Spice Temple

I heard about Neill Perry and his restaurant, Spice Temple, on an Australian cooking show. All of the Chinese and Asian recipes he made on the show sounded really good and I was excited to learn that Spice Temple would be close to where we were staying in Sydney. Spice Temple advertises itself as a modern Chinese restaurant. I was able to get us a reservation for Saturday night at 9:15 pm. Admittedly we were both nervous about staying up late enough to eat past 9:00 pm.

The ambiance of the restaurant was very nice and fitting with the Asian theme. The only odd thing about the décor was all the photos of really attractive Asian women on the wall. I guess instead of landscape or other art, they decided to go for a cross between arty photos and glamour shots of beautiful women.

The drink menu had cocktails named after the animals from the Chinese zodiac. All of the cocktails had a mix of really unusual ingredients. For example, the cocktail for my sign, the sheep, was: almond and leatherwood honey with don Julio blanco and orange blossom. We decided to share a carafe of the spice house punch, made with fresh squeezed pineapple, flor de cana, lillet blanc jasmine soda and sparkling wine. It was delicious and very refreshing.

It was very difficult to decide what dishes to order. We ultimately decided on:

Pickled cucumbers with smashed garlic and ginger
Fried salt and pepper silken tofu with spicy coriander salad
Broccolini with housemade oyster sauce
Fish drowned in heaven facing chillies and Sichuan peppercorns, Leatherjacket Sichuan style

The pickles were excellent and they really helped cut the fire from the spicer dishes. Sean really wants to learn how to make them at home. The tofu dish was also excellent. The coriander salad was a really nice compliment to the tofu, which was surprisingly flavorful in and of itself. When the fish dish came out it looked like a bowl full of chillies in broth. A waitress scoped out most of the chilles floating on top and we picked out pieces of fish from the broth. The fish was wonderful; it was spicy and flavorful, but not overly spicy considering that the chilies vastly outnumbered the fish. All in all, it was one of the best dinners I’ve had in a long time (thanks Lynn and Nick!).

Sydney

Sydney glorious Sydney! Sean and I headed down last Friday to see the famous Sydney. As promised in the many books I’ve read about Australia it was fantastic and completely different from Brisbane. We stayed at the Lord Nelson Brewery and Hotel in The Rocks. The Rocks is a lovely historical neighborhood by the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.

I was most excited to go to Sydney for the food and it did not disappoint. On our way to the hotel from Circular Quay we found a very adorable and very authentic German restaurant - the waitresses were dressed like the St. Pauli girl, but with less emphasis on the cleavage, and the waiters had real lederhosen on. The beer selection was fantastic. I really enjoyed the Mango weizen. It was a take on the light beer and lemonade, but hefeweizen with mango juice. I highly recommend it.

On Saturday we walked around Circular Quay, the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, Paddington and Darlington. After walking around town and exploring for most of the day we had a drink at our hotel/brewery. It was a perfect afternoon to sit outside in the sun with a tasty beer.



Saturday night we went out for a special dinner at Spice Temple. I’ll have to dedicate a separate post to our dinner; it was one of the best dinners I’ve had in a long time (thank you, Lynn!).

I learned a little factoid from watching Muriel’s Wedding - Sydney is known as the city of brides. Holy cow, it is completely true. We saw at least 10 wedding parties on Saturday. I think we saw four white stretch Hummer limos in the space of 45 minutes. One really strange thing we saw was a male street performer in a purple zoot suit salsa dancing with a female dummy. I kept thinking to myself, you couldn’t find one woman to dance with you? It was really bizarre.

Sunday we took the ferry to Manly along with everyone else in Sydney, or at least that’s how it felt. The ferry ride was beautiful and we got to see a lot of Sydney Harbor. Manly was surprisingly nice - touristy for sure, but a lovely beach. We split fish and chips for lunch; another really good meal.

I hope we can spend some more time in Sydney in the future, but we are out of time on this trip. I was glad to have a weekend here in Brisbane before heading off to the Whitsunday Islands and Bali and then home to Seattle.

Byron Bay

I have been meaning to post about our long weekend in Byron Bay, but for whatever reason I have done everything but write about our weekend so here goes...

We headed south to Byron Bay (located in New South Wales and not Queensland - my first out of state adventure!) on Good Friday. Pretty much everything was closed for the holiday, but luckily a good coffee shop in our neighborhood was open. Yes, this is the same one I bitterly complained about in an earlier post. I am getting over the whole different customer service approach and trying to roll with things as best I can. While on the beach in Byron Bay I did hear an Aussie woman complaining about a restaurant and poor customer service and was relieved that it is not just my American sensibilities that can get irked here. Hot cross buns are also huge here for the Easter holidays. Every commercial break since I got here has had at least one commercial about hot cross buns. In one of them a group of guys (construction workers, mason workers?) sit outside the supermarket waiting for it to open and get their hot cross buns and butter. Once they get said buns they use a trowel to spread the butter on. Does this remind you of any family members...Kranes, Furderers? You know who you are.

