At the prompting of an acquaintance, I have decided to keep a list of what I have read over 2010. This list is going to be limited to books only (physical or electronic), and won’t include the various web articles, magazine articles, clippings, etc. etc. that I read in between moments.

I have no idea what this will reveal about me, my habits, or my interests, but at least it will give me a record of this year.

The latest book will be at the top. If I feel like a short review, I’ll add it. Links to Amazon, for convenience of whoever spends time reading this.

Totals: Started: 6, Finished: 5, Abandoned: 0, Currently Reading 1

• The Templar’s Penance by Michael Jecks, Started 2/27, Currently Reading. Paperback. My favorite writer of historical mysteries from the middle ages.
• SPQR XIII: The Year of Confusion by John Maddox Roberts, Started 2/21, Finished 2/27. Hardcover. My favorite writer of historical fiction set in Roman times. Good mystery writer to boot
• Hunt at World’s End by “Gabriel Hunt”, Started 2/17, Finished 2/21. Kindle.
• Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear by “Gabriel Hunt”. Started 2/14, Finished 2/17. Kindle. Pure Pulp. Such a fast read.
• Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson. Started 2/8, Finished 2/14. Kindle. Not as much a thriller as one would believe from the writeups. Was interested in the story having touched on it in Stephenson’s System of the World trilogy
• What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell. Started 1/11, Finished 2/8. Kindle. Kind of the “best of” Malcolm Gladwell from the New Yorker over the past 10-12 years. Some of his stuff held up pretty well. If you only could read a couple, I would guide you to Open Secrets, Connecting the Dots, The Art of Failure, The Talent Myth and The New-Boy Network
• The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. Started 1/1, Finished 1/10. Kindle. A modern old school fairy tale. Beautiful prose. Well worth a read

We’re degusted out. Our eleventh and twelfth days (Monday and Tuesday) in Australia focused on eating at two of the best restaurants in the country. Here tasting menus are called “degustation menus”, hence the first line. We still have a couple of degustation dinners left, but these were the highlights.

First, though, our daytime activities. On Monday, we visited the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, which is on a level of the San Diego Zoo in the States. One gets to the Taronga Zoo by taking a ferry from Circular Quay, which offers spectacular views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. You then take a gondola ride up to the top of the zoo (which is built on a hill), which offers gorgeous views of the Sydney skyline. And then you walk down the hill, looking at the animals, and wondering why they have the best views of Sydney going. Unfortunately, we are visiting Sydney in the middle of a heatwave, so most of the animals were taking shelter. No matter what, it should definitely be on the list for any visitor to Sydney. Just remember to pack sunscreen and bug repellent to keep the nasty Sydney flies at bay.

On Tuesday, we visited the Powerhouse Museum, which is kind of a rollup of the Smithsonian’s American (er, Australian) History, Air and Space, and Arts and Industries Museums all rolled into one. Frankly, I found it slightly underwhelming - they did have a cool Strasburg clock there, and some good exhibits on innovative Australian engineering, but many of the exhibits seemed very dated. It was good if you needed to fill a couple of hours, but wouldn’t make the top of my list.

Food
Dinner on Monday night was at Quay (the #1 restaurant in the country, according to Australian Gourmet), and it is probably the most memorable dinner I’ve ever had. The view was unbelievable. We were seated at a private table in the observation deck of the Overseas Passenger Terminal. To my left was the Harbour Bridge, and in front of me, across the water was the Opera House. As an added bonus, a powerful thunderstorm was rolling across the harbour as we sat down, and we could see Nature’s impressive display outside. An incredibly intimate and romantic location. The service was discrete, and the food unbelievable. The menu:
• Sea Pearls - sashimi tuna, aquaculture caviar, sea scallop, smoked eel, octopus, mud crab, abalone. Paired with a 2004 Segura Viudas from Cataluna, Spain
• Mud Crab Congree - Hand shelled mud crab with a Chinese inspired split rice porridge. Paired with a 2008 Villa Matilde Falanghina from Campania, Italy
• Crisp confit of pig belly - served with a braise of abalone, silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers. Paired with a 2007 Pricipia Chardonnay from Mornington Peninsula
• Gently poached partridge breast - served with bitter chocolate black pudding and walnut crumbs, truffle custard, fresh palm hearts, white borage buds. Paired with a 2006 Summerfield ‘Tradition’ from the Pyrenees Ranges
• Sous vide pure bred Suffolk lamb loin - served with spring vegetables, comte-infused fresh milk curd, roasted quinoa, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, hazelnuts. Paired with a 2001 Chateau Tour du Haut-Moulin from Bordeaux France
• White peach snow egg. Paired with a 2008 Cascinetta Vietti, Moscato D’Asti, DOCG from Piemonte, Italy
• Raspberries, violet, almond vanilla cream. Paired with a 2008 Mount Horrocks ‘Cordon Cut’ Riesling, from Clare Valley

