Group Rojak Timeout: Holiday!

Week One of 2011 is almost over, and some of us girls on eat.shop.play.love are still recovering from our year-end hangover. Take a 3-minute virtual vacation with us to the many corners of our lovely earth: Tasmania, Oslo, Barcelona, Turks and Caicos, Vegas and New York.

Duck's Nuts Says:

I usually head overseas this time of the year to visit my family in Singapore and in other countries, but I decided to stay and enjoy the Australian summer this time round. I still find it odd to celebrate a sunny Christmas, but a week-long jaunt to Tasmania to meet a friend satisfied my longing for some time away from Sydney. We visited three national parks at Maria Island, Ben Lomond and Mt Williams, and did some hiking and camping.

Here's a rainbow over Maria Island, which is off the coast of south-east Tasmania. It used to be where some convicts from Great Britain were held, before becoming a site for cement production. It's now a national park.

The painted cliffs at Maria Island, formed through the percolation of ground water through the sandstone.

The water was so still you could see the sky reflected on it. Seeing this made me feel like I was in a painting.

On the other side of Ben Lomond, we walked down a road called Jacob's Ladder, which is very steep.

No holiday in Tasmania is complete without a glimpse of the local wildlife. I think this one is of a kangaroo and her joey at the Bay of Fires. The wild kangaroos and wallabies stare at you straight in the face for the longest time before hopping off when you near them.

Sights like that make me wish I grew up on a farm, with lots of vast open space, rather than a HDB flat!

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Little Pixy Boots had a lovely Norwegian holiday, sprinkled with a little Spanish excitement in Barcelona.

Dear Santa, I just wanted to say, "Merry Christmas to Chew."

I don't usually have bacon for breakfast, but I couldn't resist.

Jultomten (the Christmas elf) caught taking a break.

"Honey, that's not exactly hiding the presents from the kids."

Enough sugar to power a day of sightseeing in Gaudi's city.

"I've never said that attaining enlightenment was easy."

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Cirrus Cloud takes not one, but two, vacations to end the year with a bang! First up was fabulous Turks and Caicos. Next, a New Year countdown in Sin City -- Las Vegas.

Glorious.

Here's a view from my room in Turks and Caicos, when I open my eyes in the morning...

... When I turn to my right whilst in bed, this is what I see.

Watching the sunset, sipping a cocktail. Life is good.

View from our room in the Wynn in Las Vegas, NV.

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Una Ragazza enjoys Santa's Christmas gift of a snowy blanket that brings joy and havoc (depending on who you ask) to the New York Metropolitan area. Nothing like 30 degree F weather to make you look forward to jumping on a 24-hour plane ride home to the equator!

Overnight, the a/c gets a white cap that is a foot-and-a-half tall.

Kids of all ages and sizes rush to the once-grassy slopes of River Side Park with their sleds. Wheee!

White and serene. A zen Manhattan that we rarely see.

On the 10th day of Christmas... the garbage has still not been cleared!

... two broken washing machines, and a beer bottle stuck in a Christmas tree.

Making s'mores in my fireplace. Delish!

Doing research for our upcoming Singapore vacation in Cafe Lalo, while waiting for Meg Ryan to show up for a cheesecake and an espresso.

From all of us here at eat.shop.play.love -- have a fabulous 2011!

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Rojak Timeout: Sculpture by the Sea

Today's timeout is brought to you by Duck's Nuts in Sydney.



One of my favourite Sydney events is the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition from Bondi to Tamarama beaches - the coastline of the affluent eastern suburbs.

It's the world's largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, with this year's featured more than 100 pieces of artwork.

The exhibition is held along the picturesque Bondi and Tamarama beaches.

Mum, I saw something in the grass! Creature Trees by Jennifer Orchard

People love taking photos with the sculptures. Splash by Tomas Misura, which won the Kids' Choice Award

Hey, there's a ukelele, books and a sewing machine inside the camel's belly! The Adaptable Migrant, by Suzie Bleach and Andy Townsend, which won the People's Choice Award

One of my favourites - a tank made out of office equipment, including filing cabinets and hole punchers. Bureaucratic Tank by Edward Horne

The couple with the multi-million-dollar views. Crossroad by Stephen Marr

Yours truly, with the beach in the background. The Dancer by Jeramie Carter

Almost everyone who walked past this sculpture wanted to take a photo with it. Oh My God by Lucy Vader

Ooo, sexy babe on the beach, just right in front of the lifeguard hut! Bondi Venus by Dennis Kalous

What did the chicken do when it laid eggs on the beach? Sitting Hen by Yang Yae-Geun

I don't know how long it took to tie all the bottle caps together, but it must have taken a looooooong time. Evidence - The Trail Continues by Kerrie Argent

Duck's Nuts on Play: The Mystery Above Us

It's a little mystery that's been playing at the back of my mind since I came here. Shoes. Up there. Why?

