Weekend Cooking: Anatomy of a road trip

Last week we were lucky enough to be able to take a week off from work and do a roadtrip in our home state of Victoria. Our original plan was to head up to Canberra and then drive back around the New South Wales south coast but unfortunately with a cluster of COVID cases in Sydney, the borders were closed which means that we had to make a plan B pretty quickly. And plan B was to stay within the state border, and it just so happened that our route meant that we were following the Great Alpine Road which was something we discovered after we booked all the last minute accomodation.

Our original plan allowed for a day to visit silo art, and I have to say it was worth the drive, but first we visited a town called Glenrowan which is famous for being the place where infamous  Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was arrested following a deadly siege back in 1880. The main reason for stopping in this town was to have scones with jam and cream. Last time I went to Canberra we stopped here and I remembered that the scones were good and the serving of cream was very generous. Given my lovely husband's penchant for cream, I thought he would enjoy it. Whilst the scones were still very good, the serving of cream was not quite as generous as I remembered, but it was sufficient. Oh, and there's a giant statue of Ned in town too! It wasn't the last time that Ned got a mention during our trip!

We then visited a town called Benalla which has an annual art festival where murals are painted on the walls. I definitely think that we will revisit the town after the next festival to spend some time exploring.  Jackie, I think this would be your kind of place

I have posted before about silo art, and once again the ones that we visited on this trip were really good, and you can see my favourites  by clicking on the link. This video is of a water tank that has been painted. This one is way off the beaten track, along dirt roads, driving through an area that used to be under water when it was a lake. Again this is part of an art trail which we really enjoyed.

 

On the former lake edge, we stopped at the only cafe in the area, just as the kitchen was about to shut, so the only thing we could have was some hot chips (think chunky fries), but my goodness these chips were so good. It wasn't the first really good chip that we had on the trip either. These were the ones that we had up a Mount Hotham, at the very top of the Australian Alps. We began to wonder if maybe the altitude made the chips better but that didn't work as the reason for this first bowl given that we were at the bottom of a former lake

The various great chips did prompt a conversation about what makes a really good chip - it has to be crispy on the outside, but still a bit fluffy on the inside, and definitely better if they are a bit salty, or with gravy as we had on these ones at Mount Hotham.

One of the other conversations we had was about what a really good tourist town needs. On our journey we visited several big tourist  towns - Beechworth (where we visited the jail and heard all about Ned Kelly), Bright and Lakes Entrance - and one of the big discussions we had whilst driving was what is it that a good tourist town needs. There are many things of course, but from a food perspective we agreed that you would need at least one good pub, but there also needs to be a good bakery, and a lolly (candy) shop.

Normally, we have our test of a good bakery is how good their vanilla slice was, but at one of the bakeries we visited their specialty was a beesting. This is something that I have made myself before, so it was nice to compare. I would make it again, but now that we know that we can get it from this bakery chain, and that there is one up the road about an hour or so away, we might find ourselves doing a day trip out that way.

Weekly meals

Saturday- Steak, baked potato, blue cheese sauce and broccoli

Sunday - Chicken Schnitzel with meditteranean vegies

Monday - Beef Stir Fry

Tuesday - Dinner with our family

Wednesday - Green Chicken Curry Pie

Thursday - Chicken sausages, cauliflower mash, gravy and broccoli

Friday - Pork hamburgers and chips

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.