Smashwords

For those of you who prefer electronic books but don’t have Kindles, Waltzing Australia is now available at Smashwords. That means it is now in forms that will work in Nooks, iPads, and any other device on which books can be downloaded.

If you’re interested, you can find it here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/143849

So now, everyone can have access to the adventure, the joy, the history, nature, and lore of Australia that flows through the pages of Waltzing Australia. I’m pleased that the delights of the land Down Under can now be shared with an even wider audience.

Of course, I’ll still keep posting peripheral material here — all the things that wouldn’t fit in the book. So you can continue to enjoy and learn about Australia, even if you don’t latch on to the larger story. But, of course, I do hope you’ll join me on my 20,000-mile trek around and across a country I found so enchanting.

Things Change

It has been a few years since that first, glorious, six-month trip around and across Australia. However, as soon as I had gotten my new writing career off and running, I headed back. I can’t stay away for too long. I do realize that part of the magic is that in Australia, all I’m doing is traveling — no job, no housework, just get out into the wilderness and immerse myself in the beauty and wildness of this remarkable land. But that is not the only thing, because I have vacationed many other places, and nowhere else has really captured me the way Australia did. So I keep going back.

Some things have changed. I note in my book that we could see the markers in Kakadu showing that things were scheduled to be “improved.” They have been. There is a hotel now at Cooinda where I had slept so peacefully beneath the stars. Boardwalks have been added in a few of the places in the Red Centre where we had to scramble and climb. The cities are bigger. And yet the things I love about Australia remain unchanged — primarily, the ease with which one can escape into the wilderness. I have returned to the rainforests, to the rugged coasts, and, of course, to the outback. I’ve seen places I promised myself for “next time,” and returned to places I love. Soon, I’ll begin recording those return trips, with photos and tales gathered on each adventure. Before then, I want to share a few bits of Aussie culture that I found delightful — music, poetry, history.

Now, however, I’ll just mention a few more changes — ones not mentioned already in posts on this blog. The contents of the Geological and Mining Museum that I loved so much in Sydney have all been transferred to the Power House Museum. So if you look for the museum I named, you won’t find it, but you can still find the wonderful minerals and displays of gold history. The place in the Argyle Center where I bought the golden wattle perfume has closed. I have found other perfumes that call themselves golden wattle, but never again one that smelled so perfectly like the wattles blooming in the mountains. On the other side of the continent, in Fremantle, the convict-era prison was at long-last decommissioned, and it is now a museum.

The food scene, while great when I first visited, keeps on improving. Australia never had a shortage of great eating options, what with the ocean so close at hand for most of the country, the warm weather offering glorious year-round produce, proximity to Asia and a migrant population contributing to the wonderful variety, and wine regions just about everywhere one turns. But since that first trip, more and more up-scale places have opened, and Australia is now a major foodie destination, with truffles and wagyu beef, and cutting-edge chefs taking advantage of all that land and sea have to offer. In fact, my second trip back, it took a bit of effort to find a humble meat pie — but I did succeed.

The cities are still handsome, and most offer delights not available on my first trip. However, most of what I enjoyed is still there, from the historic buildings to the great zoos, museums, and galleries to the ethnic diversity to the open-air markets.

Leave the cities behind, however, and nothing has changed. The land is still huge and open and compelling. I got farther out with each subsequent trip, seeing more beauty and wildlife, and falling more in love with “back of beyond.” As I wrote near the end of Waltzing Australia, “I wondered again, as I have wondered before, why this place moves me so. I am drawn to the remoteness, to the vigor, the fierceness, and the unfettered innocence of this land, and its spirit whispers to my spirit, and its song sings in my veins. I don’t know if this is cause or effect, but I do not need to know. I simply surrender myself to the pleasure of feeling it one more time.”

And each time I leave, I hope there will be “one more time.”

Anthony Bourdain Challenge

I love writing about food just as much as I love writing about travel and Australia. So when I read that there was a contest being run by Tony Bourdain to write about why we should cook well, I couldn’t resist. Of course, the real purpose of the contest is to get people to flock to the publisher’s website, but my reason to join is that it would be nice to have Tony put in a good word for me somewhere, if he did like my writing.

