Every city has an area that is not as great as the other parts. Girls will never want to walk alone at night there, and you may not want to carry your valuables on you. They are places that you usually wouldn't want to go at all if you don't have to. In Chicago, it's certain neighborhoods on the south side. In New York, it may be north of Central Park. In Adelaide, it's little pockets in the northern suburbs. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go there myself.
The adventure started last week at Alastair's end-of-work celebration, where I was talking to my friend Kosal and her husband Rob about a specialty Vietnamese noodle dish called pho. They told Al, Shona and myself that they were going to take us to the best pho place in Adelaide the following week, and we would fall in love with it. We agreed to go and finalized the plans by the end of the week.
There was only one issue. Everybody else knew the name of the suburb we were going to, and they told me several times that I was probably going to get stabbed. They weren't serious, but I also picked up on the fact that we weren't going to a very safe place. Alastair went there several times to take his CPA exams, for example. He decided to walk to the local mall one particular time to pick up lunch, and realize after walking in there that he would rather starve than take another step inside.
So, as planned yesterday morning, we drove to Kosal and Rob's house and then followed them to the restaurant. I contemplated leaving my engagement ring at home (I didn't), and I even changed my purse to a less-flashy one to draw attention away.
When we finally pulled up to the restaurant, I almost doubled over with laugher. This is what they call their "ghetto"? It looked like a plain ol' suburb. There were even brand new shiny two-story houses sprouting up all over the place. I've driven through Englewood, one of the scariest neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago, and I was physically shaking with fear. This was nothing! Where were the high-rise projects? Where were the broken windows?
In defense of what everybody says, though, I would never go there by myself or walk around at night there. I understand that there are lower-income families that live there, and there is crime. However, people in Australia get paid much better than they do in America, and that has an impact on decreasing poverty and keeping the cities safer. As I said before, it's all relative. This may be one of the poorest areas in Adelaide, but it's not nearly as frightening as anything I've seen in my city.
With that said, let's get to what we had for lunch!
The adventure started last week at Alastair's end-of-work celebration, where I was talking to my friend Kosal and her husband Rob about a specialty Vietnamese noodle dish called pho. They told Al, Shona and myself that they were going to take us to the best pho place in Adelaide the following week, and we would fall in love with it. We agreed to go and finalized the plans by the end of the week.
There was only one issue. Everybody else knew the name of the suburb we were going to, and they told me several times that I was probably going to get stabbed. They weren't serious, but I also picked up on the fact that we weren't going to a very safe place. Alastair went there several times to take his CPA exams, for example. He decided to walk to the local mall one particular time to pick up lunch, and realize after walking in there that he would rather starve than take another step inside.
So, as planned yesterday morning, we drove to Kosal and Rob's house and then followed them to the restaurant. I contemplated leaving my engagement ring at home (I didn't), and I even changed my purse to a less-flashy one to draw attention away.
When we finally pulled up to the restaurant, I almost doubled over with laugher. This is what they call their "ghetto"? It looked like a plain ol' suburb. There were even brand new shiny two-story houses sprouting up all over the place. I've driven through Englewood, one of the scariest neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago, and I was physically shaking with fear. This was nothing! Where were the high-rise projects? Where were the broken windows?
In defense of what everybody says, though, I would never go there by myself or walk around at night there. I understand that there are lower-income families that live there, and there is crime. However, people in Australia get paid much better than they do in America, and that has an impact on decreasing poverty and keeping the cities safer. As I said before, it's all relative. This may be one of the poorest areas in Adelaide, but it's not nearly as frightening as anything I've seen in my city.
With that said, let's get to what we had for lunch!
Pho is generally noodles and beef in broth. While we were waiting for our soup, the staff brought us all of our add-ins. We got different kinds of leaves, spices, sprouts and onions.
I ordered a simple unsweetened iced tea. It was perfect for the almost summer-like weather.
Everybody got chopsticks, but there were forks and spoons there just in case we couldn't handle it! I am well-learned with chopsticks, though.
This was my cutlery for the meal.
Kosal, Al and I muched on some spring rolls. They were GOOD!!!
This was my first sight of my food. They put raw beef into the hot soup, and it cooked it after a few minutes. Surprisingly, I didn't find it off-putting. I would usually get grossed out by it, but it didn't bother me. My meat was completely cooked by the time I bit into it.
I put all of the add-ins in my soup. It added so much flavor to it. My only complaint was that I made a mess. The broth flew onto my white shirt every time that I tried to slup up the noodles. It was still worth it!