Lunch on Tuesday deserves a mention. It was at Din Tai Fung, a dumpling chain with locations around the Pacific Rim. Very tasty dishes indeed. Jae and I had:

• Steamed Pork Dumplings - the house specialty
• Pork and Vegetable Buns - my favorite
• Vegetable and Egg Fried Rice
• Dan Dan Noodles - very good, but again, no Mary Chung’s

Dinner on Tuesday was at Tetsuya’s (the #2 restaurant in the country, and, on some lists in the top ten in the world. We had to use some muscle to get a booking here, almost two months in advance of our trip). Tetsuya’s is located behind a non-descript gate on a busy road in Sydney, but as soon as that gate opens, you enter a peaceful bubble. The food was technically the most impressive I had in the country to date, and the service was the best, bar none. The menu:

• An amuse-bouche of Corn Soup with Saffron Ice Cream
• Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar and Ginger
• Smoked Ocean Trout and Avruga. Paired with a Tamanohikari Sake, Junmai-Ginjo from Kyoto, Japan
• Marinated Crystal Bay Prawns with Soy Caramel. Paired with a 2008 Vouvray Sec Coteau de la Biche, Domaine Pichot from the Loire Valley in France
• Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon. Served with a Seasonal Green Salad. Tetsuya’s signature dish. Paired with a 2008 Delatite Dead Man’s Hill Gewurtztraminer, from Upper Gouldburn in Victoria, Australia
• Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avocado. Paired with a 2007 Pierro Chardonay made for Tetsuya’s from Margaret River, Western Australia
• Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel. Paired with a 2008 Mountadam Pinot Gris from Eden Valley, South Australia
• Twice-Cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Foie Gras, Sweetbreads and Morels. Paired with a 2007 Bass Phillip Pinot Noir made for Tetsuya’s from Gippsland, Victoria
• Wagyu Beef with Lime and Wasabi. Paired with a 2002 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon made for Tetsuya’s from Margaret River, Western Australia
• Cannellini Beans with Mascarpone
• Pineapple and Amaretto Sorbet with Chai Bavarois. Paired with a 2007 Heggies Botrytis Riesling from Eden Valley, Southern Australia
• Summer Pudding
• Chocolate Chiboust with Lemon Curd and Coffee Marshmallow. Paired with a 2007 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise Bernardins from the Rhone Valley, France

So, a gastronomic tour-de-force. Also a 4.5 hour meal, with 13 courses (well, 10 if you look at actual platings), with 9 wines (3 of which were exclusively made for Tetsuya’s). In comparison to Quay, the food and wine at Tetsuya’s were just as unbelieveable (better, if you are a fan of seafood), and the service at Tetsuya’s was slightly better. Quay, however, has the stunning location, which leads me to say that if you could eat at one restaurant in Sydney, it should be Quay.

Photos
• Taronga Zoo
• Powerhouse Museum
• Quay
• Din Tai Fung
• Tetsuya’s

Internet access at the Qualia was spotty, so now I’m back in Sydney, this is the first chance I’ve had to jot down notes on the past couple of days.

Day 7 in Melbourne was about more relaxing. In the afternoon, we hit the casino on the way to dinner, where I lost $105 at the blackjack table without winning a hand. I’ll try my hand at the Sydney casino later in the trip. Dinner was a Koko’s where Mr. Tiger Woods had dinner the night before prior to starting (and then winning) the Australian Masters. The table was excellent (we had to cross a little pond to get to our table) and the sushi was superb.

