MWNews 108

I know everyone has been waiting for the results of the new hot sauce taste test but I have to take a little side trip away from the important stuff and talk about the kids.  This is, of course, supposed to be about the kids but as you know, I tend to wander at times.  Makes for good reading, or is it good writing.  Maybe both.  Probably neither, but that's just the way I wander.  I say that in reference to Maeghan's old favorite character who says that's just the way I roll, but as that character no longer exists, I suppose it is just a waste of time for me to refer to it.

Maeghan and William went to a church function yesterday.  A kind of carnival, fete, play day type thing.  Just a jumping castle and a bunch of games they could play and things to draw and paint on.  Maeghan got her face painted but as I hate that type of thing, (I know, criticize me to no end) I did not take a picture and we will never see what it looked like.  Juanita probably took a picture but if she did, it would be on her computer and I have not transferred anything from there in a long time so it might be a while before I have that available.  Hopefully, I will forget by then.

When I say it was yesterday when they went, I actually mean two days ago.  I tend to forget things and it seems we did something else yesterday.  Or sort of did something else.  We went to the shopping mall and then to McDonald's so it was kind of an adventure.  Not really different than any other day but anytime I get out of the house is an adventure.

I did find something we are going to do next week.  Go into town.  Gosh, that seems like fun.  Actually, it is.  It is Sydney and it is a two hour train ride to get there, so just doing that is an adventure in itself.  But once we are there, there are lots of things we can do and see.  The kids do not get to go that often, neither do Juanita and I, but we do it a couple of times a year I suppose and I think we will go next week and see the IMax theater.

We have never been to it, it is in Darling Harbour if that means anything to anyone.  Probably not.  It is one of those really big screen theaters but you probably already knew that.  I am not sure what we will see but they have a two movies for the price of one thing going on and I thought me might have a go at it.  Being in Darling Harbour, there are lots of other things to do but one of the big ones is they have just completed the new play park behind the theater.  It is huge.  It was huge before and we have been a couple of times but apparently, they have improved it and put restaurants and other things in it so the adults can sit and drink coffee while the kids play.  There are a lot of things to do there, for the kids, but it does not really compare to the parks I have described in earlier posts.  If you want to find out about them, go back and read the posts from a few days? week? months? ago.  Not sure when I described them but it was not that long ago.

I really need to put labels on these entries so it is easier to find things I have talked about in them.  Mostly so I don't repeat myself as I so often do but then again, I will never go back and look at the labels to find out what I have said before, so why should I provide that luxury to you.  Guess it will happen when it happens.

Anyway, this refurbished park they have will let the kids play and do things while I have coffee, which, really, is the whole point to life.  I can sit and do nothing while still entertaining the kids.  Plus I get stimulants, so it is a win/win situation for everyone.

Other things to see and do in Darling Harbour are the rows and rows of restaurants.  There must be 20 or 30 of them all around a concreted area around the harbour.  It is kind of hard to describe.  One side has a shopping mall and the other is all restaurants.  You can walk all the way around in about 20 minutes, if you don't stop anywhere.  There is also a little train you can take around it but as it does not stop except at the pickup and drop off point, you just end up back where you started and have to walk around anyway.

The Sydney monorail also goes around the harbour.  There are a couple of pickup points.  You can take it into the heart of downtown, into the city proper, and then ride it back.  It is not very scenic and there are not a lot of things to see and do, plus if you are not familiar with where everything is, you never really know what stops to get off of to see anything.  But, it is a pleasant, if expensive, way to get around.  They need to make it go down to Sydney Harbour but that will never happen.  The closest point you get is about a 30 minute walk down to Central Quay.  Central Quay is where all the ferries dock that take you across the harbour and to different places.

The ferry rides is another thing we like to do and it is about the best and cheapest way to see the harbour and go all around to the different places.  For something like $10 or $12, you get all the ferry rides you want and they take you everywhere.  Whenever we have people visit who have the time, we take them down there and just ride the ferries.  You go by the Opera House and under the bridge, and around to a lot of different places to stop and see things.  One of the best trips is the trip across the harbour to Manly.  It takes you past the heads, the entrance to Sydney Harbour, and then into Manly.  There is lots of shopping in Manly and it leads down to a really nice beach.  Probably the second best beach in Sydney, next to the famous Bondi Beach, which is on the other side of Sydney from there.  There is not a ferry that goes there but it is another place people like to visit, probably just because it is famous.  We have never really gone there to go to the beach but have driven around that area a few times.  Manly beach is a dangerous beach with a rip tide that can take you hundreds of yards down the beach and out to see if you are not careful but it is huge and there are lots of things to see and do as you walk along it.  We have only ever just put our feet in the water but a lot of people are there most of the time swimming and surfing.

I forget what it was I was talking about and seemed to have gone off in a tangent.  I am sure I have spoken about the ferry rides and the other places to go in Sydney in the past.  Again, look it up and as soon as I get those labels in place, you can search for the right entries that mention it.

