Queensland Vino

You've no doubt drank Australian wine before.  Yellow Tail ring a bell?  Fun [for you, not for me] fact: Yellow Tail is probably cheaper where you live than where it's made, here in Australia.

Those Australian wines you've enjoyed probably came from (in order of likelihood) South Australia, Western Australia or Victoria.  Surprisingly for all drinkers of Aussie wine, Queensland produces some, too!

Sirromet

Sirromet is a winery located not far outside of Brisbane, where we went to see Devo in concert.  We went back to do a tour of the place, see how it's produced and taste test some of the local swill.

No free sample of the $390 bottle, boo!

It's a really nice place out there, with different restaurants and space to chill.

"Sirromet" is an anagram for Terry Morris, the dude who "invented" Sirromet.  He created the place because he was told by a snooty Victorian (the snootiest of all Australians, bar none) that there is no good wine made in Queensland.

Unfortunately, I kind of side with the snooty guy.  I was not enamored with the Sirromet wines.  I was fully prepared to buy a bottle but after our taste test I was not willing to throw down $25+ for a bottle of wine that I really didn't care for.  But I might have spoken too soon...

Granite Belt Wine Country

The Granite Belt region is the only wine region in Queensland, and strangely supplies Sirromet with most of their grapes.  Why is Sirromet just outside Brisbane when most of their grapes are grown hours away?  I do not know.

In November 2014 President Obama and various other world leaders descended upon our humble little city and took over everything for the G20 summit.  For a year in advance we were warned, "The city will be on lock down!  Evacuate!  FLEE!"  Which is exactly what we did.

That Friday was a public holiday, so like 98% of Brisbane residents we got the hell out of Dodge that weekend.  The tourism industries in nearby places outside of Brisbane did a brisk business that weekend!  In the weeks leading up to the summit the authorities were getting worried that Brisbane would look like a ghost town so reneged on their previous pleas for people to leave the city, and started begging people to stay in town.  With a draconian mix of road closures, security measures (all garbage cans were removed at train stations, lest terrorists try to hide bombs in them) and fighter jets patrolling the skies we did the wise thing and GTFO of town.

On our bonus Friday off work we hiked up the bare, curved mountain at Bald Rock National Park:

This is technically in New South Wales, but it was literally minutes from where we were staying in Queensland.  Look at how huge these boulders are compared to me!

We made a brief stop at Girraween National Park, back in Queensland, but after a half day of hiking uphill in the hot sun (remember, November is almost summer) we were not about to go too far into the depths of the national park:

Particularly because it had just seen some serious bush fires.

That night we dined at the must do restaurant in the city of Stanthorpe, QLD, Anna's:

I didn't get any pictures of the food, unfortunately, because I was too busy giving myself beetus to pick up my camera.  Whenever I told people I would be spending my G20 long weekend in the Granite Belt region they would immediately say, "You have to eat at Anna's!" and they were not wrong.  On Friday and Saturday nights Anna's does an Italian buffet.  Lasagna, pasta, stuffed shells, all sorts of desserts (that truth be told I didn't make it to).  It's surprisingly affordable, too.  Seriously, if you go anywhere near Stanthrope you HAVE to eat at Anna's!  It was awesome.

The next day, after a very long, carb-induced sleep coma, we had booked a full day wine tasting tour.

We wanted to do a tour because neither of us wanted to stay sober enough to drive between vineyards.  Leave the designated driving to the experts, I say!

We went around to lots of different wineries, sampling the local wares.  Holy man, did we do a lot of wine drinking that day!

But not as much drinking as the groups of cackling, drunken women who were on the tour with us.  Those ladies bought bottles upon bottles of wine, while we restrained ourselves to a bottle or two that we particularly liked.

One fun thing about the winery tour is that many, if not most, of them have dogs.

This little feller only has 3 legs but no worries, he's happy as a clam

These little mutts see strangers every single day, so they're super friendly and always down for a good petting.  They were the icing on the cake of a wine soaked day!

