use real butter

I’m in Sydney!

Jeremy’s still back at the conference, doing good and geeky things. As for me, I am in Kell and Jerad’s flat right now, enjoying the cooler though more moist air of Sydney compared to Alice. Just enough time for a quick rundown of the fun and food and friends.

dig the dual-level trains

I arrived in Sydney yesterday afternoon and took the train to meet Kell at Central Station. That is, I rendez vous’d with Kell AND I met her in person for the first time! So strange to think of meeting her when I feel like she’s been a dear friend for a year now. She told me earlier she had two surprises for me. The first was that Jerad was going to make dinner for us AT his restaurant that evening! The second… well, you’ll have to wait on the second. I’m not sure I can divulge that at the moment.

We dropped my crap off at their lovely flat in Redfern, and then went to the finger wharf where a string of lovely restaurants spilled out onto the dock and overlooked the water and the city.

arrival at an evening of fine dining

I wish Jerad could have joined us, but he was working like a madman AND preparing our very special and amazing meal. Such a sweetheart. At the same time, Kell and I were catching up on all sorts of conversations that email and an ocean just don’t easily permit. It’s like after running in the desert and gulping down water faster than you can physically take it - so thirsty to know what the other thinks, to marvel that Kell is so much like I had imagined, and still piecing together the voice and the mannerisms with the personality I’ve come to know. Enough of that - this is what Jerad created for us that evening:

scallop on sunchoke purée with sunchoke chips

crab and corn soufflé

amazing prawns in a sauce i cannot even recall (other than it rocked our worlds)

a slow cooked veal on saffron pasta

ocean trout with amazing mushrooms and baby zucchini

lime and grappa granita over honeydew - wow

I didn’t photograph the last dish (dessert of berry cake with sorbet - OMG!) because Kell and I were in Food Coma. It was superb, amazing, incredible. Such a treat. Jerad popped by a few times to see how things were. They’re a great pair.

dear jerad and kell

More tomorrow, I am wiped.

I haven’t been getting out and about in Alice for a number of reasons including heat, disinterest, heat, work, heat…

Heat kills my appetite and during our days in the Red Center, we primarily ate apples, carrots, cheddar crackers, and warm water. Actually we would dine out for lunch because it was always cooler than wilting in the sun: salads and fish and chips. We skipped dinner altogether because sleep overrode mild hunger. Here in Alice, I was excited to try some of the restaurants, but found myself with reduced appetite. Because of the conference schedule, I’m just eating brekkie (free at the hotel) and dinner out while nibbling on apples, a few candies, and a cookie or two during the interim.

from the grocery - aussie snacks

They have different flavors of mentos here. Pink grapefruit is the best. I also picked up a Milk Freddo for Jeremy to try. We had an Australian exchange student at my high school whose mother sent him a giant bag of Freddos which he shared about. Jeremy gives Milk Freddo a thumbs up on the caramely milk chocolate.

milk freddo

We skipped dinner Sunday. Monday, we went with Jeremy’s colleague to the Overlander Steakhouse which sucked. It’s expensive and not well-prepared and the service went from okay to crappy. But I did get to try their sampler plate of crocodile, kangaroo, emu, and camel. When food is served for the sole purpose of sampling uncommon meats and is slathered with sauce, you know the cook doesn’t know how to cook. Sad. But I really liked the emu which also happened to be swimming in the least amount of sauce. Last night, we tried Hanuman’s in the hotel. It’s Thai/Indian cuisine. The food is nicely prepared although it wouldn’t stand out as extraordinary in someplace like Boston or Los Angeles. Still - for Alice - I’ll gladly take it!

soft shell crab appetizer

moreton bay bugs (a sea faring shelled critter) in curry

barramundi in passion fruit and ginger sauce

long macchiato

passion fruit semi freddo

chocolate and almond flourless gateau

Time to hit the gym, pack, and fly to Sydney!

Alice Springs, Australia is on a funky time zone. It’s 1.5 hours behind Sydney and n + .5 hours behind everyone else (or ahead for the yanks). We made it to the hotel and Jeremy is currently at the geek reception pressing the flesh with his international array of geek colleagues who study the same esoteric heavenly bodies. Good on them and all that. I chose air conditioning over fancy hors d’oeuvres. Here’s a glimpse of the past few days in the Red Center.

the (ayer’s) rock jeremy presented to me for our tenth anniversary: uluru

kata tjuta (the olgas) in the distance at sunset

kata tjuta (the olgas) at sunrise

new acquaintances

sunrise on the rim of watarrka (kings canyon)