Aussie Food

I'm losing weight - enough said. To be fair, its probably also because we don't have a car and have already walked more kilometers than Oprah has in her whole career. I think I'm going to need new shoes soon.

Let's face it although we all love a good shrimp po-boy or 10, it's probably not a terrible idea to take a break from the food that we know and love every once and a while. That sentence was actually painful to type - who am I kidding?  For the most part, as much as we are enjoying Aussie land, we've been a little underwhelmed by the food. $20 Mexican plate (taco and burrito) near the beach, $12-15 take-out gyros. Isn't ethnic food supposed to be cheap??? Anyway, there are a few things that I can live without, but after a few weeks I have finally been able to cook red beans and rice (chorizo was the closest substitute for andouille), jambalaya and shrimp bisque. It was actually the first time that I've ever cooked shrimp bisque and I was actually quite pleased at the results of John Folse's expertise (or possibly Emeril?). I think the seafood stock was the key. While I'm on the subject of eating out here, there are a couple of things to note: wine is cheap, beer is expensive, food is generally expensive and somewhat boring, tax is already included and tipping is not common or expected so the price you see is what you actually pay (waiters make like $15-20/hr here), ice cream is expensive (I'm talking like 10 bucks for a portion much smaller than a blue bell half-gallon)! Having had our fill of more peanut butter sandwiches (I like to add banana) than we've eaten as kids, we've finally been able to begin cooking a few things, which is a big improvement. I have mastered the art of the 15 minute chicken wrap once again (Erin rejoices). I think she could eat that everyday. Also of note - we bought a specialty bottle of red wine vinegar made of Shiraz from one of the local wineries. This will undoubtedly add enjoyment to Erin's specialty salad-making operations. We've made a few strawberry pancakes (sorry no pics).
One more thing, we have an electric stove and the oven is in Celsius. Fortunately, we've become good guessers and didn't burn the lasagna last night! Actually the conversion formula has always stuck with me for whatever reason, but the weather can be a bit of a pain especially when its like 28C. Bottom line - if its in the upper 30s or into the 40s, you probably don't want to go outside. Moving on - we also seem to have garlic bread and baked broccoli with salt, pepper and a little olive oil down to a science now as well.

This weekend should be good. Cooked dinner for some friends on Friday night (it was his birthday as it turns out) and will be heading out to watch a philharmonic concert under the stars (of which there are many down here). Will be refereeing my first soccer games down under tomorrow. Will keep you posted on how that goes. It figures to be hot tomorrow, unfortunately. Fortunately less than 100F.
In the meantime, enjoy a good po-boy or New Orleans specialty for us while you can. Hurry-up, its almost time to start giving those things up for Lent!