[nom nom nom] misschu in Sydney

To me, the best part about traveling to a different city is sampling the local cusine. Tonight I’m in Sydney, attending the Writing for the web one-day seminar offered by the Sydney Writer’s Centre.

As soon as the wheels hit the tarmac, I searched Broadsheet Sydney, my go-to source for food, drink and entertainment in Australia’s two metropolitan centres. Reading their post on misschu, a Vietnamese tuckshop, my interest was picqued. To start, I download the iPhone app.

In a word, it’s hip. With each item listed shopping cart style, patrons can order their meal for pick up or delivery. The coolest part? A button called ‘Not sure what to order?’ which takes patrons to a slider that moves based on price. On the cheap side, $12.50 gets you traditional peking duck pancakes, chef’s selection of rice paper rolls (2 per serve) and asian dessert of the day. On the big spender end of things, $40.00 lets you walk away with chef’s selection of streamed dumplings, sashimi tuna rice paper rolls, more peking duck pancakes and pho with traditional wagu beef. Yummers.

I got the vegan spring rolls and seared atlantic salmon rice bowl. I was so very saited.

And I was delighted at their order sheets.

And soup bowl lampshades.

And charging stations for patrons fueling their bodies and their tech.

I’m keen to check out the other misschu tuckshops; there’s one at the Opera House! If only I was Sydney for longer than one night. misschu, you should come to Brisbane.

Street corners of Sydney: 13 km in the city

Yesterday morning at 6:45 AM I ventured out into the harbour city to run. Recently I’ve switched my long run to Mondays instead of Sundays. There’s always so much to do on weekends and often not a lot of time to relax.
Given it’s winter in Australia, it should really come as no surprise that it is cold. Bundled (or as Aussies say, rugged up) I jogged along King St past the quirky shops, two dozen Thai eateries and the sprawling University of Sydney campus. The surrounding homes have seen better days.

I was slowly getting my stride on the sidewalks but I kept getting interrupted by streetlights. Here’s a sample of what I saw:

Running through Sydney suburbs, I felt a keen sense of familiarity, somewhere between Vancouver (for the hills and the harbour) and Shanghai (for the architecture and parks).
In the end, my last step fell about 4km from our B&B, which left me walking and very slowly running in intervals, anticipating fresh blood orange juice, corn fritters with avocado salsa and a shower.