Organic food buzz at Marrickville

Organic food has been an emerging buzz in the 'food scene' for newly enlightened health food junkies in Sydney, I guess same goes at other rich countries where quantity alone does not satisfy any more. And there is more to it, people being aware of what goes on during the food production - pesticides, animal treatment, ethics and so forth. Some say, organic is for soul, probably they equate this to food being free of synthetic hormones, chemicals and other bio hazard, that billions put into their mouth everyday. There must be a link, 'cleaner' food - vegetables grown using only natural fertilizers and chicken fed with earthworms alone - and better soul? Emm..I am sratching my head, organic food..soul food..is it serious and here to stay, obviously it has a place in the food chain, but can it be real rather than a hippie sounding fad?

To find out, we went to an upmarket weekly organic food market in Marrickville last sunday to have a taste and fist glance. It has a seventies hippie buzz to it and the first thing that hits you in the entrance is a large poster welcoming the refugees, then the portraits of mostly African immigrants and refugees lined up in the walkway that leads to the actual market. I could not but wonder what's organic food got to do with that?? Is it a leftist, socialist hippie camp? Inside, a nice lineup of stalls selling 'organic' vegetable, meat, fruits produced with natural ingredients alone, so they claim. It reminded me of real markets in Kathmandu, back in the days when the food tasted real - a strong flavor of spinach when cooked, just the right toughness of savoury chicken, unforgettable taste of red onions. Steroid chicken of the developed world is not a match. Vegetable here are bigger in size, but milder taste. You can hardly tell eggplant from potato.

Marrickville
organic
food market is a good weekend getaway, kinda rebellious against the mass markets dominated by Coles and Woolworths. It seemed to have a steady flow of devoted fans clamoring for organic food stalls, restaurants and meats. Mixing the old book shops, discarded furniture shops and similar antique finish off the picture, it kinda felt like visiting an antique store, although we got more than what we went there for - organic food - but could not tell what was the main theme of the market - socio-cultural issues, refugees, organic food, hippies, rubbish..its a convoluted mixture of cultures.

Soggy Australia day 2015 - its Black and White

In a complete turnaround from a beautiful day yesterday, Australia had a very wet day to 'celebrate' its day. We wanted to check the 'Australia day' celebrations at both sides, the victors that celebrate this day, the Anglo occupiers, and the 'vanquished', the natives who call this a 'Survival day' instead. Its truly a black and white affair, literally. White Anglo Saxon prisoners condemed to die in an isolated island sailed sails to the shores here and virtually wiped off the 'black' culture of the native Aboriginies who called this place home from thosands of years before. There is no grey to the truth.

However, would you rather the British took over, or say, Indonesians, Chinese or Japanese colonized this vast land? Emm..not a very hard choice to make.

First stop the Yabun festival at Camberdown park near the University of Sydney. In a slightly less than colorful affair (I mean bells and whistles) that is usually visible at the similar events in Sydney, the aboriginies arts, culture, traditions and history was at display, mostly arts in the form of handmade goods, the infamous boomrang, T-shirts and slogans of freedom. Freedom?? makes you wonder, isn't this land already free?? Well, not for everyone obviously. It really appeared going around, Australia is a land of oppression. You could clearly see the aboriginies' sad and angry faces during the event. Its clear they are 'marking' the event rather than 'celebrating'.

We enjoyed a nice rap/reggae music open concert, which had some angry rappers sing about the oppression. A moderate sized crowd of mostly indigineous were braving the constant drizzle.
We had our big broken umbrella up most of the time, taking care not to poke others in the eyes.

With a cautious exit, not to appear too enthusiastic, we exited in the drizzle and headed for the White party at the CBD. After parking near the always neglected Australian museum, we crossed over to the Hyde park, and it was a Nirvana, compared to the Black party. There was a long stretch of vintage cars being displayed, with people enjoying the cordoned off street for the 'Australia day' celebration the way it is meant to be. The whole Hyde park in the middle of the city was reserved for the victors, there was a kid party going on full blast from Nickelodeon, kids jumping in joy. Nearby, the Sydney harbor was having its own chapter with the ships and boats on full glory.

Like I said, it was quite a black and white day. To top it all, Bony Tabbot has given Prince Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, the highest honor of Australia. What a joke made out of the Australia day. Anybody want Republic of Australia, Bill Shorten can't wait, so can't a large majority.

Apple crash and Apple care

It was probably too much to expect from my Mac, for it to be able to stand up to the fury of mother nature. One thunderousnight when we were away from home, my beloved laptop was badly injured. None of the ports were working and kernel panics started to appear as randomly as a fit hits a sick randomly  .

So went my motivation to be writing and spending hours poring bright ideas off the window. 2014 left its last legacy in Dec Christmas holidays, to both the laptop owner and his electronics. The thunder took down the laptop, TV, Apple TV, Routers and some other..

