Cultural Rim: Strathfield

I didn't get a chance to wish you all merry Christmas. 

Fortunately, I can still wish you all a merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve. Yes I think that's the right amount of Eves. 

Now with that established, let's enjoy the final suburb of the year.

Strathfield

Geographically, Strathfield is on the western rim of Sydney's Inner West. This means that in many ways it's the transition point between suburban Western Sydney and the more urban east. For that reason, I've always thought of this place as the centre of Sydney. 

The fact that it has a train station that has trains to pretty much everywhere helps this impression. Naturally, I got in via this all-purpose station today, dragging Mrs Completing Sydney along with me. 

The station itself hasn't got too much of interest (apart from being bigger than usual for obvious reasons), but it does feature this mysterious door above everybody's head. How do you get there? Where does it go? There are things humanity will never know. 

Anyway, exiting the station landed me in Strathfield's bustling centre. 

Here, there's a plaza. This plaza boasts both seasonal and non-seasonal greens, 

and an outdoor cafe, 

serving anthropomorphic desserts. 

Leaving the plaza, it was time to take a stroll through the CBD itself. 

Strathfield CBD is a pan-Asian melting pot, from the Taiwanese chicken,

to the Vietnamese noodles,

to the Thai, Laotian, Indian or Nepalese. 

Even the local kebab shop is named after Chinese spyware. 

But Strathfield's most well known presence is it's strong Korean population (despite Korean-Strathfieldians being outnumbered by Chinese- and Indian-Strathfieldians according to the 2016 census). As such, you've got your Korean beauty parlours, 

grocers,

and more restaurants than you can count. 

Due to all of the above, a stroll through Strathfield CBD smells bloody amazing.

I'm definitely going to have a meal before leaving this suburb, but before that, there's a whole non-commercial bit of Strathfield to explore. 

For this, I got walking south,

until the shops finished, 

and the really fancy buildings begun. 

This one's a primary school. 

Was this a fluke? 

No, it turns out that this suburb is filled to the brim with beautiful old buildings. 

Some are modest but stylish, 

many are bigger, 

and some didn't quite get the memo. 

This house is straight out of Home Alone.

And this one is roof all the way down. 

So it turns out that this bit of Strathfield is called the Golden Mile. It's called that due to the obscene amount of mansions out this way. 

Sadly, this means plenty of fences gimping my pictures. 

But I met this cat so it's not all bad. 

I carried on through the Golden Mile (at golden hour, no less),

finding an endless supply of these fancy houses.

Who lives in these places? 

One of these things is not like the others.

On this journey, I also saw this sign. This is a real estate agent boasting that they sold a house off-market. Now, if the house sold off-market, what exactly did the real estate agent do, apart from putting their mugs up on a sign?

Like what's behind the door - we will probably never know. 

After a good couple km walking through the front yards of drug barons, mining magnates and one guy who threw 100 bucks in bitcoin ten years ago, 

I hit this place, Strathfield Park.

This park, it turns out, is super nice. 

It's got some gorgeous walking paths, 

and a giant (and very well-used) series of kids' playgrounds.  

Unlike the streets of the Golden Mile, this place is clearly enjoyed by regular people, meaning it's automatically higher on my "things to see in Strathfield" list. 

This bit was closed though. 

Before I left the park, I thought it be good to indulge in some xylophonery. It was okay.

Anyway,

it was time to head back to Strathfield CBD for a now-earned meal. 

This took me back through the suburban tomfoolery of the Golden Mile, with its beautiful houses,

its tall fences, 

the occasional roofy chap,

Walter White's council endorsement,

and a tree particularly liked by the local ibises. 

I also ran into Strathfield Town Hall. Its location on a street corner plus my general incompetence means difficulty taking decent photos, but I assure you it's a very nice building too. 

The Town Hall was a waypoint marking the home stretch between the Golden Mile and some Korean Fried Chicken. The final street is wide and tree-lined and...

is that a fancy looking church not too far from here? Detour time. 

So not only was that a fancy church, it turns out it's also a Russian church.

Back on track, it didn't take too long to get back to the CBD. 

And have you really come to Strathfield if your visit doesn't involve either Korean BBQ or Korean Fried Chicken? Today would be the latter at a place called Chicken V. 

Exciting. 

Mrs Completing Sydney thought it would be fun to get the 9 chicken sampler. 

Here's my ratings:

1. 1. "Seasoned" (top right) classic sweet Korean sauce on crunchy chicken. You can't go wrong. 
2. 2. "Onion" (bottom left) does what it says on the tin. The vegetable is needed when eating this much chicken.
3. 3. "Shallot" (middle left) similar to onion with more fibre.
4. 4. "Extra hot" (top middle) spicy, but not enough to ruin your day.
5. 5. "Soy" (middle right) it's chicken with soy, what do you want from me?
6. 6. "Traditional" (middle middle) it's still wonderful fried chicken but it's overshadowed by its more fun brethren.
7. 7. "Curry" (bottom right) not unpleasant, but curry sauce and fried chicken aren't natural partners.
8. 8. "Snowflake" (top left) I'm not sure why you pour a sachet of Kraft mac and cheese powder onto chicken. 
9. 9. "Honey butter" (bottom middle) fried chicken is rich enough without dousing it in artifical tasting butter.

I hope you enjoyed my consumer advice.

We also picked up some fried rice cake in a sweet and spicy sauce. One excellent side dish. 

And an even more excellent side dish is a mango beer with the obligatory complementary pickles. The white cubey ones are perfect for cutting through the fried chicken.

With that Weight Watchers meal devoured, we got our groceries done (where we later got a Covid case alert), 

visited the shrine to Santa by moonlight, 

and headed home, noticing that the anthropomorphic desserts were now absolutely going off. 

Strathfield: A wasteland of mansions surrounded by a great park and a lively CBD.