Category: Australia

Ramen 17: Chicken Down Under

June 11, 2022

Please understand I’m trying these chicken ramens so you don’t have to…

Coles Chicken Flavored Noodles (1650 kJ, 16.6 g fat, 1316 mg sodium)

Without a doubt I prefer cup ramens to bricks these days, so this store brand had a steep hill to climb. And it barely tried: the noodles were weirdly sticky and the ‘taste’ was just herby salt.

I’ve formed a theory that the Australian ‘chicken’ taste is quite different from the US one, since none of those taste anything like the ones I eat in America. To me they taste more of earth and beef and, in this case, something I don’t want to eat: 0/10

Simple Chicken Noodles (1300 kJ, 13.3 g fat, 1100 mg sodium)

At this point – with five antipodean noodles under my belt – I was beginning to despair. I eat a Gefen cup almost every day back home; would nothing down here even attempt to come close to the glory of that pristine taste?

‘Sinple’ is the Aldi store brand, and to cut to the chase, I hated it. Once again I tasted soil and ash and burned toast. Do they even know what chickens are here in Oz???! Score: 1/10

Fantastic Chicken Noodles (1600 kJ, 17.1 g fat, 1890 mg sodium)

This is a larger size of the Fantastic one I tasted last week, which I proclaimed as one of the worst ramen I’d ever tasted and scored it a generous -8/10. I’ll give you one guess how much I enjoyed eating it again.

Let’s put it this way: My ethics and honor mean that I buy every (plain) chicken ramen I ever see and taste them all. Even if I know or even suspect I won’t like one I’ll still give it a go. Last week I bought both Fantastic ramens at the same time, and of course had no idea I’d hate them both. I’ll say now, hand on heart, that if I found this second one after I’d eaten the first I would have pretended I hadn’t seen it and walked away. An easy -10/10

Between these three we have an average score of -3/10, and I despair for Australians that are sold this dreck. And yet I’ve got three more to try so all hope is not yet lost. Stay tuned…

Odds & Ends Again

June 10, 2022

Went with Sue today again, to visit another sea cave. Unfortunately, the tide was too high:

The cave leads to other caves, and they are all apparently somewhat dangerous even at low tides. It’s a lot taller than the photo suggests: three or four times my height. It was a shame we couldn’t explore, but the water was quite deep at the entrance and the waves surging.

There’s another shot of Adam from my second visit last week. We played magic again all day, and he won again overall, although it was closer than the first time. I wish I could play magic with him more often 🙂

On the last morning in Sydney (with mum) I took a walk out to the end of Mrs Macquaries Point to snap this lovely shot. This was perhaps the coldest I’ve felt on this trip since the wind off the harbour was icy, but away from the wind it was sunny and nice.

I’ve eaten loads of the above! In fact I’ve eaten 24 pies so far, and I’m sure there’s another dozen going into my gulliver before I leave. My limit is four in a meal now, and I can hardly believe I used to effortlessly eat twice that.

Speaking of limits, due to excessive over-buying of stamps (remember the stamp show?) I’ve sent a silly amount of cards. I wager most of you have received some by now. Watch your mailboxes: there will be more!

Hanging With The Natives

June 9, 2022

I wanted to see a macropod, so it was off to Blackbutt I walked!

The last few times I visited, legions of mosquitos descended on me and drained me to within millilitres of death! Today however, the skies were free of the evil blighters. Even better, the car park was almost empty as well and I felt like I had the place to myself.

I ran into this phasianidae preening himself between some trees. He became interested in me when I started snapping shots but I think it’s because he mistook my phone for a snack! I ran away when he got too close 🙂

I saw these pelodryadidae’s hanging in a tank in the nocturnal house. There was a bunch of them chilling together, and they didn’t care a whit for my attention. They were quite large, and to be honest a little creepy in the dark!

The two phascolarctidae were sleeping as they do, forming almost perfect furry balls on their tree perches. I watched them for a while, looking for signs of life, but saw nothing. They may have been fake, for all I could tell!

The vombatidae on the other hand was most definitely alive! He was scurrying around looking for sweet potatoes (I saw the keeper hide one behind a plant) and seemed quite happy in the cool air. I took this photo from above and he looks smaller than he was, which was about a metre long!

But what about the macropods? The sole reason (not really) I visited Blackbutt! Did I see any?

The answer is that yes I did, quite a few in fact, although always from a distance. I also saw two having a funny slap-fight, which I found very cute and amusing.

Afterwards I continued walking to the mall for lunch, and then back home. It was a leisurely five hour walk, and a nice way to relax after the madness of the city.

Robot Claw