THE T-shirt reads: 'Ned Kelly is alive and well, and living in Hong Kong.' Well if this is the case, the celebrated 19th century Australian bushranger is probably a bit disoriented, but rather well-fed and having a rollicking good time holed up in Tsim Sha Tsui.
For those unfamiliar with the folk hero's story, it is set out sympathetically on the back of the menu at Ned Kelly's Last Stand. And inside are the sorts of meals - as traditional as a cuisine gets in just two centuries of colonisation - that Australians remember from childhood dinner tables.
The glossy presentation and fancy names such as 'The Gundagai Tuckerbox' (chicken fillet with BBQ sauce topped with crisp bacon and melted cheese in a French roll) flirt with theme-park kitsch.
There are also a few 'ring-ins' - chili con carne that date from a slightly later period, say the 1970s, when mums were feeling adventurous.
But underneath it all is a pub (hotel) which is not afraid to call a gravy a gravy, and dish it up with the requisite amount of onion and salt.
This onion gravy comes with steak, sausages (bangers 'n' mash), chicken 'n' chips and meat pie and is not to be missed in the search for country Australiana.
