Final score card on the Adelaide Oval's iconic scoreboard

Australia have seemingly re-emerged as a force to by reckoned with by systemically dismantling India’s much-vaulted, star-ridden batting line and piling on the runs consistently against the Indian bowling attack. Peter Siddle with 5-49 in the first innings was named Man of the Match while Australian skipper Michael Clarke with his memorable triple ton in Sydney and double in Adelaide was named Man of the Series.

Ryan Harris celebrating the fall of Ishant Sharma's wicket

India will, after the one-day and twenty-20 series, go home to a very critical public asking many questions over just what went wrong not only in Australia but also in England earlier. Whereas, Australia will move on with renewed confidence and spirit after a convincing series win desperate to make amends for last year’s demoralising defeats to England and South Africa.

For those who don’t know January 26th marks the anniversary of when Governor Arthur Phillip and the first fleet of British prisoners, officers & free settlers landed on Farm Cove, Sydney in 1788. The land was labelled ‘terra nullius‘ (belonging to no one) and from that day forth was British soil until Australian Federation on January 1st, 1901 – eventually the concept of terra nullius was challenged and overturned in the Mabo case in 1992.

Now, I love my home country and appreciate just how far this place has come in the past 220+ years. And, yes if it weren’t for these initial British settlers I wouldn’t be here.

But, I can’t help but increasingly feel uncomfortable about celebrating a day when one group of people colonised the land and confined the original inhabitants initially to a life of  disease, war and cultural genocide and later to merely poverty, dislocation, prejudice and alienation which are only now just being reversed.

I don’t condone whatsoever the actions of a few yesterday in Canberra however I can definitely understand why many indigenous Australians aren’t exactly jumping to their feet to join in the celebrations of the anniversary of British settlement.

Say, for example, Russia arrived in the fledgling British colonies of Australia in the early 19th century, quickly overpowered and outnumbered the British and indigenous occupants, and set about founding a Russian colony with a firmly entrenched set of customs, laws and traditions that confided non-Russians to the margins. Fast forward to today and there’s still a British and indigenous minority who just can’t bring themselves, understandably, to celebrate the anniversary of Russian colonisation.

For this reason, I believe we need to look closer at whether the anniversary of British colonisation is really the day we want to mark as Australia’s national holiday. Surely, the day we became an independent nation is more appropriate if even it is on an unimaginative day – January 1st. And let’s change the bloody flag while we’re at it!

Interested in people’s thoughts.

The first gallery displays The Bund, Shanghai – a fantastic collection of colonial architecture in China’s largest city and economic hub. Enjoy~!

And to my Indian friends, Happy Republic Day. Unfortunately, Sachin’s gone for 25 (b. Siddle c. Ponting) so it won’t be a day to celebrate his 100th one hundred.

Bulgogi, or ‘fire meat’, is marinated barbecued beef, chicken or pork. It’s a wonderfully delicious dish and is a favourite for Koreans and non-Koreans alike. Now, technically what I’ve made is not Bulgogi as all as I didn’t barbecue the meat (and mince it was at that!) but instead cooked it on an electric stove but let’s not get bogged down with semantics.

I’ve cooked this dish before, and more authentically with the correct cut of beef, using SBS’ recipe but substituting pears for kiwifruit, and it was delicious. But, given the easier option of having a marinade in a jar, I’m always going to take that option.

Now, this dish is a real mix of east versus west. I firstly chopped up a dried red pepper and put it on the cooker – my friend taught me to always put peppers on first and burn them off as it reduces their heat and potency. I then finely chopped onions, mushrooms and put them in the pan along with approx. 300 grams of ground beef. I added then garlic paste, to substitute for garlic itself, along with .. wait for it, chopped olives. Olives in this dish? Weird, quirky, yes I know but I had olives in the fridge and to be honest it was only halfway along when I finally decided I’d make this dish as opposed to an Italian pasta dish.

So, while the meat and assortments are cooking, I threw rice into the rice cooker and chopped up fresh lettuce – this dish would be awesome if you also had some coriander (cilantro) or even some kim (dried seaweed). But, I didn’t so just lettuce it was.

Once the meat, onions and mushrooms were nicely golden, I added around 50 grams of the marinade sauce. The particular type I have is made by the company Lee Kum Kee under the name of Korean Marinade. I also throw a smidgin of Vegemite in with the marinade to give the dish a bit more meaty bite. I then turned down the heat to let it simmer whilst the rice was finishing up.

I then simply put the rice onto a plate followed by the Bulgogi and topped off with the lettuce.

Voila!

