Sydney Day 2: Monday 29 October
Sat, Dec. 15th, 2018 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annarti
Day two in Sydney! Featuring the Sydney Fish Markets, Darling Harbour and the Chinese Garden of Friendship.
SYDNEY FISH MARKETS HELL YEAH. Never been. I KNOW. I have weird Sydney friends who can't stand seafood so I've never subjected them to the fish markets, but this time? Monday, Alex at work, Cassie in Brisbane, you bet Linda and I beelined for this place. We took the shiny new tram, which is not a thing I think Sydney has ever had before? They call it 'light rail' for starters. Also a pretty serious chunk of George Street is completely closed off because they're installing more trams. Because if there's anything Sydney's teenytiny streets need its trams. Whatever. You do you, Sydney. Except you have to tap on on the platform not on the tram. We got on, took out our Opal cards, looked around for the thingie... kept looking around... then one of the locals pointed out the window of the moving tram and said it was over there. 'Oh,' we said. So we accidentally got a free tram ride. Why is the thingie not on the tram? Who DOES that?
Anyway. Fish.
Inside we were greeted with crayfish and a pile of king crabs. Sydney calls crayfish 'rock lobsters', idk why. They're clearly not lobsters; they don't have claws.
Place was HUGE, easily the size of the Adelaide Central Markets but all with seafood. I think we got there at a sort of middling-time, too late for the restaurateurs who rock up at 6am to get the freshest stuff, and too early for ordinary humans just getting something for dinner. There weren't a lot of people there. They started coming later on, though.
Scallops, abalone, lobsters, bugs, and the 'cr' is probably crabs. Aww shit yeah. Does the northern hemisphere have bugs or is that an Aussie thing? Wiki says they're from around the Indian and Pacific oceans so hell knows. There you go, Moreton Bay Bugs. I was mostly excited for the abalone, though. You basically can't get them in Adelaide ('Unless they fall off the back of a truck,' Linda reliably informed me) because they get snapped up by Sydney restaurants.
They have a food court. They have a food court.
King crab which was clearly king of all the king crabs, with a Linda for size comparison. It was just standing on top of the whole pile with its claws up like it was standing on its vanquished foes.
Yummmmmmmm.
Freshest of fresh crayfish.
And abalone! They are so expensive--these ones were $200/kg. Crayfish, which Mum likes to get one single one a year and make an event of with prawns and smoked salmon and the whole bit, is usually around $80-100/kg when in season. I don't know enough about abalone to know whether it was in season or not, but geeze. I think it's because, with crayfish, you can at least just grab them off the sea floor, but abalone have to be prised off the rocks. Anyway, I wasn't going to leave the fish market without having one.
Atlantic salmon, blue swimmer crabs down the front, little octopus on the right, and some massive creature that looks like swordfish on the left.
Cooked stuff! some bugs on the left, crays in the middle and right, and idk what they are in the middle. I'd be tempted to say prawns or maybe scampi but they're $90/kg so idk.
You can read the tags on these ones. Omg that solid slab of tunaklajsdhgaks.
More salmon and some snapper.
Did I mention they had a food court? Cos they had a food court. This was the sushi bar. I MEAN. They look like desserts they were that beautifully arranged.
Up the back: whitebait, soft shell crab and grilled garlic butter lobster (crayfish) tail. Down the front, prawns, marinated octopus and salmon and prawn skewer. Lady's grabbing an octopus skewer for me.
BREAKFAST. This holiday continues to be all about food. Of course I got one of the cray tails, the octopus skewer, then a scallop somewhere under the grilled cheese and my first abalone! It was so meaty and had a beeeaaaauuutiful fresh limey dressing on it. I still prefer cray, but I'm glad I've now experienced abalone. Maybe next time I come to Sydney I'll have to specifically seek out a restaurant that has them on the menu, see what they're like when they're not on a plastic plate with greaseproof paper.
After breakfast we headed out into the wilds of Sydney and wandered around Darling Harbour. It was a bit cool but this was the only day that was, thankfully.
Just more around Darling Harbour.
Before we left Adelaide and were planning what to do, every time we brought up Google Maps of our accommodation, the Chinese Garden of Friendship would always be marked on the map. After seeing it pop up half a dozen times, and realising we'd have some time between the fish markets and lunch, we thought stuff it, let's go to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was halfway between the fish markets and home, so why not?
Bonsai! This whole place was a bit of a joint venture with the Chinese government and Sydney back in the 80s, if I'm remembering that correctly. It reminded me very strongly of all the perfectly tended gardens in Japanese temples and castles. I know, China =/= Japan, but their gardens are just as perfect and it FELT like it.