You see, there's this odd phenomenon that's happening in Sydney's neighbourhoods. OK, calling it a phenomenon is a bit much. But the question remains - why are these shoes hanging off those power lines?


I took this photo at an inner-Sydney suburb.

But first, before the why - what and how ...

Q: Whose shoes are those? Are they old, new, of a certain brand? Why are they almost all sport shoes?
A: Eh, I don't know. I'm so short that usually the shoes are the size of barbie doll sneakers when I look at them.

Q: Where are these shoes being hung?
A: As far as I tell, in every neighbourhood in Sydney. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you get to see two pairs of shoes hanging off one power line. Most intriguing though, is that when I did a quick google search to see if this happens elsewhere in the world, I stumbled upon photos in Europe, the US and South America.


Photo: Adam Fowler, Edinburgh, Scotland via Flickr, Creative Commons

Q: How did someone successfully get a pair of shoes up there?
A: Again, a good question that I don't have an answer for. I am good at speculating though - one option could be they kept throwing the shoes up into the air from the road below until they finally slung onto the power line. Another option is someone took a very very long stick with a hook at the end and hoisted the shoes up on the lines. Another is that someone leaned out of a high building window and chucked it onto the line below.

Q: When are these shoes being thrown up there?
A: In the dead of the night when no one is watching? Or is it in broad daylight when everyone's walking past but doesn't care (more likely scenario - Aussies are a pretty chilled bunch).


Photo: Ed Kohler, Minneapolis, US via Flickr, Creative Commons

OK, now that we're done with the whats and hows, the question is - why bother. I used to be relatively satisfied with the answer that the hanging shoes mark a drug house, ie. where you can go and buy drugs. But if that's the case, isn't that just an invitation for the police to come knocking on your door? And why is there a pair of shoes just dangling on the street around the corner of my house?

With all these questions floating about at the back of my head for many a year (yes, I suppose I could have done better things with my time), I was delighted to find out that an Australian director has decided to make a documentary on this very topic. He's called it The Mystery of Flying Kicks and it was released this year.



The phenomenon, director Matthew Bate says, is called "shoefiti" and it's something that's been happening since 1890 (though I don't think as many countries had power lines back then.) Interestingly, in Sydney it was apparently a rite of passage for boys who lost their virginity. (So did my neighbour just lose his virginity? Eh actually, I don't want to know.)

Bate does confirm though that the most common explanations for this shoe-throwing/hanging phenomenon is territory-marking for gangs and for drug-dealing spots. Which makes me wonder - do different gangs throw different brands of shoes? What if the pair of shoes thrown up there by another gang are the ones you like? Do you have to resign yourself to throwing up a less-cool shoe?

But I hear you saying - enough questions for one blog post. At least I haven't gone as far as tattooing this on my arm:


Photo: Nick J Webb via Flickr, Creative Commons

Now, that's one territory-marking too far for me.

Duck’s Nuts on Eat: Feeding the Tassie Devil in Me

It was left out of the map of Australia during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and is the butt of many jokes by Aussies living on the mainland.

But the island of Tasmania, Australia's most southern state, is full of beautiful delights -- and importantly to the Asian expat, home to probably the best seafood in the country.

Yes, Australia isn't quite know for its cuisine (and neither is New Zealand, for that matter), but there's no doubt that in Tassie and NZ, there's plenty of great, fresh and cheap seafood to be had.



Really yummy fish and chips in Launceston, Tasmania's second-largest city, located in its north-east

I went to Tassie a few weeks ago to visit a good friend. It was a rushed trip, just four days, and we were more focused on hiking and exploring the countryside and the bush rather than on food. But when I reached there and saw all the wineries, and cheese factories, and chocolate factories, and fresh fish, oysters, and everything else, I couldn’t help but go "AAAWWwwwww.”

So why is Tasmania so good for seafood? It's simple, really. It's a wee island (though I'm sure heaps bigger than Singapore) surrounded by clear waters full of all sorts of fish and other slimy stuff.



Salmon, trout, tuna, crab, oysters, abalone -- you name it, they've got it.



A prawn-peeling competition at a big seafood restaurant by Hobart's main wharf. We stumbled across the comp when we popped in to eat some fish and chips. The winner peeled 14 prawns in one minute.

To be honest, I sometimes find it hard to find good seafood in Sydney that's not ridiculously expensive. I'm a big fish fan, but I often have to resign myself to some Tassie salmon once in a while and a tad of herring. In Tassie though, perhaps because the cost of living is a lot lower, fish is heaps cheaper and waaaaaay fresher. There's fish and chips everywhere, unlike Sydney (where it's here and there and usually just frozen stuff in pubs), and it's under $20. Now, I'm on a pretty tight budget because my pay's rather low. My usual eating budget is preferably less than $5 a meal, though I could stretch it to $10 if I'm desperate for food. But under $20 is not too bad for some of the best fish I've ever eaten.

