Sydney, May 2011

Sydney is a very expensive city. The value of the Sydney dollar is usually about the same as the American dollar, 1:1, but the Australian dollar keeps climbing-trying not to buy anything here.

On the first night I woke up in the middle of the night and walked SMACK in to the wall. Ouch, )%&^@!. Don't know what it feels like to box, but I felt like Joe Dempsey or Muhammad Ali must have felt after losing a match. A gigantic welt formed on my forehead, it hurt so much. Literally, I saw stars and had to fumble my way back to bed where I held my head for a long, long time. To add insult to injury, menopausal women have dry skin on their forehead, and every time I rubbed my forehead due to itchy dry, flaky skin my bruise ached.

On a happier note, I went to the most wonderful restaurants in the Rocks area. Staying at the Shangri-La where I'd like to move in. They call me "Mrs. Chan" and bring me a club soda without asking. :)

Nick's Seafood Restaurant (Darling Harbour)
We went there last time and all I could remember is these great fried calamari. They are not like the ones in NY-but bigger, almost the size of a crayfish, but have the consistency of baby octopus (which we had too). I had a whole baby baramundi which I had last time and the meat was so succulent, it melted in your mouth, nice & hot-steam coming out. As a matter of fact, I had a pix of it still in my bb and this fish looked exactly the same as the one I had in October.

Wildfire - we tried to go to a Japanese restaurant (Yoshi) that a friend recommended. Had the concierge make a reservation and everything-they told us it was a set menu. What they didn't tell us was that it was $140 per person. We walked out. Yeesh! The menu did look so good though....something with sea urchin but one of my colleagues doesn't really like sushi, so with the cost and the set menu, unfortunately, this will have to wait til I hit the lotto.

We walked to a restaurant called Wildfire where the food was really good. Had the best oysters I've had in Sydney or anywhere else for the matter. Briny, oyster-y...umm Only problem is we had to wait so long. About an hour for our appetizers, then some more for our main courses. The matre di came over to say sorry for the wait, and my colleague said, "if you are really sorry, you can apologize by bringing us a glass of wine". My Australian colleague said people in Australia don't really do that, but my UK colleague blurted that out with no hesitation.

Bel mondo - Gloucester Walk, The Rocks (reservations@belmondo.com.au)

This was the best restaurant we went to for both the atmosphere (like a warehouse on the water with big Alice in Wonderland chairs in the bar). My colleagues had these fancy drinks with mint and cucumber where the bartender makes a show out of smashing the ingredients with a wodden thing and shakes it like crazy. Woo hoo. I had a crazy little duck something, that was the size of a quarter, but very tasty. Can't describe it-something like chopped up duck meat on a bed of minty lima beans. To keep in the high cholesterol theme, I had a chicken liver mousse as an appetizer. Everyone ordered desert so how could i not (& stick out like a sore thumb). Warm molten cake....... I'll have you know I swam 2 of the 4 days here though.

The Cut
An Australian colleague raved about a Japanese restaurant called Sake (& it wasn't $140 pp-we walked by it and liked the menu). Couldn't get a reservation so made one next store at The Cut--Steakhouse. Imagine walking in to a wine cellar with beautiful tables and the most comfortable chairs you've ever sat in. Dark, sandstone walls, woodsy-looking. I had a sampler of little beefs, so tasty, melt in your mouth beef. Too bad I don't remember the names of them but one was Wasagnibi (?)the Japanese beef. New Zealand Pinot Noir is also very good.

Now that I'm leaving, I'm familiar with the Rocks staircases and how to get around. Good bye Sydney.