La Caretta

Cherrybrook Village Shopping Centre
Shepherds Drive Cherrybrook

This restaurant is a bit of a local favourite. The location is good for me and the restaurant is a bit noisy but a little liveliness is good. It was very busy on the Saturday night with take aways as well as eat- ins but the staff certainly kept up well. The staff are quite friendly too. The pizza itself was average, but acceptable. They pan fry the pizza base which no- one really seems to do these days except the fast food pizza joints. This makes it a bit greasy. The fried calamari I had was acceptable- the rocket is a nice touch. I think it is average value for money.

$18.00 large pizza half Cherrybrook, half Mexicana
$10.50 calamari

Coastal

Mooney Mooney Club
5 Kowan Road Mooney Mooney NSW
www.mooneymooneyclub.com.au

This restaurant is located as far north of Sydney as you can go before you reach the Central Coast. It's not on the coast, but rather on the Hawkesbury River. The views of the river are beautiful and the restaurant has a lot of outdoor seating and was recently renovated so it's very pleasant. I went there Wednesday lunch time and it was really busy, so do book if you go there.

$70 Coastal seafood platter for two
$1o.50 Caesar salad

The seafood platter was certainly well presented. There was fish and chips, grilled fish, fried calamari, blue swimmer crab, oysters, prawns and smoked salmon. Some of the grilled fish wasn't quite as fresh as it could be and I've had better chips. The rest was pretty good though. They still have a little bit of room to pick up the standard of this platter if they want to aim to be the best. I loved the caesar salad- plenty of parmesan cheese, bacon and dressing. So unhealthy but it tasted so good.

Serious about climate change?

A couple of guys showed up on my door to change all the light bulbs in my house to energy efficient globes. They changed 35 globes in my house in less than half an hour. They say the average number of globes in each house was 30 and that 95 percent accept the service.

My parent's initial reaction was that they were ugly but my sister and I quickly changed their minds. There have been initiatives where they hand out energy efficient globes and my parents have changed a handful. It shows that a little more than voluntary behaviour is needed to make these socially positive behaviours.

And these Indian guys were so kind to wish me a good trip to India because I told them I was going there!

Camping at Bendeela near Kangaroo Valley town

Over the Easter long weekend I went camping at Bendeela on the Kangaroo River with about 20 of my friends. There were so many tents our friend dubbed it a 'shanty town'.

It's good because:

• It's free
• There's quite a lot of room and you can set up camp anywhere you see a space
  
• There's swimming, kayaking and rope- swinging to be done on the river
• There are lookouts and waterfalls a short drive away
• You can see wombats, kangaroos and kookaburras
• There's a security guard there

Some things to consider:

• You have to purify the water before you drink it
• It's a very basic camping ground without tables, barbecues or shower facilities

It is less than 3 hours drive south- west of Sydney. More information here http://www.australianexplorer.com/bendeela.htm

Hooters

132 James Ruse Drv (Cnr Hassall St)
Parramatta 2123

This is a restaurant in Sydney notorious for featuring waitresses in tiny, tight tops. I swear I was tricked into coming here! My friend said he knew of a good place to go for dinner and just to hop in his car so I did. It actually wasn't as tacky as I imagined it would be- it would be okay to bring your family here. Only the girls wear these huge orange panties that remind me of scungies kids wear in primary school! Disappointingly the male waiters don't wear anything near as skimpy. It is a large American style restaurant where you can sit on stools and there is a bar in the middle. There weren't any families despite it being children's night where children under 12 eat free. It was mostly guys but there were a few young couples.

We had the signature dish, the buffalo chicken wings as an appetiser which are deep fried in batter and coated in sauce. We ordered the hottest on a scale of 5 they call '911' but disappointingly didn't feel any burn. The sauce wasn't bad, I'll give them credit for being unusual in that it's quite vinegary. It makes you cough when you catch the aroma reminiscent of some Shanghai food I have eaten.

The quesadilla I ate was very disappointing. It was just a couple of tortillas with melted cheese with a small side of vegetables. I know I ordered the plain but it could have had beans or something else! My friends seemed to enjoy their steak and hamburger enough. The portions were quite large and were average for their price.

It might be good after the races if you want to continue drinking because it's just across the road from Rosehill racecourse. It's not near much else and I probably wouldn't bother making a special trip just to eat at Hooters.

10 chicken buffalo wings $10.50
Quesadillas $11.50

Restaurant formally know as Super Bowl Seafood

35 Goulburn St
Sydney NSW 2000

I didn't even notice that this restaurant wasn't Super Bowl Seafood anymore until I spoke to my boyfriend's parents. I used to go there quite regularly before I went overseas for a year but swear it's exactly the same. I'm sure the menu is even the same.

This place is great value as ever. The servings were huge, my boyfriend weren't near finishing it which is quite rare for us. The service is average. The hygiene of the place and decor isn't very flash- average for your cheap Chinese food joint. This used to bother me but not at the moment seeing as I've just returned for a year in Asia.

Food
Won ton soup with Chinese broccoli $8.80 lunch special
Hong Kong style congee with rice rolls $8.80 lunch special


I do need to update this post with the correct name!

Star of Thailand

156 Victoria Rd Gladesville 2111

(02) 9817 2056

This was one of my first meals back from living in Laos. I had been to Thailand several times while I lived in Laos because all I had to do was travel a couple of hours to the airport and from there I could take cheap flights anywhere. Here was my chance to compare Sydney Thai food to the real thing!

When I looked in the place looked empty. Everyone was actually sitting out the back where you can dine outside- it is very pleasant. The larp gai, a minced chicken salad was very enjoyable. The pad see ew was a huge portion with a lot of meat which is the difference between Thai food in Thailand and in Australia. The sweet sticky rice dish was a good way to finish the meal. The good things going for this place are a reasonable price, well fitted- out, larger than average portions . Service is above average also, you won't find friendlier waitresses. I can't really fault this place other than the food didn't need to be as sweet as it was.

Food

• Larp Gai- $11.90
• Pad see ew- $11.90
• Black sticky rice with custard- $4.90

Please note, those prices aren't exact. I promise to take better notes next time. I recommend this place.

Reintegrating into Sydney

I had a fantastic experience living and working in Laos for a year. I returned a couple of weeks ago. Being there made me think of all the fun things there are to do around Sydney so I thought I'd blog about them. I thought I'd blog about my reintegration into Sydney life also.

First step- getting over reverse culture shock. I found some good articles here and here. The tips I'm first going to try to follow are:

• Keep in touch with your experience
• Integrate the best of the two cultures

One of my first missions is to make a kangaroo larp. A larp is a very popular Lao dish made of minced meat, lemon juice, mint and coriander. Lao people love variety in their meat so I think they'd like kangaroo larp and it is my dream to one day bring them kangaroo larp!

Moments in reintegration

• Talking to my Lao counterpart over MSN who was the sweetest, most polite guy ever. He had a small emoticon that shows up when he types a question mark that reads 'I asked you a fucking question!'. Obviously my capacity- building hadn't quite covered everything!

• I've joined up to couchsurfing. It gives you the chance to meet people over a drink or stay with them when you're travelling. If you're at home people you can meet people from overseas! My friend got love from a grandma in Taiwan when he stayed with a family. A girl I met stayed with expats while travelling in Cambodia.