Australia: Tim Tams, pies, kangaroo (TNT #25) and barramundi (TNT #26)

Three weeks in Australia. Lots of opportunities to eat.

TNT #25: Tried kangaroo for the first time. Seemed to be fairly common at least in the Northern Territory. Tender and mild. Delicious, if not over-cooked. Eaten under the stars.

TNT #26: Also pretty common in Darwin was barramundi. In fish and chips, not a whole lot of discernable difference to this palate from a other firm white fish like cod.

A lesser-known Northern Territory speciality, the iced coffee, proved refreshing in the heat. Coffee-flavoured milk rather than coffee with milk as one might expect from the name, these were ubiquitous. A homemade version at Darwin's railway station was the only non-commercial version I had the opportunity to try. Good alternative to chocolate milk.


No trip to Australia is complete without pie. Three trips to Harry's Cafe on Wheels for a traditional peas and pie and seafood pie demonstrated why this is such an icon. The generous scoop of peas was bland on its own, but delicious when mixed with the surprisingly peppery, piping hot meat pie innards. The seafood pie was chocka with fish, prawns and surimi in a very light white sauce. No filler here.




Cake was another major food group. Loved the way all slices of cake were served with a dollop of whipped cream, even this Toblerone cheesecake. Very generous with the Toblerone which decorated the top and was incorporated in the cake as well.

New Tim Tam varieties are pretty hard to get in the US, so these Black Forest and Honeycomb Tim Tams were an exciting find. Both very sweet, the Black Forest contained a sticky inner raspberry cream filling. Honeycomb was basically bits of honeycomb embedded inside the biscuit. No real textural contrast there. Interesting but double chocolate remains my favourite.

Random snacks included Gaiety biscuits (chocolate covered wafers and this Milo ice dessert. The MIlo flavour needed to be a lot stronger. The heat led to a lot of "testing" of various ice cream bars. Weis mango and cream bars were definitely the winner with a strong mango flavour.

Latte Tim Tams

The inventiveness of Arnotts vis-a-vis Tim Tams is never-ending. I've been saving this special Latte version for a while, as it was hand-carried by my parents from New Zealand. Finding myself without any biscuits I finally opened it to find a sweet, strongly coffee-flavoured milk chocolate covered biscuit. What I love about Tim Tams is the high proportion of chocolate to biscuit, usually ~30% chocolate. Love the strong coffee flavour, but not the milkiness of this particular version.

Tea and Tim Tams

I've been saving my very last packet of Tim Tams for a special occasion, but decided a lack of other biscuits in the apartment was sufficient cause to open this Black Forest Fantasy Tim Tam. The packaging is a lurid pink and red, with lots of swirly cursive fonts. Perfect for Valentine's Day! Fabulous as are all Tim Tams - the red chewy substance in the middle contrasts well with the crunch of the biscuit and chocolate.

Tim Tams and jasmine tea for dinner

Another ersatz mix of junk food for dinner. Actually this is pretty representative of dinners during most of last week and this week. Luckily I've been eating more healthily at breakfast and lunch and on weekends or this blog might have had a premature end.

Kroger brand cheese curls
+ whole wheat tortilla w/mozarella cheese
+ half a honey tangerine
+ jasmine green tea
+ 3 Creamy Truffle Temptation Tim Tams

The last were brought from New Zealand by my parents, who keep me well-supplied with these long-time favourites. A thin chewy white chocolate layer is sandwiched between the traditional chocolate cream and biscuits and covered with milk chocolate. Arnott's have added numerous new flavours lately, though I'll always have a soft spot in my belly for the Double Chocolate. Surprisingly I don't like the Dark Chocolate ones - the chocolate's not very dark and the chocolate to biscuit ratio seems wrong somehow. I don't understand why Arnott's doesn't sell these outside Australia and New Zealand - they'd make a fortune! Not only are they delicious but you can also try the Tim Tam Slam with these iconic biscuits. I was once reduced to buying these online and found Aussie Catalogue Company a reliable if pricey supplier of the standard flavours.

Stassen Pure Jasmine Green Tea is the jasmine tea I drink and has the strongest flavour of any jasmine tea I've ever tried. This includes the premium loose jasmine teas my parents bought in China. Considering the Stassen tea comes in teabags this is pretty amazing. This is another product my parents supply me with, as it's not easily available in stores in the US. It's a premium bag tea so a little more expensive than others, but in this case very much worth it.

I first tasted this tea in a Malaysian restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand and purchased the first boxes in the local Taiwanese grocery store. I was later served it at the Aberdeen Centre food court in Richmond, BC. So not only does this tea taste great, but it also brings back memories of two of my favourite places.