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!

Taronga Zoo

KANGAROO. Apparently they sit on their tail when they are resting.
WOMBAT. Love.
TASSIE DEVIL. Nothing like the Looney Tunes character!
BLUE PENGUIN. Smallest penguin in the world and only found in Oz. So small in fact, I couldn't get a decent picture. Just kidding these guys were pretty shy and I managed to get a semi decent photo of one swimming in the tank

The Argyle

Went to a swanky bar with the Carat team out here called the Argyle with a shared bathroom. These nifty pod things are actually urinals, pronounced with an Aussie-Brit accent as you-RIGH-nal. Also - in case you thought Japan had all the weird stuff in vending machines - they've got a machine with ballet slipper flats in case you're wearing crappy heels that make your feet hurt.

Ute & Vegemite

Ute (Left)
Short for utility vehicle - is a pretty popular car out here. I'm told that all the "tradesmen" have them and people do all sorts of stuff to fix 'em up like rice rockets
Vegemite (Right)
I have to hand it to the Aussies for being resourceful. All that leftover yeast at the bottom of the barrel from making beer gets recycled into this local fave. With a little onion, salt, and celery - vegemite is supposedly the best hangover cure. Taste-wise it's got a punch to it you wouldn't really expect and kind of reminds me of olives..

Did you pack the surfboard?

Only in Australia... would booking an airport shuttle ask you if you're bringing along any surfboards...

Gmail = Smart

Forgetting to include an attachment on an email. Happens to the best of us. Luckily Google has devised a solution for this! I stumbled across this error message on one of my emails and saved myself the embarrassing follow-up email. Thanks Gmail!

Knife Shaved Beef Noodles

Memories of Taiwan... delicious knife-shaved noodles into Taiwanese Beef Soup. Kudos to Lotus Restaurant for this one. In case you were wondering, the noodles are peeled into the soup and since it has an uneven texture you get a mixture of soft/chewy noodle texture. Mmm..

Marco...

Polo! First polo match today was everything I could have expected... and more! Nacho Figueras of Ralph Lauren's Black Watch team stole the show and scored 5 goals. The game was exciting and interesting and definitely had its moments of suspense.

My favorite part, as a newcomer to the sport, was the halftime ritual of stomping the dirt clods. The horses chalked up the field with all their running back and forth, so just as the third chukker ended, the crowd got up and spent the 15-minute halftime stomping the field of clods back into the grass - all of course, in their Sunday best and big floppy hats.

Singanei... Brunpore...

A few years ago when I visited Brunei and Singapore, I learned that their currencies are interchangeable. So a twenty dollar Brunei bill could be used in Singapore as if it were a twenty dollar Singapore bill. This has been going on since the 60's. But... how cool is this? A limited edition twenty dollar bill that is Singapore on one side.. and Brunei on the other! (Thanks Dad!)

Sliders & Cotton Candy

Trying to avoid making this a mega-foodie blog, but somehow food keeps coming up. So I'm combining two fun food things I found into one upload:

1. Vizzi Food Truck: Call it their hidden menu, but you can order a sampler of their sliders for $8. Organic chickpea, Chicken, and Wagyu-braised Beef - all topped with chimichurri-creme fraiche sauce, cilantro and green onions. Served on a bed of seasoned popcorn.

2. Cotton Candy. Boa (Steakhouse.) Picture tells it all...

Mushroom Fries

We all know you can make anything yummy by frying it, but I think Bottega Louie nailed it with their Portabella Fries. Strips of portabella mushroom, deep fried into juicy goodness. Mmmm... Long wait for a table, but completely worth it!

Lemonade LA

This was a fun place after I finally figured out how to order. If you go, you should probably check out the menu and decide what you want before you arrive. Otherwise the pressure of everyone standing in line behind you while you attempt to read 20+ different options such as "Ginger duck with swiss chard, pineapple, chili, cashew, and coriander" or "Grass fed 'Piedmont' skirt steak with balsamic bermuda onions" ends up becoming really stressful. To give you an idea of what this looks like...



Luckily it doesn't seem like you can go wrong... But to make things more confusing, each order is $4 and is about half of your place, which is way too much of any one side. But you can split the side and pick 2 sides for $4, so for $8, you can get 4 sides. I went with...
1. Watermelon radish with ahi tuna, snap peas, and sesame
2. Beets, pickled red onions, hazelnut vinaigrette
3. Rainbow kale, sherry, creme fraiche
4. Sweet potatos and pistachios

And last but not least, there's a reason it's called Lemonade LA. If you like SUPER sweet drinks, more-sweet than a sweet tea, then you'll probably dig the lemonade more than I did. The cucumber mint lemonade was yum but a little too sugary for my taste.

Pussywillows

Never realized that pussywillows are actually flowers. Always thought of them as decoration. Anyway, I have a vase of them and not only did they sprout leaves, but they "bloomed!"

Bike Parking. Fail

Went to BevMo today to stock up and noticed that their bike parking has been trumped by shopping carts.

Pig Pile

I know I've already posted about the OC Fair Pig Cam, but after a horrendously long week, this one really made my day...

OC Fair Pig Cam

Thank you Orange County Fair. You're amazing:

And how would you like your fish today?

Love the Asian market. Aside from having cheaper food and a better selection of produce, they have an intense seafood department that involves a little aggression and butcher stalking for some attention. I actually went to pick up some live crabs when I went, but always find the fish department kind of amusing. You pick your own fish - buffet style onto a tray - and then hand it to the butcher and tell him what number you want to have your fish prepared as. Conveniently translated into all the local languages of Orange County. I never understood the people who want fried fish from the grocery store... but who knows.

Now you see him...

Meet Buster... Funny thing about bettas - people seem to think they like little containers, like champagne glasses and whatnot. I am pretty sure Buster is a fan of space, and when he wants a little alone time he hides in one of the shells.

If you look closely, you can see him poking his little blue nose out of the shell =)

Beyond the Call of Duty

A choreographed wedding party dance... complete with a can-can kickline. As ridiculous as it sounds, it was actually a lot of fun!