Join The Wrap as we munch our way through this week’s menu of quirky travel stories.
Will you have gravy with that?
The Wrap cannot hide the fact that he is something of a meat pie lover. One of his favourites is the "pie floater" – a meat pie and peas floating in gravy that is a specialty of Adelaide in South Australia.
He has also stopped for a feed at Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Sydney that has been serving up pies and pasties from a van near the wharf at Woolloomooloo – a Sydney inner-city suburb – for 70 years.
CNN Travel feels the need to explain the meat pie is an Australian tradition, "a hand-sized savoury pastry usually filled with minced meat in gravy and complemented with ketchup".
Sounds better than a hot dog to The Wrap.
Digest CNN’s tribute to Harry’s Café de Wheels here: Sydney meat pie van celebrates 70 years
Men just wanna show off
Do women still get treated differently to men in restaurants?
Frank Bruni, writing in the International Herald Tribune, has been attempting to find out.
These days, he suggests, many of the old restaurant gender conventions are disappearing.
"Certain musty rites — chivalrous from one perspective, chauvinistic from another — have faded or disappeared," he writes.
It's a rare restaurant that gives menus without prices to women dining with men. And most restaurants no longer steer the "ladies" toward the banquette, assuming they want to face out toward the room.
Bruni also checked out a few trendy bars for their take on the gender gap.
"Women are looking for somewhere comfortable," he was told.
"Men are looking for somewhere to show off."
Old gender roles with your dinner?
Is that my sole mate you’re grilling?
Atlantis The Palm has opened its doors with a flourish on Dubai’s Palm Island and, as you would expect, one of its standout attractions is a fish restaurant where one glass wall shows off a fish-filled lagoon.
Ossiano is run by the three-starred Michelin chef Santi Santamaria.
According to the UK Independent, the food on offer is exquisite: onion jam with cuttlefish and squid ink sauce; snapper with chopped dried fruit and nuts.
"There's always a nagging feeling, however, that the fish on the other side of the glass are watching while you tuck into their erstwhile chums," says the writer.
Atlantis has lined up several Michelin starred chefs to keep its high-end diners happy. Chances are they won’t be putting meat pies on the menu.
Atlantis, The Palm: A nice little place I know
Class act closes its doors
Finally, back to Sydney, and while this story may have nothing to do with food, it does provide food for thought.
After nearly 40 years of serving the local community, Sydney's most infamous brothel – a Touch of Class - has shut up shop.
The UK Independent says that politicians, judges and the late media magnate Kerry Packer were, reportedly, among those who frequented "Toucha", as it was fondly known.
Mr Packer, Australia's richest man for nearly two decades, once hired the entire venue, it was rumoured, so that his polo-playing friends could enjoy themselves with "some good, clean girls".
Sydney brothel-goers lose a Touch of Class
