Today we’re moving hotels again, from our Airbnb in Kings Cross to a cheaper hotel in Newtown (which is also closer to where we’ll be picking up our hire car tomorrow). Before checking out, we go out in search of lunch. Quite a few places are closed, but we end up going to Lola Tapas Bar Potts Point for some tapas.
We order a charcuterie plate, cod croquettes, grilled chorizo, and prawns with olive oil, chilli, and garlic.
All the food is good, but the prawns are exceptional. Succulent and juicy, with so much flavour.
Tapas at Lola Tapas Bar Potts Point – the garlic and chilli prawns were amazing!
We therefore can’t resist the greedy option of ordering another portion, along with the pork belly. The pork was slightly disappointing, as the meat was a bit dry (though the crackling was good). I also decide to give the red sangria a go, which is very good and a bargain at only $7 (about £4) a glass.
Another portion of prawns. The pork was slightly disappointing though.
We go back to the Airbnb to pick up our bags then get the train to Newtown, where we check into our hotel. We were staying at the Newtown Budget Hotel. As it’s name implies, it’s quite a basic hotel but is fine for one night and is a convenient location for both the city and the airport (where we’ll be picking our car up from tomorrow).
After dropping our bags, we walk the short distance to Sydney Park. We wander around the park then find a shady spot to relax and do a bit more New Zealand planning.
Sydney Park is a lovely place to walk around and relax on a sunny afternoon
We spent most of the afternoon in the park, then walked back to the high street in search of a drink and snack. Most places were closed, so we ended up at Mountain Goat Newtown (one of the very few places that were open). I gave one of the cocktails a go and Pete had a tasting paddle of beers. We also had some cauliflower bites as a light supper. The cocktail was excellent, with their homemade gin as a base.
Drinks and a snack at Mountain Goat Newtown
We then headed back to our hotel for a couple of episodes of Money Heist before bed.
Today we’re going to Cockatoo island, so caught the morning train from Chatswood into the city. We passed by an interesting looking sculpture outside the Intuition SofTech Australia building as we walked to the pier at Barangaroo.
We didn’t have to wait too long to get the ferry from Barangaroo to Cockatoo island. It’s a short (about 10 minutes) but pleasant ferry ride across the harbour.
It’s a short but pleasant ferry ride from Barangaroo to Cockatoo island
Once at the island, we went to the visitor centre and hired an audio guide for $6 (about £3.50). The island has a fascinating history – first as a convict prison, then a girls reform school, and finally as a very big and important shipyard. The audio guide is comprehensive and goes into a lot of detail, so is definitely worth the money. Even without the guide, it’d be a very interesting place to wander around. There are quite a few informational boards to give some context, and it’s fascinating seeing all the old machinery left behind.
Cockatoo Island is a fascinating place to visit, and I’d definitely recommend the audio guide
We spent a few hours on the island before catching the ferry back to Barangaroo, and then walking around Darling Harbour. We then crossed Pyrmont Bridge and continued to Sydney Fish Market.
View from Pyrmont Bridge over Darling Harbour
We had a wander around the Fish Market then enjoyed a leisurely late lunch at The Boatshed Pyrmont. We ordered a fish platter and portion of mussels between us. The food was decent but the platter was a bit mixed (the prawns were cold and the calamari slightly chewy, but the battered fish and bbq octopus were excellent). The fish market itself was interesting to see, but nowhere near as impressive as some other fish markets I’ve visited (eg Tokyo fish market), so I’m not sure it’d be worth making a big trip to see it.
Lunch at The Boatshed Pyrmont in Sydney fish market
After lunch, we walked back over the bridge to Darling Harbour. All the bars along Darling Harbour seem to have happy hours on in the afternoon, so we decided to give a couple of them a go.
First we went to Zoha Food and Wine, where I had a passionate martini and Pete had a beer. It was very pleasant overlooking the harbour and the drinks were pretty good.
Happy hour drinks at Zoha Food and Wine with a nice view over the harbour
We then went a few doors down to Georges Mediterranean Bar & Grill. Here the happy hour cocktails were slightly more expensive but they had a bigger selection included so Pete found a cocktail he liked the sound of. I had an espresso martini, and the cocktails were definitely slightly better here than at Zoha.
