Fish & Chips @ Gold Coast, Australia

We touched down in Brisbane at about 6.35am local time. *Yawn* Most of us were really groggy with lack of sleep and so were less than enthused when the chirpy tour guide kept chattering every now and then during the 2 hour coach ride to Gold Coast. It was a gloomy day, how disappointing! It didn't help that it started to rain along the way and the weather stayed this way for most of the day - cold, rainy & gloomy. Four of us rented a car so we could explore the vicinity. We had to wait an hour and a half for our rental vehicle to be ready so we ran across the street into a Fish & Chips cafe for a hot meal.

First up was Beer-Battered Chips. These were great because they were not excessively greasy and were crisp on the outside with a steamy and fluffy centre. It was a good thing JP ordered this because it was the best part of lunch.

The Fish & Chips and Calamari arrived next. The fish was a little too brown for my liking but it was tolerable though it would have tasted alot better if the fish was fresher. I wish I could say the same for the Calamari below which looked like some version of refried Calamari, a seafood interpretation for Mexican Refried Beans perhaps? We exercised our jaws a little on the Calamari because the texture was rubbery like a tyre.

Nothing beats fresh fish like Chinese-style live fish. Being of Chinese heritage, I think its hard for me to accept 2 days old fish as being very fresh. I remember some years back when I went to a restaurant in Avignon, the proprietor was trying to convince my travel companion and I that his fish was very fresh and so we should try it. He said, "I bought them myself from the market yesterday." Boy, were the wheels in our heads turning and we gave each other a look that essentially said, "Uh...do you really think that's very fresh?" However, the proprietor was so sweet and was gushing so much about that fish that my friend ordered it. I stuck to the beef. :)