Food

Being an overweight American, it's high time I should post about the differences in foods here.

The inspiration for this post came from listening to Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. I'd totally forgot that one of their songs was used in a Taco Bell commercial back in the day (the song is called Zombie Compromise, if you're interested) and I started opining. It's been at most like 2 weeks since I last had Taco Bell, but knowing I can't just go out and get it is the worst feeling ever. Luckily there are a few America fast food places and several Mexican restaurants that will suffice. There's McDonalds, Burger King (called Hungry Jacks here (fuck that)), and Subway practically everywhere. There's also some local fast food places that are like American fast food, slightly askew. Like a place that sold chicken sandwiches, but as if to insult me and everything I stand for, they called them chicken burgers. Not ok.) To be perfectly honest, the American fast food places here are practically the same. The sauce on the Big Mac I had was a little bit tangier, but mostly the same. I also wanted to note that food is significantly more expensive here. No $5 footlongs here though. It's $7, which is still one of the better deals. McDonalds and Hungry Jack (BK) both still have dollar menus too, but they're called like "pocket change" menus, and everything is $2 or more.

There is a lot of food around the CBD though (that's what they call downtown; it stands for "Central Business District". They also don't know the rest of the world just says downtown) There are a lot of sushi places, but they're slightly different too. While you can get a roll that has like 6-8 pieces, what most places sell are "hand rolls", which are about the size of 3 regular sushi pieces and people just eat them by hand instead of chop sticks. It's actually kind of nice, because they're also pretty cheap. You can get them as cheap as $1.50. While there's no Taco Bell, I did find a Chipotle style burrito place that was pretty good. They make small too, so it's like $5 instead of $8 every time. The chips and guac was good, too. Which is good because I am having the damndest time trying to find tortilla chips. It's like grocery stores don't have them. They have Doritos, but Doritos aren't fucking tortilla chips. It's like they're mocking me too, because they have salsa, and it's called salsa, unlike ketchup which is called "tomato sauce" (they pronounce tomato with a soft "a", like tuh-mah-toh). Oh, and I did see a place called "Taco Bill", but I haven't tried it yet. It's too close to something I love dearly.
I was told about another place near my hostel that has cheap middle east style wraps for cheap too. They're called like borcheks or something. I'll edit this post later when I find out what they're really called, but I probably won't actually do that. They have different styles, but I mostly get the lamb. In fact, most places I like to get lamb, which is good because it's pretty common here and pretty delicious. OH! Shit, I almost forgot to mention that I still have yet to try kangaroo meat, but I've found where to get it a market. What I really want, though, is to find a restaurant that serves it...

There are actually a lot of grocery stores nearby that make life a little bit cheaper, but cooking in the hostel is a bit trying. There's an Aldi about a block away and a Woolworths about 5 away. The kitchen in the hostel is large and always busy, there's no stove, and the refrigerators are always full. It's irritating, but it's enough to get by. More irritating though is that some asshole has been using my milk. And I need that milk to prepare the mac and cheese I smuggled into this country. Seriously, I had to declare that shit when I entered the country and they kinda scoffed at me declaring it...

I can't tell if things are really more expensive here or if I'm just trying to survive as long as possible on what I have saved. I also know that everyone around me is doing pretty much the same thing, so it doesn't help my cheap nature. I also think that since I still don't have a job, it's ever present in my mind that I have no money coming in.

I wanted to point out that I refuse to take pictures of my food, so that's why only the one picture (of Taco Bill).

There's probably more I have to say about food, but I just realize how much I already wrote and made myself very sad. Also, I'm getting really hungry now...