I digress, the drive down to Byron Bay was nice. All in all with traffic it took us a little over 2 hours. We stayed in a motel with Tamas, Kate and Tamas in a small town south of Byron called Ballina. The Tamas' are Sean's coworkers and Kate is Tamas's wife. All of them are from Hungary and working for one of the two large engineering firms overseeing the tunnel project.

We spent Friday afternoon on a beach near the Ballina lighthouse and swam and did a little surfing. The next day we all drove to Nimbin, a small hippie town about 45 minutes west from the coast. The town was adorable and the countryside was beautiful. That afternoon Sean and I headed to the Byron Bay Bluesfest and saw Old Crow Medicine Show and Bela Fleck perform with a group of Malian musicians. There were tons of bands at the festival but those two were the highlights.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out on the beach at Byron Bay, which was glorious - white sand, turquoise water and lovely green hillside. On Sunday I rented a stand-up paddle board while the boys rented surf boards. I thought it would be fun to paddle a bit in the waves. The board as it turned out was exceptionally heavy, not very stable (which is key to the standing up bit), and conditions were rather windy. I spent most of my time in the water fighting to stay up on my knees and got worked by several large waves. When I got tossed off the board and it hit me in the head, chipping my front tooth (I discovered that later) I decided I was done for the day. My legs are now covered with bruises from the board hitting me, but at least I don't make a whistling sound when I talk because of the chip (really, it's a very small chip and I've been watching a lot of Arrested Development).

The other excitement that occurred on the trip other than the loveliness of Byron, was that on Saturday night we and our rental car were victims of a smash and grab. Someone broke the passenger window on the car and stole Sean's iPod. The Ballina police were very nice, though they seemed a little disappointed that they weren't going to be able to use the fingerprint kit and also didn't really know what an iPod was. The last bit was little surprising to me especially since lots of people here have iPhones. In the end we were out the cost of replacing the window and I will have to turn over my iTouch to Sean. I wonder what I will do with all my music though....? :)

This weekend we are flying down to Sydney to check out the big city. I am really excited and plan to try some fun restaurants that I've read about. Any good food tips from folks that have been? We are staying at the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel in The Rocks near Circular Quay. Brewery+Hotel=Brilliant (sleeping and drinking needs met in one building).

On the exercise front, I am still hitting the gym everyday and slowing working some running back into my routine. Today was especially hot, so I swam instead, which was really enjoyable except I managed to tear a chunk out of my foot on the bottom of the pool somehow. It didn't hurt at the time, but now it's pretty painful. Hopefully I can sort it all out with some bandaids.

Waterslides and Paddle Boarding

On Saturday we spent the morning at the farmer's market in the park next to our apartment building. We had coffee at the Gypsy Coffee Stand and shared a Hungarian doughnut with jam. The market is always such a fun place to wander around and I love that it's become our Saturday morning ritual.

After we finished our shopping we headed to the Wet'n'Wild waterslide park near the Gold Coast for an early celebration of Sean's birthday. I haven't been to a waterslide park since I was 8 or 10. It was actually a lot of fun, though it did smell a little like wet feet. Surprisingly, it was even a bit of a work out. Many of the slides have inflatable tubes that you have to carry up many, many flights of stairs. Wet'n'Wild even had a beer garden, which was awesome.

On Sunday we got up early to go stand-up paddle boarding with Sean's coworker Tamas. It was really fun to paddle around and the boards were really nice, much nicer than the other boards we have used. Afterwards we headed up to Mt. Coot-tha to check out the view of Brisbane.

We decided to stay an extra week and made reservations for a trip to Bali. Even though Australia is close to Indonesia the flight from Brisbane to Bali is 6 hours. That really hammers it home that Australia is far from everything. Any Bali recommendations from folks that have been?

This weekend we are off to Byron Bay to check out the beaches and go to the Byron Bay Bluesfest. I will post more photos soon. Sean's computer has been on the fritz lately. And I did end up getting new running shoes, but not the really expensive ones. I found some that were a bit easier on the wallet.

Shopping Adventures

Yesterday I was super excited to find a running store that offered shoe fitting services relatively close to our neighborhood. Since I was up early to take a call, I thought I'd end my day a little early and finally check out all the shops on Queen Street. Queen Street is a pedestrian mall in downtown Brisbane with tons of stores. It is kind of like the Westlake of Seattle or maybe the Bay Street of Emeryville. It was nice to walk around and I discovered another farmer's market. The stores were interesting, but not totally to my liking. Many of the women's stores had really similar clothes (not all that different from home), but they all seemed kind of Wet Seal crossed with H&M. Maybe I just haven't found stores that are more to my liking or maybe it's just representative of current fashion trends. Super short denim cutoffs...? I just don't get the appeal.

