How To Eat a Tim Tam

Tim Tams are quite possibly the world's perfect food. They are the best Australian cookies ever, and are responsible for at least half of the five pounds I've gained here. I bought a heap of them at Woolworths this weekend since they were on sale, in all different flavors. So far my favorite is the Classic Dark, but I haven't tried them all. Some I will share with co-workers, and some I will bring home for lucky friends.
The cool thing about Tim Tams is that you can not only eat them, but also use them as a straw, which is quite yummy with hot drinks. As you drink with them, the insides melt and get all gooey and melted. All you have to do is bite off both ends (length-wise), stick in the mug, and suck. Easy eh?

My folks and I had a busy weekend. Saturday we did some shopping - I bought a black opal - and went to the Taronga Zoo. It was very enjoyable, except for the fact that they have a no-patting policy (that sounds so pervy). This means that you can't touch the animals, which I was looking forward to. My parents went to the Featherdale Animal Park and patted koalas, kangaroos, wombats, you name it. We did get our picture taken with a very unagreeable koala - she kept looking away when the photographer was taking our pictures. The Tasmanian devils were awesome, they are these short, stocky little runts that kept running around in circles. Most of the other animals were pretty sluggish. Afterwards I took my parents for Chinese food at Marigold Citimark. It was OK, pretty much what we could get back home.

Sunday we made a trip up to Hunter Valley for wine tasting. This region is probably the closest winegrowing area to Sydney, about two and a half hours north. We stopped at Mount Pleasant for lunch and wine pairing, where luckily they stock the Botrytis Semillon for which J and I have been searching far and wide (they are part of the McWilliams group). I am bringing home a case of it, not taking my chances with trying to find it again; it is cheap enough that I can do that without breaking a sweat at the cash register. The other winery we visited was McGuigans. I was warned ahead of time that it is a bit corporate, and the tasting was pretty no-frills, get-to-the-point. The wine was better than I expected though. The newly-released Private Reserve Port was to die for, probably the best I've ever tasted.