Cocktails at Georges Mediterranean Bar & Grill, again with nice views over Darling Harbour
As we’d had a big and fairly late lunch we weren’t particularly hungry so we went back to our hotel to relax. At the Silkari Suites we’ve got a small apartment with separate living room so it’s actually quite a pleasant place to just chill for the evening. We also need to pack, as tomorrow we move hotel to an Airbnb much closer to the city centre.
We started the day with a brunch of pan fried dumplings, which we’d bought frozen from Aldi. They were good, but nowhere near as nice as the frozen pork and prawn wantons we had earlier in the week.
Our pan fried prawn dumplings
We got the train from Chatswood into the city, then a bus to Bondi beach. It was quite a cloudy day, which suited us just fine – I’m not sure we’d have wanted to do this walk in the full sun as there’s not much shade.
Bondi beach was smaller than I was expecting, but still quite a majestic looking beach.
Bondi beach on a cloudy day
The costal walk was beautiful, and we passed by many interesting looking bays as we walked between Bondi and Brontë beaches.
The Bondi to Coogee coastal walk goes past several small and beautiful coves
After Brontë beach, the path goes past the heritage listed Waverley Cemetery. Apparently it’s one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world and it’s certainly impressive to walk past.
The Bondi to Coogee coastal walk passes by the heritage listed Waverley Cemetery
We discovered a highly rated Bahn Mi place in Coogee (Hot Rolls Vietnamese Takeaway), so obviously had to give it a try. The Bahn Mi was very tasty, with a very generous amount of filling. It didn’t quite taste like the ones we had in Vietnam (quite a lot of sweet tasting sauce) but was delicious all the same.
Our crispy pork Bahn Mi from Hot Rolls Vietnamese Takeaway, Coogee
We took the bus back into the city and got off at the ANZAC memorial. It’s an impressive looking building so we were planning on having a quick look around. However it’s actually got an entire museum underneath the memorial, so we ended up spending much longer there. The museum is free to enter, and is very informative – it’s a great place to visit if you’re got an interest in history or war.
The ANZAC memorial is well worth seeing and houses a war museum beneath it
We next walked to Maybe Sammy, a cocktail bar not too far from Circular Quay. Between 4.30-5.30pm it’s happy hour and they offer a small selection of mini cocktails for $7 (about £4). I very much enjoyed my mini jasmine negroni. They also give you olives and spicy nuts when you order drinks, which was a nice touch.
Happy hour cocktails at Maybe Sammy
After enjoying our drinks, we headed back to the hotel for some more New Zealand planning and an early night.
We weren’t particularly hungry so didn’t bother cooking a proper dinner and instead put the rest of the part baked baguettes in the oven which we enjoyed with the remainder of our olive tapenade (and obviously a nice glass of Aussie red)
We had a bit of a slow start to the day as we needed to make a few phone calls to sort out some of our New Zealand plans (including to the hire car company who’d messed up our booking and the train company as we were having issues booking tickets on line).
Pete also wanted to make another batch of pizza dough, so before we knew it most of the morning had gone. Before leaving the hotel, we made a cheese and mushroom quesadilla using yesterday’s leftover tortillas. It made for a quick and easy lunch!
Tasty brunch of mushroom and cheese quesadilla
After eating, we caught the train from Chatswood into the city and walked to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. The garden is quite substantial in size and a relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon.
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is a relaxing place to spend a sunny afternoon
We then continued to the Sydney Opera House. We’d wanted to book a tour but when we tried to book tickets online they were fully sold out for the next couple of weeks. So we thought we’d just go and have a look at it up close. (We did end up getting tickets in the end, by phoning them up, but didn’t realise we’d get them at this point).
I hadn’t fully appreciated it was three completely separate buildings (or at least roof structures) until now.
The Sydney Opera House in all its glory
We walked along the quay by the side of the opera house, where you get fabulous views of both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the opera house. We were thinking of getting a drink in one of the bars along the waterfront, but on a sunny holiday afternoon they were all absolutely packed.
Lovely views of the Harbour Bridge from the Quay
Instead we carried on into town, and came across Customs House. It’s got a couple of small exhibitions, so we had a quick look around.