The running store was exactly what I was looking for and after trying on several pairs of shoes, I found one that fit really well. Then I asked how much they were. They were $220 (!). Apparently running shoes are really expensive here. I was thinking I would have to shell out $80 or so, which would be worth it if they provide my knees some much needed support. Oh well, at least they will facilitate exercising which will hopefully make the purchase worthwhile.

This weekend we are planning on going to Wild Waves for S's birthday and we may do some more paddle boarding on Sunday at a nearby beach.

I have been reading a bunch of travel books courtesy of K. It's been a great way to understand Australia writ large. I learned so much about kangaroos and marsupials. Did you know that there was a wombat that was about the size of a hippo or a short-faced kangaroo that was 10 feet tall? Fascinating! So far my favorite has been Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country".

Noosa Heads and the Meat Pie Incident

S and I ended up going to a beer and wine tasting on Friday evening featuring New Zealand wines and beers. We each got a cup and 10 tickets to try different wines or beers. We opted for the beer tasting. All in all the beers were pretty good and a bit more complex and flavorful than XXXX Gold, which is my go-to beer when I am out. Towards the middle of the evening I wasn't even paying attention to what I was drinking but I did learn that two tickets would get me a full cup rather than the 1/4 cup you usually get with one ticket. It also helps to be a girl when guys are pouring you beers that are ostensibly free, funny how that works out :) They were also serving snacks with the beer/wine tasting. I thought I would be bold and try a meat pie. The first bite was pretty good, but I quickly realized while the outside of the pie was warm to the touch the inside was like napalm. I proceeded to burn my hand (the filling dripped all over my hand and there were no napkins), S's hand and had to drop it in my beer cup to avoid further burns. I learned later I wasn't the only one this happened to, many other people suffered the same fate. And then bat fell on a woman's head. That was pretty exciting, as the bats here are pretty big; think half the size of Junebug with wings. I kind of felt bad for the bat. It realized its error immediately and was able to to fly to the nearby tree. I blame the bar because there was high pitched feedback coming out of the speakers over the music they were playing and I think that is what confused the bat.

On Saturday drove up to the Sunshine Coast to Noosa Heads. Noosa is supposed to be like the Hamptons of Queensland. People also say that Queensland is the Alabama of Australia, so I don't know how those comparisons mesh. Noosa didn't remind me of the Hamptons that much; it reminded me of Miami a little bit even though I've never been, but so beautiful, lush and tropical. We were able to get a private room at one of the hostels in town. The Halse Lodge is one of the nicest hostels I have ever stayed in. We booked a paddle boarding lesson and had so much fun. Noosa is both on a river and the coast, so it is full of canals with houses on them. We got to paddle all around and learned some of the finer points of paddle boarding techniques. It is such a nice, peaceful way to be out on the water and a good workout.

After our lesson we went to dinner at the Noosa Lifesaver's Club for dinner. Australia is full of clubs centered around activities or sports and they always have a restaurant, bar, and gambling. Gambling is huge here, more on that later. The club was right on the main beach and had a great view of the waves. The best way to describe clubs is like a family-friendly bar. And there was a seafood raffle. This seemed more intriguing than the meat raffle S encountered on the Gold Coast. We almost bought tickets, but had no place to put the seafood other than the car, which didn't seem like a good idea. The next day we went for a hike along the coast and encountered lots of surfers heading to the more difficult to reach surf spots. We didn't notice any Cyclone-related weather, though the waves might have been bigger; it was hard to tell.

We slowly made our way back to Brisbane by taking the scenic routes. We passed Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, but didn't have time to stop before it closed. All in all it was a great weekend.

On the exercise front, I have still be working out every week day, but now my knees are killing me when I run. I think some new shoes may be in order. I am really bummed because running was starting to be fun. I think I may have to rest my knees for a few days before I can run even with new shoes because they ache all the time. Any suggestions from more experienced runners out there?

P.S. I'll post pictures later when I get them from S's computer.

TGIF

Yay, it's Friday! I had another early call today, but I am hoping I can squeeze in a nap this afternoon and possibly a walk to my new favorite smoothie place, Fat Carrot. Fat Carrot has the best banana smoothie of those I've had since I arrived. Their version is called Bananaman. It has banana, yogurt, milk, honey and cinnamon. I think it's the cinnamon that give it the little extra flavor that makes it so good.

This weekend we are off to Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast. And, it turns out, so is Cyclone Ululi. We made a reservation for paddle boarding lessons on Saturday. Luckily our lesson is taking place on the river and not at the beach. They even canceled the Australian Surf Life Saving Championship activities yesterday because the conditions were so rough at the Gold Coast (see photo below). Should be an interesting weekend.