7-Day Australia
Itinerary

Meat Pie

Australia's hand-held national dish: a short-crust pastry shell filled with minced beef and thick gravy, topped with a puff pastry lid and eaten with a pool of tomato sauce on the top; consumed at every AFL ground, servo and bakery; the benchmark is debated state by state with the fervour of a constitution.

Fish and Chips

At its Sydney best: thick fillets of battered barramundi or flathead, fried to a shattering golden crust, served on butcher paper with thick-cut chips and a squeeze of lemon on Bondi or Manly beach; the salt air, the seagulls and the crunch are inseparable from the experience.

Flat White

Australia's gift to global coffee culture, a double ristretto shot in a 160ml ceramic cup topped with velvety, micro-foamed whole milk; the ratio is everything; Melbourne's café culture perfected it in the 1980s and exported it to Starbucks and the world; ordered without question in any Australian city.

Pavlova

Australia's great dessert argument (New Zealand also claims it): a marshmallow-centred meringue shell with a crisp exterior, piled with whipped cream and fresh passionfruit, kiwi, mango and strawberry; a Christmas table centrepiece; the name honours ballerina Anna Pavlova's 1926 tour of both countries.

Barramundi

Australia's prestige fish: a silver-scaled freshwater and estuary predator with large, moist flakes and a mild, buttery flavour; best grilled whole over charcoal or pan-seared skin-side down until the skin crisps to a chip; sustainably farmed in the NT and wild-caught in Queensland.