Attempts to revive the laptop with Apple support on phone - repair, safe mode, hardware diagnosis, all fruited to nothing. I am taking it to the 'Genius bar', its ultimate emergency later today, hopefully
its something they can fix. Good that I bought Apple care, when your apple gets sick its the last resort.

I am writing about a Mac using a Windows machine, that gotta say something.

Garrie beach bluebottle sting..ouch!!

To make the most of final couple days of the new year holiday,
we went for a picnic at Garrie beach in Royal National park.
The lookout leading to the beach has a perfect view of the ocean and the surrounding hills, perfect for a lunch stopover.

Down the winding road with a great drive, we reach a hidden, beautiful stretch of sand, typical Aussie coastline, leaving no doubt this is such a lucky country. But you may not be very lucky if you
get stung by something lurking in the beach, Bluebottle jellyfish. You will find this jellyfish species scattered around most of the Australian beaches, they seem placid and actually look beautiful with trademark deep blue color, bottle like body and tentacles. Do not go near!

After spending an hour in the waves and sun bathing, we were going for a stroll. That is when I felt a sudden pang of pain around both my lower legs. I knew straight away that something from the sea had bitten me, just didn't know what it was. My first thought was it could be a Stingray or something. Whatever it was, it was excruciatingly stingy and painful. I looked down to find a blue jellyfish and its beady tentacles wrapped around my legs! I removed those with my bare fingers and walked up to a nearby life saver tent. The life guard had a look at my legs and was about to offer an ointment, but decided to drive me to a nearby shower in his life saver vehicle. Apparently I needed a 'shower' .

There was a young girl also with the same incident. For her, it was on her hands. We were handed over to an elderly life guard who took us upstairs and opened up the shower and let us run hot water on the bites, turns out hot water is the best remedy for Bluebottle stings. The pain got worse in the legs and started to radiate, specially in the groin area. Worried, we tried to find a nearby hospital. It was at Sutherland, about 35 km away. With my wife navigating the high volume traffic in the bushy road and  slow driving, traffic holding drivers, we finally managed to reach the hospital in about half an hour. Luckily the medical centre was virtually empty when we arrived and I only had to wait barely five minutes before being attended by a doctor, who had a look at my groin and said it was no problem. I was given a prescription of pain killer, Panadene Forte, that was it.

It hurt badly for few hours, morning after, today I feel its fairly gone except for a light remainder pain that is not too bad. Google search shows hot water is the best treatment for bluebottle stings, scientific reason for this being hot water actually cooks the poison so that the body can break it down better and it becomes less lethal.

I am looking at the incident now and feel it is in a way is a gift, a learning by God. A first hand experience of pain and a minute glimpse of lurking dangers in the beach, ocean. Now I have earned a right to talk about the sting of a Bluebottle.

So much for the country living inspiration that I have been feeling for a while, mainly due to visits to Hunter valley. I imagine what if you have more serious medicals? Broke your limbs, snake bites, heart attacks..nearby medical facility might be hours drive. Again, knowing what can happen can make you prepare for it, to still be inspired by the beauty of remote country living, put up with it. Or get scared and do not attempt. Choice is yours, you have been warned

Roberts Circa 1876 Restaurant - Hunter Valley

Vin yard at Roberts Circa 1876

For the new year's eve 2014 we wanted to go for a long drive and decided to go to the Hunter valley as my wife had been wanting to visit the vin-yards for a long time.

Hunter valley drive

Our last visit there was during winter, and had been barren in terms of grapes.This time, we went for a trip to Pokolbin and decided to try out Roberts Circa 1876. 

The restaurant premises were fantastic, with vinyard, open green space, nice quaint buildings with lush green atmosphere makes it a dream location.

Sadly for us, the great pretty much ended there.

We found the food was above average and tastes nice, but nothing sort of extra ordinary. price however, bites, and your wallet will feel it badly. The service seemed bit disjointed with customers waiting without response from the staff for long time and hurried waitresses, who seemed to be in a state of 'rush' all the time. I felt like we were being given a favour to have a table.

Shell crab

We were wine novices and were in the Hunter for the experience. So it wasn't very pleasant when we asked for a recommendation and got a terse response from a waitress 'Well..we have 300 different types of wines..so I don't know what you are looking for..' , well I was about to explain what we were looking for, you could have been a bit more patient I guess?

We drove 140 km for this restaurant in particular, that response alone half killed our day.

Chicken

Duck

Overall, it has a hallmarks of a classic, world class eatery, but overcharging and impatient staffs let it down badly.


Food: 7/10

Service: 5/10

Ambience: 8/10

Value for money: 4/10

Overall: 6/10

Recommend: No