling lakes and farmland with grazing cattle.

Warrnambool to Port Fairy

Warrnambool building — A 19th-century building in Warrnambool. (Image: Peter Foster)

In Warrnambool, a town rich in maritime history, we take the four-kilometre Thunder Point Walk that traces the coast. The kids squeal when an echidna shuffles out from beneath the wooden boardwalk, and we stop to admire a seal lazing on a rock at the port.

Further along, the streets of quaint fishing village Port Fairy are lined with 19th-century cottages, old stone churches and Norfolk pines. Follow the historic walking trail to see some of the 60-plus National Trust buildings. Port Fairy is also home to Port Fairy Folk Festival (6-9 March), one of the country’s longest-running music and cultural festivals. You could time your road trip with the event for a fittingly celebratory end to any journey.

The Great Ocean Road can easily be done in three days, but we’ve spent a week on the road. The highlighted line on our now creased and well-worn map doesn’t follow the famous route precisely. It has sprouted branches in many directions, leading us to untouched rainforest and charming rural towns filled with culinary delights, and where we experienced some of our most memorable moments on the Great Ocean Road.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

The Monty is a highly anticipated, newly refurbished motel with a chic Palm Springs-inspired aesthetic set across the road from the Anglesea River. Basalt Winery in Port Fairy grows cool-climate wines such as pinot noir and Riesling in rich volcanic soil. Stay among the vines in its tiny home, complete with a kitchen, lounge area and outdoor firepit.

The Oak & Anchor Hotel has been a Port Fairy institution since 1857. Cosy up by the bar in winter or bask in the sunshine of the Lawn Bar in summer. The rooms are beautifully boutique with considered details, such as luxe baths for sinking into post-road trip.

Eating there

The Coast in Anglesea is a modern Australian restaurant focused on local ingredients. Grand Pacific Hotel has been a local landmark in Lorne since 1879 and recently underwent a restoration. It serves a mix of traditional pub and Italian fare alongside ocean views.

Graze is a cosy 40-seat dining room in Apollo Bay with a modern Australian menu complemented by regional wines. Apollo Bay Distillery offers tasting flights, a gin blending masterclass and serves woodfired pizzas.

Australia’s top 10 culinary journeys