Sweet Potato, Yam, Kumara

We recently went to a burger place that had kumara fries, which we were told are sweet potato fries. They were really good! The flesh was yellowish - not regular potato white, but not quite as orange as the sweet potato I'd gotten from the grocery store a few weeks ago.

Apparently what’s a sweet potato vs. what’s a kumara in Australia is just as confusing as what’s a sweet potato vs. what’s a yam in the United States!

Kumara is the Maori and Polynesian word for sweet potato. According to Taste.com.au, kumara is a variety of orange sweet potato grown in New Zealand. However, in Australia one may see any orange sweet potato labeled as kumara, sweet potato or orange sweet potato. That’s not confusing at all! ;)

Ziggy Show

Last night we went to Ziggy, a David Bowie tribute show with a live band and four different performers singing Bowie songs. It was a lot of fun! Their renditions of Under Pressure and Fame were especially good. I can't decide which was my favorite Bowie - they all put a different spin on it.

The State Theatre, which was very pretty inside, were serious about no photos allowed, so I don't have any pics from the show. However, I got dressed up for the event, so here's a pic of my outfit!

Biking at Centennial Park

Yesterday we rode our bikes to Centennial Park, a huge (189 hectares/467 acres) park in Sydney. We biked the Grand Drive loop, which is 3.8 km. It was very pretty - some parts of the ride are in the full sun, but other parts of the road have trees on both sides that grow together in a shady canopy covering the road, which is really nice. We stopped at the pond to check out the huge black swans; some had come up on the grass to look for food.

It's a really pretty park, and it was a fun ride; I'm glad we made our way over there. I'm looking forward to this year's Moonlight Cinema starting up, where they screen movies outdoors at Centennial Park.

Afterwards, we stopped at The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst, and had some good beer, the Bridge Road Brewers Galaxy IPA (Victoria, Australia) and the BrewDog 5 A.M. Saint amber ale (Scotland). 

They have 20 beers on tap, and a good selection of bottled beers, too. There were empty bottles decorating their picture rail, and we spotted at least two Rogue bottles from Oregon. The friendly bartender asked us where we're from, and when we said Portland, Oregon, he said, "Oh Oregon, Beervana!"

Note on pricing, just because I'm still getting used to how expensive beer is here (even domestic): the half-pints were $6.50 and $7.50 each; if we'd wanted pints, they would have been $11.60 and $13.30 each!

Book Hunting

Today we stopped in Gould's Book Arcade, a huge second-hand book shop nearby, which has tons of used books stacked up everywhere.

Photo from planbooktravel.com.au

We're on a bit of a classic cocktails kick, so we dug through the cookbooks, and actually managed to find a copy of the Savoy Cocktail Book, in good condition, for $14! We felt sneezy and dusty digging through the books, but it's fun if you have time, and can wash your hands pretty soon afterwards!

Movember - Day 18

Movember update - here's the moustache on day 18:

Winos

We are winos. Here's our new liquor cabinet, with recent wine shop purchases, and the wines we brought back from the Hunter Valley:

Movember - Day 7

Movember update - here's the moustache on day 7: