A year in review, part 4

So, if there’s one thing that’s great about living in/just outside of a city is the close proximity to good food.  Given my particularly unrefined palette, I don’t even care about good food that much, and I can tell that there’s good stuff out there.  Plus I have Ruthie and some of the locals to provide more feedback.  Perhaps not surprising is the level to which the local cuisine is Asian oriented.  Of all the places we’ve tried in our neighbourhood, we’ve found a great Thai restaurant that delivers – and that’s usually the weak spot.  If I get home and Ruthie’s been out all day and she’s got nothing to prepare, it often ends up being Thai food delivered [which also means Thai food for lunch the next day, too].  Also on our list of local enjoyments: pho.  I feel like I’ve supposedly tried pho somewhere back in the States, but if I did, it certainly wasn’t like the pho we’ve had here. 

The pizza is different, too.  Everything about it is just a bit different, but mainly the pepperoni – there is no pepperoni here.  All “pepperoni” pizzas here come with a spicy sausage on them that just isn’t the same.  Unfortunately for us, there’s a Pizza Hut that delivers, and I’ve grown to like the pizzas here. 

Also, there is a dearth of Mexican food.  [Again, not surprising.]  There are apparently Mexican restaurants here and there, we’ve just not really had the opportunity to try them.  We did find the Chipotle equivalent though, called Mad Mex.  While the style and the service is very much like Chipotle, the food itself is almost more Mexican in nature.  I can rationalise this as Chipotle is much more Tex-Mex in nature, and that’s definitely a food subgroup that I wouldn’t expect to make it this far out into the world. 

Going back to the Asian influences on local cuisine, this also means there’s plenty of sushi around.  I can’t say I’ve had a whole lot mainly because Ruthie’s not so keen on it, but the sushi I’ve had has been pretty good.  Fortunately, we’ve had the help of some locals in finding good sushi joints.  We’ve also tried the experience that is dim sum / yum cha, where you get little containers of food brought around to you and you get your choice of what you want right then and there.  Often times, dumplings of various types and preparation are featured [or at least this is what we’ve noticed].  It’s definitely a dangerous style of eating because in the couple of times that we’ve done it, Ruthie and I both over ate and made ourselves sick. 

When it comes to food, the one thing that I am particularly excited about is desserts.  I’ve definitely got a sweet tooth.  Fortunately, things like green tea ice cream and bubble tea are readily available [well, within the city itself].  I’ll definitely miss those when we get home.  Other yummy goodness: lamingtons, vanilla slice, Tim Tams, and Anzac cookies. 

Oh!  And we’ve had kangaroo a couple times, too, which was on my list of things to try while down here.  As previously mentioned, we’ve ingratiated ourselves to some great local cooks.  So it’s thanks to them that we’ve had so much good food here.

Okay, so that’s been a pretty lengthy summation [6 pages in the Word document I use to type it all up] of our time here so far.  As it stands now, we’re over our half-way point.  So now it’s just a matter of making the most of our time left.  Fortunately winter, as long as it might be, is on its slow way out.  I can tell that the days are getting longer with the sun rise coming up a little earlier each day [winter solstice was on 21 June].  We haven’t quite shaken the cold on a regular basis, but it feels like maybe we’ve left the worst of the winter behind and soon the weather will be hot again.  Hopefully with the warm weather and sunny skies, we’ll find ourselves in different parts of the city [we’ve still got a lot of the city to explore, too!], state, or even country. 

We’re over half way done with our time in Oz, and my guess is that now that our time is on the decline things will start to feel like they’re moving quickly.  Especially looking ahead knowing that the last little bit will be so busy with getting everything ready for the move back home. 

So here’s to Oz 2012-2013.