Customs House houses some small exhibitions
Under the glass floor, there’s also a model of the city of Sydney, which I thought was quite cool.
I loved the model of Sydney under the glass floor
By this point we fancied a cocktail so went to the nearby Apollonia. It’s a nice, very atmospheric bar, but the cocktails weren’t especially impressive for the price. We also shared a charcuterie plate, which was also good but not amazing.
The cocktails at Apollonia were slightly disappointing
As we were slightly disappointed by the Apollonia cocktails, we went to Double Deuce Lounge (a nearby cocktail bar) for one more drink. Again, it was a lovely, atmospheric bar. However, this time the cocktails were also pretty amazing. I had one if the best amaretto sours and Pete had an alcoholic watermelon slushy (which I thought wouldn’t be nice, but the surprising chilli kick actually worked brilliantly)
We loved our cocktails at Double Deuce Lounge
We got the train back to Chatswood, and back at the hotel Pete prepared a homemade pizza for us. It went very well with the rest of the red wine we had left, and was a nice end to a lovely day.
After starting the day with a quick brunch of pan fried pork and prawn wantons, we caught the train from Chatswood into the city.
Pan fried pork and prawn wantons, bought frozen from Aldi, were surprisingly good
Our first stop was the Rocks, which is the oldest area of Sydney. It’s a cute looking and interesting area to wander around, with little cobbled streets and laneways. After briefly exploring, we went into the Rocks Discovery Museum. It’s free to enter and tells the story of the Rocks area of Sydney. It’s not a huge museum but I found it very interesting and would definitely recommend.
The Rocks Discovery Museum
The Rocks Discovery Museum is very close to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, which is where we went next. The main exhibition (which has an entrance fee) was Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist who does sculpture / installation art. I really liked this exhibition, particularly the wallpaper where you need to get up close to see the dots are actually miniature human faces.
Do Ho Suh’s installation style art
The exhibition is over two floors, and the bottom floor houses a huge installation the size of a house (literally). He’s recreated his childhood home using a paper rubbing technique. It’s made up of pieces of paper which he’s put on the exterior and rubbed the pattern using crayons, extremely impressive to see!
Do Ho Suh’s recreation if his childhood home in paper was impressive to see
The middle floor of the museum is free entry. A lot of the artwork focuses on the aboriginal history of the country, and was interesting (and at times thought provoking) to see.
The middle floors of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia are free to visit
We relaxed by the waterfront at the quay, then caught the train back to Chatswood. Once in Chatswood, we went to the supermarket to buy a few groceries.
On the way back to Silkari Suites (our hotel), we walked past Guzman y Gomez and noticed a sign for $3 tacos. It sounded too cheap to be true, so we obviously had to give it a go. They seemed very confused when we ordered a single $3 taco, I think it’s meant to be an accompaniment. It was tasty enough, though would have been way better if the cheese had been melted – but for $3 you can’t complain.
Our $3 taco from Guzman y Gomez, Chatswood
Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a while then followed up the Mexican theme with some nachos as a starter then chicken fajitas.
Mexican themed dinner of nachos and chicken fajitas
After dinner, it was time for our usual bedtime ritual of a couple of episodes of Money Heist on Netflix accompanied by a glass of wine.
As most places are closed today, we thought it’d be a good day for a long walk. Before setting out, we cooked a quick brunch of pan fried pork and prawn wantons, which we’d bought frozen from Aldi.
A quick brunch of pan fried pork and prawn wantons before our Boxing Day walk
Chatswood is a very pleasant neighbourhood, with wide leafy streets and beautiful huge houses. There are also quite a few parks, and we walked through a couple, including Muston Park and Barambah Reserve.
Muston Park, one of the parks we walked through near Chatswood
After about an hour, we reached Echo Point Park, where the Two Creeks Track begins.
Echo park, where the two creeks track begins
The Two Creeks Track is a beautiful and very scenic trail along the river. It was a hot and sunny day, so we were very glad that much of the first half of the walk was shaded.
