St. Andrew's Day Dinner

Haggis, white pudding, potato, and turnip dinner, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

November 28th, 2009

While we were hiking around in Jamison Valley our phones had no reception. On our way back into civilization, my phone alerted me to the fact that I had missed a call from Cheryl. I called her back and she invited us to dinner with some friends in the city. "I'm told there will be a haggis there," she said. That sealed the deal.

This traditional Scottish dish is a type of sausage of savory pudding made by mincing the "pluck" of a sheep (heart, lungs, liver) with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt ... then stuffing it all into the sheep's stomach. This preparation is then boiled in stock for a few hours and then served. In our case it was served with mashed potato, mashed turnip, and white pudding -- another savory pudding made with suet, oatmeal, salt, and spices.

I was the only one at the table who cleaned my plate. This was interesting because I am a notoriously picky eater. Well first of all I was really hungry... I also liked the haggis, but it was a little dry. Ian (our host) said it was overcooked, but I wouldn't have known the difference. I will definitely try it again if I come across it, but I won't go searching for it.

Thank you Ian for a great meal! Thank you Cheryl for introducing me to new friends! This made two non-Australian holidays I had celebrated in Australia in less than a week!

Thanksgiving in Sydney

On November 26th, after coming back from the Olympic Park and seeing the small railway museum inside Central station, we walked to Paddy's Markets for lunch. I had some really bad Japanese food and a Heineken. The food court food was mostly lousy, but I should have had something else. Matt had a kebab and it looked really good.

We took the tram from Paddy's Markets to the Sydney Fish Market where we walked around for a bit to see the market and then bought some Balmain Bugs, prawns, and scallops for Thanksgiving Dinner at Cheryl's house in Sydney.



After a glass of wine and a quick snack of some olives and cherry tomatoes, we put the seafood into my backpack (huge mistake in retrospect, the smell lingered for weeks and through several washes!!) and headed for Central station to meet Cheryl. She drove us to her house and we waited for others to arrive.

We couldn't get the grill working because it was out of gas and then we swapped tanks but the new tank didn't have the right fitting for the grill! We gave up and just used the boil and fry methods for the bugs, scallops, and prawns. It all turned out great though! Gaelyn and Anne Marie arrived with a turkey!!! Haggie and Mary Jane and Aerhylle came to celebrate with us. It was an awesome Thanksgiving, even though we weren't in America for the tradition.







We had turkey and potatoes, prawns, bugs, scallops, an abalone. Matt and Gaelyn played pool in the garage before dinner. The mosquitoes were pretty rough being the middle of summer, so we had the bug zapper on. My feet got a few bites that would annoy me for the rest of the week!

Softshell Crabs at Sandbar Restaurant

Softshell Crabs at Sandbar Restaurant, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

After lunch I headed back to the motel in Bradenton and took a nap. A few hours into my nap, my phone rang. It was Kevin! They had finished with the tux fitting and all the wedding work for the day and wanted me to come to their hotel so we could all go out for drinks.

We went to a sports bar so that we could watch the Rays game. After being there for an hour or so, Kevin told me that Kristin's family had invited me to get dinner with them on Anna Maria Island.



The dinner was great and it was good to meet Kristin's family. I already knew her sister because she lives in Chicago but I had never met her friend Liz, who is absolutely adorable! I ordered the soft shelled crab with shrimp, red skinned potatoes, and asparagus. It was fantastic! Kevin said he wished he had ordered what I ordered.

After dinner, Kevin and I drove back to Sarasota to meet up with the groomsmen. After a few more hours of hanging around at a bar, we went back to the groom party hotel room. I was exhausted by that point, so I went back to my motel room and crashed for the night.