We Built This City: Haymarket

Firstly, thanks for those who checked out the Anniversary Special video - Sunday will be part two. If you haven't caught part one yet, you can enjoy watching me struggle up many hills. 

In the meantime, here's a shoulder post from the Inner City. 

Haymarket

While a suburb in and of itself, Haymarket is really part of Sydney CBD. It encompasses Central Station, and a handful of blocks to its north and east. 

Naturally, I kicked things off at Central today.

From Central, you can either head into Belmore Park, where you can be eaten by rats and ibises (or line up with UNSW students for an express bus to uni), 

or you can head along Eddy Avenue, 

to reach George Street, the main artery through Sydney CBD. Naturally, here I was unable to take anything resembling a decent photo due to the sun right ahead of of me.  

I live nearby, and so I find myself walking these streets fairly often,

and Haymarket is actually my favourite bit of Sydney CBD. 

This is mostly because Haymarket contains Sydney's Chinatown. 

Despite being a local, I decided to spend my Haymarket suburbsing by exploring Chinatown as a tourist might. 

Naturally, this meant starting off with lunch at this plaza where two restaurants - Chinese Noodle House and Chinese Noodle Restaurant - battle for customers. 

I think I ended up at Chinese Noodle Restaurant, but I'm not certain. 

Being winter time, some dumpling soup seemed to be the go, 

and it definitely was, indeed, the go. 

Complimentary sides include hot tea,

and Angies for wiping your face. 

While playing with my phone over lunch, I also was intrigued to see this Singapore BBQ Pork place in the same plaza. Pictures on Google showed some sort of perfectly square slice of pork,  

and that's exactly what I got. While perhaps a little bit on the rich side, this square of pork turned out to be quite tasty, and was only something like four bucks.  

After lunch and the post-lunch-snack, I took a stroll. 

Nearby points of interest include Market City (a shopping centre)

with Paddy's Markets underneath. 

Paddy's Markets sells fresh food, but also has a knick-knack section mostly selling souvenirs to tourists. 

I was good for both of those things, so I kept moving. 

From here, the logical next steps is to head onto Dixon Street, Chinatown's main touristy walking street,

with one of those arches that somehow every Chinatown in every city has. 

Here I was actually planning on stopping for some post-lunch cream puffs at Emperor's Garden. This is a literal hole in the wall which sells small cream puffs for about half a dollar each depending on how many you get,

but I didn't feel like queuing this much, 

so I kept strolling in search for another dessert. 

That next option soon appeared with egg tarts from a spot named Sweet Lu. 

They also have cakes, some of which have whacky designs. 

I figured I'd go all out and pick up a durian tart. For those who are unaware, durian is a controversial fruit enjoyed in East and Southeast Asia, best known for being stinky. 

So stinky that it's against the law to take it onto public transport in Singapore - here's a picture from the Singapore Metro warning you not to try it.

Image by Marcin Konsek and taken from Wikimedia Commons

Anyway, the tart wasn't too bad - it had a marshmallow on it that melted with the heat of the tart so that was pretty swell. Oh, and if you're curious, durian tastes sort of like mango mixed with a hint of garbage. I don't hate it, but there are definitely better fruits. 

Lunch, post-lunch snack and dessert sorted, it was now time for more strolling. 

This took me to the newest bit of Haymarket, 

Darling Square. Darling Square is a southern extension to Darling Harbour, featuring this outdoor plaza-y bit, 

restaurants, 

and this whacky birds-nest library. 

It's also good for being one of the rare places in Sydney that's alive at night with things to do other than drinking and punching strangers in the back of the head. 

From here, I headed to my final Haymarketian stop, 

The Goods Line.

By the Powerhouse Museum, 

and UTS' Paper Bag Building, 

The Goods Line is a walkway on a former freight line which is now a bit of a park and a great piece of public space, presumably inspired by New York's High Line. 

And that's it for my afternoon in Haymarket. 

Except for one thing - I'm a sucker for exotic sugary drinks from Asian supermarkets - and Market City has the huge Thai Kee IGA with both Asian and local groceries. 

Isn't it beautiful?

Today's lucky dip brought me to Kickapoo Joy Juice. Chosen for it's wonderful name, this fine can wound up mostly tasting like Mountain Dew. 

And with that, it was now time to actually call it for the suburb. 

Haymarket: The heart of Sydney CBD is not in the heart of Sydney CBD.