Chrissy in Sydney

This post is a bit delayed, but I wanted to share our Christmas Day.

I love that the holidays are called the "silly season" here. It is a perfect description. Although we didn't feel like it was Christmas, we did try to make it special.

First, on Christmas Eve, I braved the Sydney Fish Market. We live about two blocks away from the Fish Market. I had heard that it would be open from the morning on December 23rd until the evening on December 24th. So, if you felt like you needed to buy some seafood, and wanted to avoid crowds, you could go there at 3 AM on December 24th.

It didn't really occur to me just how crowded the Fish Market would be. It was a complete zoo.

I suppose it makes sense. It is the summer--so who wants to eat turkey and ham? Throw some fish on the grill. Or, buy massive amounts of prawns.

I don't think I had ever seen so much shrimp in my life--in various sizes. Each of the seafood merchants seemed to be overflowing in shrimp. I was impressed that they could keep up with the demand--but they kept replenishing--and customers kept buying.

Sydneysiders clearly believe in seafood for Christmas. So, I decided to join the masses and buy some shrimp and fish as well. I could barely move in the store--but somehow I managed to procure the goods and squeeze my way out of the crowd.

Fede looked up a recipe for genuine Mexican shrimp cocktail. And we got to work on Christmas Day.

I had decided to buy the shrimp already cooked. So, all we needed to do was peel it.

Then, Fede made the cocktail sauce/juice/soup. I'm not really sure what to call it--but it is essentially all three of those things in one.

True Mexican shrimp cocktail must be served in a tall glass. And, we didn't scrimp on the shrimp.

Then, you pour the cocktail sauce/juice/soup over the shrimp and stir. Fede wasn't so sure about the recipe he found. But, after one taste, he was convinced.

A little taste of Mexico, in a large glass.

Of course, you need the saltine crackers to eat with it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a true Mexican shrimp cocktail.

I also made fish cakes--but we had eaten so much shrimp--we didn't have room for fish cakes.

We did, however, have room for dessert.

I made a coconut-pineapple financier. The recipe was an adaptation of a recipe we got from Warren Turnbull. (More about that later. I'm still catching up on posts.)

For my friends who remember how much I like to measure my ingredients when I bake, here's a picture of how I measured everything. Very imprecisely.

I'm willing to do what I have to in order to make dessert. Thankfully, it all turned out okay. Although, I'm sure it would have been better if I could have actually measured everything properly. Next time.