The Two Creeks Track is a beautiful and very scenic trail
After about an hour, the track became much less clear and we were slightly unsure which way to go. At one point we ended up backtracking the way we came then trying the other direction. This then led us to what looked like another dead end, however we could see the path continuing in the distance. So ended up scrambling down some rocks so we could reach it.
We had to scramble down some rocks to reach the path below
The track ends up in East Lindfield. We walked through the town to Lindfield train station, where we caught the train back to Chatswood. The shopping centre was actually pretty open, so we had a quick wander around and picked up a few things to eat. We then walked back to our hotel to cool down and do some more New Zealand planning.
In the evening, we cooked a kangaroo steak sandwich for dinner, along with the leftover halloumi from yesterday. It’s the first either of us had tried kangaroo, and it was pretty tasty. A little gamey, but not a really strong flavour.
Our first taste of kangaroo in Australia
After dinner, we did a bit more New Zealand planning then watched an episode of Money Heist before bed.
Rather than going out for Christmas lunch, we decided to have a relaxing day at home (or rather our apartment in Silkari Suites, which is our temporary home for the next week!)
The cooking facilities are ok but fairly limited – just an oven with two ring hob, and two sets of cutlery, two plates, two bowls, two wine glasses etc. So we’ll need to wash up between each course, plus we’ll have time to plan some of our New Zealand travels (we’ve literally booked our flights from Sydney to Aukland and nothing else so far)
We start the day with the saucisson, tapenade, and red sparkling wine we bought at the French farmers market the other day. To be honest the saucisson was a bit disappointing. It wasn’t unpleasant, but didn’t taste like genuine French saucisson. The tapenade, however, was amazing – especially with the freshly baked baguette we had with it.
Saucisson and tapenade from the farmers market, with freshly baked bread
Our next dish was very simple, some grilled halloumi.
A simple grilled halloumi
We then had a bit of a gap while I made the Choux pastry for our dessert. The kitchen doesn’t have weighing scales or a wooden spoon, so there’s a risk it won’t turn out at all (we’ve got some Toblerone and Sicilian biscuits we bought from the Christmas market if all else fails!)
Our next course was confit chicken wings (which I cooked and deboned yesterday) with scallops and bacon garlic croutons. It was a relatively simple dish to finish off. I just had to make the croutons from some of the baguette we’d cooked earlier, then pan fry the chicken wings and scallops to crisp up and caramelise. I’d made a stock yesterday using the bones from the chicken wings, and this formed the base of the sauce, along with a splash of Australian tawny which is reduced and cooked down this morning. We paired this course with a glass of the white wine we’d also bought at the French farmers market.
Crispy confit chicken wings and pan fried scallops
We then relaxed for a couple of hours, then washed up and prepared the veggies for our main course. Our main course consisted of individual fillet beef wellingtons, Yorkshire pudding (which we’d bought some cheap pie ramekins to make!), roast potatoes, carrot and parsnip mash, and mixed vegetables. I was very pleased with how it came out, especially considering the size of the kitchen!
Our slightly alternative Christmas roast of beef fillet wellington
We were feeling very full after the beef wellingtons, so again had a couple of hours or so to just chill out. I then made the chocolate sauce for the profiteroles while Pete whipped the cream.
Profiteroles and chocolate sauce for dessert
By now it was evening, and we had a WhatsApp call with my family before going to bed. It felt odd not to be spending Christmas with them, especially as they’re actually in our home back in the UK (my parents are temporarily living there while we’re away, as they’ve recently sold their house and their new one should complete around the time we return from our travels)
We started the day with a breakfast Bahn Mi at Banh and Boba. We shared a pork crackling Bahn Mi, and it was a decent Bahn Mi – fresh crusty bread and a very generous amount of cracking.
The Bahn Mi at Banh and Boba had a generous amount of cracking
We continued on to Chatswood station, where we caught the train into town. We disembarked at the Town Hall station, which is in a shopping centre. The first thing we spotted was a little ice cream shop selling banana ice cream. Obviously we had to give it a go, along with a scoop of salted caramel. It was decent ice cream, though not as good as the one from Gelateria Gondola Chatswood that we had yesterday.
Yay, banana ice cream!
The Queen Victoria Building is just round the corner, so we went there first to check out the huge Christmas tree.
