Paradise Reserve

A beautiful day in Sydney today. I started with a trip to the Sydney fish markets. Originally I had intended to do a tour at 6am but I didn’t book it ahead of time and last night they were sold out. A blessing really as I got to sleep in and I don’t think I would have cope with the smell. It was bad enough in the market without being on the auction floor.
I started out with some brunch, most of the shops also sold ready to eat food as well as the seafood. It was an opportunity to try something I’d never cook. I had scallop mornay, abalone, oyster kilpatrick and grilled octopus.
Both the scallop and oyster were drowned a bit in their dressing/topping but okay.
The abalone was tough and not that appetising. I realise though at only $7.50 it may not have been the highest quality abalone. I don’t know that I’d bother with it again though. The octopus was good. That was my “safe” item that I knew I would like.
I bought some seafood to have for dinner. There was so much to choose from but in the end I just got some fish. I looked at prawns, octopus and squid but of the ones I felt confident cooking none were Australian so I gave them a miss. There was plenty of Australian shellfish - pippies, Balmain bugs etc but with my limited confidence, ingredients and utensils I gave them a miss.
That left fish. I bought rainbow trout, king George whiting and blue mullet. Just one fish of each, they filleted them for me and for $17 I have tea for 3-4 nights. The woman serving me looked at me with bemusement when I asked her to label each fish so I would know what I am eating. Comparing the fillets side by side they do look quite different.
I also visited the deli and bread shop to get some lovely ingredients.

After returning to the hotel to drop off my shopping I found the Bondi hop on hop off bus as my ticket included both routes. Apart from Bondi the route wasn’t terribly exciting. Bondi was nice, as I said it was a beautiful day today. I spent an hour there having a wander and some late lunch. The trip back went through Rozelle and Rose Bay.

I wanted a few essentials to went to Woollies after I got off the bus. It was really weird, the store was quite small and seemed to sell junk food, itamins and toiletries. I walked around the store trying to work out how a supermarket could not have any veggies. Eventually I found the escalator, when down a floor and found the veggies.

I had the blue mullet for tea. Very nice.Read more