Kindly Yours

It has a unique location, next door to both the WIN Stadium and the WIN Entertainment Centre. It is not far from the harbour of one of Australia's largest regional cities.  It has a catchment area of university and college students, surfers, young couples and growing families.  The sun seems to be always shining on most days here and it is surrounded by dramatic and scenic land and ocean scapes. It offers night time diversions to weekend trippers, twenty something year olds and is walkable to the city's main food streets.  Tall standing Norfolk pines guard the roads that lead to its door.   Welcome to the Brewery.  And yes, it does stock Wollongong's own blends and brands of beer in house. The venue is spacious and offers a variety of preferences - you can sit outside and take in the seaside breezes, daytime or int he evenings.  The beers are sourced from FIBC with no added stuff like sugars, preservatives and additives - ala nat...

Juicy, tasty and uplifting - the roast chicken from Sedap. For many in mainstream Australian society, the sight of white looking steamed chicken with skin on may not be priority, unless the potential consumers have been familiar to Singapore and recognised this significant dish so commonly available in many of the island nation's food courts.  This same dish is given a twist, served with an attractive looking and actually yummy roast chicken - your choice of breast or leg - at the level 4 food court at the Westfield in Chatswood, 20 minutes by car north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Just the chicken itself is worth visiting Sedap, which gets busy at meal times and opens late till evening on both weekends and weekdays.  The roast chicken has oomph, a good bite on the palate and at the same time is moist enough below the skin. KFC better watch out!  KFC is only a shopfront away, with the nearby pet shop and Virgin Australia phone shops as trig...

It does seem irritating that it has often been wet evenings when, for once a week, I have to take out the household garbage bin to place on the road kerbside. And yet, the lawn is showing signs of being parched, yellowing in spots and on the edges. At the same time, weeds and grass sprout up on garden beds where we had subconsciously earmarked the space for other flora. Winter is showing signs of having a cold spell before the season departs, as blooms appear on certain species and noon has such contrasting warmth when compared with the chilly middle of the night. There seems to be more laundry to do in this mid year season in the Antipodes but truly one can ask "Hey, what winter do you truly have in Wollongong?". Scallops and prawns are slow cooking into a warm and satisfying congee brew as I write. I am beginning to sense real questions of whether city, suburb or regional living environments are better - or which are worse. I reckon there is no blanket answer, like in ...

The wide variety of choices in Chinese Malaysian and Straits Chinese street food and cuisine, first consumed in Campsie,  is also now available in Albee's sister branch in the university precinct of Kingsford in greater Sydney.  This signifies a widening of options in the Malaysian food scene in Sydney. Previously options were confined to the north-west and there was much lament when compared to what Melbournians had. In the past several months, the variety was made more available in Sydney CBD and now in southern suburbs. When is commercial Malaysian food coming to Wollongong and the Central Coast - that can be a brave question. Such cuisine can be construed around a five part meal, although any resident in and visitor to Malaysia knows that people there eat anytime around the clock.  With Albee's, I can have an entree of chunky vegetarian curry puff (with both potato and sweet potato mush inside and that distinctive one half of a hard boiled egg).  An...

The kopi tiam of old Malaya has been revitalised into a modern setting, with dark brown panel surroundings, Australian sourced ingredients for classic dishes from street and home of another era, another place and another cuisine.  As immigration from Malaysia continues to flow into the Antipodes, the soul food of childhood and family for many of these arrivals are represented and repackaged for another generation.  Does this symbolise the infusion of more Asia into a continental island that is so close geographically and yet have remained for most years apart, culturally and politically? Australia offers a fresh start for the adventurous, disenfranchised and business dynamic from other lands - and in return it is enriched with new thoughts, new cuisines and new colours. South Indian rotis, Cantonese noodles, Straits Chinese snacks, Eurasian cakes, Malay satay sticks, Indonesian  nasi lemak , Western influenced breads, Hainan chicken rice and amazing...

The Kingsford section of Anzac Parade, between the adjoining Middle and Meeks Streets, has in the recent few months become even more of a food hub for a variety of Asian food.  Sydneysiders know that Kingsford, which lies like a fifteen minute drive south-east of the city centre on a good day, is also a residential  focus for 18 to 25 year olds, mostly customers of the University of NSW in nearby Kensington and a mecca for the various nationalities from South-east Asia, China and Hong Kong.  Apart from English, the predominant languages you hear spoken on the streets are often Indonesian, Hokkien, Mandarin and Cantonese.  Above, a Japanese outlet with transparency, not far from the roundabout - there I was at the bottom right hand side, trying to take this shot. Kingsford once had hopes of being joined to the Sydney rail network but that plan was dashed by cost cutting in the late 70s and the line terminated at Bondi Junction instead.  Today the ...