… and finally, the blog post I’ve been most excited to write is upon us! Food, glorious food! If there is one thing I can say about Australia is that it does food and presentation of food incredibly well. Even the dining hall food here is presented eloquently and looks like it could be from a fancy restaurant you would find in the US.
Firstly, the dining hall here at Bond University is called the Pine Brasserie is where I eat the majority of my meals when I’m not traveling, and it isn’t buffet style like many of the colleges in the US. Instead, students here with dining plans have a set amount of money on their card and order food individually from a menu. The food is then prepared fresh from the kitchen and students are buzzed (think restaurant style buzzer) when their meal is ready. At first, it was incredibly difficult to adjust to the non-buffet style dining options and the tiny portions that are offered for the meals (typical American mindset, I know). However, I am now used to smaller portion sizes and now how to manage my meals so that I don’t get as hungry; I’m learning to appreciate the quality and not the quantity of the food that I’m eating which has led to me becoming a lot more appreciative.
The Gold Coast, where my study abroad is located, is very health conscious and thus there are organic shops, vegan and vegetarian restaurants, and smooth and acai bowls everywhere. This has led to me trying some new and incredible things and my first acai bowl experience, which are essentially just smoothie bowls layered in different topping such as fruit, coconut, and granola. In fact, one my favorite cafes here in Australia is a place called Down 2 Earth Organics in Palm Beach, where they hand prepare from scratch every acai bowl that they serve. This restaurant is also part health food store, which gives you something to look at when you are waiting for your bowl to be prepared.
One thing that was difficult to get into here in Australia was the coffee. Specifically, iced coffee here is essentially a milk shake and included scoops of ice cream in it. This I learned the hard way when I first got off the plane in Brisbane, however since then I have learned to specify just milk in iced coffees. Which brings me to the fact that coffees here are very heavily milk based with shots of espresso, totally different from your average Dunkin Donuts experience back home. Overall, however, the coffee is delicious and does the trick of helping me through all my finals, so I really can’t complain!