And, there you have it Bulgogi Lettuce Rice (BLR) – an exceptionally easy to make yet exceptionally delicious and satisfying dish which goes from the fridge to the stomach in less than 30 minutes. Some people cringe at fusion food or the bastardisation of mixing cuisines, but for me that’s what I like best about cooking – mixing and matching, seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Bon Appetit!

BLR - Bulgogi Lettuce Rice

BLR - Not one for the purists but delicious all the same

Map of Busan's coastal areas

Busan – and its residents – pull no punches. There’s no pretenses and fewer formalities compared with other parts of the country,this is all punctuated with a sharp, piercing brogue which often confounds both foreign visitors and Koreans from other regions. While, Seoulites tend to be vain, pretentious and consumed with money and status, Busanites are blunt, down-to-Earth and true to themselves bugger the consequences.

View of Busan on a gloomy day

As mentioned earlier, Busan’s metropolitan area covers a mish-mash of geography which in turns creates a disjointed, crowded yet sprawling urban area. The main regions of interest to the traveller in Busan: are the Old Downtown area and port district in the wards of Jung-gu and Dong-gu, Haeundae – Busan’s beachside resort and answer to Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Seomyeon – Busan’s more central new downtown district and junction of subway lines 1 and 2, and Gwanganlli – Busan’s second most favoured seaside suburb.

Exterior of Busan Museum

First, let’s look at old downtown and the port area. Busan rail station is located right in the heart of this area with the international district to the west and port to the east. The international district is a hodge-podge of ethnic restaurants, bars and saucier venues. It was originally home to Texas Street – the main drinking and nightlife centre for US GIs but with the Americans no longer based in Busan, the district has largely seen Russians (both ethnic Russians and Russians of Korean descent), Chinese and Filipinos take their place. Many Russians escaped the crippling poverty of the Russian Far East to work in the ports of Busan and a significant Russian community exists. There’s also a large presence of Central Asians, notably Kazakhs and Uzbeks, though many again are of Korean descent. The area is a bit of a dive to be honest but is interesting in its own way nevertheless – where else in Korea can you find a decorative Chinese gate a hundred metres away from Filipino restaurants and exclusively Russian cafes with haggard looking Russian mamasans manning the entrance. It is quite dangerous after dusk so is best avoided at night as many of the drunks seem to get punchy as the night wears on. On a side note, Busan is also very popular with tourists from Japan and scattered all around Busan, particularly in Haeundae, are establishments catering to Japanese tourist.

Busan Tower in the daytime

Further south of the international area is the old downtown shopping district. The famous Jagalchi fish markets are worth a look where you can sample or just view the many wonderful and varied seafood delicacies on offer. The shopping district contains a series of malls and pedestrian arcades and is quite good for picking up bargains. Bear in mind, this area also can get a bit edgy and unpleasant at night, it’s the only place in Korea where in the one night – my friend’s first weekend in Korea – we were followed by a disgruntled, seemingly xenophobic group of men who verbally let us know they didn’t particularly care about Americans (he’s American) and we were denied entrance into a restaurant despite being well-mannered, sober, able to speak limited Korean – apparently the food and drink available and being enjoyed by Korean patrons was not on offer for us and our kind and we told to leave. All I could say was ‘Welcome to Korea‘! - On a side note Busan is the only place in Korea I’ve ever been to which had a segregated ‘foreigner’ bar located within a larger Korean bar, my friend and I stayed around for one drink and the amusement of feeling like caged animals – surprisingly we were the only foreign patrons! – but it soon wore off.

Bell pavilion near Busan Tower

Straddling above the old downtown district is Yongdusan park which has an impressive statue of Korean legend Yi Sun-shin along with Busan Tower which is quite nice and worth a visit, especially if you take the escalator up from the shopping district.

Yi Sun-shin guarding Busan Tower

Haeundae Beach and its surrounding area has been popular with Koreans for aeons and year after year is gaining further popularity with Westerners and foreign tourists, and it’s easy to see why. The beach itself is a nice, broad expanse of sand – though make sure to avoid going in the peak of summer as you’ll be sharing the sand with 500,000 others. The best time to go is around September/October when the weather’s still warm as for some unknown reason Koreans refuse to swim unless it’s the middle of summer and they can share the experience with half a million compatriots! There’s also plenty to keep you entertained outside the beach with luxury hotels, a casino, an ever-increasing number and variety of foreign restaurants, and a somewhat more laidback, easygoing attitude present than mainstream urban Korea, of Busan at least. Haeundae’s where Koreans go to relax and for the most part it’s a more relaxed, easy feel. It is also home to the popular Busan International Film Festival, or BIFF.

