Grocery shopping, cooking, & etc

Our Saturday plan of walking from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach was scrapped because of a cold drizze. So we had a lazy Saturday instead. First we skyped with some family for a while, which was a great way to start the day. Then we cleaned the apartment. One great thing about living in a small place is that you can clean it really well in an hour! After that, we put together a list and headed off to the grocery.

Grocery shopping

We live about a 10 minute walk away from two grocery stores: an Aldi and an IGA. I find it very funny that IGA is still alive and kicking over here when they're all gone back home. The biggest chains here are Coles and Woolworths, but neither of those are in walking distance for us.

Toby's been doing the grocery shopping the past couple of weeks, so I was happy to be able to go with him today and help shop.

There are a few things about shopping here that are a little different. First, the grocery stores are generally much smaller than say, a Kroger. I think people rely more on small markets in their neighborhoods to grab things they might need. This also means there is less selection than we're used to. But so far we've managed to find almost everything we've looked for.

No, we haven't started eating Vegemite

Of course, that doesn't always mean we call it the right thing.

All squash here is called pumpkin. Bell peppers = capsicum
Also, arugula is called rocket, but didn't get a pic of that

Kickin' it European style with gherkins and mozzarella balls = milk cherries? gross!

Also, eggs aren't sold from the refrigerator - they're just stacked up on shelves. Weird!

I guess this is OK? 

Beer run

Alcohol is very expensive here. You can get some good deals on Australian-made wine, but things like beer and liquor are almost twice as expensive as they are in the states.

So we've been putting our coins into a beer fund. Since we were making pizza for dinner, we decided to raid our fund and get a few Australian beers to try. We walked across the road to Kirribilli and picked out some beer for our Saturday evening.

Our beer fund

Got me some beer

T's got some too

We made sure to get some of the Australian standards! We gave them both two thumbs up but liked the VB the best.

VB & Tooheys

Cooking

So far, cooking here has been an adventure. Not only is everything in Celsius, but we also have a convection oven in our apartment. I've never used one before, and neither has Toby. So we've been winging it every time we've used the oven. On Saturday I decided I would figure the thing out.

I started out sitting in the kitchen floor and googled how to work a convection oven. Once I had the basics down, I looked up our oven's symbols.

Ummm what?

I still think they look like radiation symbols, but I made myself some cheat sheets for what they really mean.

My oven cheat sheets

What better way to learn a new oven, the metric system, and convection cooking than by making a cake? So that's what I did!

There were some hiccups along the way. Like not having enough butter or knowing how much of it I needed to get 250 grams. I also had to figure out how much 275 millimeters of water is, and then guess at it since I don't have a measuring cup (in cups or liters!). I was also using a brand new pan in a shape I've never baked a cake in before. Oh and I also realized that we don't have a mixing bowl, so I put it together in a pot. Needless to say, there were lots of challenges.

Baking a cake Australia style!

But I pushed through and used my trusty cheat sheets to get the oven going. I had no idea how long to bake it, so I just kept checking on it. I'm definitely going to have to get better at knowing how long things bake, but at least it didn't burn.

All in all, I ended up with something that looks like a cake, and I have a little better of an idea of grams and millimeters. Also, I tried a quick bite. A little too dry but definitely passable. So I call that a successful first endeavor!

Looks OK