The ‘Sugar Hit’ dessert plate at Azuma Kushiyaki had so many parts that it spanned two trays. My favourite bit: the vanilla cheesecake that suffered raspberry ‘internal bleeding’ when you spooned deep into it. Will loved the mysterious coconut dessert that you baptised with a glass of maple syrup. The presence of the salty seaweed snacks among the cakes and mousse sparked question marks and amusement – like a mistranslated punchline. Lots of fun, all round, nevertheless.

I was walking by when Ashfield’s Big Yum Cha started. There were no lazy Susans (or instances of trolley-cart rage), just Liverpool Road parallel-parked with tables full of takeaway goods. The street-stall vibe was a nice thing.

Swissotel’s ‘Sugar Hit’ was like a Miro painting in raspberry planes and chocolate angles and drops.

(The surrounds didn’t quite match the Spanish artist’s joyous scribbles and plops of colour, though – why do hotels always shelter a faint layer of sadness?)

And there were a few other things we experienced during October’s Sydney International Food Festival (including a confusing experience at Glass brasserie), but this is just a bite-sized record of the month that just blitzed by …