Since we were staying at a vineyard outside of town, thankfully we had the foresight to stock up on foodstuffs the day before.  Otherwise we would have been stuck, drunk, with no way of getting grill-ables from civilization!

We ate the hugest steaks ever, and had another early night of drunken, drunken sleep after watching the sun go down over the grapevines.

I liked the Granite Belt wine much more than the Sirromet stuff, which doesn't make any sense because most of the Sirromet grapes are grown in the same place.  I guess I just need to drink more vino before making a final decision!

Lifelong Learning

After completing my Masters degree in 2011 I declared that I was done with formal book learnin' forever.  So strong in my conviction, I have instructed multiple people to shoot me dead on the spot if I ever start talking about doing a PhD.  I mean it when I say I'm done; I'd rather be dead than a student again!

But that doesn't mean I'm done with all types of learning, only the type that requires student loans and income-less years of my life.  If it's something I actually want to learn then I'm game!

Over the past year I've been doing quite a bit of voluntary learning, and have amassed quite a nifty skill set in the process.

Painting

...and sipping.  I can't classify this as "learning" so much as "boozing", which is my favorite activity.  If I happen to learn a few things throughout my bottle of wine I just consider that a bonus!

Paint & sip is apparently a thing in the USA, but it has only recently made its way to Australia and Brisbane in the form of Cork & Chroma.  The concept is simple: BYOB if you are so inclined, and they will give you all the equipment and instruction you need to paint a picture.  And you can take the picture home with you when you're finished!

I have that peacock picture on my wall, and this picture is hanging in my sister's house:

You legitimately don't need any skills or talent to do this.  The paintings are pretty simple, and the teacher walks you through it step by step.  Some people are pretty serious about the painting but I, for one, am not.

And still my paintings look legit!  I've done it 3 times, and fully intend to go back whenever I can.  It's super fun and I can tell my painting skills have gotten better over my 3 trips.

Cooking

Chinese cooking, to be precise.

The Confucius Institute at the university where I work put on a cooking class for a group of staff at the swanky James Street Cooking School.  Confucius Institutes are non-profit institutions throughout the world affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education whose aim it is to promote Chinese language and culture.

Culture = food = this is where I come in.  You start with portioned out ingredients:

Then follow the printed instructions (ineptly, in the case of my group):

And enjoy the outcome!

It was a delicious evening, but a stressful one.  It was shocking how inept my group mates were, considering their high level jobs.  Read + follow instructions = not that goddamn difficult.

I did a coking class once before in Vietnam, and I don't know why I don't do more cooking classes when I travel.  It's entertainment and a meal, win-win!  Since eating exotic food is 75% of the reason why I travel I resolve to do more cooking classes from now on.

Making coffee

The world doesn't really know this, but Australia has better coffee than you do.  Wherever you are, no exceptions.  Even Italy.  Even Colombia.  Anywhere.

I thought I'd make use of this fortune in geography and learn how to make it for myself.

If memory serves it wasn't me who made that beautiful coffee, but my friend Laura who did the course with me.  It was a 2 part (single day) course, coffee making and latte art, the latter at which I sucked hardcore.  But I still got my qualification!

That's right, I am a certified barista, and am TAFE (technical and further education) qualified!  I could legit get a job as a barista, though I haven't made a single cup of joe in the year since I took the course.

Cheese

This is another learning experience lubricated by sweet, sweet booze.  Wine is the usual pairing for cheese, but this was an event for Brewsvegas, an annual celebration of craft beer.  The event we attended was called Fromage with Fortitude, Fortitude being the brewer who supplied the rainbow of beers:

They taught us about the beer and cheese, but we were too busy rapidly consuming them to really listen. Kind of.

I'm pretty sure I didn't learn a single thing beyond which beers and cheeses I liked the best, which I guess wasn't too educational because I liked them all.

