If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that I had the pleasure of living in Australia for a year and a half while earning my Masters in gastronomy. I made a few mates while living down under, and every now and then, they spoil me with bits of Australia.
Case in point: the package sent by Andrew and Mel, some of our favorite people living in Australia. Come peep my Aussie food porn and learn a bit about Australian cuisine!
The first and most important items, in my book, at least, were the packages of Tims Tams. Tim Tams are Australian cookies, either vanilla or chocolate, filled with something delicious and dipped in chocolate.
We were sent a classic, the chocolate filled with caramel, and a new flavor I have not tried yet: Cookies and cream filling. The caramel Tim tams did not live to see the end of the day, I am sad (and yet happy) to say, but I made sure to stash the Cookies n cream Tim Tams in the closet to share with my food twin Bobby in March, because I’m awesome like that.
They also sent us a few native Australian spices I ran out of around a year ago. The first was dried lemon myrtle, a leaf that smells like lemon Trix cereal and shares a similar flavor to lemongrass. I did not use this a lot while in Australia, but I am excited to experiment with it, as Andrew won the Australian leg of my annual chili cookoff with this spice.
My favorite Australian spice thus far, roasted wattleseed, which tastes similar to coffe and chocolate. I’ve cooked with it in this post, this post and this post, and eaten it in this post. Needless to say, this bitch was happy to receive this spice!
Next, we came across two bottles of Maggie Beer sauce (Maggie Beer is Australia’s Marth Stewert), one mango chili and another made of cabernet grapes, both incredibly delicious. The mango chili sauce is a play off of a popular Australian-Asian inspired condiment of sweet chili sauce, and the cabernet is hearty and deeply flavored, perfect for a nice piece of beef or lamb. And of course, a nice bag of Murray River salt flakes, which have a slight pink tone to them.
Sadly, the candy was not photographed closely because as soon as I saw they contained coconut, I pretty inhaled them on the spot. Even got a little wrapper stuck between my teeth in the process.
The only thing that was missing was a big old bottle of Ribena, black currant juice that was probably too heavy to mail. Heaps of thanks goes out to Andrew and Mel, who sent me a most kick-ass care package. I’ll let you guys know what I send to them next!
Happy Friday!
~LTG!
