Eastwood Side Story

Another post, another region. This is a suburb I actually know quite well, and is a classic example of Sydney offering up proper domestic tourism.

Eastwood

Eastwood sits vaguely in Sydney's northwest (but is not super north or super west) and is a convenient 30 minute train ride from Central.

Everybody who knows Eastwood will tell you that it has two halves, divided by the rail line. To the right (east) is the Korean side. To the left (west) is the Chinese side.

Today we will cover both sides, but I turned right to start with.

Eastwood's east-west divide is really about its commercial districts that straddle both sides of the station. We'll get to that soon, but first I headed away from the shops into the residential streets immediately northeast of the station.

Here, we have plenty of your very typical older style brick apartment blocks, but with plenty of greenery.

I continued along this street (May St, for those of you playing along at home) to the end, eventually curving around and starting on this side of Eastwood from the top.

So what's the deal with Korean Eastwood and Chinese Eastwood? Simple, it's just about the types of businesses on each side of the station.

Heading down the hill through the commercial district, this side of Eastwood has all of your Korean staples, including Korean BBQ,

this adorable butcher,

Korean grocers,

and many other eclectic businesses.

A special call out goes to K-Pop Hair, in case you and 27 of your closest friends want to start a girl group.

I had some local Eastwoodian friends joining me on today's escapades. The first order of business was, of course, the other KFC - Korean fried chicken.

Korean food is great.

Firstly, you get a bunch of sides.

Secondly, you can order delicious, semi-transparent potato noodles.

Finally, and most importantly, is the fried chicken.

Today we enjoyed boneless "incredible gangjung" which is chicken in a sweet soy sauce,

as well as the boneless "sweet + spicy chicken" which does what it says on the tin. This one was our favourite of the two chooks we went for.

One of the best parts about eating ethnic in the 'burbs is the value. The four of us left full for about $11 a person.

After lunch we continued with our Eastwood exploration.

The idea was now to cross the station to the other side of the tracks, but first, I couldn't help but notice this lovely knock-off Super Mario branded Ugg Boot shop sign. As we will come to learn, unlicensed characters and Ugg Boots are more at home in Chinese Eastwood.

Anyway, on we go.

Hello from the other side.

Immediately in front of the train station is Eastwood Library, identifiable by the Uncanny Valley murals painted on its walls.

As you may expect, this side of Eastwood holds a lot of Chinese businesses.

Some highlights include this powerful smelling fishmonger,

an intense butcher,

a herbalist,

Bao Bao Bakery (the only place in town to buy Little Puppy),

multiple places to buy Peking duck,

and, of course, unidentified vegetables.

Also of interest is the Masonic Temple. Rather than acting as a temple though, it's actually some sort of shopfront for shipping items (vitamins, Ugg boots and baby formula) to China. We poked our heads inside but were met with many stares so I only have an outside photo.

On the same road as the temple, the commercial area continues. Of special note is the former location of "Red Rooster of Eastwood", a former Eastwood staple with nothing to do with chain restaurant of the same name.

This strip of shops was actually quite bustling on this Sunday afternoon and features, as you may expect, plenty of Asian targeted business, including restaurants, Asian groceries, baby formulas and vitamins,

not to mention the true blue Eastwood icon Wooland Ugg.

Also wedged into this strip of shops is Eastwood Arcade.

The only thing of interest in the arcade is this shop selling what appears to be dried seafood.

We turned back towards the Masonic Temple.

Next door to the temple is a relatively recent addition to Eastwood - this little collection of street food tents named Market Republic.

Inside Market Republic are many things.

My special pick was the unlicensed Donald-Duck-holding-a-chilli of Delicious Club.

But if that doesn't tickle your fancy, you can always do a lamb testicle which some sadistic person has impaled on a skewer.

After we left street food square, it was time to advance to Eastwood's final frontier just next door.

This pedestrian shopping area is Eastwood Plaza, Eastwood's answer to Pitt St Mall. It's a little bit 1980s but I like it anyway.

Even more 1980s is the shopping centre attached to the plaza, the enticingly named Eastwood Shopping Centre.

This mall has definitely passed its heyday,

but it does have one saving grace.

This outrageously large discount store.

This place sells every item known to man.

Pug Pimp Pictures? Check.

A DVD of the 1997 Grand Final? You know it.

A Hannah Montana party hat? You shouldn't even have to ask.

We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from the mall.

After thoroughly enjoying touristing Eastwood, I had worked up a thirst. Being Eastwood, the natural option was for a bubble tea. Unfortunately, Happy Gilmore had already dropped in before us, but I was willing to push through.