Help restuarant and take out priced meals in Sydney Australia.

[MicCanberra]

don't get too excited about cost of things, between the no tipping policy (I was spoken to 3 times about that when there last year) and your exchange rate things actually work out well. just remember you are in a city so prices are at high end

That exchange rate is working for you guys, not so much for us though. I liked it better when our dollar was at parity.:D

[SuiteTraveler]

That's a radically different story than your first post on the topic.

 

How so? This is what I wrote:

 

"I guess you have not visited these relatives in Australia before so here are some tips on the etiquette of staying with family there. When visiting other people's homes in Australia, you are expected to pay for and bring your own groceries. They will take you to the grocery store (but considering the emergency situation - they may not have time to do that, so you might want to take a taxi) and provide you with towels and a bed, but you should bring your own shampoo and soap and other personal items as well as food. I usually wind up buying a hair dryer and leaving it with my hosts when I leave. Also bring gifts for your host and hostess. What I typically do is preplan what I will make them to eat and then bring some of what is needed with me. Since I live in Texas, I make Tex Mex for my Aussie relatives. So I will bring tortillas and the spices and salsa for fajitas in their original sealed bags/containers then grab chicken, peppers, onions, avocado, cheese, sour cream and oil at the grocery store. Simple to make since it only requires 1 pan and then a bowl to make guacamole. "

 

 

That's exactly what I made that night after a quick trip to the grocery store. I just had not planned on cooking for 7 people on the first night I was in Australia after 28 hours in transit and being up an additional 10 hours during that day. But at some point I passed the point of exhaustion and dug deep to pull off a great dinner.

[martincath]

Well the situation was <snip>

After the clarification, I'll downgrade them from "ghastly people" to "perhaps behaving worse than normal due to stress, but still very poor hosts."

 

As to your bad luck to find the only ~300 crap Aussies... well, I can claim maybe 3x more Aussie family & friends than you can, and frankly many of them are total a**holes in many ways just like the rest of the family in UK, Canada, etc. - myself very much included! - but they're still much nicer to visitors than your lot. I'd say that our mob are pretty much the norm compared to most other Westerners I know - certainly not unusually good hosts compared to, say, my Arabic/Greek/Indopak friends & relatives who generally treat us like visiting royalty.

 

 

Unless you feel all the horrified Aussie posters are having you on as well, if you see a real difference in the hospitality you receive from your Aussies compared to your relatives & friends in the US of similar 'closeness', then unfortunately your husbands mob are just crappy hosts by Aussie standards as well as American. Maybe they're genuinely delightful in other ways, but the fact that you've said you've hosted them by the sounds of it multiple times seems to minimise the chance of them just being overly-worried about you feeling indebted to them without any chance of reciprocation.

 

Again, sorry about your poor experiences - the old saying about being able to pick your friends but not your family definitely applies! This is a genuinely interesting thread - especially for having started with a simple query about how much a takeout dinner costs!!!

[MicCanberra]

Threads drifting or twisting, happens a lot.

[SuiteTraveler]

marltincath, just out of curiosity, what do you think I should have experienced?

[GUT2407]

How so? This is what I wrote:

 

"I guess you have not visited these relatives in Australia before so here are some tips on the etiquette of staying with family there. When visiting other people's homes in Australia, you are expected to pay for and bring your own groceries. They will take you to the grocery store (but considering the emergency situation - they may not have time to do that, so you might want to take a taxi) and provide you with towels and a bed, but you should bring your own shampoo and soap and other personal items as well as food. I usually wind up buying a hair dryer and leaving it with my hosts when I leave. Also bring gifts for your host and hostess. What I typically do is preplan what I will make them to eat and then bring some of what is needed with me. Since I live in Texas, I make Tex Mex for my Aussie relatives. So I will bring tortillas and the spices and salsa for fajitas in their original sealed bags/containers then grab chicken, peppers, onions, avocado, cheese, sour cream and oil at the grocery store. Simple to make since it only requires 1 pan and then a bowl to make guacamole. "

 

 

That's exactly what I made that night after a quick trip to the grocery store. I just had not planned on cooking for 7 people on the first night I was in Australia after 28 hours in transit and being up an additional 10 hours during that day. But at some point I passed the point of exhaustion and dug deep to pull off a great dinner.

 

 

How is it different....

 

Well you say it happens when visiting other people's homes, now it turns out your family weren't at home but in the town your brother in law lived.

 

So who should have bought all the groceries when none of you were at home.

[MicCanberra]

If everyone is a visitor then go out for dinner.

[buchhalm]

"An emergency has come up with family I am staying with 3 days before I board my cruise in Sydney on April 12th.

The owner is tied up with a family E.M so really no time to cook meals."

 

Stay at a hotel, for crying out loud!

