Growing up, soda was always something that was in the house. It was there for everyday consumption and special events like birthday parties. I didn’t really love it, but I’d occasionally have it. But when I got braces (for the second time…) when I was 12, my orthodontist strongly said that he recommended all his patients stop soda consumption, as it would weaken my teeth and make them more susceptible to cavities especially with orthodontic treatment. I didn’t have any attachment to soda, so I just decided to cut it out completely. So since I was 12, the only rare times I have soda are when it’s mixed into a cocktail or on occasion when I’m traveling, and it’s an interesting brand/flavor that I find intriguing.

When I first came to Australia, Chris kept raving about how much he missed Bundaberg and ginger beer. I didn’t quite understand it until I had Bundaberg ginger beer and other flavors, such as mango (made only with Kensington Pride/Bowen mangoes grown in Queensland), passion fruit (I mean, this speaks for itself, right?), and the deliciousness (and rarity – still never seen it in the U.S.!) of their lemon, lime, and bitters flavor. There’s something special about the Bundaberg brand: they really want the flavors they are brewing to be pure and fully represented in the sodas they produce. So the brews, depending on the flavor, range in melding/processing time from one day (peach) to seven days (lemon, lime, and bitters) to extract just the right amount of flavor to be true to what they think is perfection. And they certainly have quite the range of flavors, which are all delicious: while they change them up (they’ve had apple in the past) and have seasonal specials (spiced ginger brew for the festive season), they have about 12 flavors that remain constant. The ones that are easiest to find in the U.S. are the ginger beer, sarsaparilla (root beer), and oddly, even the guava. The ones I never see in the U.S. are the red grape (Burgundee creaming soda, which I had for the very first time this visit), lemon/lime/bitters (brewed for seven days, made with cinnamon quills, clove buds, and gentian root, then mixed with lemon and lime juice and bitters for a flavor that could honestly pass as an alcoholic drink due to the bitters in it!), peach (the shortest brew at only one day), or pineapple coconut (brewed two days and made with fresh pineapple juice and coconut water).

We visited the Bundaberg Barrel on Monday, which is actually shaped… just like a barrel! The place is well decorated and appointed, with oversized exaggerated Bundaberg bottle caps topping each of their oversized bushes in front. And if that weren’t enough to convince us we were at the right place, as soon as we parked the car and got out, we could smell the heavily wafting scent of spicy ginger invading our noses! There, we had a tasting of about all twelve flavors, and the tasting fee included SIX cans of whatever flavors we’d like – what a good deal! So we optimized for the ones we couldn’t get easily, such as the creaming soda, lemon/lime bitters, and the grapefruit. We couldn’t cart all 12 back to Melbourne given our relative bag space, so we had to drink as much as possible on this trip. So this would most definitely be the most soda I’ve had in a short period of time — likely ever!

On Sunday after lunch, we stopped at Tinaberries, a strawberry farm that I had read about and added to our list of places to visit while in Bundaberg. Unfortunately, strawberry season in the area is from August to October, so while we’d be missing the pick-your-own opportunity, we’d still have access to their beautiful grounds, as well as their special fresh fruit ice cream.

The Tinaberries property is definitely one that would be inviting to families and anyone who is looking for a quiet, open outdoor space to relax and breathe in fresh air. They have a huge lawn that has plenty of shady cover provided by huge, blankety trees, along with beautiful flowers everywhere, marked by handwritten chalk signs with cute messages like, “If you are not a bee, please stay out of the garden.” The owners provide big picnic blankets for you to borrow and enjoy their lawn. They also have a number of play structures for little ones to play and run around. And given they grow their own strawberries (and presumably their own passion fruit), they allow you ample tastings of jams and butters made with their own fruit. We tried their strawberry and blackberry jams, which had far more fruit than sugar in them, along with a hint of lemon to even out the sweetness — these were delicious. We especially loved their passion fruit butter, which had a rich passion fruit pulp complete with passion fruit seeds, sugar, egg yolks, and butter. We ended up buying a jar of this to take home for Chris’s parents, along with their “lamington chocolate” macadamias, which were macadamia nuts covered in milk chocolate and shredded dried coconut.