The huge Christmas tree in The Queen Victoria Building
We then walked down Market St to the Sydney Tower. There’s a $33 entry fee to go up the viewing deck. The ticket price includes a 3D film, but to be honest the film wasn’t amazing (and the 3D glasses were made of cardboard so not the best, which meant the screen was often a little blurry). The views from the top are pretty impressive, especially if you’re there on a clear day as we were. There are also touchscreens all around the viewing area, with each giving information of all the things you can see in that direction.
Panoramic views over the city from the top of the Sydney Tower
Hyde Park is right by the Sydney Tower, so we had a wander around the park. It’s a very attractive park with fountains, lots of large birds, and a great view of the Sydney Tower.
Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney
We continued to the neighbouring Hyde Park Barracks, which has a $12 entry fee. I very much enjoyed this museum, the exhibits are very well thought out and the audio guide (included in the ticket price) is excellent. It was fascinating learning about the history of the place, and how it evolved from a place to house convicts, to being a depot for female immigrants, and finally acted as an asylum for the infirm and destitute.
Hyde Park Barracks was a fascinating museum and the audio tour was excellent
We next walked to Martin Place Christmas Market. It felt odd to be wandering around a Christmas market in bright sunshine! The market was smaller than I was expecting, but very enjoyable. A lot of places were offering free samples, including spirits and cocktails, wine, honey liquor, and Sicilian biscuits. The Sicilian biscuits were particularly good, and we bought a few to take back with us.
The Christmas Market at Martin Place
We then headed back to the hotel, as we wanted a few hours to do some preparation for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. My main tasks were to confit and debone some chicken wings, then use the bones to make a stock (which I wanted to simmer for several hours). I also decided make the mushroom duxelle, chive pancakes, and flaky pastry for tomorrow’s individual beef fillet wellingtons and then assemble them so they’ll just need popping into the oven tomorrow.
While I was doing this, Pete went out to get a long overdue haircut and also try and find some of the ingredients we’d failed to buy – scallops and tarragon. Apparently tarragon is very hard to come by Sydney as despite going to a lot of different supermarkets we couldn’t find it anywhere. Pete did however manage to get us some scallops – yay!
I also made a steak and red wine pie for tonight’s supper, and wanted to slow cook the meat for a few hours so it was nice and tender. I was quite happy with how the pie turned out, so hopefully tomorrow’s Christmas lunch will be equally successful.
I was very pleased with how my steak pie turned out
Pete started the morning by making some pizza dough, as the plan is to have homemade pizza for our supper tonight. Once he’d finished, we set off to get the bus to Manly.
On the way to the bus station, we came across a street food market in Chatswood, very close to our hotel.
Chatswood street food market
We wandered through the market and bought an Uyghur Samsa (a bit like an Uyghur version of a miniature Cornish pasty) and some Japanese crab and prawn balls to share.
Our Uyghur Samsa and Japanese seafood balls from the food market
We caught the bus to Manly, and went to the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. It’s a relatively small museum, but is free to enter and was interesting to walk around.
Manly Art Gallery & Museum is quite small but free to visit
We then did the Manly to Spit coastal walk. It’s about 10km long, and passes by many small coves and sandy beaches. It was quite beautiful to walk along.
The Manly to Spit coastal walk is a beautiful route to walk along
There was a lot of wildlife along the route. At times the frogs and insects were extremely loud, and we walked past several very large lizards
There were loads of huge lizards along the way
Further on, the route leaves the coast and goes further inland. It passes by an old site with ancient aboriginal engravings. Some of them were quite difficult to make out, but it was still interesting to see.
The route meanders inland and goes past some aboriginal engravings
As the path returned to the coast, we passed some very cool looking rocks.
I thought this rock looked very cool
When we reached the end of the Manly to Spit coastal walk, we crossed the Spit Bridge then caught the bus back to Chatswood. We walked back to our hotel via Gelateria Gondola Chatswood. To Pete’s delight, we found they did a Banana (with Nutella) flavour. So obviously we had to have a scoop, along with a scoop of pistachio. It was excellent ice cream, probably one of the best we’ve eaten (which explains their 4.7 rating on google maps)
Beautiful banana and nutella and pistachio gelato
After our ice cream we headed back to the hotel to chill for a couple of hours, before Pete made us some homemade pizza and garlic pizza bread for supper which we enjoyed with a couple of glasses of Australian red wine. A lovely end to a very relaxing day.
