Day two of our beach side honeymoon in Jervis Bay dawns cloudy, grey and pouring with rain. The Boy knows that I’ll go stir crazy in our tiny cabin within about 15 minutes so he wisely bundles me into the car, umbrella in tow, and we head up to Berry for some eating and shopping.
Our first stop in Berry is The Stuffed Olive – a little delicatessen just off the main drag.
Being of Hungarian descent I’m particularly fond of a good deli. I love salamis, cured meats, cheese and anything that comes in pâté form or pickled in brine. Olives would have to be one of my favourite nibbley foods, followed closely by gherkins. Stuff an olive with feta or anchovy and I’m literally in heaven.
The Boy and I decide to share an
Anti-Pasto Plate for 1 ($13.90) as we have bigger, sweeter plans for later on and need the tummy room.
Our plate comes with a small selection of meats (prosciutto and two types of salami) and cheeses (brie, goats cheese and something that could possibly be a mozzarella). We also have a little sampling of sun-dried tomatoes, lettuce and caramelised onions.
The Anti-Pasto Plate also has a few pieces of deliciously crispy bread (similar to a large crouton). I ask for some plain bread though as I know that the croutons won’t be enough for all of the goodies we’re sharing. The extra serve of Italian bread costs us $1.00. Bargain.
Our deli selection is delicious and I’m in woggy food heaven. I particularly loved the strong flavoured goats cheese and the tartness of the sun-dried tomato. It goes without saying that the olives were amazing. The Boy tells me he liked the mystery round cheese (mozzarella?) and the salami.
As far as country delicatessens go I think The Stuffed Olive is pretty good (as far as most deli's go really). It has great variety and all the yummy goodies you’d expect to see in a city deli, as well as steady stream of customers (which did seem to overwhelm the staff a bit as they got flustered when the shop got more than half full).
The staff were also a bit weird about me taking photos – I did ask if I could snap a few pictures and at first it was OK, and then half way through I was told they’d have to ask their boss if it was OK. As far as I know they never asked their boss, or at least never got back to me about the camera, so I ‘assume’ happy snapping was OK after all?
After lunch we go for a wander and a shop in Berry. We both line up for what seems like an age at the ONE public toilet cubicle this tourist mecca has to offer. Seriously Berry, with the amount of tourists you get each day surely you could build us ladies another loo (or three).
As we head back to the car we stop off at
The Famous Berry Donut Van.
I’d actually never even heard of this place until I read
Grab Your Fork’s post a few weeks ago. But, The Boy (a donut connoisseur from way back) tells me he’s well aware of the Berry Donut Van – he just never thought I’d suggest we go there together.
The Boy conveniently fails to see that you can order just one donut, and goes for a bag of six. I had a small lunch so I don’t point out the error of his ordering ways.
These donuts are made manually (not via an automatic machine like Donut King type establishments) and the donut lady pops the donut mix into the hot oil using a ye olde donut popping out machine. Way cool.
All donuts from
The Famous Berry Donut Van are freshly made and come to you so hot that they have the potential to burn not only your fingers as you greedily grab them out of the bag, but a layer of skin off the roof of your mouth (I’m speaking from experience here). Their claim to fame is that they’ve never served a cold donut, and they never reheat their donuts...everything is made to order.
The writing on the bag tells us these donuts will be the best we’ve ever had. I’m not sure about that as I'm not a true donut expert, but they were pretty good! They were fresh, hot and dusted with loads of cinnamon sugar - much better than the mass produced donuts I have at a lot of other places (that makes it sound like I eat donuts all the time, but I don't. Hardly ever. Honest)!
The Boy confirms that as far as donuts go, these are pretty good. They could only have been better if he could have seen them being popped out of the donut maker into the oil.
As we're leaving the van I spy HUGE 20kg tins of oil used for frying the donuts! Kind of burst my fantatsy that fresh, handmade donuts aren't really that bad for you!
The Stuffed Olive is at Shop 3/ 65 Queen St, Berry (although I think they are actually 'on' Albany Street).
You can pretty much follow your nose to the The Famous Berry Donut Van, or find them at next to the Shell servo on Queen Street (aka Princes Highway), Berry.
