Food for Boating
Life on the water is simple. Basic food thats easy to prepare and wonderful to consume is best. One of the real pluses about the Gippsland Lakes is that you can easily stock up with fresh food along the way.
TOP TIP: Pack all you food requiring refrigeration in plastic storage boxes: they stack easily, prevent your food from being squashed in the trough style fridges and it makes it easier to find what you are looking for.
Breakfast
You have the time to enjoy the luxury of a long breakfast – anything from fresh fruit to the full works of eggs, bacon, tomatoes, etc. Plan to make the start of your day something special.
Lunch
Bread rolls (there are bakeries at Metung and Paynesville), selection of cheeses, salami and ham, sun dried tomatoes, olives and lots of fruit – all served up on a platter for extra ease. Soup is another good standby for lunch, with those semi baked bread rolls.
Dinner
Pasta – pre-prepared sauces makes it really easy, for example, your homemade pesto or favourite tomato sauce, or the commercial varieties
Barbecues – there are many barbecues around the Lakes.
Pre-prepared casseroles, such as lasagna, prepared in tin foil containers that cut down the job of washing up
Chicken breasts to lightly fry, served with green salad
Stir fries done in the fry pan on board
Fresh seafood that you buy locally
Caesar and other salads
Or dinner at one of the many restaurants or hotels in the portside towns
In between
Fruit cake, lots of fresh fruit, chocolate, tea, coffee, soft drinks, and perhaps the odd bottle of wine for gentle evenings in beautiful places
Stocking up before you board
For last minute shopping there is a general store in Metung, and there are major supermarkets at Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance.
Metung Village Store
Metung Village Store sells a good range of local wines, and they now also have cryovac gourmet meat – perfect for on board because it keeps well and tastes terrific.
During the prawning season, you can usually get fresh prawns at the village store, straight from the trawler.