Moga Paddington, You Latest Brisbane Dining Guide

(Unagi Nigiri)

(Moga Roll)

(Wagyu Beef) 

I don't know about you, but I am sick of ordering a pizza from the closest fast food delivery, sitting in my couch at 9 o'clock, and regret of taking so much junk food and feeling the high calorie intake is killing me inside and out. Now, we have another choice: a healthy, yummy choice with a sense of exotic culture, which I cannot refuse. I have to thank my friend Catherine, who brought me to Moga Paddington this weekend for a night out. We had not seen each other for a very long time, and this place is just perfect for us to chat and have some light meal. Surprised to me, it opens until very late (around 10 p.m), which means if you want to grab you and your bestie some sake or Japanese dessert on a boring night. That is totally perfect as well. No need to even mention the nice interior and half-open dining atmosphere it offers, food here will not disappoint you just as how it looks inside and out. You might been seeing me if you dine here some time, because I just love how this restaurant & bar delivers its concept. I am truely feeling that I would be a frequent visitor, and please just come by and say hello if you see me anytime. I don't mind grab a sake and chat about fashion & travel, at all! Last but not least, it locates just near the Rosalie village and on-street parking is so convenient.(I just do not visit some place with parking is a tough work for me)

If you keen for a nice dinner or just casual catch up here, click here for their menu and contact details.
xx

Sugar Republic Brisbane

If you missed it in Melbourne, here is your go this time. The sugar republic is now held in Valley Metro in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. With one single entry, you would receive heaps of sugar boom, plus an ice-cream treat. Or I have to mention, it is eventually all about fun. I haven't jumped into a pool since I was five years old. This exhibition literally brought out the inner kid of mine, told myself to enjoy without thinking like an adult. It will end very soon in Brisbane and move yourself to get your ticket from: https://www.sugarrepublic.com.au/tickets/


Outfit:

Blazer from Witchery

Trousers from Topshop

Crop top from Sabo Skirt

Sneakers from Adidas Stan Smith

Japan Diary Part 3: Tokyo+ Mt. Fuji

Tokyo is truly a non-stop city. Standing in the middle of the city, my first impression towards Tokyo was like the morning after a whole night party. There was a moment that the life was filled with people, and next moment I felt so alone even I was surrounded. No bad, or good. Just acceptance. The neon lights are all on, the night gone dark. Now it was the time I bury myself in the joy of the current moment and think about nothing else. This is the city, and we all need to learn from both side of it. Whether it is the serenity from its ancient history, or the craziness of night parties, embrace it and enjoy it.

Dine at Beige Alain Ducasse (click here for more information) is one of the kind experience we love about. Aileen and I, we have been travelling around for fine dining, just to let the food pop amazingness on our tongue. Couple days ago when we talked about Beige Alain Ducasse, the first thing came into the talk was their butter for bread. Most people would maybe remember a main dish or dessert from their dining experiences, but the simplest thing in our life really impress us the most. (I guess that this the reason why we became friends)

Mt Fuji:

Mt Fuji can never be forgotten. Ever once we opened a random travel magazine or just type "Japan" in our search engine, Mt Fuji would certainly been ranked in the very top list of it. When talking about this country, we talk about it. A day tour to Mt Fuji was not a bad choice. How lucky we were?The day we went was a sunny day and it revealed the whole face of itself to us.

And btw, big news!! I am heading to Japan again for Christmas holiday (will be there from 23-30 December), so please send me e-mail/ DM me on Instagram if you would like to catch up there. xx

Japan Diary Part 2: Kyoto+Nara+Kobe

I have received so many questions in accordance with my last post about Osaka on where I stayed. For the trip to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe, we were based in Osaka, which means that we had to take JR trains to anywhere we wanted to go. But do not worry, the Japan Railway goes so fast and easy to figure. It took us just at most around one hour to the surrounding cities.

Our Stop 2 is: Kyoto

*It is said that if you build as many as Torii (on the right), you are doing a good thing and that is the path you can bring yourself from mundane to sacred . (Torri means Bird Abode in Japanese )

Kyoto is just not any average city you would rate in your dream list. It is something jump out of the ordinary. If there are some cities would make me stay, Kyoto would be one of them. No matter is the natural taste of its Kaiseki-ryori (ryori means cuisine in Japanese language), or the whisper between people in those traditional Japanese teahouse, Kyoto brought me another experience of life, where busy can be harmonised with quite, where modern can be harmonised with ancient.

If you ever come, make sure you book yourself with your bestie in a Kaiseki-ryori, and enjoy the Zen it brings to you. Kikunoi is one of the best/most famous Michelin-Stared restaurants (with 3 stars). Private room was prepared for two of us with a traditional garden view. One waitress was assigned specifically to our room just to ensure the highest quality of its service. I have no other word to describe our experience but EXCELLENT. My tip here is to book at least two months ahead (reservation page is here, we booked dining experience with head office, choose the one suits your trip), and communicate well with the host on what you do not eat. For example, Aileen and I are both Buddhism, so we try to eat as less meat as we could. Then, we can request maybe the proportion in using the meat for our meal. Definitely let them know all the food you do not eat, because you will never know.

Stop 3: Nara

As a writer who really wanted to reveal truth about travelling. I decided to give some REAL talk about your most wanted known fact: Nara Deer Park

I might seemed in a good relationship with my new friends: nara deers, and they are really cute. But do remember they are quiet aggressive, and rude most of the time even they do know how to bow. I was holding the biscuits and tried my best to get a photo when feeding them. Once you have one piece of food in your hand, all the deers would come to your way and give you no way to run until they empty the food. If you holding a bag of biscuits and waited just one more second to take it out, the deers would chew your coat/even your handbag (Yes, my Chloe drew handbag was the target) until you buy them food. And most importantly, they rush into your with an unexpected strength. So get prepared.

