Inuit Mussel Hunters

Awesome BBC story of Inuit Mussel Hunters who have 30 minutes to climb under the ice and get mussels before the tide comes back in.

Pumpernickel bread.

At first glance, I thought this was yet another Engrish mistake. But after a closer look, I realized that "Devil's Fart" is correctly translated from the characters above it, which meant... Google time!

Interestingly enough here's what I discovered:
"Pumpernickel" originates from German words that loosely mean...
You guessed it! "Devil's Fart." Observe.

The German word "Pumpen" was used to describe flatulence, and the coarse texture of the bread encouraged such behavior from those who consumed it.
The German word "Nickel" is short for "Nicholas," a name often given to goblins, or the devil, or anything dark in nature. Had to do some additional googling to confirm this one -- especially with all the St. Nicholas stories out there.

Therefore when you put it all together, combined with the bread's common flatulence side-effect, you have Pumpernickel Bread -- aka Devil's Fart.

Taiwanese Beef Noodles (刀削牛肉麵)

Beef Noodle Soup with Knife-shaved Noodles. I have miserably failed to make this at home, so I'll resort to gorging myself on this every time I'm here. The soup has been stewing since early in the morning and is perfect for lunch - especially since it's cold and rainy out. The noodles are freshly cut to order. The chef uses a block of dough and gently shaves off long noodle-like pieces into the soup -- similar to using a carrot peeler. The result is an uneven textured noodle that's soft on the edges and chewy and doughy in the middle. Yummm...

Visiting the Motherland

Across the Pacific again and wanted to share some gems of my journey...

On my flight, there was a little packet that came as my congee topping..
It's shredded dried tuna that was creatively labeled "Flavored Tuna Floss"

Also - when I opened my suitcase I got a warm little welcome from the TSA who stuck a note in my suitcase informing me they had rummaged through my stuff. Routine inspection..

Ginger Beer!!

Ginger Beer: I didn't really think there was anything better than Ginger Ale until I started drinking ginger beer! They have so many brands and it's all over the place.

Sandboarding

This is Port Stephens. This was ridiculously fun.

Aside from the obvious thrill factor of riding down sand dunes on boards, there are two interesting facts about these dunes:

1. It's the largest moving land mass in the world. The winds blow sand inland, up to 10 meters per year. At one point this was all a forest but the sand has slowly blown inland and eaten away at the vegetation.

2. This sand is exported to Waikiki Beach! So the famous white sand beaches in Waikiki are not from Hawaii at all, but from Newcastle!

Pizza!

Couldn't decide whether to try the kangaroo, crocodile, or emu, but settled on the emu which was really tasty!

Sydney Fish Market

The Sydney Fish Market is the second largest in the world. It's not really a consumer destination but we went ahead and checked it out anyway. By law, fishermen have to land 100% of their catch, meaning they're not allowed to throw stuff back into the water. In order to help them sell all of the fish - the Fish Market conducts a daily auction. Every morning at 5:30 am dozens of buyers come in and bid on fresh catch for their respective clients (chefs, restaurants, etc.)

They use a Dutch auction model which is pretty interesting. The fish of choice is displayed and the price per kilogram counts down. When a buyer wants to buy he pushes the button to stop the price and enters how many kg he wants. The longer he waits, the cheaper the cost becomes, but he is at risk of another buyer jumping in and buying what he wants.

If you look at the picture, the buyers on sitting in the stadium seating on the bottom right and they are watching the clock where each cycle represents one aussie dollar.

Horseracing = Fashion Show

It's a whole different breed at the racetracks here. We found out it's racing season so we decked ourselves out to join the crowd. But here, going to the races has a whole different meaning. Girls put feathers and fascinators in their hair and look like they are putting on a fashion show. The scene is so seen-and-be-seen in fact, they have a pay-hair-straightener in the girls bathroom!

Random Aussie Stuph

Took us a while to catch on with the accent, but the Aussies kept telling us about beetroot -- which they pronounce pretty quickly like... bitruit. Not entirely sure how that's different from regular beets, but they love it in everything, especially burgers!

Red Bull - I guess it comes in bottles here!