What struck me first as I entered the IGA store was how weird it is that I can buy practically everything here that I buy at home. Even the Paris Creek Biodynamic butter, yoghurt, & cheeses. It was a bit sobering to think that I could travel all around Australia, and probably eat exactly the same foods that I eat at home. I was keen to try foods that I could only get in Byron Bay, and it involved a bit of hunting and gathering, and much label reading (without my glasses, sigh). So I ask myself, is this a consumer driven state of affairs? Do most people like eating the same familiar foods no matter where they are? I find this a bit hard to believe. I ventured in to the Woolworths supermarket in the main street and they had all of the usual foods that they have here, with additional dairy products from Queensland. What they did have though was their own brand of organic chicken, beef, and lamb, in steaks fillets and sausages, and .... they were local. There was a stall there giving out cooked samples, and the woman on the stall assured me that the meat was farmed locally - the lamb and rosemary sausages were lovely - not too fatty either.
Byron Bay boasts at least two eateries that claim to source their food locally, one greengrocer, and the farmer's markets -which (the man at the Davidson's Plum and Macadamia stall told me), are all from within 160km of Byron - (except for the visitor stalls- one selling apples - they were not well sign posted so it would be easy to assume that they were local).
The Why Not Cafe'
My beloved flew over to spend the evening with me, and the cafe' of choice for our dinner was the Why Not Cafe' in Johnson Street. We chose the venue because the local paper advertised a farmer's market special 3 course menu for $40. This is what we ate:
(My apologies for the quality of the pics. They were taken with Michael's Phone).
Above is the Apertiff of house made olive tapanade with local water cress & local olive oil
Entree' of beetroot salad with more cress & macadamias
Mains of Local fish (I forget what it was) on wilted baby spinach with parsnip mash and salsa.
Somewhere between the apertiff and the salad, we realised that it was going to be super-model sized portions, so we ordered a side of wedges to beef it up a bit. They were disappointing, under cooked and not crispy or flavoursome.
Ahh.....the local beer....it's been a while, and althought the hops and yeast are likely to have been shipped in from Tasmania or Victoria, we drank it anyway....research you know.....someone has to do it...!
A very nice drop, similar to a heineken in it's mildness, smooth and slightly creamy - yum. We only had one bottle between us.
Panacotta with macadamias and strawberries, very good, except that the strawberries were chopped so small, it was possibly only 2 in all, spread about to look like more.....hmm.
All in all the meal did actually fill us up, even though the serves were tiny works of art. The overall quality was excellent, very fresh, superb fish, great dessert, but nothing made me go WOW!
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