4 Wheel Driving

About 6 months ago Martin traded in our pretty little Lexus for a big honkin' Nissan Patrol.  As a recent convert from not driving to driving, let me be the first to tell you it's HUGE!  It's like driving a school bus, essentially.  Here's a few gratuitous shots of Martin's pride and joy:

Most of the boys (I hesitate to use the term men) in our group of friends got onto the 4x4 bandwagon, so I'm not the only female trying to figure out how to navigate this beast.  Driving such a behemoth requires some serious skills (and balls), so to do this in its natural habitat (the bush) you really should know what you're doing.  My friend Pia and I signed up for a ladies only 4WDriving course to learn the ins and outs of how to drive our ridiculously large, gas guzzling vehicles.  We liked the idea of learning what we're doing without the presence of men, especially our men.

First we learned the basic foundation of, like, how cars work:  

Then we got behind the wheel and practiced some maneuvers:

And we navigated some obstacles:

I even got to "recover" another vehicle, which is 4WD-speak for yanking someone free when they've gotten themselves stuck.  Note the strap connecting me from the pretend-stuck car:

If you're driving a Patrol chances are in a natural setting you'll be doing the recovering, not be the one who's stuck.  

The pictures do not do justice to the crazy hills we drove up and down, so I won't even post them.  But believe me when I say they were pretty damn steep!  

We even looked under the hood and pretended to know what the hell we were doing:

I learned a hell of a lot and want both Martin and I to take the beach driving course, because realistically that is where we'll be doing most of our off roading.  I wish they did a city-driving-in-a-huge-ass-vehicle course because I would totally take it!  Perhaps then I could have avoided "the incident" with the concrete pillar we park next to.  Oopsy daisy!     

I figure if the university sector ever goes belly up I've got a backup career to fall back on, I can become a cheese monger barista painter chef professional 4x4 driver!

Eating in Bali

If you want to eat good, go to Bali!

We ate well, for very affordable prices. We didn't go super cheap and eat at roadside food stalls, but if we had we would've spent a fraction of what we did...and would've spent a lot more time on the toilet (which thankfully was barely none)!

Let us begin our culinary journey in Ubud.  First things first, I'll start off with the breakfasts at our hotel, Joglo Taman Sari.  I believe there are 3 options for breakfast, but we only tried 2 of them.  Once I tried the mi goreng (fried noodles) it was game over for me.  I was hooked!

Nasi goreng to the left, mi goreng to the right

There's something about Asian breakfast that speaks to my fat, fat soul.  I don't much care for breakfast, I never eat it, but I could eat Asian breakfasts everyday of my life.  Nasi goreng is fried rice and, while tasty, didn't hold a candle to the mi goreng when prepared by our hotel.

The other breakfast we tried was banana pancakes, which are more accurately crepes than pancakes.  The sauce to pour over them, I believe, is pure honey.  The lime wedge added a surprising amount of flavor.  This would be easy to make at home and I should totes do that.

I gather that "warung" is the word for restaurant in Indonesian, as most restaurants have it somewhere in their name.  It can be a bit confusing trying to keep all these similarly-named places straight!

Fair Warung Bale is run by a charitable organization that provides free healthcare to locals.  It's a great place, as TripAdvisor told me it would be, and was the perfect choice for our first meal in Bali.  Because it's a charitable organization I found myself leaving all my change with them as a donation.

Melting Wok Warung is a bit more upscale, with smaller portions at about the same price point as Fair Warung Bale, but undoubtedly delicious.  It's run by a super friendly French woman and they don't have a menu, only chalk boards, so you know they keep their menu aligned with ingredients that are fresh that day.

Because it's well outside of the city center we took a cab to Terracotta, and got this Indonesian mezze-style platter.  It had a variety of things try, the most surprisingly delicious being marinated tofu.  This restaurant overlooks a rice field, which looks really cool as the sun goes down, and there's a little fenced in area containing ducks (some with fancy hairstyles that I love so much) which are fun to watch.

The Balinese aren't big on dessert, which perplexes me about their culture.  Who doesn't love sweet stuff?!  But there is one dessert that they do have (strictly for the tourists, of course):

DQ!  Dairy Queen!  The small town, Midwest staple that I grew up with.  One thing I did not grow up with, however, was Nutella at DQ!

