The Old Boys views on Food and Drink:

Many people have commented on my previous efforts and said that there has been a concentration on alcohol. Jackie is clearly doing a splendid job on the cultural and scenic issues and not to disappoint you all I think I should stick to my original themes.

I am going to start by saying that these views are our own opinions and are formed on limited stays in the many locations that we have been in over the last ten weeks. One thing is dominant in my mind and whilst this is pretty fundamental, each country has a different culture in terms of food and drink. South American countries all had a similar feel in terms of food and that can be said for Brazil, Argentina and Chile where we started our trip. The exception here was Argentina with the enormous steaks, 'Mate' and Empanadas. Brazil did not appear to have any identity in the beer and wine field where Argentina was outstanding with craft beer and, of course the Malbec, along with its derivatives using vineyards higher up in the foothills of the Andes. We all know Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon which is widely available in UK and is no different at source.

Now for New Zealand. Well, without being too rude and this is only my opinion but I do not think that their food has any particular identity with the exception of the lamb but they do have a penchant for meat pies, steak, steak and onion and mince all with an added cheese option! They also appear to love cheese scones because they are available countrywide. Drinkwise I think they are outstanding and have developed great craft breweries, Speights and Montieths are dominant and their range includes Porter, Black Stout, Amber Ale ,Light ale, Pilsner and Lagers. Their two main areas of wine production are Marlborough in the North of S. Island and Central Otago further South. White wines range from Sauvignon Blanc or Savvy as they call it, Riesling which is much dryer than the German product that many of us remember from the 70's and Pinot Gris. Whilst we had been given great reports before we arrived on the Pinot Noir, maybe we did not spend enough on the bottles we bought but even with Vineyard tastings we were generally unconvinced. What we did find to our taste was a NZ Merlot Cabernet which we enjoyed very much and was more reasonable price wise. I would stress that many other visitors and the locals extensively enjoyed the Pinot Noir so maybe we are the exception.

We are now a week into Australia and our opinions are very different to our previous visit fifteen years ago. Jackie had read prior to our arrival that you seriously need to consider the cost of eating out and cooking at home. We have been really impressed with the quality and price of food in bars and restaurants and the styles are amazing ranging from traditional through mediterranean, oriental and we have just fallen upon a vegetarian bar where, although they don't serve wine or beer, we had delicious Japanese pancakes with a Lentil Burger and a Vegie Dahl as mains. There is no fixed Menu cost so you are asked to donate your 'assessed worth' in an honesty box! The food was superb. My opinion is that the beer has not really moved on here with VB and Carlton still dominant and no strong craft beer options to the extent of NZ. We are all too aware of the Oz wine in the UK and we have generally settled on Shiraz Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay to date although we did have some good Rose which was a Tempranillo/Sangiovese mix. To help the visit along and although we missed the Grand Prix we are right in the middle of the Melbourne Comedy Festival and have already seen two Stand ups last night some street acts and on Sunday we are seeing Rich Hall.

To stop you guys at home being too jealous of the weather in all the time we have been in NZ and Australia we have been seeing open back pick up trucks loaded with logs. Winter is coming!!

Finally, I believe that Off Exploring use a different format for iphones and PCs, Earlier this week I issued a small photo album with nine pictures along with a caption and description. This followed the main album. If you want to read the dialogue in the descriptions I am afraid you will have to read this on your PC or similar