Day 8-10 We flew from Melbourne to Hamilton Island and stayed at the Qualia resort. The location on Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef was pristine. The Windward Pavilion we stayed in was luxurious, including the private infinity plunge pool. But… well, I would not recommend it to friends. I’d like to believe I’m not the super-snotty type of visitor (of which there were plenty there), but if you claim that you’re a six star resort, and you charge prices over what the Ritz and Four Seasons resorts charge in the States, then that’s the bar that you set for your service. And we didn’t get that level of service. I can understand that if we come in early a pavilion may not available immediately for us. But we shouldn’t need to track down staff to get updates. When you give us a golf buggy, but give us the wrong key, it’s not our fault - don’t act like it is. When the pavilion is ready, the deck furniture shouldn’t be filthy. When a guest asks that a dish be prepared without shrimp / prawns, it shouldn’t come out with two big shrimp on top of the dish…. the issues go on. Service was slow, spotty, and at times unprofessional. I’m guessing that we came in at the top of the season for them, and there was a lot of training going on, but that just doesn’t let a resort like this get away with anything less than a perfect experience. However, my biggest peeve, far and away, is that throughout our stay there, we were NEVER “Mr and Mrs. Shah” we were always “Pavilion 25″. Service is not calling a person a number.

Photos
• Dinner at Koko’s
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/rshah21/sets/72157622787194352/Hamilton Island

The weather was way too hot to do anything of import today. We walked up to the Victoria Market, which is a series of markets for produce, meats and other goods just outside of central Melbourne. All we could manage was two hours outside there, and then we crawled back to our hotel to cool off. After lunch, we headed to the Melbourne Aquarium. I had been told that this was better than the Sydney Aquarium, but it turned out to be a bit of a let down, from a size perspective. The Antarctic penguin tank was quite cool (the penguins have figured out that they are the stars of the show), but the other areas, including the sharks were not as impressive as Sydney.

Since we were in the area, we crossed the Yarra river and went to the Crown complex (hoping to see Tiger Woods, as he is staying there while playing the Australian Masters. No luck), and I bought some cigars before having lunch there. (Dinner tomorrow night will be there as well). A stroll around the promenade (still too hot to do anything) and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Food
• Lunch: Gyoza, Thai Basil Beef and Singapore Noodles at the Crown. Cheap and good
• Dinner: Vue le Monde. (#4 on the Australian Gourmet list). The best meal I have ever had. The most expensive too, but worth every penny. No set menu at Vue. The experience consists of five to fourteen courses, selected for you by the waiter (in our case a Virgina Tech grad) and sommelier. Since there is no set menu, dinner actually begins with a discrete discussion about the “financial implications” (if any) for the table, and then you sit back and enjoy. The waiter and sommelier select a path for each diner through the 60+ dishes the chef and staff have selected for the evening, and the 1200+ wines on the wine list, adjusting to how you react to each course and wine.
  Our dinner comprised of an amuse bouche of a poached egg in shell with panko breadcrumb, a trout dish smoked under a bell cover, a wild mushroom and truffle risotto, a foie gras dish, a fish course of snapper with miso and apple, a palate cleanser of frozen hibiscus under water, a chicken course with three preparations of chicken, a lamb course with three preparations of lamb, a cheese course, and two deserts (fruit for me, fruit and chocolate for Jae). Based on Jae’s dislike for sweet ice/desert wines, her last desert of a super rich chocolate souffle was paired with a glass of beer (Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout).
  The service was great, the food excellent and the ambiance perfect. The only, only downside was that the table we had didn’t have the best view of the kitchen (which was more of a stage than a room), but we could see all the other dishes from the other patrons, and everyone was constantly looking at other tables trying to see what everyone else was eating.

Photos - There really wasn’t anything worth uploading from today. Photos of the Vue le Monde would not do justice to the evening

Turns out Melbourne is in the midst of a heatwave. Daytime temps are in the low-mid 90s, with low humidity, which means the shade is great and the sun is relentless - there’s not a cloud in the sky.

After walking up early, but getting sucked in by NFL football on TV (at 7AM), we decided to take a walk to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which the concierge told us was only a couple of blocks away. Turns out it was more than a mile away. The walk wouldn’t have been bad except for the flies (note to anyone coming here, bring or buy bug spray, preferably some kind of suntan lotion / bug repellent combo). The RBG was nice, but most of the flowering period was over, so it was mostly trees and grass, but with excellent views and quite serene.

After the RBG, we decided to stop in on the National Gallery of Victoria, which we had passed on our way to the RBG. Turns out to have been an excellent decision. A breadth of art and artifact spanning pre-Colombian days to the 20th century, including pieces by Rembrant, Monet, Rodin and Picasso. A must visit if you’re in Melbourne.

