Food and More Food

Sculpture at the Fish Market

Sydney has lots of great restaurants, and we did not go to any of them.  However, I did take a culinary tour of Sydney which took me to some places I would never have found on my own, like a neighborhood Italian Deli run by ethnic Italians and featuring cheese imported from Italy.  Our host and founder of the deli came from Sicily, and missing the food of his homeland, imported cheese and olive oil to deliver to the large Italian population.  From there it was a natural step to opening a deli.  Now, although he was there, the store is directly managed by his son.  We tasted at least 6 kinds of cheese, each with an explanation of its qualities and where it comes from.  Meat cannot be imported into Australia, but he has found immigrants who process the meat exactly as they did in Italy, so we tasted at least 6 kinds of thinly sliced meat along with olives and bread sprinkled with olive oil from 3 specific farms in Sicily and chunks of bread.  Oh yes, we also tried 2 kinds of dried tomatoes. All this was only the first stop and this was first thing in the morning.!

Octopus, anyone?

From there it was off to the fish market.  I had seen the market in Auckland, but this one was several times as large.  The action starts in the evening when the catch arrives, then at 2:00 AM the inspectors take over and make sure that no illegal fish are presented and that all the fish meets the high Australian standards.  By 4:00 AM the buyers arrive, study the fish and decide what they want to bid on.  The bidding process is the same as in Auckland, a Dutch auction.  By 6:00 the room is empty and by 8:00 the retail side is in full swing.

King Crab legs are only about $21.00 a pound.

The cheapest thing was fish heads.

This fish market has many more places to buy prepared meals, sort of a fast food, but centering on all preparations of fish.  You could also buy fresh seafood and prepared seafood to take home. Since we had not eaten for at least half an hour, we had another meal.

These "bugs" are a delicacy.

Those are calamari rings, not onions.

The shrimp are cooked but the oysters are not.

The remains of a "Tiger"

The next stop was at Harry's de Wheels, a food cart which is famous for "Tigers."  A Tiger is a pot pie, either chicken, beef or vegetable.  A ring of mashed potatoes tops the upper crust and a ring of mushy peas tops that.  If you skip the peas, it is an Unstriped Tiger and if you also skip the potatoes, it is a Naked Tiger.  Harry started his business downtown Sydney in a trailer.  He would move it a foot or so each day, so he did not have to pay property tax.



By now it was close to noon and none of the stops included anything to drink.  The solution?  Go to a local pub.  Pub is short for public house, a local meeting place for a community.  Houses in the poorer parts of town did not have a room to sit around and talk, so everyone met at the pub, sort of like "Cheers."  Alcohol laws in Australia are very strict.  The limit is .05% for driving, unless you are driving for hire, like a taxi or even Uber.  Then it is 0.0%.  The police can stop anyone who is driving, any time and for no other reason but to check for alcohol. No one under 18 is allowed into a place which serves alcohol.  If a bartender serves anyone under 18, he looses his job and pays a $100 fine.  The landlord, even if he or she is not present pays a fine of $10,000.  We tasted 3 different kinds of beer or ales or lagers. I am not a beer drinker, so I do not really know the difference.

 The bar was made of bricks which had been made by the early convicts.  Each convict had a unique stamp so the jailers could tell how many bricks he had made.  I do not have any idea how these bricks ended up in the bar.

Of course, we had to have dessert!  The local gelato shop served over 50 kinds of gelato and sherbet.  My favorite was salted caramel with white chocolate shavings.

The whole tour took place in pouring rain.  Fortunately this was not a walking tour since the stops were all over town, even in a section called Woolloomooroo.  Our guide,  holding an umbrella, escorted each of us to the doors


In the evening I was working on a puzzle and looked up to see some people were interested.  They stopped on the way to their evening performance, a look at aboriginal dance and traditions.