So how do you win? How do you win any contest these days? You get people to vote. This is kind of American Idol for food writers—except without the recording contract or any real degree of fame. That said, I’d still love to have you vote for me. Here’s the link to my essay: The Thread of Life.

Thanks for any and all votes.

Vietnamese Food in Canberra

One of the joys of just about every city I visited in Australia was the easy availability of a tremendous range of ethnic food, especially Asian. It was not just in restaurants, but in shopping mall food courts and even street corner food carts. I’d grown up in a family that had broad experience with ethnic foods, and I had seriously pursued various cuisines myself since childhood. However, thanks to its proximity to Asia, Australia offered an abundance of foods I had either not encountered previously or didn’t find so readily available back home. In Canberra, the populations represented by the many embassies made the variety of ethnic offerings even more abundant than I had seen it elsewhere in Australia.

Vietnamese food was among those cuisines not experienced prior to that first trip to Australia. Since that trip, a growing Vietnamese community in Chicago has made both restaurants and ingredients available, and I have even had the delightful opportunity to experience Vietnamese food in Vietnam. However, my very first Vietnamese meal was on that first trip to Australia, and it was in Canberra. It was a cuisine that I liked immediately, and I have pursued it since then, both prepared by others and in my own kitchen. While the recipe below does not reflect that first experience in Canberra, it is a dish I now prepare regularly at home. Vietnamese food is bright and flavorful.

Warm Beef and Watercress Salad
3/4 lb. beef tenderloin, sirloin steak, or filet mignon
1 Tbs. green peppercorns, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 stems lemon grass (white part only), very finely sliced
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. ground black pepper
8 oz. watercress (about 1-1/2 average bunches)
4 oz. cherry tomatoes
4 scallions, sliced
2 Tbs. lime juice

Cut the steak into thin slices. Combine the green peppercorns, garlic, lemon grass (or rind), 2 tablespoons oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Add the beef and mix well. Cover and allow to marinate, refrigerated, for 30 minutes.

Wash and drain the watercress. Remove sprigs from the tough stems, breaking up any sprigs that are large. Arrange the watercress on a serving platter. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and place the halves around the edge of the watercress.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or frying pan until very hot. Add the beef and marinade mixture, and stir-fry quickly, until beef is just cooked. Add the scallions to the pan, mixing them in with the beef. Pile the cooked beef in the center of the watercress and sprinkle the lime juice over the top. Serve immediately. Serves 2–3.

Note: Green peppercorns, which are simply unripe peppercorns, come one of two ways: in brine or freeze dried. Either is acceptable for this recipe. If you use freeze dried green peppercorns, simply add 1 tablespoon of dried peppercorns to a couple tablespoons of hot water, and let them sit for 5–10 minutes. Then drain, chop, and add to recipe as needed. The ones in brine need no preparation—just drain and chop.

If lemon grass is not readily available, you can substitute 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of finely grated lemon rind.

Salamanca Place

Because we were on a camping trip, Tasmania’s state capital, Hobart, was kind of a hit-and-run. We saw some wonderful historic places, including the shot tower, and had a couple of hours to wander through Salamanca Place, but urban environments were not our focus. As a result, I feel I really need to return to Hobart someday to give the town a bit more time—especially since it is becoming well known for the innovative chefs using high quality local ingredients in an ever-increasing number of sensational restaurants. I’d also love to browse the famous Salamanca Market, an open-air market that sprouts each Saturday on the broad plaza that stands between the rows of historic sandstone warehouse buildings and the harbor’s edge.

However, though we weren’t there long, we were there long enough to discover that Salamanca Place deserves its reputation as the local “scene,” the site of numerous delightful galleries and specialty shops, charming cafés, and a fair number of those innovative restaurants.

