Melnq:

Oh, of course! When I return home, if you add up all the days including my three weeks in November/December that I've been in Australia.. I've only been home for *counting..* 77 days, in ten years.

The last trip I had was rather impromptu and was only six days, due to work commitments, but it was for my grandmothers funeral. I find that when I go home I seem to say, "Oh, in the US they do it *this* way..."

I remember being shocked when I go home at the lack of free-refills on drinks (I can normally suck back three or four diet cokes while eating), and also I hate having to pay money for one little sachet of tomato sauce! When I first moved to the US I used to hoard those sachets like no one's business...I couldn't believe they were free! Now? It's old hat.

Umm.. I miss the sugar-free garbage that is rampant in the US. I miss my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato's with sugar-free vanilla, to be precise.

I miss the abudance of cheap-but-good Mexican food (who would have thought I would like spicy food?) with the bottomless supply of chips and salsa.

However, there is no comparison to the food in Australia. I just rattled off a list of food I am *going* to eat to my Mum last night on the phone. The conversation went like this, "When I get home, I want to have a party at my brother's house...I want a sausage sizzle with burnt onions and fresh bread, I want pavlova, I want lamingtons, I want salad sandwiches, I want sausage rolls... Oh, when I get there I want to have a few Victoria Bitter's... I want to go to a pastry shop and eat a Neenish Tart.. Oh, and I want one of those little tarts that they put a 'frosting frog' on... I want to eat honey chicken".. blah blah blah.

Good thing I'll be walking a lot to compensate for all the food I'll be eating!

Liz
ozmum.com

Emilid -

Starbuck's has sugar-free vanilla? Guess I've been gone too long...

As a catsup hound, I have a problem paying for those wee sachets myself (I usually need 4-5), although I haven't had to buy any in Australia yet, just in Europe. Charging for catsup is like charging for salt, pepper and napkins IMO - I don't get it.

I've always wondered what pavlova is -and I've never heard of Neenish tarts -care to enlighten me?

I'm off to Singapore tomorrow, where there's an abundance of Starbuck's, and I can't wait for a nice chai latte (sorry Neil).

FYI for LizF - catsup is also spelled ketchup in the US. Tomato sauce makes more sense, but then we'd have to come up with a new name for our tomato sauce, which comes in a can and is used for tomato based recipes like spaghetti, lasagna, chili, etc.

Sorry about Starbucks, or chai latte? Haven't been to Singapore for years and years, but I certainly found Starbucks very handy in China, where there are precious few options if you want a real coffee. The toilets come in handy too.

My only objection to Starbucks generally is the McDonalds-type experience - serve-yourself, with grossly wasteful throw-away everything, and for this they charge you more than a cafe with real china and table service. Doesn't add up to me, although I'm sure it does for shareholders. I'd love to have shares in just their Chinese operations, which isn't possible, as they charge western prices, which when you think about it is outrageous. But even so there are enough cashed-up Chinese yuppies to keep the cash registers busy. I think we paid 15 yuan (US$2) for a coffee - enough for a good main course in most restaurants.

Toucan2,

I adore shopping in grocery stores whenever I travel. I'm especially fond of picking up packets of various mixes; marinades, soups, sauces or salad dressings that look interesting (and they pack flat).

Problem is that you take it home, and it's great...and then I'm left wondering "right..when am I going to be in the Bahamas again, down that side street where that funky little grocery store was to get MORE of this stuff!"

Melodie

Ketchup is a Malay word, and originally meant a fish-vinegar sauce (before Malaysia had tomatoes). At some point it got tomatoes added, and the modern version has to be considered an American contribution. If your tomato sauce doesn't have vinegar in it, it's not real ketchup. The spelling "catsup" is a bogus genteelism.

Fully agreed on the repulsive monotony of Starbucks, and the welcome sanctuary of their bathrooms in some locales. I won't go into one here, in Seattle. Most of their drinks aren't coffee drinks, anyways -- they're milk drinks, with loads of sugar. Coffee is a distant third flavor. Quite infantile, really; they bear about as much relation to a cup of coffee as does a McDonalds milkshake.

