Queensland Food & Wine Guide - Queensland Holidays

charter boats to local restaurantseach morning; Pantacchini’s GourmetSeafood has smoked and curedbarramundi; spicy palates are pacifiedwith Sim Hayward’s Asian FoodsAustralia, the largest QueenslandbasedAsian food wholesaler; and atthe Bingil Bay Tahitian lime orchard atMission Beach, add zing to your toastwith a gourmet range of preserves.Pick fruit, visit farms, sip tropical fruitwines and lunch on barramundi andred claw crayfish with Cairns-basedFood Trail Tours – indulge in thetastes of the tropics.Find the middle groundThe culinary journey continues as youhead south along the coast road.This is Queensland’s central coast. Headthrough the sugar-producing Burdekin,then to Townsville, Cardwell and Mackay.Road-side stalls burst forth with mustbuymangoes, bananas, pineapples andmelons in season, while timber shacks,which hug rickety wharves, offer thefreshest reef fish, sweetest prawnsand ambrosial mud crabs.Stop at the Flaggy Rock Exotic FruitGarden south of Mackay for lunchcooked by Hans and Janice Plessing.Bundaberg is the fruit bowl of theCoral Coast, the supplier of chillies,tomatoes and peas to the southernstates, however the mainstay of thelocal economy is sugar, which distilsinto the famous Bundy Rum.The good old countryMosey inland to South East QueenslandCountry.Aim for Kilkivan where Bendele Farmorganic ducks are the gourmet’sfavourite, and onto Goomeri where asuccess story is Spring Valley Olives.Terry Beutel’s Googa Farms, on theoutskirts of Blackbutt producesdynamic organic avocado oil using coldpressing techniques. Kingaroy is knownas the peanut capital of Australia and thePeanut Van in Kingaroy Street sells nineflavours including a wowee chilli andgarlic. At Christopher Ganzer’s KingaroyCheese Company save room in the eskyfor his award-winning triple cream brieand washed rind.SpecialTreatCatch yourbarramundilunch in theFitzroy Rivernear theRockhamptontown centre;eat fish andchips frompicnic spotsand headlandoutcropsSpecial TreatIce cream lover ‘must-stops’: Yum Yum’s in Mossman; Frosty Mango betweenCairns and Townsville; Mamminos in Childers near Bundaberg; The Big Pineappleat Nambour; Colin James Fine Foods at Maleny; Massimo Gelateria in Noosa; andin Brisbane Re del Gelato at New Farm and Cromona Gelateria in Rosalie Village.QUEENSLAND FOOD AND WINE GUIDE 3