☺

[spookwife]

marltincath, just out of curiosity, what do you think I should have experienced?

 

 

well I am not marltincath, but here's my take, as someone who also spent the better part of a full day in transit, to include crossing the IDL to get to Perth:

 

my host picked me up at the airport, infant baby in tow. we drove to her house, approximately an hour from said airport. she had a light dinner already to go.. basically, a salad, some sandwiches and a local wine. in other words, nothing that required any real effort on anyone's part, and could be kept without spoiling in case my flight was late. she also had my room all laid out, with a set of towels on the bed. showed me how to use the facilities( faucets, people, I am not That backward! :eek:) and basically let me set the pace for when bedtime was.

 

the next morning, she asked what I wanted for breakfast, what I wanted to do while in town and informed me when the rest of the gang was arriving( from Victoria, Brisbane and Lightning Ridge) and that the one from Fremantle would be meeting us for lunch in town.

 

while I won't say they catered to my every whim or treated me like royalty, they did most of the cooking and cleaning, although when we were all there we did a lot of eating out and BBqing. of course all of us who descended on the family and drove poor Tarza the dog to complete distraction( she couldn't decide who was going to spoil her most) did kick her and her husband out of the kitchen one day as we prepared dinner. to include grocery shopping although I never did find the frozen hashbrowns I wanted....

 

but generally we were never expected to do anything although we all pretty much paid our own way when eating out. except once when her dad took everyone out and refused to accept anything form the rest of us.

 

I have to say, your family dynamic seems pretty messed up and I am sorry you felt you had to put up with that for 30 plus years.

[SuiteTraveler]

How is it different....

 

Well you say it happens when visiting other people's homes, now it turns out your family weren't at home but in the town your brother in law lived.

 

So who should have bought all the groceries when none of you were at home.

 

Huh? We were staying with my BIL and his parents in my BIL's house.

[spookwife]

Huh? We were staying with my BIL and his parents in my BIL's house.

 

 

then it was BiLs responsibility as home owner to see that his guests were comfortable to include being fed. if everyone was being pissy with each other then someone should have just said: fine, I will go get take away or order a pizza. everybody kick in $20.

 

NOT expecting the jet lagged person who had no idea how to use the appliances in the home( My own Mil's oven needs a degree in computer engineering to operate) drag herself into unfamiliar territory( where's the bread knife? where's the salt? where's the rubbish bin? etc) and be expected to feed a bunch of surly relations.

[SuiteTraveler]

then it was BiLs responsibility as home owner to see that his guests were comfortable to include being fed. if everyone was being pissy with each other then someone should have just said: fine, I will go get take away or order a pizza. everybody kick in $20.

 

NOT expecting the jet lagged person who had no idea how to use the appliances in the home( My own Mil's oven needs a degree in computer engineering to operate) drag herself into unfamiliar territory( where's the bread knife? where's the salt? where's the rubbish bin? etc) and be expected to feed a bunch of surly relations.

 

I had to laugh at your description! That's priceless! But I'm a chef and using someone else's kitchen is a lot of what I do - cook for parties in people's homes - so no big deal for me to cook, just the timing was not the best.

[MicCanberra]

Huh? We were staying with my BIL and his parents in my BIL's house.

He should have got groceries in or suggested every one eats out, sounds like the BIL is socially inept.

[martincath]

marltincath, just out of curiosity, what do you think I should have experienced?

Dang this new CC! I had a very extensive reply all typed up before retiring last night when *boom* whole site down and lost the lot...

 

Fortunately Spookwife's post definitely fits most of my expectations, right down to the delayable meal prepped, towels laid out and a shower tutorial (default plumbing does vary a lot between countries, so it's a nice thing to be shown on your first trip somewhere!) For a long trip like Australia, I'd also expect to be offered time for a shower or nap on arrival.

 

The only bits that I need to expand on are:

I've come to expect a relatively fancy meal on day 2 or 3 of a visit (cooked if hosts are competent, fave local resto of theirs if not) and some sort of basic tour of the city to be arranged by the hosts. NB: not necessarily EXPENSIVE unless they're a wealthy bunch, just fancy relative to the hosts normal behaviour, and being driven around the city stopping at a few famous landmarks rather than hiring a your guide assuming hosts own a car - even a trip on local transit accompanied by hosts to familiarise guests with the general layout and how to get around. Repeat visitors don't need this of course - and if your husband was familiar with BiLs area I'd expect him to do the showing around.

 

Your initial visit, being for a wedding, might have made the above impractical between rehearsal dinner, stag(ette), wedding itself of course so no real beef with your BiL not providing such services under the circumstances.

 

As to guests cooking etc. - it's family, they hopefully know OF you even if they haven't met you, so knowing you're a chef (and I assume someone who therefore enjoys cooking) means letting you make a meal - IF YOU VOLUNTEER! - is totally appropriate.