Haeundae Beach - Busan's favourite playground

Seomyeon – at the junction of subway line 1 and 2 and geographically central to the metropolitan district – is a mass of department stores, office buildings and shops fanning out over an expanse of roads, alleyways and streets in which daytime shoppers and office workers are replaced at the night by people in need of good food and a good night out. There’s plenty of restaurants and bars about however it’s almost exclusively Korean as for the most part you can’t drag foreigners away from Haeundae or the Kyungsung-Pukyong university district – not far from Haeundae – with its mass of bars, nightclubs and eating venues.

Gwangan Bridge from Gwanganlli Beach

Gwanganlli Beach is a nice expanse of sand surrounded by restaurants, cafes and bars along with a plethora of seafood restaurants. Yet, it has one slightly unusual attraction. When you look out to sea, approximately one mile away you find the impressive Gwangan Bridge. Busan has such a problem with traffic and infrastructure due to its crowdedness and topology, it’s recently taken to building over land rather than just on land. It’s an impressive sight particularly at night when the bridge is colourfully lit.

Wall of Remembrance, UN Memorial Cemetery

Another place well worth a look is the UN Memorial Cemetery located to the east of the old downtown district and west of Gwanganlli in Nam-gu (district). The grounds are beautifully manicured with monuments, plaques and graves honouring the thousands of young soldiers from over a dozen countries including Canada, Turkey and Ethiopia, who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Korean War. Busan Museum, nearby the cemetery, is also worth a visit.

UN Memorial Cemetery, Busan

One last place just to the north of metropolitan Busan that you really should visit is Haedong Yonggungsa Buddhist temple, a series of well-maintained, beautifully decorated Buddhist pavilions perched along the rocky coastline.

Haedong Yonggungsa Buddhist temple, just outside Busan

So, that’s Busan. Yes, it’s a bit rough and ready, and jagged around the edges, but that’s what gives it its appeal. Definitely worth a visit, and a weekend at Haeundae on a warm September-October weekend is a must.

I visited Seoul numerous times during my seven years in South Korea and always marveled at its size, sights, mass of humanity, fast pace, crowds, and the beauty of its gardens and palaces. It’s starting to get the accolades it deserves as a great Asian city. Sure, it’s a bit crowded, and can be smelly or dirty in parts but that’s what makes it real. 10 million-odd in the city and another 10 million-odd in the surrounding satellites, what do you expect? Nevertheless, the city has done a brilliant job in the past decade of beautifying public spaces, making the city cleaner and more accessible,  more user- and tourist-friendly, and a city to be noticed.

Seoul map

Seoul’s a nice stop over for 3 or 4 days with there being plenty to do – whether you’d like to take in some culture, history or shopping. I’d strongly recommend you visit at least one of the royal palaces & gardens and first one of those should be Gyeongbokgung (Seoul’s royal palace & answer to the Forbidden City). I’d also recommend visiting Changdeokgung palace which has a secret garden on its grounds – it’s somewhat surreal to be in a Sherwood Forest setting in the middle of 20 million megalopolis. Both of those palaces are on the northern fringe of the downtown area and easily accessible by public transport. Deoksugung, near City Hall on the southwest fringe of the downtown area is also worth the visit if you have the time.

Gwanghwamun gate at the entrance of Gyeongbokgung palace

Changing of the guard at Namdaemun, 2007

Namdaemun Market

Cheonggyecheon stream, downtown Seoul

Cooling off outside the Korean War Museum nearby Yongsan Garrison

Panmunjeom - where perpetual tentative truce & riven reality meet

Jung-gu - downtown Seoul

Ceremonial procession outside Deoksugung palace

(HT James Board)

Following a comprehensive victory over India by an innings and 37 runs in the Third Test at the WACA in Perth over just two and a half days, Australia has retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy taking a unassilable 3-0 lead in the series. David Warner, blasting 180 runs off just 159 balls has been named Man of the Match whilst the Australian bowlers comfortably removed India’s batting line-up without too much trouble securing victory without the need to bat again.

Australian team celebrates Hilfenhaus claiming VVS Laxman's wicket

Whilst, one of the major talking points of this series has been Australia’s dramatic turn of form with batsmen and bowlers in fine form, far from the disastrous series defeats to England and South Africa last year. Equally, a major talking point has been India’s drop of form and seeming disinterest in the series – collapsing more often than not  when the pressure has been applied. That, however, is taking nothing away from the Australian side – much maligned over the past couple of years – who have forged a competitive, cohesive, talented and versatile squad seemingly capable of working towards a reversal of fortune in the next South Africa, and more importantly, Ashes series.

Sachin Tendulkar 'the Little Master' departing the WACA crease in the first innings