Eight Rules for finding Decent Food--almost anywhere! @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE:  Food matters deeply to my food critic character.  And to me too! If either of us get too hungry, we're miserable--a poor state to travel in. After three weeks in Australia, we came up with these suggestions for finding good food on the road...

Mex and Co in Manly

1. Go where the lines are. We found this little Mexican place in Manly when we looked in the window and saw baskets of homemade tortilla chips and margaritas in mason jars. And then I remembered I'd seen it recommended on Yelp by a California girl--who would know better? We weren't able to get in that night but believe me we showed up 15 minutes before opening the next night.

 
2. Which brings me to the law of converging suggestions. Try Yelp or Tripadvisor, but it helps if more than one person recommends, and also if you can get a sense of what kind of eater they are.

 
3. When desperate for something not too foreign or in doubt about the choices, go to the museum cafe. 

Here are my hummus and olives from the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

 

Sydney Harbor

4.  Steer away from tourist traps on the main drag. Be leery of these recommendations. (For instance, I would never start with a restaurant right on Duval, though of course there are exceptions!)

 


But sometimes the food can be sacrificed if the view is good enough (e.g., the cafe outside the Opera House), even if the folks at the next table are a little annoying... 

Parma at the Royal Mail on Spencer

5.  Try the local specialties. Parma turns out to be fried chicken with ham and cheese and tomato sauce baked on, which is a regional specialty in Melbourne. And we were crazy for the homemade curried mustard, too, at The Royal Mail on Spencer in Melbourne.

 





6.  Eat what's local and fresh. (This was a flower bed planted with lettuce in Sydney!)

 






 




7. Ask people who live there. We went to Little Creatures in Melbourne on our nephew's recommendation. 

  

And then ran into the chef and waitress from the restaurant we'd visited the night before--we struck gold with their recommendations of roasted corn, pulled pork,

Little Creatures in Melbourne

and these decadent salted caramel-stuffed donuts--served warm with ice cream:).



 














 

Cait with Lucy

8. If you're in a city, look for a foodie walking tour. In Adelaide, John and I booked places for a tour called Feast on Foot. Cait, a lively city resident, took us to six of her favorite spots where we tasted falafel and dolmades, duck tacos,

duck taco  at Mall Food

spoonfuls of incredible salted caramel, pork bbq buns, cupcakes and more.






And she gave us city history and a tour of street art, too--the best way to see Adelaide!

 

How about you Reds? Any tips for finding food in a strange place?