The American answer to Tim Tams is Oreos -- there's even a similar folklore surrounding the ritual of their consumption -- which part to pick off and eat first.

I am one American who loves Marmite but after our Australian trip was persuaded, after some head-to-head comparative tasting, that Vegemite is even better. Mmm!

I of course remember Starbucks before it was STARBUCKS. There was one store in the Pike Place Market, and you could get it on the Ave in the U-District. (Seattle) Then came Howard Schultz...you have to give it to the man, he knows how to market. Pour It On is an interested book describing the evolution.

Of course, I always liked Seattle's Best Coffee a bit better

I will keep an eye out for Margaret River wines and other food products.

I'm smiling about the reference to food spices and packets, then wondering when the heck and where the heck you can get them once you run out!

I would also like to know what a Neenish Tart is?

I'm headed "home" tomorrow,and like emilid already have a list of foods to eat. Of course, some of it is simply my mother-in-law's cooking. But, I can't wait for some fresh salmon and halibut and crab and fruit. Oh my. I suppose I should finish packing and go to bed.

Oh, to the ketchup/tomato sauce language issue. This could perhaps explain the strange lasagne I once had in Daintree Village which was apparently made with ketchup. Perhaps they read a recipe ingredient tomato sauce and translated it to ketchup/catsup (whatever!).

I didn't think there was anyone left in Australia who didn't know what tomato sauce means in the context of a pasta dish. That is really weird.

I haven't found a good pre-prepared tomato sauce, and I don't know why anyone would use them when making your own, even with canned tomatoes, is so easy and gives a better result. But then, I very seldom order pasta in a restaurant for the same reason.

Toucan2 - a Neenish Tart is a small tart with a sweet shortcrust shell filled with mock cream and usually with jam underneath the cream. It is then iced in two halves, either chocolate/white or chocolate/pink. They're usually found in small cake shops/bakeries, but I haven't had one in many years.

Well, anything with shortcrust (which I'm assuming is the same as shortbread - lots of butter) has got to be good...

Think I'll take a pass on the lasgana made with catsup though (please forgive my bogus genteel spelling).

Neil - I was referring to the American penchant for throwing everything away, not the actual chai latte, although in Singapore you actually get a proper cup if you plan to stay inside the establishment.

Had a Neenish Tart today! http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~aht/neenish/neenish.html

Wet weather comfort food (that's my story .....)

My interest was pricked with the etymology of ketchup as raised by fnarf.
fnarf assumed that ketchup arosed from the Malay 'kicap' ( pronounced 'ki-chap'). But as linguists would tell you - about 90% of Malay words have foreign origins- arabic, english, sanskrit, etc.
While kicap and ketchup are related, a deeper rooted is more likely the cantonese 'kei-chap'.
A clue to this is that the word 'kicap' did not occur in Malay till the arrival of the tin mining chinese in the 18th century, while the word 'ketchup' was first recorded in the english language in 1690.
ALso, probably a bit harsh to describe 'catsup'as american genteelism. A form of the word was first recorded in england in 1730.

I travel alot and some of the best meals I've ever had were at Phoebe's Garden Room near the Lilybank B&B
in Cairns, Spicy pan asian cuisine. I tried to marry Phoebe, but she wouldn't have me

AndrewDavid

Andrew, possibly Phoebe understandably associated you with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. But it could have been a lucky escape. I once proposed to a Panasian waitress after the third bottle of red. Fortunately my long-suffering wife, for reasons best known to herself, vetoed the arrangement before driving me home in high dudgeon. I found out later that Panasians are known to be holy terrors.

Will pay that one Neil.

Neil's wife is a saint!

And the food at Phoebes was good.

<but then - I was too shy to propose!>

macksmith why did you comment on a thread that is over 6 years old.

2nd attempt to flog his business.
Can't be that good if he has to spam a travel forum against the rules

I'm kind of grateful to him though, I've just had a lovely time reading this thread.