We’re in Sydney for Christmas and New Year and intend to do a fair bit of cooking over the festive season, rather than eating out all the time. We’re staying in the Silkari Suites at Chatswood. It’s about an hour out from the city centre by public transport, but does mean there’s loads of shops and supermarkets nearby and we’ve got a small apartment with a kitchen. It’s not huge (the hob only has two rings), but does have an oven and a huge fridge freezer. Which means we can do a proper roast dinner on Christmas Day, which we’re very excited about!
This morning, we therefore went to Aldi to stock up on groceries. We’ll need to do a second trip as we couldn’t carry everything we wanted (in hindsight we should have bought more bags with us). We also stopped off at the nearby bakery to buy some fresh bread.
We walked back to our hotel, and had a brunch of scrambled eggs on the bread we’d bought from the bakery, while we did some laundry (our apartment also has a washing machine).
Quick brunch of scrambled egg on fresh bread from the bakery
We’d discovered there’s a small French farmers market on today, at Laurelbank Willoughby. It’s about a 30 minute walk from where we’re staying, so we decided to check it out.
The French farmers market at Laurelbank Willoughby
We bought some saucisson and olive tapenade at the market (which we’ll have as an aperitivo on Christmas Day), along with a bottle of sparkling red wine (also for Christmas Day).
On the way back, we stopped at Cole’s, a large supermarket, to do the remainder of our Christmas food shopping. By the time we got back to our hotel it was mid-afternoon, so we got changed and ready to go out.
The train into the city took about 45 minutes, and we walked to the Rocks then continued along the quay. At this point, we got our first glimpse of Sydney opera house!
Our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge
We only had about an hour or so at the harbour, as we had an early booking for dinner at Quay. We’d been given a gift voucher as a wedding present, but you need an Australian phone number to activate it. So we had to wait until we arrived in Perth a couple of weeks ago to do so, which meant it was fully booked by the time we tried to book a table. Luckily we got a spot after signing up to the waitlist, but 6pm was the only available time.
We were lucky to get a table by the window, with an amazing view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After being seated, we were given a welcome cocktail and amuse bouche. The cocktail was excellent, very festive with hints of cinnamon and spice. It was gin based, but even Pete (who’s not a gin fan) really enjoyed it. The amuse bouche was interesting – a kind of savoury seaweed chocolate filled with oyster cream, followed by a bite of cucumber with lime.
Next followed a couple of fish dishes. First, marron (an Australian crayfish) topped with various types of caviar and some edible flowers. Next was scallops, pipis, and squid in XO sauce. The latter was my favourite, with a very deep and savoury flavour.
It was then a surprise course of homemade crumpets with truffle butter. Definitely the best crumpet I’ve ever tasted and the truffle butter was divine with a creamy, very subtle flavour. You could tell how much we liked it, as the waitress commented on how she’d never seen such clean plates when she cleared our table.
The bone marrow noodles with mud crab that followed were ever better. Definitely the star dish of the evening, both Pete and I would love to have an entire meal of just those noodles.
The main courses were roasted pasture raised duck, followed by confit pig jowl. Both were very enjoyable dishes.
Dessert was stone fruit fantasy. It was a bit like a very fancy version of a trifle, and I really enjoyed it. Finally we had a bonus dessert of miniature honey tarts and salted caramel caneles (the caneles were especially good!) and a chocolate ganache tart thing to share.
We were only meant to have our table for two hours (as it was an early sitting with a complimentary cocktail), however they didn’t rush us at all and it ended up being gone 8.30pm by the time we left. We were just in time to catch a Christmas drone show over the Sydney Opera House, which was very cool to watch.
The festive drone show over the Sydney Opera House
We then caught the train back to Chatswood and walked back to our hotel. The streets of Sydney were looking beautiful after sunset, and it was also starting to feel quite festive.
The streets of Sydney looked lovely at night and were starting to look very festive
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 