Day 3 and 4

Monday morning June 7 (pictures will be posted on facebook, eventually)

Eskie = Cooler box. Box of many sizes used for keeping drinks cold.

Ibis situation
The White Ibis is a wading water bird, white all over with black leathery neck and legs, and a long curved bill. Apparently since the 1970’s this bird has started migrating into urban areas due to drought in their natural habitat, and their numbers have only increased. The government hasn’t decided weather they are a nuisance or need protection. But either way, I was quite surprised to see one in the middle of the CBD right before we were going to catch our bus for the food tour. I walked right up to it, it had no fear of people and its feathers were gray from its new diet of human leftovers.

Ultimate Gourmet Food Tour
Brilliant. A small group tour of different places in Sydney. Our guide Scott piled us into the van and explained everything we went past, even though I was the only real vacationer. Many of the other folks were either foreigners living in Sydney or Sydneysiders themselves. And there are only about 10 people per tour, making for an intimate and less frazzled experience. We went on the Western tour, meaning we visited different places in the Inner West part of city. First we kicked off the tour by stopping over at a coffee roaster providing many of the gourmet restaurants in Sydney with coffee. The owner is literally the Willy Wonka of coffee, the only question we could stump him with was ‘how many beans goes into one cup?” However he was able to break down the molecular biology of his beans, and explained how different roasting machines work. His apparently is preferable because the beans are roasted by hot air, rather than direct heat.

Then we moved on to a gourmet spice shop, owned by someone who many people claim to be the spice guru of Sydney, Ian Hemphill (nickname Herbie). This place was fantastic and tiny. They sell spice kits with recipes and anything you can think of herb and spice wise. Anna bought his cook book and the spice kit to accompany it, perfect for her growing pantry. I got my mum a little something too!

My favorite part was our visit to PR Raineri an authentic Italian deli. The place is crowded, bustling and filled to the brim with imports from Italy and local Italian products. We were treated to platters of olives, salami, proscuitto, chicken, octopus, cheeses, bread and olive oil, and they even made a pasta right then and there with lemon half dried pasta, cheese, parsley and olive oil. Now I don’t know that much about Italian antipasto, although I like to think Bay Cities in Santa Monica is the southern California authority, but I can safely say Raineri’s blows Bay Cities out of the water. The procuitto melted in my mouth, I have never had anything even close to it in the States. The cheeses were out of this world, especially the ricotta; I could have eaten spoonfuls with nothing else. Anna and I bought some of their asiago and a dozen slices of salami home. This place was beyond amazing in every way. Plus it’s family owned.

Then we went to a fancy Belgian chocolate place, whose ganache was quite spectacular. Our last stop was a wine seller in Annandale where some fancy wine guy was doing a tasting, but I went and scouted out the beer situation. Happy Golbin and Fat Yak were two I purchased. I laughed my ass off at the six-pack of corona for $20 Australian. I feel bad for the poor soul who buys that.

Thank you Anna for the bestest trip idea ever. Food tours are right up my alley!!!!!! I guess that is why I like yelp so much. But having been here, I would absolutely have to say, I really do not advocate Yelp coming to Australia. I feel like the way you shop and dine in Sydney would be completely ruined by Yelping. The intimate local shops and cafes are special in their own neighborhoods and really that’s how you should find these places, by stumbling upon them, and not researching them. LA is too vast for that however, and the quality of many places is subpar. SO you do want to look up places in LA, while in Sydney almost everywhere you’re guaranteed something amazing.

A Night Out
My first night out on the town in Sydney was let’s just say ‘epic’ on many levels. Epic failure, epic fun, epic disaster, epic hotness. Anna and I first killed a $30 bottle of Champagne together, then piled in a cab to Newtown to see some indie rock band Birds of Tokyo, who if I weren’t drunk might have been boring as all hell, even though everyone in the place was going nuts over them. Either way drinks kept coming from Anna’s lovely girlfriends so needless to say I was pretty darn plastered by the time we headed over to the next place. A 3-story bar/club called Zanzibar. I had something called a Gingerman for $15, which basically pushed me over the edge. But the bartender was out of this world pretty, so I went and got another one. On our way to the next bar, I only made it the planter outside. The bouncer was amazing, he brought me a bottle of water (although all I remember were his feet). We grabbed a cab home, and I don’t really recall the rest of the night except barfing in Anna’s toilet, and getting all emotional which seems to happen a lot to me when I drink that much. I haven’t had a night like that in years either, and I remember why. Although the night ended in ridiculousness, I really like the Sydney nightlife scene. Or what I can remember. Places where you can walk, or cab between bars really do have the best drinking atmosphere. Makes me loathe LA more and more.

The next day (Sunday) of course was spent recuperating, with endless salami and cheese sandwiches.