Food
• Lunch - Tea and Scones at the Tea Room at the National Gallery. Simply delicious. The ice coffee there was great - turns out that ice coffee here is cold coffee served with a scoop of ice cream. I endorse this idea.
• Dinner - Room Service. We were too hot and exhausted to go out

Photos
• Royal Botanical Gardens
• National Gallery

Got up early to head to the airport for our flight to Melbourne, not knowing what to expect at the airport. Turns out Sydney airport is relatively quiet on Sunday mornings, and security there is much more laid back. You still have to take your laptop out and your shoes off, but people are either more skilled at getting through security, or security isn’t trying to make a point. Either way, we had an hour and a half to burn, so I picked up Gladwell’s new book and enjoyed myself.

The flight was simple and easy (Qantas has the most efficient flight attendants I have ever seen. Snack and drinks given out to a packed 767 in under 15 minutes) and then a cab ride into Melbourne, which looks nothing like I remember. The skyline has been built up significantly and much of the open scrub areas that surrounded the city a decade ago are nicely manicured suburbs.

The Westin didn’t have our room ready (we were early), so we dropped off our bags and headed to Degraves Street for lunch. Back to the hotel, which upgraded us because they didn’t have our room ready when we first came in, and then out to see a bit of Flinders street before dinner.

Flinders street has an interesting juxtaposition of architecture. St. Paul’s Cathedral, from the mid 1800s, and Flinders Street Station from slightly later, and then Federation Square by Don Bates and Peter Davidson, which is best described as “Gehry-esque”. Jae and I decided to go into the Cathedral, which has some stunning artifacts inside.

Dinner was at the Flower Drum in Mebourne’s China Town. Aside from the street sign, you wouldn’t know there was a top end (#39 according to Gourmet Magazine) restaurant. You knock on the red door, and a Chinese gentleman greets you. If you don’t have a booking, you’re turned away. If so, you are ushered into an elevator and upstairs to the luxurious dining room. Service is excellent, with the waiters plating and building all of the dishes at the table - you don’t even have to roll your own Peking duck. The food was excellent (on par with Mary Chung’s in Cambridge). Finally a great meal.

Food
• Lunch - Linguine with with bacon, chilies, onions and garlic at La Citta. With a cold beer, this was excellent
• Snack - Had a quick snack at “Lord of the Fries” which claimed to be “The best fries you will ever eat”. Again, a lack of truth in advertising
• Dinner - the Spring menu at Flower Drum. Shanghai dumplings, Lamb spring rolls, Quail Sung Choi Bao, Peking Duck, and Szechuan style beef filet. As said, an excellent meal

Photos
• Walking around Melbourne
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• Dinner at Flower Drum

Jae and I had breakfast with her Dad and stepmom, who are (separately) visiting Australia and New Zealand. The Westin breakfast, while pricey, was unbelievable, with more types of eggs, sausage, fruit and drinks than I thought existed. After two hours of gorging ourselves, we wished our guests adieu and rolled out of the building.

We headed to Darling Harbour, which in the late 1980s was reclaimed and rebuilt. It now has the National Maritime Museum, an IMAX theater, the Convention Center, shops and restaurants, and the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World. Our original intent was just to hit the Aquarium, but you can pick up a discount bundle pass for the Aquarium and Wildlife World that’s good for a single admission anytime for three months. Turns out that it was a good idea, as we managed both in just under four hours with a short break for lunch.

Both the Aquarium and Wildlife World were worth the price of admissions, with the highlights being the shark tank in the Aquarium and the koala and kangaroo exhibits at the Wildlife World. I’d give them both an 8/10. They’re no Zoo but can easily be done in an afternoon.

After the animals, we walked through the rest of Darling Harbour and headed into Chinatown’s Paddy Market (not to be confused with Paddington Markets). Paddy Market is on the other end of the shopping spectrum from the QVB. Hundreds of stalls with mostly oriental owners hawking every kind of food and every kind of knockoff good possible (LeBron James “replica” jerseys for AUD$10). After wandering through the markets, we headed back to the hotel to pack for Melbourne.

Food:
Nothing to really write about. A lot of munching on whatever was at hand from whatever stall was close by. Paddy Market is full of them. Dinner was at the sushi bar at the hotel.

What I learned today:
• Sydney flies are vicious. Makes you want to carry a flyswatter to chase them off.
• Male platypus are venemous
• Koalas are dumb. Really dumb

Photos:
• Sydney Aquarium
• Sydney Wildlife World

Shopping was the name of the game today. Sydney’s downtown shopping centers are linked through tunnels making for some massive shopping malls, with food courts, subway stations and various stalls thrown in.

