Wednesday 29 June 2011

Australia Day 2 - Sydney - Oh how I love the sea

Sydney Fish Market
We woke up early on day 2 just for Sydney Fish Market. Upon arrival I was slightly stunned by the scale of it; it was tiny! Well as the second largest fish market in the world I was expecting much more and also 90% of the visitors were Chinese! As I love to research every place I go to thoroughly before I knew the most famous places were De Costi, Christie's and Doyles. In the end we brought food exclusively from Christie's. We ate a Lobster Mornay, Rock Oysters and a massive Alaskan King Crab leg. We spent around AUD 50 per person here, easily the most expensive meal we had in Sydney. The lobster Mornay was lovely but I wished there was more lobster. Personally I'm not an oyster fan and the ones I had at Christie's didn't convert me whilst the huge Crab leg was silky sweet however a little on the icy side. If you're hugely into seafood then have a look but if you're not I'd give it a miss.

Manly Wharf Hotel - The Harbour Bar - East Esplanade Manly 2095
The sulky spoilt brat in me really wanted to try Garfish but then I was outvoted. Instead we chose the Harbour Bar. I ordered fish and chips, something you've got to try in Sydney I think. The place is huge possibly because it's a modern beer hall, so we did feel a little odd being one of few customers. The fish and chips came much larger than expected, I honestly didn't expect to be served two pieces of fish. The fish, which was beer battered, was smooth and tender. This is probably the best battered fish I've had since I normally only go to the local chippy for Fish and Chips. But the meal had one huge ailing point and that was the salt. I don't know whether it's my taste buds not handling salt well, I don't like putting salt in my chips anyway, but I came out of the meal feeling I drank a salt pot, my tongue was sore throughout the day. Yet again our meal came to around AUD 40~45.

Mamak - 15 Goulburn Street
Be prepared to wait, in fact be prepared to wait at most established restaurants in Sydney. Mamak is possibly Sydney's most lauded budget Asian restaurant so we had to go try. We ordered the Roti Canai, Roti Kaya, a dozen Chicken Satays and a Maggi Goreng. I also ordered the Iced Tea. But honestly what you order doesn't matter as long as you order their speciality, it's all in the Roti. The other dishes were decent but nothing astounding but the Roti's were one of the highlights of my trip. I loved the buttery flavour of the Roti Canai, the original. It was soft to the touch and made even better with the sauce. I was slightly hesitant on ordering a sweet roti but how wrong I was! The Roti Kaya was lovely as a desert or an entree. The sweetness of the coconut and the pandan fitted perfectly with the roti. I have very little recollection of anything else we ordered because the roti's blew the other dishes away but honestly I'd come back to Sydney just for them. The meal came to around AUD 40-45 but we could have ordered more.

General Tourist Attractions
Sydney Opera House - Absolutely the icon of Sydney and a beautiful building from all angles, however I must say the building looks "grander" from afar.

Manly Ferry - An absolute must for the views, if you buy a Mymulti pass you can take as many ferries as you'd like within the zones you chose. The views are better in the morning imo but if you've got a lot of do in Manly then it's also worth a trip back to see the night lights.

Sydney Customs House - the green thing's gone (really tempted to put a sad smilie face here) but the city model is still a beautiful attraction to behold.

Pictures hopefully coming soon...

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