Australia - What I've Learned (Part 2)

March 31, 2011

This is an on-going series documenting things I discover while in this country. Interesting facts, cultural differences, little quirks. It's all here.

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If you know anything about Andrew and I, it's that we like to eat. This is likely contributing to our ever-growing waist but that's another issue for another day. A long, long time from now.

Anyway, over the past couple of years we've gotten quite used to the idea of "all-you-can-eat". (Again. Ever-growing waist - something we're not talking about.)

We've fallen in love with AYCE sushi. We enjoy buffets. We look forward to wing nights.

It's not that we like to eat copious amounts of food to stuff ourselves silly. We just like to have variety, to feel satisfied at the end of the meal and get it all for a good value.

Unfortunately, we've quickly discovered that the Australians don't quite feel the same way about eating food in large portions. Well, at least not at a decent price. I suppose you could very well walk into whatever restaurant you want and eat as much as you want, but your wallet won't be looking so hot by the end of it.

We've found that most places will serve dishes that are slightly smaller than what we're used to, for almost double the price.

Another thing to note is that most restaurants won't stay open much later than 8pm, even on weekends. There are a handful that will stay open a little later but I've yet to find any that are open past midnight (you know, for late-night snacks?) besides McDonald's.

For those two reasons, I have been pushed to learn how to cook more food because having pasta every night just isn't going to cut it.

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More in the series:
Australia - What I've Learned (Part 1)