It's like the moon and the stars align; peace and serenity have enveloped the world at last.  Nutella and DQ are a match made in heaven!  I haven't been to an American DQ in years but I hope they've adopted Nutella onto their menu.  A Nutella Banana Blizzard, though not cheap by Bali standards, was seriously tasty.

Bali, unlike the rest of Indonesia, is primarily Hindu, not Muslim.  This means one thing: porky deliciousness!

Ibu Oka serves Bali's arguable most famous dish, babi guling, which is roast pork.  Really tender, tasty, flavorsome roast pork.  This place pretty much got taken over by tourists when Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations (available on YouTube) rolled through town and told the world that it's Bali's best babi guling.  As a result, locals deserted the place, prices went up and they added 2 ancillary restaurants to handle the overflow.  Still, for $5.50 AUD it's a hell of a meal.

We ate here 2 days in a row and if we had more lunchtimes in Ubud we probably would've went back.  We got the "special", which includes rice, a blood sausage (eat it, ya pussy!) and lawar which is an indistinguishable yet tasty green vegetable side dish you'll find everywhere.

Important to note: We went at 1 p.m. and we had to hike it to Ibu Oka 3 (not far down the road) and they were all out of crackling (crispy pork skin).  On our second visit we showed up right at opening time at 11 a.m. and we were the first ones in the door at Ibu Oka 1.  I never did see where Ibu Oka 2 was.  If you're a lover of crackling like Martin I advise you get there as early as you can or you risk missing out!

I don't know if it's because I have the hots for Anthony Bourdain or my love of pork products, but Ibu Oka was my favorite culinary experience in Bali.  I would've loved to try the place when it was authentic and not "ruined" by the white man such as myself, but I can't imagine the food has gone downhill too much from the original.

Let's move farther south now to Seminyak.  After 3 days in Ubud and a constant feeding frenzy of Asian food I was getting pretty sick of Asian flavors.  Martin picked a highly rated restaurant on "Eat Street", Ginger Moon, which thankfully offered a mix of Asian and western food.  I felt guilty for doing it, but I ordered a pizza - with a side of corn on the cob.

And it was delicious!  Really impressive by anyone's standards, but the real hero of the evening was Martins' ayam betut, or smoked chicken.

This was beyond incredible and definitely a contender for the best dish of the whole trip!  I don't even like smoked food but this had a subtle smokey flavor and was really awesome.  While I would hardly consider Seminyak a must see destination in Bali, Ginger Moon is totally worth a stop.

Before going to Bali I had heard that they do a lot of Mexican food, and that they do it well.  How bizarre, I thought.  Until I tried a babi guling TACO!

What a genius concept!  Taco Beach Grill had all the usual Mexican suspects, and another exceptional dish was the array of salsas you could order with tortilla chips. 

Many of the salsas were sweet, which worked surprisingly well, and there was lots of tasty variety.  Again we went 2 days in a row for lunch, because it was just that awesome.  Pro tip: the babi guling taco was much better than the babi guling burrito.  While I prefer a burrito over a taco 99% of the time the taco allowed the meat to shine in all its porky deliciousness more so than the overstuffed burrito.

Not everything we ate was amazing.  The blah food we had was at places we chose randomly off the street without researching it first.  Be smart, research first!  Every meal, every snack if you want top notch results.  If the restaurant has a menu on the wall like this, you know it's a good sign to move along.

Mmm...chicken taco style

Otherwise you will be served room temperature beer and when you question this, they will offer you a glass of ice.  They won't even think to give you the glass of ice with your piss warm beer unless you ask!  Yes, that happened to us.

Our final meal was a variety of seafood in Jimbaran.  It was hard to see what we were eating; it's pitch black out there because the closer you are to the ocean the farther away you are from the lights of the restaurant.

Expensive, even for seafood, even by Bali standards, but it is really close to the airport so makes sense to eat here just before your late night flight.  You can watch planes land while you eat, which Martin of course enjoyed.

We didn't get sick once in Bali, but we're usually pretty good about not eating dodgy things and paying dearly for it later.  That's not to say there haven't been...incidents...in the past but it was smooth sailing all 5 days in Bali.