If that was not enough, I especially enjoyed their fresh, churned to order soft serve ice cream. On Sunday, they had two flavors, strawberry and passion fruit, so we got both flavors in kiddie cup sizes. I’m not sure if it’s the Australian dairy that made these ice creams so delicious, but the creaminess and milkiness of the ice creams really stood out in my mind among the fruit ice creams we’ve had. They had plenty of passion fruit and strawberry to scream that they were extremely fruit forward, but it didn’t overshadow how creamy and rich the dairy in the ice creams were. Both the creaminess and the fruitiness stood out and did not outshine the other.

Food in Australia just tastes better overall than in the U.S. Animals have more space to roam around, get exercise, and eat what they are supposed to eat. Produce gets the TLC and nutrients they need to be more tasty and nutrient dense. From a food/eating perspective, I’m not sure why you would ever leave Australia to come to the U.S.; it’s like a downgrade in a million ways.

Every time I’ve visited Australia, I never get tired or bored of the seafood here. Given that Australia is an island country that’s pretty far removed from the rest of the world, it is not surprising that they have endless flora, fauna, and ocean life that is not only quite unique, but extremely delicious. And being up in Queensland, we’re in the midst of the tropics up here. And when doing research for this Bundaberg trip, I came across this open-air seafood spot that looked interesting called Grunske’s by the River. It’s one of just a small number of seafood processors in Queensland that also sells direct to the public via their little market, as well as via prepared foods and their casual restaurant setup.

Given that shellfish is quite expensive everywhere, we rarely have full-on seafood meals ever. But if you are going to do it, it should probably be here! So we had an indulgent meal at Grunske’s this early afternoon after our arrival in Bundaberg. We decided on the hot and cold seafood platter, which included crumbed local fish bites, sea scallops, and calamari; grilled scallops on the half shell with garlic butter; Coffin Bay (South Australia) oysters, local wild caught massive prawns, Moreton Bay bugs (basically like the lesser known but just as expensive cousins of lobsters!), cooked sand crab, and pear and rocket (arugula) salad. This was all served alongside chips (fries), tartare sauce, seafood sauce, and plenty of lemon wedges.

I still remember the very first time I saw scallops served on the half shell in Australia back in 2012 when I first came. In that moment, I realized I had never seen scallops in their shell, period, ever. So I had no idea they looked like that and was completely stunned, not only by how pretty they looked, but also my own ignorance for not even knowing what a scallop shell even looked like! It presents very well and almost even makes the scallops taste better because they seem fresher and more natural! These scallops were fat, juicy, sweet, and meaty. The sand crab was also surprising; it was served cold, and like Maryland crabs, most of their meat is in the body versus the legs. So I spent quite some time picking out all the meat, and it was definitely worth the effort. The flesh was also very sweet and meaty. The Moreton Bay bugs, as per usual, were delicious and sweet, and the restaurant made it easy to take the meat out of the shells by cutting each bug in half for us, so no cracking was needed. What may have been the most stunning in terms of presentation were the prawns, though. Although we do have easier and cheaper access to prawns/shrimp in the U.S., it is rare to see prawns of this sheer size — almost the size of my whole hand! These were also perfectly cooked and not even a bit rubbery. They were also a very deep, bright orange and red color. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought these prawns were fake, for display and not eating. But that’s how gorgeous and spectacular seafood is here in Australia!

Ever since I first started visiting Australia 11 years ago with Chris, I’d always hear comments from his parents and pretty much all his relatives about how bad the traffic can get to drive relatively short distances. They would make comments not only about the road rage, but also how ridiculous it was that it could take so much time to drive so little, and yet you’d still encounter endless cars. So that would be a (lazy) excuse to not socialize with friends/family who didn’t live on your side of town as often.

