From Craftsville to Glossville; coffee and a rare gelato; not-so-rare bush turkey sighting; a peach of a beach; kraken good salad at Peregian Beach; Bistro C review
With the prospect of sunshine and a predicted midday high of 22 degrees Centigrade – in the middle of one of the coldest spells seen in these parts for a very long time – we headed for the famous seaside town of Noosa*.
(* Properly pronounced by locals in a faux-posh accent as Nyooosa, with a pinched nose – or so I am reliably informed.)
Noosa is less than half an hour northeast by car from Eumundi, the crafty hinterland haunt where we were spending three nights. But these two towns could not be more different.
Noosa town
I don’t know what we were expecting. Something more casual, more laid-back – more Australian, right? Not this glossy and cosmopolitan resort mecca.
On a glorious Sunday morning, every clothing, jewellery and home décor boutique was open for business, and Queensland’s famous café society was in full swing.
With no tables to be had on Hastings Street, the main strip, we resorted to this slightly off-the-road Mexican food stall for our coffee – and it was fine!
Even better were these gelatos, Roy’s his favourite vanilla and mine the dulce leche macadamia and salted caramel. (This is a rare and uncommon treat, let it be known. Roy didn’t lose 34kg since March 2020 by feasting freely on gelato.)
Bush turkey moment
Interesting to discover that this native brush turkey (or bush turkey, or scrub turkey), an arguably handsome fellow that’s fully protected in terms of the Biodiversity Act 2016, “is now recovering in areas where they have not been seen for many decades”. (Particularly in Hastings Street, Noosa.)
Also in favour of the long-term survival of this species is that it does not taste like chicken, according to one article. The recommendation goes, “When you cook a bush turkey in a pot, throw away the bush turkey and eat the pot.”
Noosa Beach
Finally, we made our way to the beach – it’s not visible from the town – and immediately saw exactly why Noosa has become so desirable. It’s not just the perfect waves peeling onto a pristine stretch of pearly beach, and the promise of a picturesque river estuary around the corner; there’s also a leafy, rocky promontory that defines the end of the beach and marks the start of Noosa National Park. Truly the best of all worlds.
For lunch, we headed south down the coast to pretty Peregian Beach. There, we lunched on hearty kraken salads ($22 each) at The Captain’s Daughter – super-casual, but definitely recommended.
Review: Bistro C, On the Beach, Noosa
Max and Trevor – and plenty of others on the internet, incidentally – had recommended dinner at Bistro C in Noosa’s On the Beach development. It was outstanding! – delicious food, sterling service and a relaxed and intimate space.
We started with half-a-dozen fabulous Coffin Bay oysters with tobiko and wakame ($24), followed by caramelised pork belly, artichoke mash, pickled red cabbage and crackling ($39) for Roy. For me, the high country lamb – 12-hour braised shoulder and cutlet with saffron pearl cous cous, goat’s curd, ruby quince and pomegranate syrup ($42), plus a side of crispy Brussels sprouts ($12). A couple of glasses of red for me and just one for Roy, who would be driving us back to Eumundi – thanks, sweetie! – and it came to about $150. (Do book – this was Monday night, the place was full, and most of the tables around us were turned over at least once.)
Stayed in Noosa some years ago and loved it – thanks for the memory jogger :-o)
Thanks, Geoff! I enjoyed your recent blog on Naura, too. Verne