The highlight of the day was the Queen Victoria Building, with its great shops and architecture. Photos from walking around the building are here. After six hours spent wandering the stores and buying up the best (and worst) of what was on sale, we came back to the hotel and then headed out to dinner.

Food:

Lunch was a chicken teryaki box grabbed from a stall by Wynard Station

Dinner was at Guillame At Bennelong located in one of the shells of the Sydney Opera House. Australian Gourmet Traveller ranks it as the #8 restaurant in the country. We chose the degustation (tasting) menu, with the wine pairing. The courses were as follow:
• Yellowfin Tuna basil infused with soy and mustard seed vinaigrette. Paired with a 2006 Paul Kubler Breitenberg Riesling from Alsace
• Royale of Asparagus with spanner crab and truffle. Paired with a 2008 Domaine Pichot Coteau de la Biche Chenin Blanc from Vouvray
• Tortellini of Peas with fresh chanterelies, broad beans and light tarragon butter. Paired with a 2007 Chateau Bouscasse Petit Corbu from Pacherenc
• Turban of Scampi with spaghettini and a warm lemon and Sterling caviar sauce. Paired with a 2006 Denis Pommier Chablis from Burgundy
• Blue Eye Trevalla roasted on a etuve of baby spring vegetables. Paired with a 2007 Spring Vale Pinot Noir from Tasmania
• Deboned Rib Eye of Tajima Wagyu Beef with a tombe of field mushrooms, baby spinach, confit of shallot, merlot sauce. Paired with a 2006 Torbeck / Shiraz from the Barossa Valley of Australia
• Soup of Seasonal Fruit with lime marshmallows and pineapple sorbet. The soup was an infused pomegranate base
• Vanila Bean Creme Brule with green apple jelly, green aplle sorbet and doughnut.

All in all, this wasn’t a standout meal or a standout restaurant. The location and the chef are impressive, but that’s about it. The space is way too open and with tables positioned to make the best of the (impressive) views of the harbour, you have this feeling that there is a gigantic restaurant behind you with no intimacy (to say nothing of the austere hard concrete floors and the less than comfortable seating). The only memorable dish of the night was the Soup of Seasonal Fruit, which was very good, but it says a lot when that’s it. Service was slow, with wine courses often arriving well into the course. And the loudness of the space made it very difficult to hear the staff. All in all, not worth the time or the cost.

Well, okay Day 2 really, but yesterday was a wash getting oriented and over jet lag and travel issues.

Day 1 activities:
• Museum of Sydney - A fairly diverse set of exhibits including art and history of Sydney going back to its founding and almost to the current day. Fairly small and easy to do in a couple of hours. I’d give it a 7/10.
• Walked through Circular Quay to the Rocks - a 10 minute walk with spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
• Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art - I will never understand contemporary art. That’s just me. 2/10
• Walked through the Rocks to Observation Point - Passed by various old haunts of mine, like the Hero of Waterloo pub, on the way to Observation Point. Great views of North Sydney and the west part of Sydney Harbour from there
• Walked back to Martin Place, went grocery shopping Australian style

What I learned today
• Captain William Bligh wasn’t very, um, good. After the mutiny on the HMS Bounty, he went on to be Governor of New South Wales, where he was deposed in a bloodless coup here.
• Give way to hordes of Aussie schoolkids. Otherwise they’ll just run you over
• While it may be impossible to find sugar-free stuff here in restaurants (other than Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, which are everywhere), gluten-free is pervasive.

Pics from today
• Museum of Sydney
• Walking from Circular Quay to Observation Point

…and the Food
• Lunch: Noodle Box at MLC Center. Cheap, yummy, spicy. Must go back
• Dinner: Room Service at the Westin. Still not quite on Australia time, we were too exhausted to go out

So, long story short, I lost a bet yesterday and had to find a place that would shave my head. Sounded pretty simple, but after quite a few phone calls to places around where I work, I discovered that while everyone was willing to do it “clippers only” no one was willing to do it with a razor. And to truly get your head shaved, you need to do it with a razor.

Some google searching and forum board reading later, I came across The Gentlemen’s Quarters in Alexandria. Great find. Old school style barber shop, with a few modern men’s grooming services thrown in. Great place, great people, great feel to it. So, unsolicited plug - if you’re looking for a great haircut (or head shave), try this place out.