Although we’ve certainly sat in traffic at peak hours while down in Melbourne, I never really thought much about it until we were going through intense traffic this late afternoon to get to Rosanna to visit some friends and their two young kids, a suburb of Melbourne, from Highett, which is where Chris’s brother lives now. The distance is only about 26 km, or 16 miles, yet according to the Google Maps estimate, it would take 1 hour and 10 minutes to get there. We were supposed to meet at a playground at 5pm, and we left just past 4. And based on this, we’d be late.

Chris drove us over, and the entire time, I kept thinking… why is this taking so long? We’re all technically in the same city, so why does it feel like we’re driving an endless distance to get to ANOTHER city? Well, I guess they made the drive down to Brighton last year for Pookster’s birthday, so this drive is sort of like a “it goes both ways” thing, right? How could people do a drive like this regularly? How? At times, it almost felt like we were driving through LA traffic!

Well, we eventually got there… to find out our friends, who live just minutes away from the playground, were running late themselves. But we made it. It was fun. Kaia got to have her first experience with a cubby house in a backyard like a true Aussie kid (and threw a fit when I took her away from the play kitchen inside because it was dinner time). They had some kids time. It was worth it in the end. I may just never want to go back there again knowing how far it is, though…

Once upon a time, about 11 years ago when we first became a couple, Chris and I used to go to oyster happy hours pretty regularly in Manhattan. The place we frequented the most was a little seafood spot on the Upper East Side near our old apartment called Fulton. They had an amazing happy hour of $1 oysters (I think they were mostly east coast oysters), as well as discounted glasses of wine. Because the oysters were so cheap, we indulged and didn’t really think too much about how many we were eating. Unfortunately, Fulton has since closed. Oyster happy hours in the city became fewer and fewer, and the ones that did continue were considerably more expensive, somewhere in the range of $2-3.50. At the high end of that, that’s not really much of a discount anymore. So we haven’t really eaten many oysters in a while.

But then when we were exploring South Melbourne Market today, we stumbled across a huge vendor called Aptus Seafood who was selling all kinds of fresh, delicious, and local seafood, including a variety of freshly shucked oysters on a half shell for us to eat on the spot. They had a variety of oysters, mostly from different regions of Tasmania, and they ranged in price from $40-48 AUD for TWO DOZEN. Once you factor in the exchange rate and relatively stronger U.S. dollar, it was a pretty good deal for us; I couldn’t believe how affordable this was. So we chose the two dozen for $40 oysters from the Bay of Fires in Tasmania, which the vendor told me was characteristically salty and very creamy. Each of us had a dozen oysters. We took the trays after paying and stood with the hoards of other oyster lovers, adding lemon, abalone sauce, and other condiments to our oysters while slurping up these salty morsels from the waters of Tassie. As as we happily slurped away, Pookster napped in her stroller. I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed oysters until I had the first slurp of one. Even the texture was so nice, and biting down on one was so creamy and luxurious. Seafood, both in variety and freshness, is hard to beat in Australia.

The dilemma of coming back to our home bases (San Francisco and Melbourne) is always the same: given the limited amount of time we visit in both cities, how do we balance going back to our old favorite places to eat (such as Lamb on Chapel. Phuoc Thanh/Nhu Lan, Pho Hung Vuong, and Shandong Mama) with new places that we’ve spent pretty much all year learning and reading about? Springvale, a predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood in Melbourne, is one of the very first neighborhoods that Chris took me to 11 years ago when I first visited, so it always has a special place in my heart. When I first came to Melbourne, I still remember being completely shocked that there was not just one, not two, but THREE major neighborhoods of the city (Springvale, Richmond, and Footscray) that were considered Vietnamese towns! My mind was completely blown.

A few places in Springvale stand out for us: Pho Hung Vuong, which has since branched out to multiple locations in the Melbourne area and seemingly always has a queue of hungry slurpy eaters. You know it’s going to be delicious not just because of the queue, but also since for food, they literally just have two options: pho bo or pho ga (beef vs. chicken pho) and different variations of both (thigh vs. breast, brisket, tendon, fatty brisket, etc.) ; Bun Bun Bakery, the leader in banh mi that we were told about from the owner of HS Cakes, which is also in Springvale and the same place we ordered Kaia’s durian cake from last year; Bun Bo Hue Nam Giao, which likely has the best bun bo hue I’ve ever tasted, aside from the one we had at a Vietnamese restaurant in St. Louis, MO (of all places!!). And if that were not enough, there are several big markets/shopping centers that are basically free-for-alls when it comes to endless fresh produce, baked goods, Vietnamese snacks and desserts. It’s always overwhelming going there and deciding which snacks, if any, to pick up. Plus, with parking always being competitive, limited, and a bit pricey, we don’t have endless hours to just roam and taste everything.