So, we have something to do one day next week, while I am on vacation and the kids are out of school.  It should be lots of fun and hopefully, the weather will be okay that day.  If not, we can spend the day riding the train back and forth to different places.  That is fun also and it is indoors.  Of course, there is lots of shopping in Sydney, and most of it is underground, so we could do that also.

I guess I have varied off topic long enough and will get back to the important stuff, food.  Maybe I should just rename this thing to some kind of food blog and be done with it.  But as I am having trouble typing at the moment, it means the food part of this will be short.

As you know, or as you do not know and if you do not know then you must have just started reading this blog and have not gone back and re-read previous entries.  I will wait for you to do so now.

Ok, up to speed?  Lets talk about the new sauce I received yesterday.  It is a BBQ sauce based on what passes for the worlds hottest chili these days.  The Trinidad Scorpion or something like that.  The sauce is not an extract but at the price I paid for it, I will treat it as one.  Only a little at a time, added to other things to add flavour and not a sauce to put on something by itself.

I was making ribs yesterday, had been planning on it for a while so it was a good thing I got the sauce when I did.  And I will not go into what they call ribs over here.  Been down that road many times and it would just annoy me more to write it again.

I was making my own BBQ sauce, as I normally do, and I added just a teaspoon of this new stuff to the recipe.  And no, I do not have the recipe I use, I always just make it up from the ingredients I have at the time.  I made about a pint of sauce, with the afore mentioned one teaspoon of hot sauce added.  Now, let me say, first of all, the sauce smells wonderful.  Full of that habanero smell that I love so much.  For those that don't know, habaneros do not smell or taste like jalapenos or serrano or capsicum chili's.  They are two different species of chili.  I forget what the two names are, but habanero smell and taste fruity and the jalapeno/capsicum smell is, well, jalapeno/capsicum smell.  I don't know how to describe it either.  You will just have to test it for yourself.

I did not, and still have not, tasted the sauce by itself.  I don't know why but maybe I will just go get some now and do it.  Then again, maybe not.  Getting tired of typing and if I do not finish, not sure when I will get back to it.  And, if for some reason the sauce incapacitates me, I might not be able to crawl back over to the computer and type in a 'help-me' message.

Now wouldn't that be weird, typing on the computer to ask for help for a situation that is immediate.  Kind of like texting someone or updating your facebook status to call for help when you are being attacked or something.  Who would do that?  Why would you just not make the call yourself, but I digress.

Anyway, the new BBQ sauce I made, with only one teaspoon in a pint of sauce is, how shall I say it, too hot to eat.  Now I have made some sauces that were too hot to eat in the past and I have always strived to make them again.  I have been unable to do so here in Australia as I just cannot get the ingredients to do it.  But this sauce, with just a little use of it, has created something I am truly proud of.  A sauce that cannot be consumed by humans.  Maybe I am just out of practice and have not really stretched my limits of hot sauce consumption in a long time, but this is something that is wonderful to behold.

It is not hot at first but then slowly builds up to a searing pain that is just full of wonderful surprises.  There is a line from a BBQ book I used to have that describes what I am talking about.  I think it goes something like this, but I am probably mangling the quote.

It starts off with a slow subtle sweetness that is both pleasant and surprising and settles down into a brief sense of pleasure felt all through the mouth, then slowly spreads down the throat (almost sound pornographic doesn't it) until a warm pleasant feeling is both expected and craved.  It then follows with a round house kick to the throat that is somewhere between a root canal or a free tonsillectomy that leaves you both gasping for breath and wondering when it was you last updated your will.  A sensation of pain so intense and so profound that the only real remedy is to take another bite and attempt to end it all right then and there.  If you can get over the pain and manage to gasp your way through all the burning and ripping sensations, you find the taste is actually pleasant and sort of comforting, knowing that the sauce is not really there to kill you but is only there to remind you that some things in life are worth the pain and suffering you have to go through to experience the really pleasant after effects of knowing you have come through a trial and survived and you are a better person for it.

Ok, I did not really use the quote as I remembered it, I made most of that up, but I think you get the idea.  This stuff is lethal while still managing to taste good.  A truly pleasant experience all around, if I do say so myself.  I look forward to my next bite, probably sometime next week when I recover.

Actually, I plan on making more ribs tonight and using up the rest of the sauce I made.  So don't expect any more posts for a while as I do have a heart condition and this one might be the big one.

Speaking of which, I am not sure I have ever told the heart attack story in this blog.  I am sure it is not up to my father's standards, but I need to start my own tradition so I can enhance the story many times over as I get older.  That will have to wait for another time, though.  Right now, all this talk of food has made me hungry and I need to get something to eat.

I think I balanced the food and kid stories pretty good this time.  Maybe not, but it has only been a day since my last post and the kids have not done anything of note in that time.  They did manage to fight and argue to the point that they got sent to bed early, or early for it being a holiday, but that is normal behaviour for them, so nothing special about that.  Next time, I am sure I will have more.  Maybe go back to some old stories I have yet to tell.

So, until next time

Talk to you later