Meat pies, Chico rolls and party mix lollies. What road trip is truly complete without the basic food items of a Great Australian Road trip?

Australia’s a big country and any road trip is inevitably going to take you through at least one of the following, breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, midnight snack – you get the point.

Luckily for us, there are plenty of places to get a feed and pick up some quintessential Aussie snacks. These are some of our go-to road trip snacks.

1. The Great Australian Meat Pie

Who doesn’t love a meat pie? Vegans I guess. Anyway there are two ways you can go with a meat pie. There is option one, the Servo Pie, or should I say the ‘dreaded Servo Pie’ or maybe most accurately, the ‘sometimes-delicious-but-always-risky Servo Pie’.

Whatever you want to call it, the Servo Pie is easily available along all highways in Australia and is a truckie’s staple. Worth a try at least once, even if just to say you survived.

Your second option is the Bakery Pie.

Most small towns from Berry to Ballarat have a bakery that has signature pies and most likely all of them claim to have the best pie in Australia. I have had some that are worse than a servo pie and I have had some that I would consider gourmet.

These are best consumed outside the bakery either on their plastic tables or in the gutter by the car. You are almost certainly going to make a mess so they are best consumed outside of the car as I learned at a young age (sorry Dad).

2. The Chiko Roll

Depending on who you talk to the Chiko Roll is either an Australian icon or an abomination.

Invented in 1951 the Chiko Roll was designed to be eaten on the run. In the peak of its popularity up to 40 million Chiko Rolls were sold annually. Since then however they seem to have disappeared, that is except for in small towns on long drives.

I don’t know if they’ve been stored in their freezer since the 70s or what, but if you find yourself in a small highway town and the bakery is closed, head to the fish and chip shop and get yourself a Chiko Roll.

These things were designed to be eaten on the go so you can get right back in the car and hit the road.

3. Party Mix Lollies

If you want to start an argument in the car make sure you pack a bag of party mix lollies. Everyone has a different favourite and everyone has the same disgust for the liquorice cats.

These party packs have evolved over the years but if you can find one that has the magic trifecta of the teeth, the pineapples and the red frogs you’re onto a winner. The liquorice cats also make good projectiles, just saying.

4. Fish And Chips

The majority of road trips in Australia are going to be taken along the coast. This makes for excellent seafood. Pretty much every coastal town you stop in is going to have a fish and chip shop serving locally caught wares. These stops are best when you take your time and get out of the car.

As you will want to be having fish and chips around dinner time, be sure to get out of the car and do that classic Australian thing, fish and chips on the beach. Sure you will probably get attacked by seagulls and get sand in your food but it’s all part of the experience.

5. The Packed Lunch

Not everything has to be fried, some things you don’t even need to get out of the car for. If you really want to torture the people in your car you could pack a lunch that can be eaten on the go. Think fresh fruit, whole grain bread with salad and some bottles of water.

This way you can stay in the car for the whole journey and you won’t have to badger the lady at the country bakery about whether or not her pies are gluten-free.

 

 

Feature photo by @scotty.runacres