Today, we went back to Bun Bun Bakery to get their mixed ham banh mi (just as delicious and perfect as we remembered); sat at Pho Hung Vuong (OMG, NO WAIT!) and shared a medium sized bowl of pho bo (rare beef, brisket, and fatty brisket), a very beany soy milk and an iced Vietnamese coffee; popped into the market and got some ube and cherries for Pookster, while also getting a very delicious coconut bao (gai mei bao) and pate chaud, both yummy. It’s hard to go wrong with food here, but as per usual, endless options always existed.

Ahead of our trip, we started putting together a list of all our desired food spots in the Melbourne area. Of course, while many places would be fun and new, we’d also have many old favorites that we had to revisit, such as Lamb on Chapel, Shandong Mama, and Phuoc Thanh and Bun Bun Bakery for banh mi. After we compiled both our lists together, we realized that the list was quite… long, but no surprise. As of today, there are over 70 places pinned on a shared Google Map in the Melbourne area, and so we’d really just have to wing it to see where we’d actually go. And of course, we’d also stumble upon delicious spots by chance (like Che, a Vietnamese dessert spot that makes all their own sweets from scratch, on Lonsdale Street while in the CBD)!, so we’d have to fit these places in, too!

I shared the list with Chris’s brother, who remarked, “You have just over 2 weeks in Melbourne. How are you going to get to all these places?!” Of course we wouldn’t, but hey, here’s to hoping to covering as much ground as possible.

Today, Pookster enjoyed her first kouign amann at one of the most popular bakeries in all of Melbourne – Lune Croissanterie. What a glorious life she leads!

“I want to only have one roller bag,” Chris insisted as we were packing on Thursday. “it will make things so much easier, especially when we’re in transit in Japan.”

Everything he’s saying here makes sense. Of course it will be easier to wrangle just one large roller bag along with a couple backpacks, the car seat bag (it’s HUGE!), shoulder bags, a stroller, and our active toddler. But we are packing for four weeks away — three will be in Australia, and one will be in Japan. This is a rough feat to pull off. And I knew if this was the goal, every single bag we’d have would be stuffed to the BRIM. The biggest challenges that I thought about were a) packing for two totally different seasons — summer in Australia AND a cold winter in Japan, and b) all the gifts we’d likely be given for Kaia, not to mention anything we’d like to buy/take back home with us, both from Australia and Japan. I’d like to buy some gifts for friends, too. And literally, every single item ADDS UP when you have to pack for this situation, not to mention the random things you have to throw into your bag to keep your toddler in check and comfortable.

So I had to give up on some things to pack: some cute summer outfits for Pookster that I really wanted her to wear this trip, but will just have to hope she’ll still fit into in May-June when our spring/summer warm months come around in New York. At Chris’s urging, I reduced the number of sweaters for myself to wear in Japan. And annoyingly, I also gave up traveling with my mirrorless camera, which I haven’t actively used since Kaia was born two years ago. My poor (well, expensive!) camera has sadly been collecting some dust in the closet these two years. But I just couldn’t justify squeezing into our already crazily stuffed bags. Plus, I would be so paranoid about losing/forgetting it in a mad rush to get in/out of places with Pookster, especially as she is always on the move and run now. The latter is the number 1 reason I haven’t taken it on any trip we’ve done since she was born. I only have so much mind share, and I can’t keep track of everything with another human to keep track of the way I used to.

It’s okay, though. At some point in the near future, hopefully we will need to pack less, and I’ll make space for my currently dormant Sony mirrorless camera. I haven’t forgotten about you!!