Brisbane

After all the traveling, we were in need of some serious downtime! Luckily we had a few days at the end of Jeremy's trip to spend strolling around the city. One of the places I took Jeremy when he first got here was The Three Monkeys in the West End. It's an awesome little cafe with a really eclectic decor, and is filled with lots of little nooks and crannies that make it easy to snuggle in and stay awhile. Jody introduced me to this place, and now it's one of my favorites! Although their chai tea pales in comparison to Batavia's, it's still really good and comes in a giant bowl which (I feel) is exactly how chai tea should be consumed.

We also spent some time wandering around Queen Street Mall, where I bought a case for my awesome, shiny new ipod touch that Jeremy surprised me with. (yes, it's awesome and so is he!) We ended up spending a good chunk of time in the electronics store because of the guitar hero game strategically placed at the front entrance. I think Jeremy could have easily spent the rest of his vacation here - check out the focus and determination. He didn't even know I took this picture!

Another place I took Jer was the Shingle Inn, which is a locally-owned chain that is another top coffee and tea spot in town. He had sampled a cookie called a 'melting moment' earlier in the trip and decided to try the Shingle Inn melting moment. These cookies are essentially butter, sugar, and flour and do exactly what the name implies. My mom (of course) makes the best version of these cookies at Christmas. Melting moments in Brisbane are always a sandwich of two cookies with sugary icing between them. I think Jer's experience with his Shingle Inn melting moment was another highlight of the trip, to say the least! It really was fantastic, and we decided to visit as many cafes as we could to see if any of the melting moments out there were better than the one from Single Inn. The answer: NO!!!! No way. Not even close. I think the expression on his face says it all.

Jeremy's last full day here was Friday, so we got up and had a nice breakfast at the local cafe, The Brown Dog, where I usually get my Saturday morning latte. Later on that afternoon we took a nice walk over to the Botanic Gardens, where we had a little picnic lunch and soaked up the sun for awhile. It was great! We were blessed with perfect weather during his visit, and Friday was no different. That night we had saved for a big fancy dinner at Tukka in the West End, where Jeremy's father had gotten us a gift certificate. (thank you again Leif - excellent choice!)

Tukka's concept is really native Australian food gone gourmet - and so it was! Dinner was faaaaaabulous. We started with an appetizer of freshly baked damper bread with macadamia oil and dukkah. Damper is a traditional Aussie bread that was baked over the hot coals of a campfire. Our damper was made with lemon myrtle and had a wonderful aroma! Dukkah is an Egyptian nut and spice mixture that is usually eaten by dipping bread first into oil and then into the dukkah. Ours consisted of macadamia nuts and bush spices. Yum! The other appetizer we chose was a confit of Tasmanian possum, and petite salad of rosella braised apples with summer truffle dressing. Weird, right? Well, from now on when I think possum, I will think...delicious. I can't even begin to describe how tasty it was...(then again, does anything confit taste bad?)

For his main Jeremy decided to be brave (and block out the picture of his friend from Lone Pine) and try the real Aussie meat! He had the slow roasted Tasmanian wallaby shanks with roasted baby beetroot and balsamic vinegar jus. I went with the free range duck duo of confit leg and medium rare breast, jerusalem artichokes and cêpes fricassée, and davidson's plum gastrique. Again, yum. YUM!!! I tried the wallaby and it was (again) really tasty and went perfectly with the beets. Of course we washed everything down with a shiraz handpicked from fifty year old vines in the Barossa Valley. We ended with a pineapple ravioli dessert that was also good. What a dinner! I was too busy enjoying the meal to take pictures, so instead you get the receipt as proof that we dined on the possum and wallaby!

I was dumb enough to let Jeremy leave Brisbane on Saturday morning, and after enduring a 6 hour delay in Los Angeles he's made it back to Charlottesville in one piece. I can't believe it went by so fast! It'll be back to reality for me here, where I need to catch up on my schoolwork and get myself into a regular routine again. In the midst of all the traveling last week I actually managed to get another job, so I'll be starting that next week too! I'll post more on that later, but I'll be working as the main research assistant on a pilot study of 10,000 women taking part in Queensland's breast cancer screening program. I'm really excited about it! My other news is that I've booked my tickets home for Christmas. I am beyond excited about that!!!!! I will fly into Honolulu on December 5th and hang there till I can get out on standby to Charlottesville, which hopefully won't take weeks or months. I'll be in the states until February 2nd, and I can't wait to see/visit as many of you as possible!