Cafe dreaming.

The thing I love, and miss, most about Australia is the very vibrant, very exciting dining scene. I like how there are so many enclaves to explore and how there is always a really good cafe/bistro/wine bar

to pop into at every corner. I happened to surf into one of the Aussie blogs I read while planning my food itinerary and surprise, surprise, the latest post was about yet another bistro opening. This one's in Redfern, in the grungy/new-agey Sydney suburb where Baffi & Mo is located. 

I went on to read a few of her earlier entries and there it was - a post on where to celebrate Christmas in July and all the yuletide offerings during the Australian winter.

Christmas, twice in a year. Lucky bastards.

The Aussie Diaries - Sydney Day 6

The Aussie Diaries - Sydney Day 6

Breakfast (not brunch!) at Sydney Fish Market.

It was really cold and rainy, like most of our mornings in Sydney actually.

Oysters galore.

Grilled seafood platter.

Big eh?

We were absolutely stuffed from the seafood, but we couldn't leave without trying out the sticky date muffin at the deli...

Nor the lemon muffin...

Nor the lemon tart... haha!

Toby's Estate, yum!

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Walking off all that food at The Rocks market.

There seems to be one of these Christmas stalls at every market.

Tea break at Pancakes on the Rocks.

The Devil's Delight (a chocoholic's dream) came highly recommended by many friends but...

I'm still a purist at heart.

I don't know how she did it but C found enough room for a grilled corn.

The rain had eased by then but it was still a pretty wet day.

Goofing around's part of holiday fun!

Like we'll go to Sydney and miss the landmark?

I really wanted to go to Luna Park (in the background).

Fake or not, he was the only aboriginal I saw.

Our last Australian sunset.

Packing woes. Explains the excess baggage charges.

Gave up packing to go for dinner at Madang, a Korean bbq restaurant two minutes from our hotel.

Super yum. Best Korean bbq I've had!

Korean ahjuma pretending to host a cooking programme; Korean ahjuma after too much soju. Teehee.

The Aussie Diaries - Sydney Day 5

The Aussie Diaries - Sydney Day 5

It was a rainy Saturday and even though we got off a good kilometre away from the right stop, we still made it to breakfast at Bill's in Woollahra.

Yes, we were there for a taste of the legendary scrambled eggs...

Keeping ourselves well entertained as we waited for our food.

Ricotta hotcakes - good, but Circa still rocked my socks.

Sweet corn fritters.

THE scrambled eggs - good, but a tad overrated as we'd been earlier warned. Oh well, been there, done that!

The rain hadn't eased by the time we left Bill's to head to the Paddington markets and a sales assistant at one of the boutiques we popped into even said, "Great day for shopping huh?" followed by a very sympathetic smile. Ah well, the weather just wasn't on our side in Sydney.

I left with a bag for work and ALOT of awesome chocolates.

BFF. That's us after signing a good portion of our lives away at Aesop.

Met up with Karen for tapas and sangria at the nearby Miro. Our hotel was right smack in the Korean quarter, but also only a short stroll away from a good selection of Spanish restaurants. Yum. I don't think I can ever have tapas without having chorizo. Spanish lap cheong. ;)

After a quick look around Surrey Hills, where I got to see Kylie Kwong's "Billy Kwong" restaurant, we hopped on a cab to Karen's 'hood - the super happening Newtown. All the tapas had conjured up an inexplicable craving for frozen yoghurt, but the gelato from this quaint ice-cream shop solved that pretty quickly.

I can't remember what I had, but it was good and the tables were really pretty.

The super, super nice Karen jiejie.

I look the same but can you see a hint of exasperation on her face? Mich and I were driving her nuts with our nonsense. ;)

"I am the Indian and you are the coconut tree."