Last weekend was the first beautiful warm summer-like weekend of spring. It was exactly warm enough to go without a jacket, but not so hot that I became a sweaty pig beast. So Joel and I took a field trip to China Town for a project we’re working on. And I pretended I was a photographer behind Joel, who actually is a photographer. Ok, I was really just there for the food, because China Town has some of the best eats in Sydney. So let’s begin!

After dinner, we rolled ourselves home, catching a glimpse of a meth head shouting at cops as we walked to the bus (dinner and a show!). And on Saturday morning, we returned to see more. We walked to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, and almost went in, but it was the first warm, beautiful day of spring and that meant the Garden was a tourist trap. No thanks.

Fun fact: I took a photo here in 2012

Then we stood in line for about 20 minutes to get the infamous Emperors Cream Puffs – fresh, hot (like scalding hot), bite sized puff pastry filled with vanilla custard for $.35 each. They’re served from a tiny window, and you’d walk right past it if there wasn’t a giant line (but there’s always a line), they only take cash, and you’re not allowed to take photos of the Tim Burton like machine that fills the puff pastry tins and takes them through the fryer. I’d wait in line any day to get these babies. And I see why people by 20 at a time.

We walked around Market City and Paddy’s Markets, a huge flea market style set up in a large brick warehouse. They sell everything from $1 underwear to knock off Michael Kohrs bags to fresh produce and seafood.

But after all that lunching and all that walking around, we got to the real reason why I love China Town: N2 Extreme Gelato. It’s not nearly as good as Gelato Messina, but it’s a lot more fun.

Saturday’s adventure was vanilla bean gelato with white chocolate fudge chunks, almonds, coconut shavings, and a syringe of white chocolate sauce.

And then I got home and passed out in a diabetic stupor for the next few hours. /champion

So there you have it, Audrey Eats Her Way Through China Town. I love it. Next time, we’ll have to do some actual shopping and maybe hit up a sketchy karaoke bar. It’s a fun area, and as I always forget, super close to our neighborhood. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go run about 600 miles I didn’t run last weekend to work off the 16,000 calories I consumed in that 24 hour period. Or maybe I’ll just think about running 600 miles. I might just order some pork belly instead. mmmm…

xo