 

But rather than sending you off to buy groceries, in my experience an accepted offer of cooking is immediately followed up by a string of queries like: "What do you need for that dish? Do we have the right spices etc? Can I take you to the local market to acquire what you need, or will we need to hit a specialty ethnic store?" accompanied by a warning of any dietary issues any of the other folks dining have - there's nothing worse than poisoning your friends & family! When I offer to pay for any required stuff, I'd expect to be fobbed-off with something along the lines of "But it sounds delicious and we'll need to keep all this stuff to make it again - just give me the recipe and we'll call it quits."

[spookwife]

 

accompanied by a warning of any dietary issues any of the other folks dining have - there's nothing worse than poisoning your friends & family!

 

 

 

depends on the family member in question......:halo:

[MicCanberra]

depends on the family member in question......:halo:

I don't condone murder, but then I don't have relatives that warrant it.:p

[GUT2407]

Dang this new CC! I had a very extensive reply all typed up before retiring last night when *boom* whole site down and lost the lot...

 

Fortunately Spookwife's post definitely fits most of my expectations, right down to the delayable meal prepped, towels laid out and a shower tutorial (default plumbing does vary a lot between countries, so it's a nice thing to be shown on your first trip somewhere!) For a long trip like Australia, I'd also expect to be offered time for a shower or nap on arrival.

 

The only bits that I need to expand on are:

I've come to expect a relatively fancy meal on day 2 or 3 of a visit (cooked if hosts are competent, fave local resto of theirs if not) and some sort of basic tour of the city to be arranged by the hosts. NB: not necessarily EXPENSIVE unless they're a wealthy bunch, just fancy relative to the hosts normal behaviour, and being driven around the city stopping at a few famous landmarks rather than hiring a your guide assuming hosts own a car - even a trip on local transit accompanied by hosts to familiarise guests with the general layout and how to get around. Repeat visitors don't need this of course - and if your husband was familiar with BiLs area I'd expect him to do the showing around.

 

Your initial visit, being for a wedding, might have made the above impractical between rehearsal dinner, stag(ette), wedding itself of course so no real beef with your BiL not providing such services under the circumstances.

 

As to guests cooking etc. - it's family, they hopefully know OF you even if they haven't met you, so knowing you're a chef (and I assume someone who therefore enjoys cooking) means letting you make a meal - IF YOU VOLUNTEER! - is totally appropriate.

 

But rather than sending you off to buy groceries, in my experience an accepted offer of cooking is immediately followed up by a string of queries like: "What do you need for that dish? Do we have the right spices etc? Can I take you to the local market to acquire what you need, or will we need to hit a specialty ethnic store?" accompanied by a warning of any dietary issues any of the other folks dining have - there's nothing worse than poisoning your friends & family! When I offer to pay for any required stuff, I'd expect to be fobbed-off with something along the lines of "But it sounds delicious and we'll need to keep all this stuff to make it again - just give me the recipe and we'll call it quits."

 

 

In fact that's pretty much what Mrs Gut and I would do.

 

International visitors, interstate visitors, even visitors from out of town.

[GUT2407]

I don't condone murder, but then I don't have relatives that warrant it.:p

You sure????

[OzKiwiJJ]

Well the situation was that my youngest BIL was getting married in two days and his (and my husband's) parents had come down to his city for the wedding and they had been staying there for quite some time prior to our arrival (obviously too long) and apparently there was a lot of tension before we even arrived. Also, my inlaw's main means of communication with each other is bickering and that went on extensively the entire time which is stressful to have to listen to. So when they all wanted me to make dinner, exhausted as I was, honestly, I was glad to get the heck out of that house and go to a grocery store with my husband and BIL where I wasn't forced to listen to the endless bickering and then isolate myself in the kitchen while I cooked. At the grocery store, I bought some Passiona for the first time that day (my favorite soda ever!) - and various Australian candy bars and other non-perishable food items not available in the US to take back home with us as well as food for the next 2 days. I had hoped a good nights sleep might adjust everyone's attitude and my inlaws would stop bickering by the next morning, but it started up the next morning as I cooked breakfast and continued all the way through the wedding rehearsal, the wedding and reception, even when my inlaws were getting in their car to drive back to their small town. Meanwhile, we headed to Sydney and then to the Hunter Valley and up the coast to continue our trip without them.

 

I guess I should mention that I truly love my inlaws and would do anything in the world for them and I actually found humor in all the bickering that was going on. In the years since, I've developed effective techniques to stop the bickering so that we can have a more pleasant visit with them.

 

Yikes! I'm not sure if that makes the hospitality aspect better or worse. :eek:;)

 

Still it's great to hear you get on so well with your inlaws and that you have found ways to cope with the bickering. I know how irritating that can get at times.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I had to laugh at your description! That's priceless! But I'm a chef and using someone else's kitchen is a lot of what I do - cook for parties in people's homes - so no big deal for me to cook, just the timing was not the best.