This screen looked particularly Chinese, though.
Panorama of the main lake! It was really peaceful and gorgeous there. I could see taking lunch here and just sitting in the gardens with a book.
Obligatory photo into the sky through a bamboo grove.
I was trying to be arty with fuzzy foreground. Did it work? Jury's out.
A zodiac... thing. Totem? Anyway, found my ox!
Inside the pagoda on top of the hill! Tricky to take photos of inside but I've got plenty outside.
A dragon friend! There were a couple around the place.
On the left is the teahouse, with overpriced teapots and Chinese pastries, so we got some.
Beautiful little grotto at the back of the teahouse! We couldn't go upstairs, though, sadly.
View while we were having tea! It was just jolly delightful. The sun even came out for us. The whitewater on the right is where some koi were splashing around. There were also turtles!
Back out into Sydney, where I have no idea what these were. Public art.
The same street with the lights from last night, just around the corner from us. The queue for the Emperor's Cream Puffs was pretty much gone so we got three each for I think 30c each, and they were hot and sweet and cheesy awesome. God they were good. I understand why the previous, chilly night had such a massive queue for them. They were also really quick to make, so probably even the people at the end of the queue only waited for like ten minutes.
We headed back to our room to meet Alex, who had knocked off for the day and was ready for a night on the town.
This was a wall in the fanciest food court up the top of Market City, a shopping centre in Chinatown which has only been newly done up. There was a Korean barbecue that we went back to later once Hanh got in.
We spent a bit of time in the market on the ground floor, where I got two pairs of cute socks (apples and pineapples!) and there was a whole lot of general kitch.
These weird blobby bits of bronze street art were all around the place, so we decided to take weird photos of them. Here's one.
For dinner, Alex insisted on Newtown, one of Sydney's hipster suburbs and proooobably her favourite part of the city. We went to The Italian Bowl for dinner, where I completely forgot to take a photo, but just know it was smoked salmon pasta and you can probably visualise it. It was pretty awesome.
And the evening's cocktail at blacksheep! I completely forgot what I ordered now, but it ended up being a margarita because the vital ingredients to make it not a margarita weren't available, so that worked for me. It was a cute little bar.
Back home, and our little street cherubs were lit up all pretty and blue! Why all this in an otherwise dirty little nothing alley, I have no idea, but I did love this little touch.
SYDNEY FISH MARKETS HELL YEAH. Never been. I KNOW. I have weird Sydney friends who can't stand seafood so I've never subjected them to the fish markets, but this time? Monday, Alex at work, Cassie in Brisbane, you bet Linda and I beelined for this place. We took the shiny new tram, which is not a thing I think Sydney has ever had before? They call it 'light rail' for starters. Also a pretty serious chunk of George Street is completely closed off because they're installing more trams. Because if there's anything Sydney's teenytiny streets need its trams. Whatever. You do you, Sydney. Except you have to tap on on the platform not on the tram. We got on, took out our Opal cards, looked around for the thingie... kept looking around... then one of the locals pointed out the window of the moving tram and said it was over there. 'Oh,' we said. So we accidentally got a free tram ride. Why is the thingie not on the tram? Who DOES that?
Anyway. Fish.
Inside we were greeted with crayfish and a pile of king crabs. Sydney calls crayfish 'rock lobsters', idk why. They're clearly not lobsters; they don't have claws.
Place was HUGE, easily the size of the Adelaide Central Markets but all with seafood. I think we got there at a sort of middling-time, too late for the restaurateurs who rock up at 6am to get the freshest stuff, and too early for ordinary humans just getting something for dinner. There weren't a lot of people there. They started coming later on, though.
Scallops, abalone, lobsters, bugs, and the 'cr' is probably crabs. Aww shit yeah. Does the northern hemisphere have bugs or is that an Aussie thing? Wiki says they're from around the Indian and Pacific oceans so hell knows. There you go, Moreton Bay Bugs. I was mostly excited for the abalone, though. You basically can't get them in Adelaide ('Unless they fall off the back of a truck,' Linda reliably informed me) because they get snapped up by Sydney restaurants.
They have a food court. They have a food court.
King crab which was clearly king of all the king crabs, with a Linda for size comparison. It was just standing on top of the whole pile with its claws up like it was standing on its vanquished foes.
Yummmmmmmm.
Freshest of fresh crayfish.
