Brisbane Escape Part One: Wagamama, Pickles, and The Best O’Clock

(One time, I got astonished and fearful looks, but that was because I was flying off to stay in a hotel room in Florida with an older man whom I’d met for merely two minutes a month earlier. Hey Mum, remember when I sent you that fun email?)

What the non-believers often don’t realise is that blogfriends aren’t just blogfriends. They’re very often soulfriends. When you’ve been emailing, texting, and calling each other for months or years, discussing interests, passions, heart-aches, crises, successes, recipes, dreams, laughter and more, it’s easy to forget that you haven’t ever actually hugged or shared a meal together.

Then when you do meet, hug, and share a meal together, you almost don’t think to be amazed at how easy and wonderful the friendship is, because it feels so comfortable and longstanding. You simply know how glad you are to have each other in all aspects of your lives.

The past whirlwind 48 hours visiting my darling friend Robyn of Girl On Raw in Brisbane have been delicious, inspiring, calming, rejuvenating and, most importantly, fun. Whereas many of the blogger meet-ups I’ve had in the past have centred (at least ostensibly) on food, my trip to visit Robyn was really all about the two of us spending time together: talking, eating, gettin’ our hair did, gushing over her baby boy Manus, shopping, talking, and more talking.

I can’t possibly hope to squeeze the 48 hours into a single post, so I’ll start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start).

As soon as I arrived in sunny Brisbane on Thursday morning (wearing a skirt in order to prove to my legs that the sun still exists), Robyn appeared at the airport to pick me up and spirit us away to lunch at Wagamama.

Over the next two hours, we shared Wagamama’s zingy-spicy garlic and chilli-tossed edamame and its sweet potato kusabi, “hand-cut sweet potato chips served with a basil and wasabi mayonnaise”. I do like a dish that comes with straight-up chilli to nibble on. Ten points to the edamame!

As we talked non-stop about everything from friendships, relationships, and career changes to travel, raw food, blogging, and everything in between, Rob and I also shared the otsunaaji avocado salad, “stir-fried caramelised red onions, sweet potato, red chillies, eggplant, mint and red capsicum in a coriander, aniseed, ginger, lime and soy dressing, served on a bed of baby spinach and chinese cabbage, topped with avocado and fried shallots salad”. Funnily enough, the description was more of a mouthful than the salad itself.

We also ordered a serving each of miso soup and pickles, the latter of which also go by the name of OwnsMySoul.

After briefly considering a dessert stop elsewhere, we both decided that what our hearts really yearned for was seeing Manus, who is Possibly The Most Adorable and Smiley Baby I’ve Ever Had The Privilege of Cuddling.

After picking Manus up from Rob’s in-law’s house, we arrived at her parent’s place, which Rob’s husband has affectionally dubbed “The Beach House”.

Luckily for us, we arrived at The Beach House just in time for Margarita O’Clock.

It’s the best kind of O’Clock.

Even if my approach to drinking margaritas seems to be “look as if you’re suspicious about the contents of your glass”.

// curtains close on Brisbane Escape: Part One.

Tagged as: Brisbane, restaurant review, travel, Wagamama