 

Ah! Now the story is starting to make sense. Still not good hospitality in my book but I can visualize what happened now.

 

I often plan a slow-cooked meal when I'm expecting guests, especially if there are likely to be travel delays. Sometimes I make a stew/casserole/curry a day or so in advance, then it only needs reheating and some sides to go with it.

[MicCanberra]

You sure????

Yes, quite sure.

[MicCanberra]

Ah! Now the story is starting to make sense. Still not good hospitality in my book but I can visualize what happened now.

 

I often plan a slow-cooked meal when I'm expecting guests, especially if there are likely to be travel delays. Sometimes I make a stew/casserole/curry a day or so in advance, then it only needs reheating and some sides to go with it.

If I had a renowned chef arriving at my house, I would eat out or get takeaway rather than embarrass myself (as a cook) or them (with having to cook).

[SuiteTraveler]

If I had a renowned chef arriving at my house, I would eat out or get takeaway rather than embarrass myself (as a cook) or them (with having to cook).

 

Oh, I'm not fussy about how nonprofessionals cook at all. But, yes, many people are intimidated to cook for friends who are chefs, although they should not be. I would never criticize their cooking.

[sail7seas]

Thanks everyone this has been a fun thread and I have had a good laugh.

I am certain there has been a little tongue in cheek along the way

Whatever you wrote I love you all.:D

 

 

After reading hids thread, I am SO curious if these Assue relativse have ever visites with OP and stayed agt theeir home in Texas. I am so fascinated with the differences described here I'd love to hear what the family from Aussie thought of how theywere entertained t in a U.S. home.. :) Did they arrive with their own shampoo:? and groceries?

[SuiteTraveler]

After reading hids thread, I am SO curious if these Assue relativse have ever visites with OP and stayed agt theeir home in Texas. I am so fascinated with the differences described here I'd love to hear what the family from Aussie thought of how theywere entertained t in a U.S. home.. :) Did they arrive with their own shampoo:? and groceries?

 

Yes, they have come here to stay with us. It was really interesting as it is kind of a fish out of water tale. They don't have credit cards, so they arrived with a lot of cash which my husband put in our checking account so we could pay for everything for them. He took them to our drive thru bank and they were wowed as they had never seen such a place before. They took a lot of photos at the bank and were just amazed by it. I had pre-shopped based their preferences and my ideas of American foods they might like to try and the house was full of all kinds of food - which considering I keep a huge supply of ingredients on hand normally, was even more than that. I remember showing them my pantry and they gasped. Of course, I had stocked the guest bathrooms with all the stuff they could possibly need - even things that they might or might not need like a first aid kit, makeup for my MIL, etc. I always think in terms of, what if you have traveled somewhere and ALL of your stuff goes missing? So I had everything they could need and more just in case their luggage got lost. Even things like bathrobes and some clothing which were gifts for them. The guest rooms in that house adjoined the home theater which could also be used as a living room, so I put bottled water and soda in the refrigerator in there and glasses on the counter for them to use. I also put some snacks in each room - fruit, cookies, crackers, nuts and candy, fresh flowers, coasters for glasses and laundry hampers in each closet. There were fold out stands for luggage so they could unpack easily. The funny thing is they didn't use much of it really although I told them it was ALL for them. They left their clothes on the chairs in the rooms and their suitcases on the floor. At least they slept in the bed. And yes, they wanted to go to the grocery store and bought 8 boxes of Weetabix and not much else and unless I was home and cooking for them (as I was head chef in a restaurant during this time) they would eat Weetabix. I didn't realize it at first, but as time went on, I figured out what they were doing and I explained to them again that they could help themselves to anything in my kitchen, anything at all and showed them where everything was again and that resulted in them continuing to eat Weetabix when I was not home. I had thought they might make themselves sandwiches, but they never did. There were several more grocery store trips and on each one, they bought several boxes of Weetabix. I think they were going through about 1 box every other day. I guess they just like Weetabix. A LOT.

 

Since they were with us so long and both my husband and I were working when we were home, they apparently got bored one afternoon and decided to do some gardening. They went out and trimmed the shrubs which was a nice thing to do.

 

We also took them to a lot of different kinds of restaurants while they stayed with us.

After the trip was over, Mum wrote a letter thanking us for taking them all over the US and she wrote that my "cooking was lovely, but all the other food in America was too spicy, too salty, too sweet, too sour." We had taken them to the following types of restaurants: Japanese, Churrascaria, Steakhouse, Lebanese, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, Cajun, Low Country and Mexican food just to name a few of the cuisines they experienced. I had mostly cooked either French or Italian or Tex-Mex Ranch food.