Hilary "survived skydiver" S.'s Profile

When I think of the meal I had at Kingston 11, here are words that come to mind (try not to drool):
- juicy
- savoury flavourful
- melt in mouth tender
- sangria!
- plantains
- so fucking good. just try it guys.

when I think of the atmosphere, I think:
- bustling
- crowded
- friendly
- dark in a chic way
- candles
the place was so tropicalcool, it made me want to get up and start dancing. the sangria prevented that.

definitely worth the wait.

exPENsive.
I was going to do laundry in my house on friday night. our machine was broken. well, there goes my raging friday night.

I lugged my laundry to cal suds on saturday morning to tumble em up, and the place was empty. the floors weren't dirty either.

but here's the deal. this places is sweet-lord-to-god-jesus expensive. 2.50 for a small load of wash, ranging up to 3.50 or something ridiculous for the triple load washing machine.
50cents for 6 minutes of tumble drying.

next time I'll just buy new clothes or be smelly.

while eating here, I totally forgot I was at a vegetarian restaurant!

The nachos are pretty popular. I might hazard a guess that around 80% of the tables at the nachos--either full portion (MOUNTAIN STATUS) or the half portion: manageable.
My friend and I shared the half portion nachos (which come with bell peppers, cheese, black beans, avocado, sour cream, tomatos, ...!) and then I had the half rosa salad and she had the lasagna.
(as with all nachos: eat quickly or else they get soggy.)
A DEFINITE RECOMMEND.

The salad was delightful: it's got chickpeas which automatically mean pluses in my book. the lasagna had spinach and looked gloriously cheesy. It comes with a side caesar salad as well.
from what I've heard, the desserts are worth a try too...but after all that food, we were right stuffed! maybe next time...we'll be back. watch out!

verdict: yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! (do I sound like a porn star yet? that wasn't my intention. I sincerely apologise.)

I wish I could rate saint-sulpice higher. it's a huge establishment--like three or four floors.

I came on a night they were having a free improv show (en francais, mesdames et messieurs!), which was definitely a fun time. the parts I understood were hilarious...the parts I didn't understand were funny too (choice body language!).

unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with two things:
1) I walked in looking for my friends who said they were at the improv show. I didn't know it was all the way on the top floor, so I wandered around on the first floor for a while, searching. eventually a guy came up to me and asked "tu cherches quelque chose?" ("you're looking for something?") to which I tried to explain the situation in french. my french isn't horrid, but you can definitely tell I am not a native speaker. he cut me off mid-explanation and said "I CAN SPEAK ENGLISH TOO, YOU KNOW" in a really offended voice. I'm sorry I tried to reply in the language with which you started the conversation. jesus. calm your balls, I'm sure your english is fine. don't need to get all angry and defensive.
2) upstairs was crowded due to the improv show. I didn't see any coatracks (maybe my eyes were failing me) but just hooks or something for jackets would be nice...it was pretty stuffy and hot in there, given the crowdedness.

came here because a friend strongly strongly recommended it and then dragged me here. can't say I regret it.

we ordered the ... fried chicken with garlic? I don't quite remember what it was called--maybe something having to do with rosemary? the sauce that it comes with is quite good, but the chicken itself was on the dry side.
we also ordered the spicy grilled chicken with mozzarella cheese: here is the winner. tender, juicy... (everyone knows I like chicken. a lot.) spicy sauce. the cheese adds a wonderful cheesy flavour and it's melted all over the chicken, which comes on a sizzling hot plate. calories calories calories.

food was a little slow to come out, but I was informed that was an exception, not the rule.

given the outside looks all boarded up and you need to enter from the back, the interior is a nice surprise! wood everywhere: glossy picnic-style benches and booths with HUGE tatami mats separating them. charming.

it would have been three stars...but...that spicy cheesy chicken: heaven.

Australians have invented basically the best cooking device ever: electric grills. They're like HUGE HOTPLATES but you feel like a REAL MAN while using them. (even when grilling vegetables for your vegetarian friend.)

the kitchen at this campsite was perhaps the nicest kitchen we saw on the trip. besides two electric grills, there was also a fridge, two tables, two sinks, and plenty of electrical outlets. if I were going to live in a trailer park, I'd pick this one. high class.
everything was clean clean clean. I think there's a cleaning crew.

if campsites (eg tents, the whole haul) isn't your thing, they also have mini cabins! how romantic!

there's also a playground for those travelling with kids...or for the kids in all of us!

Easily the best campsite for the entire trip.

The owners were extremely friendly. I was in Australia as part of a solar vehicle race (yeah I'm a huge nerd. try asking me about it, I dare you.) and both the owners came by to check out our car, wish us luck, and root for us as we passed by during the race route.
They gave us advice about midgies (laf;alewa;sdfijlalsdjfk THOSE MONSTERS) and just welcomed us into the country with open arms.

They even let us store some pretty hefty supplies (think: five metre ramps to get the car into our shipping container) while we were racing for a week. We dropped by on the way back down to pick them up and they were so excited to see us and hear how the race was.

The actual campgrounds were pretty standard. The bathrooms and laundry rooms were very clean. As far as I know, there wasn't a kitchen, but maybe we were just too busy working on the car to ever need to eat.

The campground is next to (what looks like) a pretty large grassy plain, which is gorgeous to wake up and watch the sun rise over.

so maybe I added one star because I'm a tourist.
who cares! australians have awesome animals! I want a koala!

what I loved about healesville was that the animals are not completely caged off. mostly they're left to wander around as they please, with low wire fences separating the walking path from their areas. I guess they know instinctively just to stay within boundaries or else the obnoxious tourists will blind them with flashing cameras.

the bird show (I forget the name... masters of the sky? something epic like that) was pretty impressive to my sleep-deprived brain. birds swoop over and around the outdoor theatre, over the audience, wheeling around in the air. one bird got close enough to knock my friend's hat.

I'm not too sure how impressed you'd be if you weren't a tourist. actually, I do. someone we knew from melbourne took us here (as an alternative to the melbourne zoo) and he provided a running commentary all day about how adaptively-behind australian animals are.

I don't care! they're so cute!

dear sweet lord jesus. the australians put us through the wringer with this one.

first of all: darwin is extremely humid. it doesn't help when your campground is right next to three sprinklers.
second of all: midgies and other bugs like water. I amassed over two hundred bites while here.
third of all: there are red anthills everywhere, and they are vicious! everything in australia is trying to kill you.

aurora shady glen tourist park? more like... swampy buggy campground: have fun!

(at least they have a pool. it becomes a vicious cycle of being hot, getting into the pool, getting out, overheating, and getting back into the pool.)

The deals they have for beer-and-dinner combos are pretty dece. The food is your general bar food: burgers, pizzas, etc. I thought it was pretty good, but that was after dying in a swampy campground and eating camping food for several weeks. It probably wouldn't be as glorious or mouthwatering if I hadn't starved for nearly a month first.

There's a room full of ... arcade games? slot machines? something. behind the dance floor. not really sure why anyone would want to be there... seems like an odd addition to have. but hey, I don't judge the people of this world.

there's a screen near the dance floor that plays random videos that aren't related to the songs. again, not too sure, but they look like the videos that usually accompany karaoke tracks at sketchy asian places.

I can't hate too hard though--the crowd didn't seem all that bad. I came here with maybe around twenty other foreigners and we definitely started the (lame?) dance floor. I flatter myself to think we had a pretty cool dance floor going on there. either way, they other people at the bar happily obliged and we had a pretty kicking dance party.

australians: they can wrestle snakes, AND dance.