Week One: FOOD!!!!

One of my favorite parts about being in Australia is exploring the food culture. Now, being here only six days, I haven’t tried too many things or really have eaten away from campus, but I can tell you that I am really going to like eating here!

Of course I miss my Culver’s cheeseburgers back home, but being in Australia has already helped me feel so good about what I am eating. While at Bond University, I will have a meal plan, where I am able to use ‘meal dollars’ to purchase meals or snacks from the on campus restaurants and convenience stores. However, it is very different from back at St. Norbert College (home university), because everything is made to order and is significantly healthier. And when I say healthier, I am talking about things as simple as different ingredients. A bunch of my new friends and I were talking about how we can eat a ton of pasta or burgers here, and never feel bloated or sick. I am the type of person that always has stomach issues after I eat, and get so bloated. But here (knock on wood), I haven’t felt bloated one bit!

Alright so enough with the talking, let’s get onto the FOOD! Here are some of the things I have eaten this week at Lakeside, which is the main on campus restaurant:

Breakfast

Lakeside has the option of a build your own omelette, which in my opinion is a smart idea for any school, because it is not only a healthy option, but it allows you to change it up every single time if you would like. I also think the best part about this omelette are the mushrooms. So many times in America I have gotten mushrooms in omelettes and they are either too small or taste like they came out of the can, and I have always thought that was ‘good’. Nope. These omelettes have real mushrooms that taste absolutely amazing and they are full and wonderful!

Words cannot describe how good the smoothies are!! Of course, my dad makes a pretty good smoothie, but dad, if you are reading this, Australia may have the lead in the best smoothie. And really, I only say this because Australia has way better access to fresh ingredients. For example, the first smoothie I had here had passionfruit in it, which is either really hard to find or really expensive in America. The fresh and healthy ingredients make the smoothie so flavorful and gives me such an energetic, happy start to my day!

The BEST and I mean the BEST avocado toast I have ever had! I would really like to see someone try and top this. In Australia, they call it ‘smashed avo’. What’s great about the way they make it is that they put the avocado on the side, because then the bread won’t get soggy. They also use a really good bread that is the perfect thickness, and they toast it just right! The lemon is also the cherry on top, making it such a tasteful, light breakfast!

Lunch and Dinner

Now before you go “ewwww garlic mayo?!?!”, hear me out. First of all, they ran out of caesar dressing the day I got this salad, so garlic mayo wasn’t my first choice. Second of all, it was actually pretty good! I didn’t think I was going to like it, because it was hard to wrap my head around putting mayo on a salad, but the consistency was more of a creamy dressing and it was very similar to caesar. Another amazing thing is that it didn’t upset my stomach! I thought for sure it would, but thankfully it didn’t. Anyways, at Bond, they have a build your own salad, where you pick out your ingredients, and they can either make the salad layered (like I have it) or mixed. This is a great option for lunches or a light dinner!

This one was one of my favorites! I love steak, so seeing steak on the menu was amazing to me. However, it is different than the steak I would have at home. The downside to the steak is that it is a bit chewy and hard to cut. Unfortunately, I was given a wooden fork and knife, so you can imagine how hard it was to cut. Other than that, it was so good! It had lots of flavor and the pesto was a great touch!

This one IS my FAVORITE and will probably be a once a week meal for me. Lakeside does a build your own pasta (they do a lot of build your own) with a lot of great options! For this dish, I did penne pasta with garlic sauce, mushrooms, and parmesan, as that is something I would try to make at home. It is so good and again, the mushrooms here are AMAZING. It also caught the attention of Bond staff at Lakeside, so maybe they will add it to their main menu.

That is all of the foodie talk I have so far, but I will share some restaurants and other off campus food once I get out to explore more! It is crazy that a dish that would seem unhealthy in America, can be healthy or healthier here, just because of the ingredients. I love it!!

Keep doing what makes YOU happy!

Jessica