And abalone! They are so expensive--these ones were $200/kg. Crayfish, which Mum likes to get one single one a year and make an event of with prawns and smoked salmon and the whole bit, is usually around $80-100/kg when in season. I don't know enough about abalone to know whether it was in season or not, but geeze. I think it's because, with crayfish, you can at least just grab them off the sea floor, but abalone have to be prised off the rocks. Anyway, I wasn't going to leave the fish market without having one.
Atlantic salmon, blue swimmer crabs down the front, little octopus on the right, and some massive creature that looks like swordfish on the left.
Cooked stuff! some bugs on the left, crays in the middle and right, and idk what they are in the middle. I'd be tempted to say prawns or maybe scampi but they're $90/kg so idk.
You can read the tags on these ones. Omg that solid slab of tunaklajsdhgaks.
More salmon and some snapper.
Did I mention they had a food court? Cos they had a food court. This was the sushi bar. I MEAN. They look like desserts they were that beautifully arranged.
Up the back: whitebait, soft shell crab and grilled garlic butter lobster (crayfish) tail. Down the front, prawns, marinated octopus and salmon and prawn skewer. Lady's grabbing an octopus skewer for me.
BREAKFAST. This holiday continues to be all about food. Of course I got one of the cray tails, the octopus skewer, then a scallop somewhere under the grilled cheese and my first abalone! It was so meaty and had a beeeaaaauuutiful fresh limey dressing on it. I still prefer cray, but I'm glad I've now experienced abalone. Maybe next time I come to Sydney I'll have to specifically seek out a restaurant that has them on the menu, see what they're like when they're not on a plastic plate with greaseproof paper.
After breakfast we headed out into the wilds of Sydney and wandered around Darling Harbour. It was a bit cool but this was the only day that was, thankfully.
Just more around Darling Harbour.
Before we left Adelaide and were planning what to do, every time we brought up Google Maps of our accommodation, the Chinese Garden of Friendship would always be marked on the map. After seeing it pop up half a dozen times, and realising we'd have some time between the fish markets and lunch, we thought stuff it, let's go to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was halfway between the fish markets and home, so why not?
Bonsai! This whole place was a bit of a joint venture with the Chinese government and Sydney back in the 80s, if I'm remembering that correctly. It reminded me very strongly of all the perfectly tended gardens in Japanese temples and castles. I know, China =/= Japan, but their gardens are just as perfect and it FELT like it.
This screen looked particularly Chinese, though.
Panorama of the main lake! It was really peaceful and gorgeous there. I could see taking lunch here and just sitting in the gardens with a book.
Obligatory photo into the sky through a bamboo grove.
I was trying to be arty with fuzzy foreground. Did it work? Jury's out.
A zodiac... thing. Totem? Anyway, found my ox!
Inside the pagoda on top of the hill! Tricky to take photos of inside but I've got plenty outside.
A dragon friend! There were a couple around the place.
On the left is the teahouse, with overpriced teapots and Chinese pastries, so we got some.
Beautiful little grotto at the back of the teahouse! We couldn't go upstairs, though, sadly.
View while we were having tea! It was just jolly delightful. The sun even came out for us. The whitewater on the right is where some koi were splashing around. There were also turtles!
Back out into Sydney, where I have no idea what these were. Public art.
The same street with the lights from last night, just around the corner from us. The queue for the Emperor's Cream Puffs was pretty much gone so we got three each for I think 30c each, and they were hot and sweet and cheesy awesome. God they were good. I understand why the previous, chilly night had such a massive queue for them. They were also really quick to make, so probably even the people at the end of the queue only waited for like ten minutes.
We headed back to our room to meet Alex, who had knocked off for the day and was ready for a night on the town.
This was a wall in the fanciest food court up the top of Market City, a shopping centre in Chinatown which has only been newly done up. There was a Korean barbecue that we went back to later once Hanh got in.
We spent a bit of time in the market on the ground floor, where I got two pairs of cute socks (apples and pineapples!) and there was a whole lot of general kitch.
These weird blobby bits of bronze street art were all around the place, so we decided to take weird photos of them. Here's one.
For dinner, Alex insisted on Newtown, one of Sydney's hipster suburbs and proooobably her favourite part of the city. We went to The Italian Bowl for dinner, where I completely forgot to take a photo, but just know it was smoked salmon pasta and you can probably visualise it. It was pretty awesome.
And the evening's cocktail at blacksheep! I completely forgot what I ordered now, but it ended up being a margarita because the vital ingredients to make it not a margarita weren't available, so that worked for me. It was a cute little bar.
Back home, and our little street cherubs were lit up all pretty and blue! Why all this in an otherwise dirty little nothing alley, I have no idea, but I did love this little touch.