So back to Tassie again, and besides its tasty seafood, it has some lovely wines and cheese and chocolate factories. The eastern and south-western areas of Australia have some good wineries -- think the Barossa Valley in South Australia, the Hunter Valley in NSW, Margaret River in Western Australia and the Yarra Valley in Victoria. But so has Tassie. We managed to try out some wines, though unfortunately, I didn't take photos of those bottles, so you'll have to make do with this photo we took at Bicheno on Tassie's east coast. Kinda cool name for a wine eh? It's from South Australia, my favourite place for wine, and a good one too.



Sumptuous wine, not so sure about the name

What I think was unexpected for me was how English and Irish (if I'm not wrong, most of the convicts were from Ireland) the architecture was. Most of the villages or small towns were like villages and small towns in the UK. So of course, we found plenty of English-style food and snacks, like scones, pancakes, and lots of cream.



Fresh, warm pancakes at Tasmazia, a large maze near the spectacular Cradle Mountain in the north-west

We dropped by Tasmazia, which purports to be the world's largest maze. It's in the shadow of Cradle Mountain (super wow), and also home to the Village of Lower Crackpot (no kidding!). We tucked into some fantastic pancakes and toasties -- a fitting end I think to a short but fun trip that turned out to be more about food than we expected.



Ah, toasties

(Some pictures taken from the Internet)

Rojak Group Timeout: Goal!

Il Mondiale, Piala Dunia, la Copa Mundial, ฟุตบอลโลก, Weltmeisterschaft, 世界杯...

Say it in any language, the most recognized global sport has got many of us eat.shop.play.love writers missing sleep and nearly forgetting to feed the baby. As Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Uruguay roll into the World Cup semifinals, we chip in to share images from our neck of the woods.

Duck's Nuts in Sydney says:

My photos were taken at the FIFA FanFest live site at Darling Harbour in Sydney. There were more than 20,000 people who were watching the game in the freezing cold (about 5 degrees celsius) at the site, including me. I had gone to the game with some German friends. They are always great to watch football with as they know their team very well.


Sydney, Australia: Germans fans at the Darling Harbour FIFA FanFest live site chanting "Deutschland, Deutschland" before the start of the Germany versus Australia game on June 14 at 4.30 a.m. Sydney time.


Sydney, Australia: Socceroo (Australian) fans wear their green and gold in support of their national football team.


Sydney, Australia: A Socceroo fan wears his national flag as a cape and dons the national jersey as he watches the main screen at the official FIFA FanFest site in Sydney's Darling Harbour. There are only six official FanFest sites around the world outside of South Africa. The other five are in Berlin, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Rome.



Sydney, Australia: The FIFA FanFest site showed how multicultural Australia is. A large group of Serbian fans got together to watch the Serbia versus Ghana game. Unfortunately for them, the Black Stars won 1-0. Sitting in the foreground are the Socceroo fans, who were waiting for the next game, Germany versus Australia, which the former won by four goals (4-0).

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Una Ragazza in New York says:

Even as World Cup fever strikes every man and woman, young and old, some things never change in the most fashionable city i the world.


New York: A mini kit for the wannabe midfielder


New York: Gotta look good even if I may be hitting the mud any second from now



New York: Enjoying my biftec a la cazuela at my favorite latino cafe watching the South Korean team play Uruguay on a South Korean television (viva la Samsung!)


New York: Try solving this mystery -- Puerto Rico didn't qualify for the 2010 World Cup but these entrepreneurial guys are making a fortune selling the country's flag outside of Penn Station in Manhattan. Why is that so?

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Shakeleg in Jakarta says:

To celebrate the World Cup, Indonesian teens in Central Java are donning sarongs and letting the trapped wind under their seams do the kicking.



Central Java, Indonesia: If that's not hot enough for these players of Sepakbola Sarong (Sarong Soccer), losers will have to dance to the beat of dangdut music so, everyone aims to lose!





Indonesia: Dangdut dance by one of the country's famed dangdut singer, Inul Daratista


Central Java, Indonesia: World Cup is also a way to spread political messages. Students wear masks bearing the faces of the country's corruptors while playing soccer as a protest against corruption.

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Horse with No Name in Arizona (and Washington, D.C., and New York) says:


New York: The Eat Drink Bar in Times Square, where I was visiting on vacation.


New York: Major marketing going on here in Times Square. There's a massive Nike poster. Massive.


Washington D.C.: At the International Spy Museum cafe, a guy holds his head as the U.S. team concedes the goal to Ghana that would seal its fate in the round of 16. Everyone in the cafe was riveted to the screen, even the security guards. They were all devastated by the time the final seconds rolled around.

Post script: After the 4-0 German/Argentina thrashing. I overheard snippets of conversation from tourists and locals alike, dissecting the match as they were shopping. At one of the junctions, a huge ruckus started up, cars sounding horns in celebration of the win. It was pretty festive-sounding, one would have thought the U.S. was still in the running for the cup.

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