Thursday 16 October – Osaka (finally)

A 15 minute delay turned into a two hour delay turned into whoops read all the magazines/flat ipod before leaving Sydney freaken airport. Random stop off in Gold Coast scared us into leaving our duty free minis (for inflight “entertainment”) hidden onboard the craft - which thankfully greeted us on our return. Food was le terrible – never again Jetstar. Arrived in Osaka, finally. Doutonbori Hotel is very conveniently located – albeit a little red light but close to Namba Station, five minutes from Amerika Muri and Shinsaibashi etc. Late arrival didn't allow for much exploring. Went to book Gan Ban tickets at Lawson to discover it was sold out. Ended up visiting an old fave sports bar in Shinsaibashi for some beer, yakatori and tennis before collapsing into bed.

15 October – Sydney, Australia

Arrived at the conveniently located and well-loved Crown Motel with time for Maltese pastitsies before dinner. Two cheese and spinach later, with time still to brush our teeth before dinner. Met Lee Tran outside the hotel, listening to the crazies holler, and off to Majong Dining Room for a slightly classier Chinese meal than your usual. We feasted on snow pea stir fry, eggplant and tofu bake and five spices chili chicken to share. Dinner had all the elements of a fancy catch up - high quality chats, some gossip and some real fancy tea cups.

For our next course we walked down the street to Bentley. We weren't warned of the two-hat fame of said establishment prior to our visit... We “came for the dessert” - and with that news, the pastry chef sent us each a free dish. Lime popcorn with mango egg – wish I had a photo to show you all. The “pop corn” was made of a lime-basil mousse treated with liquid nitrogen. The mango egg was just that – a white encasing with a mango yolk. It was most incredible! Next round was our actual dessert. Lee Tran and Will (R) had the liquid strawberry – a white chocolate casing filled with liquid strawberry – mousse and some other bits in the strawberry zen garden.


Will (B) had the turkish delight pebbles and rhubarb custard zen-like garden and my mandarin sponge, mousse and ice cream garden blew my mind with intensity. Fancy and delicious...but time to sleep for an early rise.