September 22, 2012

Hiya...I get comments from time to time and received one this AM from "Anonymous" saying they can't view the pictures on their laptop.  Everything looks good on my end and on different computers, but if you are also unable to see the snaps, drop me a line.  If you prefer to go direct, my email address is Imbro360@gmail.com.  Am also able to see how many views the diary gets and it's at 850 since I moved it to this new site, so feel pretty good about people looking at it and will keep blogging on.  Hate the term "blog" by the way...sounds like slog and bog and connotates a negative to me.  Even grog, which is a beer reference and should feel like a positive, sounds like the the kind of beer an alcoholic leprechaun would enjoy.

The last week has been pretty quiet 'round here.  Betty is on a long trip for a couple weeks, and Paul went off to Middle School camp from last Monday morning till Friday afternoon.  All the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades go camping (each grade to a different destination) for a week of community building.  Paul's class went to Fulong (a popular local beach we went to and wrote about in an earlier post...the one in the shadow of the {inactive} nuclear power plant).  They did tons of activities (hiking/rock climbing/surfing) and played games at night, slept in tents, ate outside, etc.  The teachers were the chaperone's and there were 400 or so 8th graders...the only negative was that he got eaten by mosquito's...more on them another day soon. 

Sounds like Paul had a great time, met some new kids, but right when he got home, had to hunker down and finish off some homework.  He was explaining to me that once you finish a homework assignment, that you turn it in via email.  All the kids are issued computers and work is assigned, performed, and graded completely via their intranet.  So he's telling me that he's been having this ongoing problem with his Math teacher, Mr. Wong, in that there are so many Wong's in the school directory that he's been sending them to an incorrect email address all along and that the teacher was getting on his back for being late.  I told him to explain to the teacher that he's been sending it to the Wong address.

Carolyn and I had a nice quiet week together...one of the great things about her is she is an adventurous eater and feels that eating out is the best.  So on the two nights that we had without tons of after school activities, I asked her where she wanted to eat and she first chose the (yummy) Indian joint up the street.  In our neighborhood, there are two Indian places right next to each other (the Indian Food District as it were) and if you live in these parts, you mostly fall solidly behind one or the other...Saffron or The Spice Shop.  As a true Independent, I find that both have their merits...on this night, we went to Saffron.

Crap...took this with my cell and cannot figure how to get it right side up when loading onto the diary.  Anyhoo...yummy curry and nan and everything.  

The other place she chose was the Australian restaurant downtown.   Australian food is kinda like American in that it doesn't have a deep unique tradition, but they do a great job with meat pies. Have always loved those and this place (called Woolloomooloo) does a good job with them.  In addition, they are the only place in town that we've found that makes fruit pies and we shared a very good piece of banana cream  The hard part was navigating our way to their location deep in the heart of downtown during the rush hour without my usual Co-Pilot.  Very happy to report that we made it without any serious miss-steps finding parking nearby and am now totally, perhaps overly, confident that I can get around this town (and country).  Finding amazing parking spots (most times right in front of the destination) is my super power.  Normally, when you claim superiority over something, karma comes and smacks you in the face.  Like the old saying goes...there are two types of people in the world, those that are humble, and those that are about to be.  However, having super powers makes you immune to this truism and being able to maintain this power here was a concern that was not realized.

We have also been sampling the local street food (full recap another day), but we discovered one that has already become a staple...the Onion Pancake truck.

 

They don't have "pick-up trucks" per se here, and all of the work/food trucks are various sizes of this blue truck.  There are a handful of white ones, but at least 98% of all the work trucks are in this blue color.  No one has been able to explain why they are all this color to this point, but there has to be a reason.  Anyway, most of you have probably eaten (and love) these pancakes before, so you know that they are yummy.  This truck parks on a corner between our place and the kids school in the afternoon, so we pass it nearly every day.  Should go without saying, but I've been studying them closely, and discovered that not only can buy just the pancake, but you can also order them with eggs/sauce. 

They cook the pancakes like normal, but then they add a bit (OK a lot) of oil to that iron skillet.  They then scramble 4 eggs adding them to the skillet cover them with the pancake.  Once the eggs are cooked, you can choose to add the sauces (foreground right).  From what I can tell, they are soy sauce, the red chili sauce, and this powder that they put on everything.  Have no idea what the powder is (suspect it is some kind of MSG), but they load it onto a lot of dishes and have never seen it used before in my US Chinese food experiences.  Anyway...they fold it in half sandwich style, slice it into triangles like a pizza and slap 'em into those Fresh/Delicious bags with the Guido dude face on them and send you on your way.  All for US 3 bucks. 

Carolyn and I couldn't finish them off by ourselves...so greasy and so good.  The lovely couple that operates the truck don't speak English, and I am lost with the Mandarin, but food is a language all in itself and we communicate perfectly during our encounters.  We now smile and wave at each other every day.  I love them for their perfect concoction and I think they look at my belly and know I will be a devoted customer...