Stop 4: Kobe

I will have to say the city of Kobe is a well mix of Japanese culture with foreign culture. As a high-mover who embrace multi-culture, and considering myself a global citizen, I could feel it the moment I pop off the train to Kobe. The clean skyline and serenity just reminds of city of Brisbane. See, that is the reason I love travelling. You will always find the same among diversity and that is it.

Japan Diary Part One: Osaka Postcard

I cannot express how guilty I am to not share my journey of Japan until today. If you really a long time follower, you would have know that I shut my blog down for almost two years since the year 2016. I just re-launched my current blog months ago. That is why I did not get the opportunity to share my journey to Japan in January this year.

Travelling to Japan is always on my list, and this one happened really, I call RANDOMLY. Aileen and I booked the air ticket by the Christmas time last year and departed just like 20 days later. With merely planned for it, we just ticked the cities we would like to visit and simply set the date. For foodies like we two, the whole journey was based on the location of the restaurants we wanted to visit.

Arrange your Transport:
There are so many types of public transport ticket available for purchase, but we are not in a rush. So we bough Suica (which is transport card that you can top-up). One of the benefit to get yourself a suica in Japan is that you can use it to buy goods in most franchising convenient stores and free from all the changes. And you can return it and get the refund when you leaving Japan.

Arrange your dining:
Please be noted that most famous dining places in Japan requires a reservation. I literally have no idea how long do we need to book ahead. But I just sent all the reservation enquiries the same day that I book the air ticket. I was so lucky that I reserved tables for those restaurants that I would like to visit. It is highly recommend you send e-mail/phone the restaurant two months ahead to secure yourself a spot, especially for those Michelin Stared ones.

Our major Japan Journey restaurant list:

YakinikuM, Dotonbori (Osaka)

Kani Doraku, Dotonbori (Osaka)

文目堂 soba (Osaka)

Kikunoi 菊の井　(Kyoto)

Mouriya Honten (Kobe)

Beige Alain Ducasse by Chanel (Tokyo)

Stop 1: Osaka

Aileen and I did not take flight from the same city. Instead, we departed from different airports (I took flight from Shanghai, and hers flight from Taiwan), and met up each other in Kansai Airport. Our first stop is Osaka for sure. Why? Because people call it the "Kitchen of the World", we will not be absent from that, never.

The very famous tourism photo you've got to take at Shinsaibashi(心斎橋)

*Dinner at YakinikuM, Dotonbori

This dining place is very close to Shinsaibashi, so we reserved a table here as I think it would be a good treat to us after the whole night of shopping and wanderlusting

*Universal Studio

We spent the whole day at the universal studio, because it is our all time favourite. Anything more exciting than being a student of Hogwarts for one day and have a butter beer in this chilling winter? It really tastes like creamy soda and milk foam on the top. Not really beer at all!


*Osaka Castle (大阪城)

The other day we just scrolling the Osaka city. Visited Osaka Castle (大阪城) and enjoyed a bird view of Osaka city. I really felt myself seeing the modern world from an eye of the history when standing at the top of Osaka Castle. I love ancient buildings and treasury because that is the only moment I felt to be strongly tied to time, to the entire time and forget about the moment I am really living in. Marvellous experience!

We had lunch at 文目堂 soba before heading to Osaka Castle. The restaurant/dining place itself is so quiet and has very much a tiny gate to my normal perspective. But the moment I entered the store, it was kind of pushing the door to a secret garden, a real Japanese garden. With brick colour based interior and a view of well-designed traditional Japanese garden, with a sense of Zen. The time was freezed at that moment. I never known that some plain looking soba could have a pure taste from its ingredient but not from any dressing/source. I see the chef put all his/her heart into preparing and cooking this bowl of amazingness.

Interesting fact: Aileen had two serves of noodles, which in my world is a mission impossible.

I am appreciated that I have your readers to share with my Osaka Journey, Part two will be uploaded very soon with the following stops:

Stop 2: Kyoto

Stop 3: Nara

Stop 4: Kobe

House of Mirrors

   

If you ask me why October is my favourite month, well,  so many exhibitions and events are currently on hot at this moment in Brisbane (and most importantly, it is my birth month.) I went to visit the House of Mirrors in Southbank several days ago.

Feeling myself really in a bad luck, because by the time we took only the second photo of that day, it started to rain, or more exactly, it was literally a storm. Guess what made the thing worse? The exhibition is actually in an open area so we did not offered something call ROOF. If you think it is the end of the story? HELL NO! As the storm came, we managed to find the exit of the exhibition and as it call itself the House of Mirror, it surely would like to play a trick on you. I feel that I used the sense of direction for my entire life, but still lost in the exhibition. Funny fact was that I turned in circles again and again for almost 20 minutes. Nearly gave up and thought I would have to stay in the maze of mirror FOREVER.

But do not misunderstand my words. Let me make it clear: I love the exhibition and fun things it brought me, seeing so many MYSELF is so interesting, made me feel that there were so many faces the mirrors could bring to me but there is only REAL me. Just the day, the storming day was not my day because how stupid I was to forgot an umbrella in rainy season??

If you get an afternoon off someday, just pop to this tiny exhibition and get yourself lost in the maze.
xx


Outfit:

Mesh top from Topshop

Jumpsuit from Vergegirl

Shoes from Chanel

Bag from Louis Vuitton