England’s illustrious Duke of Wellington is the source of the name of this lovely stretch of Georgian and Victorian buildings. As the hero of the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s, his name, his title, and the names of his battles are found dotted all over the former British Empire. Here, Mount Wellington rises behind the city of Hobart, and Salamanca Place commemorates the Battle of Salamanca in Spain. (Because Hobart predates Wellington’s victories, both the mountain and the warehouse district had different names prior to the Duke’s successes. The mountain, which was first noted by Captain William Bligh when he visited Tasmania, had been known by several names, including Table Mountain, because it reminded some of Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Salamanca Place was previously known as the Cottage Green.)

The photo below shows the stretch of Salamanca Place that faces the water, as well as part of the broad plaza that is home to the Saturday market.

Salamanca Place

Leatherwood Honey

World wide, there are a number of trees that are called leatherwoods, all quite different species. The tree so named in Tasmania is the Eucryphia lucida, a flowering tree that is endemic to Tasmania, thriving in the high rainfall area of Tasmania’s wild western forests. It grows mostly as an understory plant, crowding in among the forest giants.

In the spring and summer, the leatherwood trees are covered with showy masses of white flowers that perfume the air. The flowers are lovely, but it is the nectar of these flowers that makes these trees economically valuable. They produce nectar abundantly—are in fact the single most important source of nectar in Tasmania—and in the summer, roads through the forests are often lined with beehives, as Tasmania’s beekeepers take advantage of the abundance.

I had actually tasted Tasmanian leatherwood honey before I visited Australia, so I knew to take advantage of being in the heart of the area that produces this remarkable honey, though of course being in transit limited what I could buy. But I did buy myself a good size bottle and began enjoying it at breakfast the very next day.

Tasmanian leatherwood honey is quite distinctive. It is pale gold, fragrant, with a creamy texture that melts in your mouth. Its taste is generally described as “spicy,” but to my taste, it is more specific than that—it is quite reminiscent of caraway.

Fortunately, I can now get it in a few gourmet shops or on the Internet, so I don’t have to live without it between trips to Australia. So for a little taste of Tasmania, see if you can’t track down some Tasmanian leatherwood honey. If you fancy honey, I think you’ll be pleased.

Good-bye, Hello

After the riding trip, I had only one more day in Victoria before I boarded a plane heading for Australia’s island state, Tasmania. I was leaving behind the free-settled gold-rush state for the convict-settled apple state. (Tasmania has traditionally been the location of most of Australia’s apple growing —an industry founded when the Bounty’s famous Captain Bligh planted the first apple trees on the green island in 1788.)

Before transitioning to Tasmania, however, I thought I’d step outside the flow of my adventures to comment on visitors to my blog. It’s always fun to connect and know one’s words are being read. This year, my book, Waltzing Australia, got added to the recommended reading list at a New England university, and I have loved hearing from students who enjoyed reading it. As is common on the Internet, I’ve had visitors from all over he world. However, it is clear that a solid (though not overwhelming) majority of visitors are actually from Australia. It is of course a real delight for me to connect with people in Oz who also love the many places I’ve traveled—a way for me to stay connected to Australia.

I do chuckle sometimes when there are suddenly 30 hits on “When were water buffalo introduced to Australia” or “history of Perth’s Old Mill.” “Sturt desert rose” and “termite mounds” have also witnessed sudden bursts of interest. I imagine some teacher somewhere in Australia handing out an assignment and a whole classroom of kids finding my site. Given the fact that a good chunk of my income is from educational writing, I find this not only amusing, but immensely gratifying. However, that’s still just a small percentage of the lovely visitors I’ve welcomed to this site. Thank you to you all. I’ve enjoyed your comments.

Bringing it back to Tasmania—
Anyone who has visited my other blog (The World’s Fare) knows I’m a foodie, as well as a traveler. I’ve written elsewhere on this site, and have spoken often about the joys of dining down under. I do want to remind folks that, especially for my first trip, I was living on a budget, but the abundance of lamb, seafood, and exotic fruits, as well as the abundance of ethnic cuisine, made it possible to dine splendidly even with little money. However, for those who go to Australia with stacks of cash and who want to unload it on food, there is ample opportunity. As a sampling of the delights awaiting the well-heeled diner, here’s a video from Gourmet magazine’s TV program Diary of a Foodie, about a few of the glories of Tasmania’s culinary scene.

