Trip to Australia (Gold Coast - January 2016)...Final day adventure

Rainbow over the canyon in Springbrook National Park, World Heritage Site

It was the second Sunday since I came to Gold Coast and the final full day there.


We drove to Springbrook National Park, which is about 45 minutes from Surfers Paradise. It's a World Heritage Site. This area maintains ancient rainforest and ecosystem. We were excited to hike there.


After walking through long winding trail, there was a river in the bottom of the valley.


Magnificent waterfall.


After about 3-hour hike, we were starving. We walked a nearby cafe for lunch.


We enjoyed very Australian treats of scones, toasties, and chicken wrap.


We walked more after lunch, then also drove to different spots in the park.


We returned to Surfers Paradise in early evening, so didn't have much time to rest until dinner. For dinner, we drove a short distance to Main Beach, which is right north of Surfers Paradise. It's a popular tapas bar/ restaurant called, Bar Chico, in the neighborhood. There was live music going on when we got there.


The place was packed with locals. I loved the ambience.


We enjoyed different small plates. It was a fun night but made me sentimental, because I was going to leave very early morning the next day. I won't see Jason for another couple of months until he returns to LA... I will miss him for a while.


And, of course, I got a lot of Tim Tam to take back to LA.

Trip to Australia (Gold Coast - January 2016)...More burger

Aussie Grass-fed Wagyu 100%

I found there was going to be Gold Coast Food & Wine Expo in the convention center in Broadbeach for the weekend, so I went to check out on their first day on Friday.


It wasn't exactly the kind of event I expected...I thought there would be more local artisan food vendors, but there were not very many. However, I was pretty happy to see many local wineries (many of them are not exported to the US) there, so I got to taste some.


I left the event in less than 2 hours, then I was hungry. Back in Surfers Paradise, I decided to check out a very popular burger place called, Brooklyn Depot. I ordered Brooklyn classic burger and it was so good!


Brooklyn Dept is located within a cool market place called The 4217 in Surfers Paradise. There were different artisan vendors (coffee roaster, deli, tea shop, bakery, etc.). I would love to try the bread from the bakery sometime.


For dinner, I went back to 4217 with Jason and his colleagues! We had dinner at Salt Meats Cheese there. It's a gourmet Italian cafe restaurant/ shop. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share. Their pizzas from wood-fire oven were outstanding!

Trip to Australia (Gold Coast - January 2016)...Aussie Beef

300-day dry-aged Aussie Wagyu beef

Another sunny day in Surfers Paradise.


I decided to finally check out Mos Burger! I ordered their Aussie Wagyu beef 100% gourmet burger. It was tasty.


Then, I hung out at the beach.


Jason came back from work pretty early in the evening, and we decided to have dinner at Salt Grill in the hotel for dinner. We started with the local oysters and calamari fries. I've been crazy about both oysters and calamari in Australia!


Then, I had hiramasa fish carpaccio. Jason had crab stuffed omelet dish. Both were really delicious.


For a main course, we both ordered 300-day dry-aged Aussie Wagyu beef! So, last time I ordered 150-day aged beef, and this time was 300-day aged...so crazy! We both requested the doneness to be rare and both steaks came out perfectly. The flavor was so rich in umami, and very juicy. We were both very happy.