This is not a toxic stinging tree. It is a palm.
We saw lurid coloured spiders, presumably toxic and able to kill us without blinking.
We saw a 5 metre long, 600 kg crocodile the guide identified as "Fat Albert" who has been rocking boats lately and may be turning bad. My car is 4.4m long. My two-and-a-half seater couch is 2m long. This croc was two and a half couches long. Think about that. He could eat us and not even hiccup.
Then at Cape Tribulation we found some giant monitor lizards. While not particularly fatal, they will try to steal your muffins and if you get in their way may give you a nasty scratch. They look slow, but when they get close to the muffin they move mighty fast. This one's about three feet long, nose to tail.
Mind you we saw all this from the air-conditioned comfort of our Mercedes people-mover, with the occasional step outside for a view. And let me give a quick shout out to the fine people of Tony's Tropical Tours who were entertaining, informative and who didn't hesitate to get between a jolly great monitor lizard and our morning tea. And didn't get scratched.
But this isn't a travel blog, is it?*
*But if anyone really wants I do have photos of scenic vistas, strange bugs, toilet snakes (yes, toilet snakes) and other things. Let me know; I can do a separate post or Flickr them or something.
Daintree Icecream Company
Cape Tribulation Road
Cape Tribulation, Queensland
There's no need for street numbers when there are no other buildings for miles. And no other ice cream for about a hundred miles. The Daintree Icecream Company grow all their own fruit in their extensive orchards, store it and manufacture it on site. The orchard covers several acres and we are told includes 50 fruits, such as black bopate, soursop, wattle seed, jackfruit, mango, lychee, apricot, prune, coconut, chocolate pudding fruit, custard apple, banana; I'm pretty sure I saw durians and dragonfruit, and that just leaves about 35 more.
The fruits are seasonal of course, and for efficiency's sake they only have a handful of ice creams prepared any given day, which they serve in tubs of four for $5. We had Mango, Wattleseed, Coconut & Raspberry. The ice cream was light, smooth and crisp; my favourite was the wattleseed, nutty, rich, complex, and while the others were all simpler in being primarily fruit driven, they were all well textured and well flavoured. I'd eat any of them again in a flash.
Clockwise from left : Wattleseed, Raspberry, Mango.
Bottom row : Coconut.
2Fish Seafood Restaurant
7/20 Wharf St
Port Douglas QLD
2Fish is a smart casual seafood restaurant at the smart end of the scale. The menu is a mixture of Asian and Mediterranean treatments of the denizens of the sea plus a steak option and a confit duck leg option in case dad doesn't feel like fish again (and after four days of sparkling fresh tropical seafood flavour, we were both jonesing big time for a steak. But that's another post). Vegetarians are poorly served with the option of a vegetarian red curry or side salads.
But sticking out from the MediterrAsian menu like a couple of Australia supporters at a World Cup final are a few northern dishes - potted shrimp, "baralax" (a gravlax of barramundi) and cured ocean trout. The chef's or the owner's favourites?
Potted Shrimp with Thyme Crostinis $8
I'd never previously had potted shrimp despite seeing it in many a British cooking show - don't think I've ever seen it on a restaurant menu, actually - and although it wasn't really climatically appropriate I wanted to give it a go. In a word - meh. The shrimp were moist and rich with butter and some herbage, possibly chives - traditionally that should be mace and cayenne but I couldn't detect those flavours The thyme crostini were over-toasted to dark brown crisp shards and the grainy texture of the butter interfered with enjoying the texture of the shrimps. Not horrid, but not a dish to my tastes. For the sake of a British seaside classic, I hope this isn't the way they are meant to be.
3 Pepper Crusted Calamari with a salad of green pawpaw, lobok, fried shallots and ginger wine syrup ($17)
Rather more exciting than the potted shrimp. The calamari was very tender and strong flavoured by the pepper coating (my guess is Szechuan, black and cayenne) if a bit soggy - is it fair to infer crispiness from the word "crusted"? Perhaps not, but that was my expectation from the menu description. The salad was lively and crisp; the ginger wine syrup added ginger warmth (that wasn't really necessary because of the pepper) and some sweetness. You should all know my feelings about sweetness by now. My oversour palate aside, this was a good dish.
Yellow Fin Tuna Tataki with black and white sesame crust served on Japanese coleslaw with a miso and roasted eggplant puree ($19)
This was a very fine tataki, adeptly cooked just enough to sear on and crisp the crust while leaving the pink luscious tuna flesh inside untouched. The flavours of the salad and purees were very mild, all the better to enjoy the tuna. Simple, elegant. The Perigueuxse liked it.
Steamed Coral Trout fillet with pickled watermelon, cucumber and lobok salad, Thai fried nahm jim dressing, crisp shallots and Vietnamese mint ($38)
A well composed dish with lively salty-pungent-hot flavours from the dressing, crisp lightness from the salad and fried shallots, and a softly steamed wedge of delicately fishy, slightly creamy-fleshed coral trout. Complex enough to be interesting, simple enough not to be overpowering; I could eat this every week. I think I will have to fiddle around with Asian flavour in my own cooking a bit more than I usually do this summer.
Pan seared Nannygai with wok tossed bok choy, asparagus, green beans, served with a lime and ginger beurre blanc and crispy lotus root ($29)
Well, first off that was not a beurre blanc. A beurre blanc is an emulsion; that was melted butter. That said, it was a nicely fried piece of fish; the lotus root was indeed crispy; the vegetables were nicely cooked. The sauce was to my tastes a bit bland; what it wanted was (everybody together) more acid.
Are you sensing a bit of dining and blogging fatigue? As I said at the start of this series, eating out every night does dull your tastes and expectations, and trying to write up four or five days of constant food just a week and a bit later is quite the challenge. But don't worry, Fonders, only one big meal, one pub meal and a cranky crocodile to go. I may break sequence and do a post-holiday dinner just for a change from glorious tropical cuisine. Don't hate me.
Happy fishing,
Ecumer
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