One of my last nights in Sydney before I had to head back to the states I really wanted to have some different meats. The two things my friends and I were after was crocodile and kangaroo. We spoke to a few locals and a bunch of them recommended the Australian Heritage Hotel. There is a restaurant bar under the hotel that serves up pizza with Crocodile and Kangaroo toppings. I thought it was a little weird that the locals couldn’t recommend a restaurant that had Crocodile or Kangaroo as a meal, but whatever we went for it.

The Hotel is located in The Rocks, one of my favorite places in Sydney. We all were staying in different hotels so we ended up meeting at the restaurant. We ended up ordering 2 pies and chicken wings. The pies we split in half with toppings. One pie was Kangaroo and margarita (for the non meat lover) and the other was Crocodile and Emu (Emu is the 2nd largest bird in the world). We all tasted them and they were all really good. The Emu was the best of them all but I was not a huge fan of the Crocodile. That was the first time I had Emu. I’m curious what it would be like as a plate in a fancier restaurant.

I ended up still really hungry after the pizza and went a little over board on the wings. They were just how I like them, delicious and messy.

Those toppings were quite unique for pizza. I’ve never seen anything like that at home in New York but nothing compares to a New York slice, even if it has Kangaroo, Crocodile or Emu on it.

The Blue Mountains Lunch, Australia from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Just out side of Sydney there are amazing landscapes to see. A few friends and I decided that before we leave Sydney we needed to see the Blue Mountains. I have always seen pictures but this was our chance to actually see them. The tour was great. We started the day going to see wild Kangaroo’s hopping around. I got pretty close to them, about 40 feet. After about 15 minutes they all hopped off into the woods. All around us there were eucalyptus trees. We took a leaf each, broke it in two and shoved it up our noses. It smelt so good. Apparently the evaporation off these leaves is what gives the Blue Mountains its color. You can’t see the blue close up but from a distance the mountains do have a blue glow to them. It’s really cool. The next part of the tour we went to the look out where you can see the 3 sisters, which are 3 peeks in the mountain. It was really amazing. We did a lot of hiking down the mountain but then took the steepest train in the world up the mountain. 52 degrees in angle to get us back to the top. Next stop lunch, we picked up some chicken pot pie and brought it to a small little waterfall to eat. The food was ok, not the best. I felt I was paying for the scenery. After lunch we headed to another larger waterfall. This one I actually got to go in. The water was ice cold and I didn’t go fully in but it was fun. The last stop was, what our guide said, a make out spot. We were on the edge of a cliff and over looked the Blue Mountains. It was amazing. The Tour was well worth it, the pot pie wasn’t. It was a long but great day.

I had an over night in Sydney Australia in early January. The next day a few of my close friends from the ship were leaving the ship so we decided to grab a bit to eat for dinner. We decided to walk along the pier and see what we could find. The first place was all seafood. That didn’t work for one of us so on to the next place. There they didn’t have enough people eating so we thought maybe it’s not that good of a restaurant. The next place didn’t have tablecloths and we thought maybe it not the scale of meal we were looking for. After all these minor issues we ended up at the Sydney Ice Bar for dinner. Ironic but that is what we ended up doing. For me it was great because I finally got to have some Kangaroo. I had been looking forward to the Kangaroo for a while since I arrived in Sydney. It was really good. I asked the waiter what was the typical way Kangaroo should be cooked and he said Medium Rare, just how I like my steak. It was a tougher meat probably because there is very little fat on Kangaroos. I defiantly enjoyed it. After the meal we completely forgot we were at an Ice bar, probably because we were outside in the warmth looking over the pier. I’ve been to Ice bars before and we had plenty of drinks at dinner anyway. It was a good day, mate!

It was my first day in Sydney Australia. We had ported about 2 weeks prior but I couldn’t get off the ship. Most of my friends were able to get off and see the amazing city that it is while I sat in my office staring directly at the opera house. What an amazing view but a frustrating day.

My friend Sean and I left the ship and headed to The Rocks, which is the European style area in Sydney. There are lots of shops and restaurants all around. It is a historical and beautiful area of Sydney. We were looking for a brunch place and we decided to get pancakes and Pancakes on the Rocks. This place blows IHOP out of the water. They had so many pancakes on the menu. My girlfriend Kelsey would have gone to heaven here. They had a few different kinds of chocolate and berry filled pancakes, her favorite. I got a triple stack with walnuts and strawberries, my personal favorite when it come to pancakes. They were thick and golden on the top and bottom and loaded with butter. Fantastic!

Sean got the Ultimate. The Ultimate is crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream. Orgasmic! I am not the biggest cream cheese fan and this was unbelievable. It sure was the Ultimate. Yes it gave me an orgasm of the mouth. There is a possibility I may be staying in Sydney when I get off the ship in a few weeks and I think I may have to go back and get an Ultimate for myself.

Darwin Australia was our first port in Australia when we left South East Asia. That day we went to a Crocodylus Park filled with crocodiles. There were croc’s everywhere along with a lot of other animals. I even got to feed a giant Croc. This thing was 18 feet long easy. It missed the food at first and the chomp noise was ridiculous. I also held a baby Croc, it’s mouth was taped so it was not as scary as it sounds. I had so much fun.

After the feeding of the croc’s we ended up in town to get some lunch. Darwin is a small town, not much going on. We managed to find a place called The Cavenagh. This is a hotel/bar with some good food. I ordered a Steak Sandwich (above), recommended by the cashier. It had a lot of stuff in it, not just steak. It was really good and messy. I needed a ton of napkins to take care of my sloppy face. The rest of my friends got

Fish Sandwich

Calamari

Pizza

Movida – Melbourne Australia from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Melbourne Australia is a cool looking city with lots of restaurants and cafes. I am happy to be going back there in a few weeks after we sail to New Zealand. The main thing I wanted to do in town was send my Christmas gifts (which I did) and eat a really good lunch. We found this restaurant that was down a street covered in graffiti. The street was amazing to look at. I need to go back and check out the rest of the street. On the street there is a Tapas Restaurant called Movida. This was just what the doctor ordered. This place was straight out of a swanky NYC restaurant. From the wine bar to the blackboard chalked dessert menu, it brought be back home for a moment. We ordered a tone of stuff, because, well, it is Tapas and that’s what you do. Here was the low down:

Tapas
2 Croquets – with leeks and mahon cheese
2 Tortilla – with confit potato and onion
2 Roasted lamb cutlet encased in a catalan pork and paprika pate
2 Salt cod filled brik pastry with basque lemon Emulison
1 Kick ass glass of Australian wine. I have to go back to find out what it was.

Main
Baby Goat
Cecina – Air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg

Dessert
Churros
Hot Ganache
Baba
Helados

This places was great. It felt really good to dine well again.

I finally made it to Australia but I didn’t have a lot of time off the ship in Cairns. The big thing to do in Cairns is to go to the Great Barrier Reef to do a dive or even a snorkel. That really would have been fun to do and see. I did, however, manage to get myself into an espresso bar in between checking out the town. This was MUCH more exciting then getting a glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef (sigh). Bang is a swank little espresso bar in the small town of Cairns. It was really nice in there with friendly staff. They put an artsy spin to their espresso as shown above. Nice touch! We also had some Gelato. I couldn’t decide between 2 flavors, the Honeycomb Crunch or the Anzac Cookie, so I got both to share with the group. They were so good. I think the Anzac Cookie is a traditional Australian flavor because I have not heard of it before and it was the only one with a Australian flag on the sign. So if your ever in the town of Cain and are not going to see the reef (sigh), stop by Bang for a cup and some Gelato.