I eat good Tex-Mex at least once a week. I suppose I can go a week without it.
I don’t want to insult anyone but are meat pies anything like our pot pies? And the peas that come with them, are we talking covered in peas or just as an ingredient?
And then throw on some scrambled egg. Yum yum yum.
The form factor is the same. Pastry crust, savory filling, usually meat, occasionally vegetarian. Less saucy though. The filling is much thicker. And the pastry is usually more like a puff pastry (flaky) than like the short crust on American pot pies.
Where would I go to find some good Tandoori Platypus?
The Gardener’s Lodge is great, and it’s also only a two-minute walk from Glebe.
Note, if you’re planning an anniversary dinner, though, that it’s only open for breakfast and lunch.
Forgive me, friend, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve been to Australia in a long while. I can assure you that you won’t find beans or spaghetti on toast in any currently operating cafe in Sydney, and if you do, it won’t be Heinz baked beans from a tin on white bread, it’ll be artisanal toast and small-batch braised beans.
I neglected the peas question. I’m not entirely sure, but if they’re like English peas that come with meat pies they’re starchy peas that have been simmered and mashed. You have to like peas, I think, to like them, and they’re optional - you can get a pie without peas.
Years and years ago, I ate at a really good Mexican restaurant in Madrid, but it was owned by two Mexican guys from Texas.
Some Australian food questions.
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What does a pie floater float in?
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What are the intricacies of ordering coffee in Australia? I’ve seen people on shows order something like “tall, flat, white”, but what does it mean?
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What is the proper condiment doe a meat pie?
I’m not a barista, but it’s essentially a US latte. White = with milk. Flat = not foamy like a cappuccino, tall = in a mug. Ordering a latte can be a bit of a crapshoot in terms of what you get. It will contain milk and variable amounts of coffee in some form, but the temperature can vary from tepid to scorching and the amount of coffee can vary from half an espresso shot to the equivalent of several.
No one will question either black sauce or tomato sauce. Which black sauce is a matter of debate, but HP and Worcestershire are the most common two I’ve seen used.
US fries = AUS chips
US chips = AUS crisps
You may want to try an Aussie BBQ while you’re there. Do NOT try the “Swim With The Box Jellies” attraction.
Actually, that’s sort of wrong in two ways.
First, you can find thin-cut, french-fry style potatoes in Australia, and they are often referred to as fries, in order to distinguish them from the thicker-cut fried potatoes that are generally known as chips.
And not many Aussies, at least in Sydney, refer to the thin fried potatoes in bags as crisps. That’s much more of a British thing. What the Americans call chips, most Aussies also call chips.
This isn’t strictly true - I know the South African Spur restaurant chain has several Australian outlets, including Sydney, and it’s very much in that ‘casual dining’ market segment.
Yes, sometimes the two can be distinguished by context (e.g., a packet of chips vs. an order/serve of chips) or by appending “hot” to freshly fried potatoes of various form factors.
There’s also potato wedges, which came to prominence in the early 90s in Australia, often seasoned before cooking (usually fried, but roasted is also seen) and served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. Mmm.
My Australian cafe coffee order is a flat white, and I was happy to see it introduced here in California. I don’t like to order a latte in Australia as it’s often served in one of those stupid glasses (e.g. here.)
Thanks for pointing out the no dinner thing, mhendo - perfect for an anniversary breakfast or lunch though Nars Glinley, and congratulations on your tri-decaderage!
What Mr Dibble says about Spur isn’t exactly right - it does have two or three outlets in New South Wales (the state in which Sydney is) but they’re all an hour or more from the city, in not very exciting suburbs. Which is probably why they’re there.
You’ll be glad to know araminty, that the trend for stupid glasses for lattes has extended to mason jars. Fuck. Me. Put it in a coffee cup. It’s coffee.
Apparently “irony” has a different meaning in Australia, as well.
I KNEW it!
I wonder if use of ‘fries’ might be a generational thing. Personally, outside of a Macca’s I can’t think of a single instance where I’ve ever heard anyone use ‘fries’. At least not up here in Bogan-ville ;).
Agree with araminty, that they’re all chips. If you’re in a situation where you need to distinguish between them, its usually ‘hot’ chips (fries) and a packet of chips. My wife uses ‘crisps’ but that’s the influence of her British parents coming through.
It might be. I know that, on my most recent trip to Australia (July/August this year) i saw and heard the word “fries” used quite a few times in Sydney, and not in the context of McDonald’s or some other big fast-food chain. In each case, the food in question was thin-cut like fries, and the menu sometimes described them like that too. The term “chips” is still far more common, but i did notice that “fries” had made inroads in Sydney since my last visit.
Umm. No. Take one small corner, and try it. I can stand it, but many hate it. I can even take Marmite.
Note tha peas come in a lot of things. If you like peas- you won’t like these. Start with crappy peas- Boiled to a mushyness.