Takoyaki

Takoyaki, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

mmmm takoyaki!! This Japanese street food snack is very tasty and cheap! For $2.25 I got these 4 battered balls of octopus goodness that made a great breakfast snack. They consist of diced baby octopus and basically a savory doughnut batter that is fried on a special griddle purpose made for takoyaki. There were a few of these places on Pitt Street so I had this snack more than a couple times while I was in Sydney.

Pacific Oysters at Quayside Brasserie

Pacific Oysters, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

My first "real" dinner in Sydney on Friday night at the Quayside Brasserie... I ordered a half dozen oysters. These are pacific oysters served on a bed of rock salt. Three are "natural" and three are served with a mignonette. For my main course ordered another appetizer: Slow poached & roasted chicken thigh stuffed with mixed herbs & pine nuts, celeriac puree, lentil cassoulet... it was fantastic!

Fitzroy Falls

Fitzroy Falls, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

While at Nepean Dam (see previous post) we asked someone how to get to Fitzroy Falls and were given directions. We drove for another 20 minutes or so and the clouds cleared up to reveal a fairly clear sky with some nice wispy clouds for decoration. We found our way to Fitzroy Falls and parked the car. After a quick cup of coffee (Australians do coffee better than anyplace else I've been) we walked a short trail to the waterfall. What a view!! This beautiful corner of the world rivals any I've seen.





Cheryl and I walked around to a few of the other lookouts and saw the inappropriately named "twin falls" where hardly a trickle of water "cascaded" over the rocks. On our way I heard a strange sound coming from the bushes. It sounded like a synthesizer or maybe a very strange cicada. Cheryl said, "I bet that's a lyrebird!" and then I could see the tail feathers sticking out of the bush. The lyrebird is featured on the back of Australia's 10 cent piece. Its claim to fame is its ability to immitate nearly anything. As we walked around the other side of the waterfall, we heard two more lyrebirds immitating whip birds and other calls. I'll let David Attenborough explain:



I took pictures of lots of flowers, showing off the super-macro lens on this FujiFilm s8000fd digital camera. I like the banksias and the mountain devil flowers. So many of them look so foreign to what I'm used to in North America.