Tasmania: The Next Culinary Frontier

Just one more reason I love Australia—and need to get back before too much longer.

Queen Victoria Market

I have both written and spoken, here and elsewhere, about dining in Australia, so if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I think that Australia is a splendid destination for those who like to eat.

In Melbourne, one of the most wonderful manifestations of the excellence of the food options in Oz is the Queen Victoria Market. Founded in 1878, the venerable market covers more than 16 acres—and even that isn’t always enough, so they close down one of the bordering streets on Sundays, to create a café area, so people can linger at the vibrant market.

Much of the market is open-air, with only a roof overhead, but there are also enclosed halls for items that need a bit more care, such as fish and meat. The market is divided into several “precincts,” so you can target your shopping, if you don’t want to browse the entire place. You can visit the Deli Hall, Elizabeth Street Shops, F shed laneway, Market Place Food Court, Fruit and Vegetable precinct, the Meat Hall, Organics, General Merchandise, Victoria Street Shops, and the Wine Market.

The building that houses the Meat Hall (or, more properly, the Meat, Fish, and Rabbit Hall) actually predates the market as a whole, having been built in 1868. It houses butchers, fishmongers, and fresh poultry traders. The Deli Hall was a “late” addition, built in 1927. The offerings in this hall reflect Melbourne’s immigrant history, so head here to shop for delicacies from around the globe. The Wine Market is a weekend outlet for smaller wineries that might not otherwise have wide distribution. Fruits and vegetables occupy the largest portion of the market—almost 50 percent of the market is dedicated to fresh produce.

The splendid Queen Victoria Market might not be a reason to travel to Australia, but if you’re heading for Melbourne, it’s certainly a place to visit, at least if you’re serious about food.

Produce at the Queen Victoria Market

Sheep and Seafood

There is the usual range of jobs on Kangaroo Island that one would associate with a small town near a geologically significant tourist destination—workers in government, retail, hotels, and restaurants, park rangers, scientists. But the majority of the non-tourist income is from sheep ranching and seafaring—or, more specifically, fishing. I was too early for the crayfishing season (by three days!), but I was delighted to dine on whiting that was only hours away from having been caught.

Crayfish are what we in the U.S. would call rock lobsters—succulent crustaceans that thrive in these cooler southern waters. My experience of crayfish would wait for my visit to Tasmania, but because the season here was so close at hand, I did get to witness some of the preparations for the season. Tidy little cray boats lined the docks and shore, with fishermen busily outfitting them for work. I did think, given the roughness of the ocean at these latitudes, and the history of shipwrecks along this coast, that the boats seemed a bit dauntingly undersized.

Cray pots were piled high on boat decks and on the docks. Though they were busy, the fishermen were also Australians (and small-town Aussies, to boot), which meant friendliness won out over bustle, and most stopped to say “g’day” and chat about the season ahead.

Below is a photo of a couple of the cray boats moored at the dock. So now, when you go to a restaurant that offers Australian rock lobster, you’ll be able to picture the dainty vessels that probably made these delicacies available to you.

Cray boats, Kangaroo Island

Australian Food

Last month, I joined Australian Pastry Chef Naomi Levine for a presentation given to the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Naomi talked about (and had samples of) several classic Australian sweets, then I rolled into a discussion of Australia in general and Australian food in particular. WBEZ, the local Public Radio Station, recorded our presentation. They just posted the podcast, and you can hear it here, if you fancy learning a bit more about Australian food.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=32348

Many of the images from the presentation (crimson rosellas, bougainvillea in Queensland, the koala, penguins, and so on) can be found elsewhere on this blog, should you wish to match images to words. In addition, if you search here for pavolova, you can find my version of this classic Australian dessert. (Unlike Naomi, I sweeten the whipped cream.)

One image I mention that hasn’t appeared here yet is that of the view across the Chandon Vineyard, outside Melbourne—so here’s that picture. It’s quite a view. Goes well with a nice glass of champagne.

Chandon Vineyard