Everyone in the western world is familiar with "white man's Chinese" food which is quite possibly more readily obtainable than authentic Chinese food. Now to be clear, I don't mean any racial disrespect to my fairer-skinned friends when I label this food as "white man's Chinese"; in fact, this term was coined by my white Aussie husband to refer to the westernised Chinese food easily available in Australia. This is a pseudo-Chinese cuisine based around western tastes that can differ quite significantly from the original Chinese cuisine. Having been exposed to what real Chinese and other Asian dishes actually taste like, hubby obviously prefers the authentic stuff, hands down. However, "white man's Chinese" food has a special place in his stomach because of the simple fact that he had grown up eating the stuff; however I, on the other hand, have no such fondness for that kind of food. Poor hubby hasn't had many - if any at all - opportunities to get nostalgic by eating
that kind of food since we moved away from Australia. It was no surprise then that when we went to the
Market City food court with my family for dinner one night during our short trip to Sydney, Rob got a "combination plate" from one of the Chinese stalls, which is as typical "white man's Chinese" as you can get. There was fried rice and fried noodles, and his choice of three dishes from the bain marie: sticky honey prawns, chicken curry and Peking-style pork (or perhaps it was sweet & sour pork?), all for under AU$8. He said he quite enjoyed it, but I honestly didn't see any appeal (the honey prawns and pork were too sweet, and I can make better curry - without MSG too), so he happily ate most of the plate. Chicken and corn soup was included in the combo special that night, but it wasn't that great, and barely even warm. I did enjoy the prawn crackers that I'd bought from the same shop, and so did the rest of my family.
Combination plate of fried rice, fried noodles, Peking-style pork, curry chicken and honey prawns. Chicken and corn soup and the bag of prawn crackers in the background:
No trip to Sydney is complete without a visit to
Gelatissimo (for us, anyway). Rob got a double-scoop cone of the Cherry Bite (chocolate and cherry) and Choc Orange flavours at the
Circular Quay while waiting for the next ferry to
Taronga Zoo. We all preferred the chocolate orange combination, but Zak re-affirmed his dislike for ice creams when he had a lick (he's never been very keen on cold stuff ever since he first had an ice chip at 9 months old). Hubby commented that the quality wasn't as good as he remembered, although I believe it's not that the quality has declined, but that Gelatissimo's gelato doesn't measure up to the
real deal that we ate in Italy. Still, I think that Gelatissimo is anyone's best bet at getting good gelato that is relatively easy to obtain (in eastern Australia at least; the Perthies have
Il Gelato).
The cone after a couple of licks had already been taken. That's our boy in the background wondering why Dada likes the cold stuff:
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