It's An Interesting Place: Australians

Showing posts with label Australians. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Foodie Adventure

Melbourne is famous for its posh food and coffee culture. During my first week here, I went to a cafe and ordered a regular coffee, ignorant of the fact that in Melbourne there is no "regular" coffee. The idea of anyone drinking from a drip coffee maker makes Melbournians cringe. "Regular" coffee is either a cappuccino, latte, flat white, or long black. The strength of the food culture is similar; Melbourne is famous for having tons of diverse, quality restaurants. People take eating very seriously here; much of the food is organic and preservative free, and it's not difficult to find exceptional places to eat.
I am not very posh or sophisticated when it comes to these things, and generally eat whatever is in front of me. But, a classmate of mine writes a food blog and reviews various restaurants around town. I had been reading her blog and drooling over pictures of the food she's had, and asked her to take me on a Melbourne foodie adventure! We went to Cumulus Inc, one of her favorites, and I had my first taste of fine dining!

We started with raw tuna and peas. I forget the name of the dish, but that's what was in it. And it was delicious. I really like raw fish, and tuna is one of my favorites! It had a really nice seasoning, and the peas complimented it well. Yum!

You totally want to eat this

Next, we had pheasant! And it came with crackers, mustard, and rhubarb. I've never had pheasant or rhubarb before, and I was happy with both. We put the pheasant and rhubarb on top of the crackers and topped it off with the mustard. Delicious!

Pheasant!

Our seats were at the bar, which was neat because we got to see all the cooks in the kitchen preparing the food! It was so cool to look at them go! They were so intense and professional. It seemed like such a small place for all of them to work in at once, but they weaved around each other seamlessly and nobody ever got in the way.

Cooks in the kitchen!

Our main course was the duck, and it came on top of this amazing warm seed and nut salad. It was mind blowingly phenomenal. The duck was so tender and juicy, and the salad was out of this world! It was so warm and nutty and delicious, and had little bits of duck meat mixed into it. My mouth is watering just thinking about how amazing this dish was!

Succulent!

After that, we had the eggplant salad. They put pomegranate seeds on it, which were a really tasty touch! It went along so well with the rest of the dish and added lovely, tangy bursts of flavor to it.

For dessert we had cappuccinos and these amazing lemon cookies! Also, since we were sitting right at the bar, we saw the cook preparing and baking them for us! They were warm and crispy on the outside, and filled with lemony goodness!

Lemony goodness!

I have now officially become one of those people who take pictures of their food.
Cumulus Inc was incredible, and I'm so glad I got to go! I knew I was in good hands, and got just what I bargained for! You should check out my friend's blog. I linked it above, but here it is again: http://letmefeedyoumelbourne.blogspot.com.au/

Friday, June 15, 2012

At the Cricket!

In late January, I went with some friends from Couch Surfing to my first ever cricket match! A friend of a friend happens to be a member of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and we were able to go with him to the members area. It was so interesting; despite everyone saying how boring cricket is, I thought it was really cool and fun! My friend explained the rules to me so I could follow the game.
The match we saw was the Melbourne Stars vs. Adelaide. It was a Twenty20 match, so I think the rules differ slightly than test cricket. Now, I'm certainly no expert and only saw that one game which was months ago, so I may be completely wrong, but this is how I remember it:
They have a pitcher (they call him a bowler) and someone batting (kind of like baseball). The bowler tosses the ball, and the batter hits it. After the ball is hit, the batter has to run as many times as he can between two posts and the teams are scored by how many runs they get in between the time when the ball is hit and when it is caught. And that's the game! I'm probably missing tons of important details, but that's what I understood, and I was able to follow pretty well for a first timer (I think)!

Play ball!

Me and Tom, my cricket teacher!

Cricket is fun with friends!

My first meat pie! Australians love them and eat them at all the sporting events!

Group shot!

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)

I'm pretty sure Melbourne won this game

Group shot in the members lounge!

Ladies love cricket!

We had so much fun watching the game from the members area, but then we got bored and wandered down into Bay 13, which is notorious for being fun and rowdy! The fans will throw beach balls, evade security, make waves, chant cricket things, and have a good time!

Beach ball! You're actually not supposed to throw them around. It was fun seeing them try to keep it away from security!

There's another one!

The view from Bay 13

Bay 13!

The members area we were in before

There was a cricket at the cricket!

I love how when Australians refer to sporting events, they always say that they are going to "the" cricket; "the" footy, etc. It's one of the many endearing quirks I've found about them since coming here!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sydney!

Oh dear, it has been eons since I posted last, and there has been quite a lot to post about! Now that I am done with law school exams, I shall endeavor to recap the past 6 months as much as possible. First on the list - Sydney!

In mid January I went to Sydney for a few days to check out the sights and catch up with some friends. I had an amazing time and did so much! Four days definitely wasn't enough time to spend in Australia's most populous city.

During my visit, I stayed with a friend that I made at the HPAIR conference in Seoul. A little networking goes a long way. He and his family live in a suburb in West Sydney, and were so accommodating and hospitable. They were really fantastic, and I couldn't have stayed with better people!

I took a bus into Sydney from Melbourne, which took about 14 hours during the day. We left at around 7 in the morning and arrived to Sydney at about 9. From there, I was supposed to take a train to Penrith, where my friend lives, but as soon as the train arrived it was terminated because of a fatality on the tracks! So instead, I took a cab and met my friend halfway between where he lives and where I was coming from. Taxis in Sydney are expensive! They made me miss D.C. cab fares, which I never thought could be possible.

The next morning, I met my friend Jonathan in the city for some sight seeing. Jonathan went to FSU with me, but he decided to transfer in the middle of his degree and is now attending Macquarie University in Sydney. We had such an amazing day. Jonathan was a most excellent tour guide and we were able to visit all of the big Sydney attractions.

We started at Darling Harbour, which has tons of shops and restaurants and also plays host to many events throughout the year.

Water! Hey look, there's the opera house in the distance!

Le pose with le view from le harbour

Jonathan then took me on a stroll through the city as we made our way to Sydney Harbour

Buildings!

This is where they filmed The Matrix! Recognize it?

The bridge! And a cruise ship!

Ibises! These guys were EVERYWHERE eating things! Look at them go!

The opera house!

A less shady picture of the opera house. Magnificent!

Me and my lovely tour guide! Jonathan is such a gem! He put up with me all day, so you know he's good people :)

Really wanted to climb the bridge, but it was like $200 to do it. So I just looked at it instead.

And then we walked around Sydney Harbour some more and ended at the Botanical Gardens!

Aboriginal man playing a didgeridoo!

Of course, I had to get a picture throwing up the Lundquist sign.

The Sydney Opera House up close! It is made out of reflective tiles which is why when it is shady the opera house looks gray and when it is sunny looks like it is glowing!

Ibis!!!!

Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of this tree! But it's filled with water, which is why it's so fat! Apparently this is one of the ways the Aboriginals would get their water!

View of the bridge and opera house from the Botanical Gardens. Look how it glows!

Seriously in love with this view. Look at the yacht!

One day, I too shall have a yacht docked in Sydney Harbour! Crossed fingers, ok?

All around Australia they have disposal units for needles. A while ago there were old heroin needles littering parks and beaches and kids stepping on them and getting infected, so they have put these up to encourage safe disposal

The next day, I went to the Taronga Zoo with Sarah, my friend's beautiful sister! We took a ferry ride to get there! It was warm and sunny; perfect zoo weather. We had so much fun looking at all the cute animals!! I took way too many pictures of them, so I'll just share my favorites (mostly the Australian animals).