Great Things

After having written a post questioning some bits of Australia, I thought it would be a nice counterpoint to write a post celebrating some other bits of this place. So here goes:

1. Taking the ferry to work.


You get on, you get a seat and if you're lucky it's a nice day outside so you're able to sit on the upper deck. The ride lasts about 30 minutes, enough for a nap or a good devouring of the morning paper. Often there are young, good-looking people for you to admire. In the afternoons, people gather in the bow on the bottom deck, and stand around drinking beer from brown paper bags, in full sight of the security cameras. Sometimes, they forgo the brown bags entirely. Other times the harbour is filled with sailboats, and they sail alongside the ferry. If the day gets really exciting a sailboat may cross into the ferry's path, and then the ferry captain sounds a warning horn, and people on the ferry crane their necks to see who has almost crashed his boat into the ferry hull.
Finally, all of the ferry boats are named after surf beaches located on the northern edge of the city, just up the coast from me. There's the Freshwater, the Narrabeen, the Collaroy and the Queenscliff, and you can learn about them here.

2. Banana bread.


Australians regard banana bread as a fundamental right of existence. You can get it everywhere, all the time. My favorite so far is served at Bacino, an Italian-cycling themed coffee joint with branches around the Northern Beaches. Bacino warms the bread in a panini press so it comes out with a checkerboard texture, and is then dusted with icing sugar and served with butter on the side. It's a great pleasure to melt the butter over the nooks and crannies of the panini, smoothing it across the icing sugar, and soaking it into the bread. Best consumed outside under an umbrella, watching the world go by.

3. Markets

One of the advantages of perpetual summer is the ability to live a much larger proportion of life outside. Australians love going to the markets. In Sydney proper you can go to Glebe (arty), Bondi (trendy), Manly (mishmash), Balmain, Paddington (trendy-expensive), Paddy's (fish) and so on. My friend Kelsey has small feet and regularly scores expensive leather shoes for cheap. Many Australian designers like Lisa Ho and ksubi (formerly tsubi) got their starts selling at the markets. In the case of the clothing-heavy markets, they're usually held on Sundays, so after you've had some banana bread you can head out for an arvo of shopping and seeing and being seen.

Bafflements

I like Australia. But sometimes, Australia just doesn't make any sense. For example:

1. Street signage.
Sporadic, uniformative and difficult to see. It's possible to come to an intersection, see four or five signs notifying you of the name of one street, but the cross street will remain mysteriously unidentified. Of course, the cross street is probably the street you're trying to find. At other times, there's a lack of signage. Or the sign is posted to a building. Sometimes the sign is forest green, when it's on a building. But not always. (However, this could just be a Sydney problem. I hear Melbourne's built on a grid system, and I have a feeling they have better signs there too. When I make it over next month, I will file a report.)

2. Tomato Sauce.


Ketchup is called to-mah-to sauce here. If you want some on your fries, you usually have to ask for it. It is not a given. And what of the tomato sauce we North Americans put on pizzas and pastas? That's called tomato puree, even if there's more than pureed tomatoes in the sauce.


3. The Aussie Burger.


Beetroot, pineapple, bacon, barbecue sauce and a fried egg. I am told this one comes from Metzis Tasty Takeaway, Mackenzie Street (off Reddall Parade), Mount Warrigal NSW 2528 Australia. I borrowed this picture from flickr.


4. Beetroot. Why is it called beetroot? We don't call carrots "carrotroot" or potatoes "potatoroot". I think it falls under the British habit of being pedanticly explicit. For example, calling tape "sticky tape."


5. The popularity of the Ute.


The Ute, short for utility vehicle, is a cultural icon in Australia. The one above is from Holden, an Aussie car company. According to AutoWeb, who've published a retrospective of the Ute, the vehicle "remains an enduring symbol of hard work and a laidback lifestyle; a definition of the essential Australia." You can read the rest of the article here. I've heard rumours there is a song about performing sexual acts in the back of said vehicle, but I think my leg is getting pulled on that one.