Boyz-n-the-Burwood

Here's a suburb with some culture - in more ways than one.

Burwood

Burwood's a suburb in that part of the Inner West that often gets left out when we think about the Inner West. As we'll discover shortly, rather than hipster barber shops and brunch, Burwood's offering is very different from its "cooler" brethren.

Ordinarily, to get to Burwood you would catch a train into the station, but as I wanted to start on the suburb's southern border, I caught a bus from the city, dropping me off onto Liverpool Road.

In typical Sydney fashion, I did the whole "wait 83 minutes and cross three traffic lights in order to cross the road because they didn't install a pedestrian light at the side you need to cross at",

and entered this leafy street which was my first destination.

This is Appian Way.

It's one of the coolest little residential streets that I've visited on this journey.

Yes, it's lined with trees, but more interestingly, it's full of beautiful old federation houses.

This house even has 90% of a hedge maze in their front yard.

Sitting in the middle of the street is something called "The Chook Pen",

which is apparently a very gentlemanly and well manicured bit of grass.

I made sure to meet a couple of the local residents.

The other end of Appian Way exits onto Burwood Road. (Crappy picture alert).

I was expecting the interesting homes to end once I left Appian way, but stubbornly they continued.

This guy's got a drawbridge into his house,

and then there are straight up perfect mansions.

Further up the road, even the local church, St Paul's, is beautifully historic.

Just after the church, the suburb's commercial area begins.

When you first enter Burwood CBD from the southern end, you are offered a wide range of... stuff.

This includes fishing bait,

shisha delivery,

pianos,

and a store which exclusively seems to sell Chinese vases.


But anyone who has been to Burwood will tell you, it's not about the vases or pianos, it's about Chinese restaurants.

Mr Stonebowl was going off in particular today,

although this dumpling shop is way cuter.

I even got to watch the chef at this place cleaver the head off of a BBQ duck.

There's also dessert, in order to make sure It Was a Good Day™ when you come to Burwood.

I was planning on having dinner in the suburb, and this arcade seemed like a great option,

primarily due to the fact that they've used a watermarked image ripped off the internet to decorate.

Inside the arcade it was fairly bustling on this Sunday night,

but this noodle shop couldn't help but Hypnotize™ me.

Seriously though, Rice Noodle Biggie seemed alright so I ate there.

Here, you get noodle soup in a Biggie bowl with a Biggie ladle to eat with. This Notorious meal had squid, cabbage, and even quails eggs. It was also spicy as hell. Not bad.

If you continue through the arcade, you end up in a very cool alleyway and courtyard with more Asian eats,

including this shop which dishes up gelato, froyo and fried food,

and this transformer thing.

Exiting the alleyway lands you just across the road from Burwood station,

where you can see a shady banker playing chess with a child, much to the glee of onlookers.

I crossed under the bridge to continue on to the other side of the tracks.

As I continued up Burwood Road the eternal, I found more Asian businesses,

such as this baby,

and this ice cream with eyes

which was absolutely going off today. (Perhaps it goes down well after enjoying a dinner at Mr Stonebowl).

A little further up the road is Burwood Westfield which I'm sure is adequate for your shopping needs.

I'm not much of a shopping centre guy. Luckily for me though, there's a big-ole park across the road from the Westfield which is a little bit more up my alley.

The entry to appropriately named Burwood Park is marked with this impressive war memorial,

but inside the park there are a few more interesting memorial landmarks,

including this memorial telling part of the story of Sandakan, a location in Malaysian Borneo where Australians were held as prisoners of war by Japan in the second world war.

I really enjoyed strolling through Burwood Park on this warm night,

not least of all for the fact that people were actually enjoying the park, which is sadly not the norm for most of the lovely parks I've come across on this journey.

Leaving the park, it was time for me to head back, passing Geor's C on the way,

as well as Granny's Noodle *giggles*.

From Burwood station, it's only an 11 minute train ride back to Central. Before you go, make sure to take in the aggressive Chinese billboards at the station.

Burwood: From federation homes, to good eats, to ice cream with eyes, this is one of my favourite Sydney 'burbs. Go spend an evening here.

Attributions:

• Picture of Ice Cube: from Philip Litevsky from Toronto, Canada - IMG_2396, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2238725 
• Picture of Biggie: "King of New York" by Barron Claiborne