My bowl isn't as full here, but you can see that my meat is fully cooked! I didn't eat a lot of the beef (I never do), but I loved this dish. It was fun to customize it with all of the add-ins, and it was so tasty. It's usually hard to mess up noodles and broth, but this was way above average compared to your normal noodles in a cup that you can get for 10 cents at the supermarket. Rob and Kosal also said that pho in Vietnam is good, but the broth is more plain. I'm glad I got the chance to try this stuff.
After lunch, we drove back through the "scary" neighborhood.
When we got back to safety, we did some shopping at Kmart and then went to Al's parents' house to fix up our bikes. A few hours later, we met Shona at the Edinburgh Hotel for drinks and dinner. The weather was still nice, and this place has a fantastic beer garden. It's usually impossible to get a table outside, but we got lucky.
Al and I got our usual low carb beers (low carb=light beers in America), and Shona got wine. She took a picture, but it didn't photograph well.
We got garlic bread to share.
Al and I got our usual low carb beers (low carb=light beers in America), and Shona got wine. She took a picture, but it didn't photograph well.
We got garlic bread to share.
I ordered grilled local snapper served wih a cous cous, prawn, semi-dried tomato, onion and baby spinach salad with a chili dressing. Although it was pretty, the fish was too fishy-tasting, and the cous cous was soggy.
Shona ordered risotto with S.A. prawns, chili, garlic, peas, spring onion and lemon zest.
Al ordered one of the most delicious things you could ever order at a pub: a chicken parmy (parmesan) with chips and small salad on the side. I helped him eat his chips and his salad.
If that wasn't enough, Al and I walked up the Parade to get gelato when we got home. Holy food! I got hazelnut, of course. It wasn't as good as the Gellatisimo stuff, but I managed to eat most of it.
Sunday
If you thought this post couldn't get any longer, then you are INCORRECT!
I just wanted to let all of you know that Al and I went on a bike ride this morning, and it was gorgeous. We rode along the river, but we went the opposite way towards the Hills. In the past, we always went to the beach. We didn't make it very far out, though. We stopped before we got too tired.
As we were riding along, I saw what might possibly be the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. We were riding past some very thick concrete tracks, and I just thought that they were odd-looking train tracks. I knew that the "train" line in that area is called the O'Bahn, but I didn't actually know what it was. I thought it was just a normal train that went into the north-east suburbs.
Actually, it's not a train that goes along this track, but a bus! It's regular old buses that drive on the road, but they can also drive onto the tracks and go up to 100km/hr! It's 50-60 on normal roads, for a reference. Although Al didn't think it was interesting, I was amused out of my mind. I giggled every time a bus came by. Sorry, but it's just not something that you expect. It's like a bus on a roller coaster. Check it out (and see a picture) here.
We'll go on a longer ride next week, and I'll take pictures of this genius transportation system. I'm still shocked that I never knew this thing existed! I kind of wish I worked in the northeast suburbs now...
Okay, not really. But maybe I will go on the O'Bahn some day.
I'm having a very bad case of the Sunday Blues, guys. I wish this weekend could last longer!
By the way, if you have an iPhone, delete your alarms and redo them! A lot of them aren't working after daylight savings! My phone went crazy after we switched our clocks forward, so it's a real warning.
I just wanted to let all of you know that Al and I went on a bike ride this morning, and it was gorgeous. We rode along the river, but we went the opposite way towards the Hills. In the past, we always went to the beach. We didn't make it very far out, though. We stopped before we got too tired.
As we were riding along, I saw what might possibly be the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. We were riding past some very thick concrete tracks, and I just thought that they were odd-looking train tracks. I knew that the "train" line in that area is called the O'Bahn, but I didn't actually know what it was. I thought it was just a normal train that went into the north-east suburbs.
Actually, it's not a train that goes along this track, but a bus! It's regular old buses that drive on the road, but they can also drive onto the tracks and go up to 100km/hr! It's 50-60 on normal roads, for a reference. Although Al didn't think it was interesting, I was amused out of my mind. I giggled every time a bus came by. Sorry, but it's just not something that you expect. It's like a bus on a roller coaster. Check it out (and see a picture) here.
We'll go on a longer ride next week, and I'll take pictures of this genius transportation system. I'm still shocked that I never knew this thing existed! I kind of wish I worked in the northeast suburbs now...
Okay, not really. But maybe I will go on the O'Bahn some day.
I'm having a very bad case of the Sunday Blues, guys. I wish this weekend could last longer!
By the way, if you have an iPhone, delete your alarms and redo them! A lot of them aren't working after daylight savings! My phone went crazy after we switched our clocks forward, so it's a real warning.
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