Eating Australia's National Animal...
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2008
1
5
9
Trip End
Sep 11, 2008
Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
I won't go into all the details of my meeting..It was very long and very busy.
At around 6:30pm I ventured out for a little walk, and went to explore Target. Such a disappointment! Australian Target is very ghetto with very ghetto merchandise! :-( So sad. It was probably a step down from Walmart.
Following my Target run, I went with several colleagues to dinner at a restaurant in Federation Square called "Tjanabi". Tjanabi is owned by one of the heads of the local aborignal community
Downtown Collins Street
. (I haven't quite done enough research on aboriginees to figure out their culture/structure, so I can't add more detail here). It was a very modern restaurant in Federation Square. Actually, Federation Square is a little bit controversial because it is a beautiful traditional square with an old church, old train station, etc. Then, in about 2000, they added a very modern geometric building which is very unattractive!So, while at Tjanabi we had a sampler platter of crocodile, kangaroo, wallaby, and something called "calamari" which was DEFINITELY NOT squid, but some other questionable animal. I really liked the crocodile! The wallaby was too game-like, the kangaroo was good, and the "calamari" was horrific.
For my main meal I ordered baramundi in a white wine sauce over sweet potato mash. It was fine. A normal white fish which is commonly eaten in Australia. Some colleagues ordered the "Duet of Kangaroo and Wallaby" and a plate with TWO LARGE CHUNKS of meat was served. It looked horrid. They then proceeded to mau-chow the their national animal and a cute little wallaby...We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula - a little area about 40 miles outside of Melbourne known for growing wine, olives and lavendar. It was very nice! I wanted to get out to the M.P., but I would need to rent a car, and I'm not sure driving on the other side of the road + wineries = a good idea...
I made it back to the Novotel at around 10pm, in bed by 10:30pm. It's now 5:30am or so and I'm getting ready for another solid 12 hour meeting. God help me. I just need to make it to the weekend! I have plans to visit 4 wineries in the Yarra Valley, and have high tea at the oldest tearooms in Melbourne on Sunday. Fun times!
-HSL
