Australia- Sydney
We started off our Australian adventure in Sydney. We spent our first afternoon exploring the foods of Chinatown. Australian Chinese cuisine is very popular in Australia. We visited Chinatown on a few occasions.
One of our favorite dishes was their take on raman. Tsukemen, which means ‘dipping noodles’, uses similar ingredients to ramen. However it could be likened to a deconstructed version of the dish in which cold noodles are served next to a small bowl of rich broth. To eat, you simply dip your noodles into the soup. IT is great summer time "soup."
Another favorite spot was Din Tai Fung Dim Sum restaurant. We tired our fair share of Dim Sum including these rainbow soup dumplings, xiaolongbao. I think this was our first experience with soup dumplings. We loved them so much that we took a cooking class in China to learn how to make them.
We spent a full day at the Taronga Zoo. Their exhibits were interactive and informative. We had a Koala encounter and spent time with the zookeeper who answered all our questions. We also walked in the lemur play area with them running above our heads and at our feet. This zoo was up there with the San Diego zoo.
We spent the rest of our time in Sydney walking around the Harbor area near the Opera House as well as the local natural history museum. We took a boat ride around the harbour to take in each side of the Sydney Opera house.
We even took a train ride up to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil from the Eucalyptus trees, which mixed with water vapor it creates a blue colored mountain. We headed up to the area and went to Scenic World to get the best views of the mountains. This park had trams, cable cars and a steep sloped train ride to see the mountains as well as the three ladies.
Check back to read more about our time spent in the Great Barrier Reef.
