sf 2 oz

Today was all about food and I loved every minute of it! It started off at 10 am with high tea at the Victoria Room in the historic Queen Victoria building. A group of us planned this after learning that the movie Julie and Julia was *finally* opening in Australia. What could be a better precursor to seeing this movie than eating scones (with jam and clotted cream), finger sandwiches and sweets? After our bellies were full of fancy tea and food, we headed a few blocks down the street to see the movie. I thought Meryl Streep's impersonation of Julia Child was spot on and I enjoyed learning more about her introduction to cooking in Paris and her path to noteriety later in life. Overall, a very cute movie. Then we shopped around a bit until we were (believe it or not) hungry again! We headed to the food hall at David Jones, which sort of resembles the ones in Marks & Spencer and Harrods in London...a very gourmet selection of things to buy with lots of different areas to sit and eat various cuisines. I then rolled myself home!

Aussies love their food. So much so that it's often described as "beautiful," "gorgeous" and "lovely"..far more elegant than our simple words like "yummy," "good" or "delicious." We first started hearing this while watching MasterChef and it was fun to mock the dramatic language and long pauses while Matt Preston tasted food. While it's a bit over dramatic on the show, we started noticing more and more references to beautiful food in restaurants, markets and in passing.  So, when we cook something good we jokingly call it "gorgeous" or "beautiful" and since we've been experimenting with food photography, we have some documentation. Tempt your tastebuds with these photos!

This past weekend we ventured to Melbourne. While Sydney is known for stunning ocean views and iconic buildings like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, one must work a bit harder to uncover Melbourne's treasures. The city is full of small laneways and historic arcades with coffee shops and bars tucked here and there. It's also decidedly more victorian or 'european' feeling in its architecture, weather, cutural offerings..even the horse-drawn carriages add a certain je ne se qua (though mainly for tourists I'm sure).

We were fortunate enough to stay with Mike's friend Rita, who has been working for Accenture in Melbourne for several years. She showed us around the city, taking us to the fabulous Queen Victoria Market, an Aussie Rules footy game, local parks, shopping districts and more. We also hung out with Cameron, my ASDS classmate of 12 years who has been living in Melbourne for over 9 years. Thanks to our friends, it was a weekend of nonstop eating, drinking, touring etc.

For those considering a visit to Melbourne, here's a word of advice. Do not be swayed by the $39 price tag for the Jet Star flight from Sydney to Avalon. Avalon is an hour drive from the city and you end up paying extra for a bus transfer, plus there's unnecessary waiting in a tiny country airport! Needless to say, we'll be flying into Tullamarine next time. Yes, we're already planning another visit to Melbourne - we liked it that much!

I had my first lamington last year in San Francisco at Danielle's baby shower (who is Australian) and I loved it! I'd forgotten about lamingotns until we arrived in Sydney and started seeing them at the store and in bakeries. I happen to be one of the few fans of Mounds (the candy bar), so obviously any treat with coconut and chocolate is right up my alley.

Here's a little history of the lamington that I found on Wikipedia. "Lamingtons are named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. The Lamington's chef at Queensland's Government House, Armand Gallad, was called upon at short notice to provide something to feed unexpected guests. According to the Melbourne Age newspaper, Gallad cut up some left over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut (an ingredient not widely used in European cooking at that time). Lady Lamington's guests then asked for the recipe."

Belive it or not, there's a National Lamington Day in Australia - July 21. Two weeks from today! Also the National Trust of Queensland named the Lamington one of Queensland's favorite icons. Pretty funny that cake has that much history and notoriety.

Anyway, making lamingtons is easy (if you buy the sponge cake), but messy. Here's the recipe. Now we have 12 lamingtons to eat in the next few days...I think I may give some to our neighbors. Maybe.

On Saturday we decided to head over to the Sydney Fish Market, which is on Blackwattle Bay by Pyrmont. We were pretty excited after reading that it's the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the world's second largest seafood market in terms of variety outside of Japan. I don't know if we missed something or didn't see the whole market, but we were underwhelmed. There's an industrial section of the market where the daily fish auctions take place, but it didn't seem like just anyone could go in those areas. So we stuck to the commercial 'touristy' area with seafood retailers and cafes. Everyone seemed to be getting these platters of takeaway seafood and chips and going outside to eat, so we decided to be followers and do the same. 

After pushing our way through the crowds, we got our platter of oysters, fish, calamari, scallops and octopus. The majority of it was fried..a healthy treat! Outside we tried to eat our food before the seagulls did (one bird almost hopped onto my plate while I was eating)! Later in the day our stomachs were hating us for that platter..we had plans to go out for the 4th, but were not feeling well. While I'm glad we saw the fish market, I don't think we'll be going back.

On Sunday we were feeling better and finally got behind the wheel, woohoo! Last week we both signed up with Go Get, a car share company similar to Zipcar in the US. We waited until the last minute (this morning) to book a car so we didn't get the Mini Cooper we had our eye on. Instead we got a minivan! Haha. All the cars have names and our hot ride was called "El Segundo."  After a practice lap around Woolloomooloo we hopped on the motorway and headed south, through Royal National Park and onto the Grand Pacific Drive, which weaves along the coastline to Wollongong. We got out of the car at a few vistas to walk around, watch the surfers and try to spy some whales. Then, we finished with lunch (burgers, no seafood) and drove back to the city.  It was a nice little day trip. I'd like to return to the Royal National Park and explore that some more.