During my road trip through the Illawarra Escarpment, my friend Tony and I made a pitstop in his hometown of Corrimal, a cute town sandwiched by the mountainous escarpment and the Wollongong coastline. It turns out that we came here at just the right time; it was the annual “Spring into Corrimal” festival, which is sort of a carnival inaugurating spring.
On the surface, Spring into Corrimal seemed to be your typical, run-of-the-mill carnival with all of the predictable elements of a street fair. You had your stalls selling cheap souvenirs, fair food which seemed rather “fair!”, creaky rides, and plenty of kids left and right. But this one had a few surprises. For one thing, I was introduced to the concept of “showbags”. These items, traditionally found at Australian festivals down under, are a distinct Aussie thing. Fair goers buy these fun-looking bags, and fill them with as much swag (souvenirs) as they can. In addition, I also dined on two unique foods: gozleme and tandoori ‘n noodles. The former, is a Turkish dish; a sort of quesadilla filled with grilled meats or vegetables, wrapped in flatbread, and then garnished with fresh-squeezed lemon. A savory and rather tasty item, if I do say so myself. The latter, which combines Chinese and Indian food into one: stir-fry noodles and vegetables topped with hot, tandoori chicken that is garnished with a lite yogurt dressing. Suffice it to say, it was one my favorite things I ate down under!
The whole festival was quite fun. Despite its namesake, it didn’t totally feel like spring; earlier that day, it was cold and rather foggy. Not to mention that when I visited Corrimal, it was still technically the end of winter. But then again, winter in Australia feels more like the middle of spring by my New York standards. And while I counted few blossoms around town, I wasn’t there to test to see if I had a green thumb. I ended up having a great time with my friend from Corrimal. Not to mention I dined like a foodie there! I do, however, regret not collecting any showbags. Well, I guess there’s always the Sydney Royal Easter Show…
