Tony spends the bulk of his trip in the second most populated city in Australia, Melbourne. Known as Australia’s cultural capital, Melbourne has the second largest Asian population in Australia, which includes the largest Vietnamese, Indian and Sri Lankan communities in the country. It is a melting pot of cultures and Tony wants to discover what makes the city so special. Luckily, Tony has many friends here, all of whom take him to sample the many different cuisines of Melbourne’s culinary culture.
He meets up with a British chef living in Australia, Paul Wilson, who gives Tony a tour of Queen Victoria Market (and you know how I love these market scenes), which is filled with fresh produce, fish, and meat. Of course, the visit wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Paul’s restaurant, the Half Moon (as seen in the video above).
Tony also plays Melbourne’s favorite sport, trugo, at trugo field (in which he is bought dinner by his friend Matt for winning). The day continues as they head out to Sydney Street, a bustling shopping street filled with foreign restaurants and markets, and samples fresh Middle Eastern food and delicious lamb kebabs.
The episode doesn’t wrap up before Tony can make it to Chinatown, the Royal Mall, which is a culinary wonderland in a tiny, countryside farming town outside of Melbourne, and not without sampling calamari, kingfish, and pigeon.
Of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without the stereotypically Australian pastime – the ‘barbi’ in which he feasts on shrimp, the highest quality wagyu beef and succulent lamb.
Yeah, this is food porn at it’s best folks!
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Australia airs on Monday, July 20 at 10pm E/P on the Travel Channel.
You can check out what Tony has to say on his blog.
Leave a Reply