I miss nachos.
I mean, there are places where one might procure corn chips topped with an assortment of meat and veg, slathered in cheese, but it just ain’t right.
It’s your cheese, Australia.
Cheddar’s all well and good, and Monterey Jack is available, I guess, but that nuclear orange shit coming out of the tub at Taco Bell*? Not available. Chihuahua cheese? Nowhere to be found. Anything Mexican that melts? Sorry, Carlos.
*Ironically, the CEO of Taco Bell is Australian, yet there are no Taco Bells in Australia. They’d make a killing here, I assure you.
Went to a burger joint called “Grill’d”** for lunch yesterday, and they top their burgers with something called “Tasty Cheese.” This cheese isn’t American, and it isn’t cheddar. It’s “tasty.” Or “Tasty.” I don’t know what the Aussie Elements of Style dictates so far as capitalization is concerned.
**You see what you’ve done, Web 2.0? LET MY VOWELS LIVE. Also, they cut their burgers with bread crumb and egg here, which is an abomination. I ordered a Wagyu patty for lunch last weekend and got this… MEATLOAF. I mean, I don’t even…
Aussies are confused about their cheese. The one thing they get right, however, is halloumi. Or “hallumi.” It’s this Lebanese firm cheese that gets seared in a frying pan, getting tantalizingly close to melty in the middle without actually spreading out all over the plate. It’s quite good. In addition, they give you lemon wedges to squeeze over your halloumi, or “hallumi,” which is right nice of them to do. Citrus, by the way, is bigger and juicier than you get in the States. A single lemon wedge can pretty much soak the contents of your plate. It’s terrific.
I have grown quite fond of cooking curries out here. There’s a spice lady at the farmers’ market who gins up this basic yellow curry which does beautifully with lamb. I’ve also tried her korma, which is very good as well. I’m going to have to graduate to developing my own spice blend soon, as I have always seen using someone else’s starter as the equivalent of making Hamburger Helper (which they’d call “Mince Helper,” or maybe “Mince Maker,” out here), even if I’m dicing shallots, mincing garlic, and cutting fresh cauliflower to make the meal happen.
Oh, and my vegetarian future sister-in-law would be proud of me. I had KFC for lunch the other day (that’s not the proud part), and I felt guilty enough that I made a potato and cauliflower curry for dinner. No meat.
Enabling me in my love of cookery is a new joint called “Sourced Grocer,” who have a website which I think can be found here. It’s a boutique grocer focusing on local organic produce and meat. And it’s two blocks from my bus/ferry stop at the end of my commute. It’s like they knew I was coming.
So, I still have yet to drive a car since January (not counting stealing my employee’s car and driving it around to the front of the building behind which it was idling), and am taking a perverse pride in my endurance. Granted, I’m not seeing as much of the area as I would with an automobile, but I am getting out on foot and walking a lot. Which is nice. And I’m sure the QA Hotel on the corner appreciates the three pint lunch I’m having there once a week. Buy Local!
The real reason I’m blogging this morning, besides missing you all dearly and terribly, is that I’ve just procured one of those fancy bluetooth keyboards for my iPad, and am testing it out. Loving it. I’m trying to set myself up to use my iPad on my shorter business trips, hoping to leave my laptop behind. So far, I’ve added Remote Desktop software (LogMeIn), Dropbox, GoodReader (to view docs and mark up PDFs), and I’m grabbing Keynote from the App Store today to enable me to use my new VGA adapter to run presentations and light demos on a projector.
I’m kinda geeked over this. I mean, I’ve been on the road a lot since getting here (I’ll pass 100K ff points with Qantas on 24-June, if not sooner), and I’m always looking for ways to travel lighter and smarter. As a matter of fact, I’ve bought four bags since December to try to get exactly the right size for the right trip. When I go to Sydney, it’s corporate. I need to pack a sports coat and different dress clothes for each day. When I’m up at a mine site, it’s jeans and high-vis shirt (both of which I can wear multiple days in a row), but I do have to pack my big-ass steel capped boots (which are awesome, by the way, but huge). If I’m doing Darwin/Jabiru, I’ve got mine sites and office days, so I have to mix it up. So, I can generally do three or four nights out of a single duffel (plus my computer bag), but stretching into a week or more requires more space. The flaw in that, however, is that there’s a weight limit on luggage going to site on the FIFO (fly-in/fly-out) commuter plane. So, I need to pack big, but carry a duffel to scale down.
In other words, I’m not just buying bags for sport. There’s utility to consider, too.
I’ve still not got it quite right yet, but I’m working on it. My trip this coming week has me going to Darwin (1 night), then Jabiru (mine site x3 nights), then Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (four nights, on holiday), back to Darwin (1 night), then Jabiru again (3 nights). I’m doing it out of a backpack and duffel, with the backpack (clothes + computer) going to site, and the duffel (clothes) going to Vietnam.
I’m excited. I get to eat pho. I’ll tell you all about it, dear diary, when I return.
