Hi there, first I would like to welcome all participants of the World Blog Surf Day!

What a great idea to have a common topic “FOOD” about which every ‘expat-blogger’ writes a post today and you can surf from one blog to the other. This really is a journey around the world, thanks to the organizers.

What kind of food do we miss from home (Hungary, the Netherlands)? Well, to be honest not too much, apart from my mother`s cooking of course, and this has two reasons. The first is that I try to cook what we like to eat and what we feel like. The second is that we try to adapt to what is available here. For example the peaches in Hungary are much better; there is no competitor, so we simply do not buy these things. On the other hand, we are perfectly happy with mangos and avocados for example ))), because they are really delicious here.

Adapting to the local customs and circumstances was not very easy in the first weeks. We had many more problems than now, but it is funny to remember and to look back. I will always remember our very first day here in Australia. We arrived here after two days of long traveling, exhausted, and I offered to do the cooking and groceries. Looking around in a completely new city, in a completely unknown suburb, a kind of little Chinatown, was a cultural shock to phrase it carefully.

I could not find a “normal” western supermarket, so I started wondering around in the Asian shops and supermarkets. The huge amount and variety of products cannot be compared with what I knew from home.  There were several shelves with only different kinds of soy and chili sauces, unbelievable… I was looking for eggs, but all I could find was suspicious looking green “thousand year old”-eggs. I was looking for cheese, but I could only choose from a hundred types of tofu. At the end I came home with some kind of filled pastry, so called “dumplings”, and a few vegetables I knew. But wow, this first shopping was not something to forget.

Then of course, after time went by, we got more and more familiar with Asian cuisine, as 99 percent of our neighbourhood seems to be of Asian origin. We now even know how to deal with different kinds of soy sauce )) A while ago we noticed that after our weekly groceries, most of the bags were filled with some kind of Asian peculiarities; we just had to make a picture of this.

Our cooking changed into something completely different than we were used to from home. Finally I got Attila so far, that he actually likes eating fish, and other kinds of seafood. Last time when we bought baby octopus, he even insisted to clean this, as we had never bought this before and he had to try this.

So what are the things we have learned to cook? In the past one and a half year, I have made countless times sushi rolls, stir-fried udon noodles and our favorite, the Korean bibimbap. We noticed that it is very important how you plate your dish and that you do not just put some food in front of somebody.

But of course we also learned a few things from the real Aussies, especially regarding the BBQ. This is really their specialty and you can find `barbi` tables almost everywhere: in parks, on beaches and everywhere where you can have a grill outside.

A few times we have tried to prepare kangaroo, first I was a bit hesitating, but I have to admit it is really nice, like lamb meat, which became my other favorite here in Sydney.

Nowadays something completely different has much influence on our cooking: the TV-series MasterChef. We are really big fans now and try not to miss a single episode. As a result of this show our cooking style starts to look more like the European again. We have tried many recipes the contestants had to cook, like apple or pear Tarte Tatin, gnocchi with parsley, stir-fried udon noodles, fried zucchini flower etc. You can really learn many tricks from this show, especially from the MasterClass.

This is what I can think of when talking about our gastronomical experiences of the past one and a half year. I am curious to read how other people managed to adept or integrate in a new country, so I will  move on to the site of Hans, come with me)))…..

And finally, thanks for the WBSD Twittering to Anastasia on Thandelike
(Anastasia Ashman (Thandelike) is an American cultural producer based in Instanbul, and is a creator of Expat Harem, the anthology by foreign women about modern Turkey.  Her Tweetstream focuses on women, travel and history, and she shares resources for writers/travelers, expats, Turkophiles and culturati of all stripes.)

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Earlier this year we spent a week in Perth. One day we rented a car and set forth to the Pinnacles Desert which is located in Nambung National Park. Getting to the Pinnacles means a three-hour drive to the north about 200 kilometres above Perth. After we passed the vineyards in the Swan Valley, we drove on the Brand Highway through empty fields - often with a vision of burned trees. We often saw died kangaroos along the way, so called ‘road kills’. The roads are very good there by the way.

Near Cervantes there is a beach called Jurien Bay, where we wanted to jump into the Indian Ocean or at least swim in the turquoise water, but either the white sand on the beach or the ocean was fully covered with black seaweeds. No worries, we had a very delicious BBQ instead and lots of fun with our friends there. There is a free public barbecue table at the beach, which is very practical.

After lunch we went to Lake Thetis - which was created approx. 3 or 4 thousand years ago -, and where you can solely find a kind of stromatolites, whose structure is similar to of those lived a few hundreds or thousands years ago on Earth. Here you can read more about them, and there is useful information on this picture as well.

Time went fast so we had to hurry to the Pinnacles, because we wanted to spend there some time before sunset. In this desert the sand is yellow like mustard, but the reason this place is so popular is because you can find thousands of little pinnacle-columns. The tallest pinnacles reach 4 m high! Here you can read more about their creation, which is a really interesting process. You also find there an aboriginal tale related to this desert.

The tour through the Pinnacles Desert is about 3 or 4 km long, which you can do by car or on foot, but generally everyone takes the car.  The road is marked by stones on the side and you can drive only in one direction, but you can stop where and whenever you wish. You will realise others going and stopping repetitively, making photos meanwhile, and running back to the car to continue their way.

It is worth waiting for the sunset there because that it is one of the most spectacular moments in this place. As the sun is setting, the colours of the sand and the sky change every minute, and the shadows of the pinnacles are getting longer and longer. What is also very amazing, is the atmosphere and the sound effects in the desert. It is a very quiet place very far away from any towns, not to mention, that there are only few animals, so no loud cockatoos, no parrots, no crows… The Pinnacles Desert is perfectly silent.

The sunset was extremely beautiful as the sky was burning in a more and more dark red colour. This one-day journey from Perth was really perfect and we certainly wish to go back again sometime.

• It is worth to travel there between September and October, or at least when it is spring time in Western Australia, because of the stunning wildflower season.

• Pinnacles Desert is in Nambung National Park and open all times through the year, the costs are 10 AUD per car.

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