Go overboard in Sydney

The legendary David Jones is the one-stop place for fashion, cosmetics and a whole lot more.

We're sure Taronga Zoo is amazing and the harbour bridge walk quite something. But, let's face it, the real reason to go to Sydney is to shop. That's how we spent most of our time, apart from the occasional pit-stop to refuel.

Sometimes we'd lift our heads to look at the pretty buildings, the lovely harbour and the well-dressed Sydneyites, but mostly it was frantic bouts of retail therapy.

FOOD

Scrambled eggs at bills. Bill Granger is the TV chef's Mr Nice Guy. His mousse-like eggs have been called the best eggs in the world by the Times of London. High praise. They may be as light as cloud fluff but you definitely known you've eaten by the time you have made your way through the cream-soaked eggs atop the large chunk of toast.

The secret is free-range eggs, a good non-stick pan and lots of cream. If you really can't wait, here's the recipe:

For one:
2 eggs
1/3 cup cream
pinch of salt
10g butter

Put eggs, cream and salt in a bowl and whisk. Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan over high heat, taking care not to burn it. Pour in the mixture and cook for 20 seconds, or until gently set around the edge. Stir with a wooden spoon, gently bringing the egg mixture on the outside of the pan to the centre - the idea is to fold the eggs rather than scramble them.

Leave to cook for another 20 seconds and repeat the folding. When the eggs are just set (they will continue cooking as they rest), turn on to a plate and serve with hot toast.

If you are making more than two servings, cook in separate batches so you don't crowd the pan.

Our vote for great eggs goes to the lesser known and more ramshackle French outfit Le Petit Creme (118 Darlinghurst Rd). They serve their splendid eggs just the right side of cooked. The croissants are brilliant too, as is the French toast - one enormous doorstep of brioche.

Gelato at Dolce & Gelato (318 King St). Any place that offers divine gelato and sorbet in an astounding 43 flavours is just fine by us.

Sorbets include ginger-lemon, fig, plum, green apple and rockmelon, and gelato flavours include tiramisu, rich chocolate, pistachio, chocolate-chilli, cassata and wild berries. All are made on the premises of this family-run business.

Even better, the shop feels as if you're in designer heaven: all bright white with touches of fresh Mediterranean-blue, 50s-style black and white images and Kartell's coloured La Marie chairs. All this for $3.50 a single scoop. Did we mention we were rather taken with this place?

Bodhi (lower mezzanine level, Cook and Phillip Park, 2-4 College St). If vegetarians ran paradise there would be a Bodhi on every street corner. Love, love, love the deep-fried spinach, ginger and tofu rolls, wontons and spring rolls, but the stuff that's not fried is just as good. It's a cool spot that is sufficiently designer-looking to attract droves of people, from film types to bankers.

Great delis of Woollahra. You'll find that Jones the Grocer (68 Moncur St) is bliss for anyone even remotely interested in food. Their mission is to get the best of anything and everything and display it in everyone's notion of what an old-fashioned grocer looked like.

Browse on nougat and Turkish delight cut from giant slabs, grandma's cordials, cute boiled sweets, amazing oils, fabulous jams, the truly impressive fromagerie, then have a nibble at the communal table. Simon Johnson (55 Queen St) is smaller but every bit as traditional looking. The emphasis is on Italian food, so every sort of pasta imaginable is stocked. But there's plenty of variety - even Prince Charles' own Duchy of Cornwall line.

Just down the road is the Queen St Delicatessen (142 Queen St). It's the real deal, has been there for practically ever, and has an amazing lineup of salads, including wonton salad, Greek, and chilli-tofu. And there's fresh ricotta, gorgeous breads and brioche and fresh pasta. Don't miss trying their wonderful Greek yoghurt, with flavours such as guava, strawberry and pomegranate.

A little out of the way but when Simon Gault makes it his first port-of-call, foodies should know they're on to a good thing. Fratelli Fresh (7 Danks St) is a gourmet grocery and fresh food market in the newly hip inner suburb of Waterloo. The array of treats is Italian-inspired: stacks of canned tomatoes, dozens of olive oils. Okay, so you can't bring home the dazzling selection of cheeses, imported butters and tiny fresh figs; but what about the artisan pasta, truffle oil, Italian sodas ... or just eat at the casual cafe, Sopra. Owner Barry McDonald is a veteran of Seednee's restaurant and supplies all the top chefs. He's online, too.

LEISURE

Harsh as this may sound, Sydney's not all about shopping, wolfing down food, and being seen at the trendiest watering holes. Even we indulged in some leisure activities.

Nosy-parker at Woollahra. The tourist equivalent of a Sunday drive to see at how the other half live. A walk along the leafy streets of the nicest inner east suburb full of well-maintained houses and New Orleans-style terraces complete with wrought-iron detailing will have you wanting to move to Sydney. Nice idea. The reality is a four-bedroom house could easily set you back the equivalent of $3 million.

Markets. Aside from a plastic python jacket (it was cool, once) at Glebe Market (Saturday, Glebe Public School, Glebe Point Rd) and an Eero Aarnio Pastille chair going cheap at the Bondi Market (weekends, Bondi Beach Public School grounds, Campbell Parade), markets are more about the experience than being a happy hunting ground for rare finds and absolute bargains.

Bondi Beach. What Australia is all about. White-sand beaches, glorious weather, bikini-clad girls, buff lifesavers - and it's all free.

Even if you don't have your togs, a paddle is compulsory. Such communing with nature may make you forget about the shops - until you remember the shopping's pretty good a block or so from the beach. Try Tuchuzy (90 Gould St), No 1, City of the Dead (82 Gould St) and Electric Monkeys (78 Gould St). Good lines in cool jeans and T-shirts.

Hyde Park and the Botanic Gardens. The great thing about central Sydney is that when your batteries need recharging you can always find a bit of nearby greenery. Hyde Park and the Botanic gardens are conveniently close to the city hub. We particularly like the exotic wildlife that shares the space, such as the bats hanging from the trees in the Botanic gardens and cool Egyptian-style ibis birds at Hyde Park.

DESIGN

Space Furniture. (84 O'Riordan St, Alexandria) Just where does all that modern Italian furniture you see on the glossy pages of interiors magazines come from? Space. Well, that's what it seems like when you wander through the showroom of 4000 square metres that covers six floors.

Just past the entrance is the Kartell room, where the price of a Louis stool will seem like a bargain at $125 after you've looked at the Starck-designed dumbbells at $660, the Barovier & Tosco chandeliers at $37,995, and Ingo Maurer's LED light glass table at $40,000. A veritable who's who of design: Boffi, Zanotta, B&B Italia, Driade, Flos and many more.

Ikea (cnr Oulton Ave and Homebush Bay Rd). In just over a month, the handy Moore Park branch will close. That means you won't be able to whip in there on your way to the airport. Instead, you'll have to get a train or hire a car and do a pilgrimage to the Swedish temple of flat-pack furniture in Homebush.

Ideally, it's best to do carry-on for the flight home and devote your 20kg baggage allowance for what you buy from Ikea - so now buying that lazy Susan makes perfect sense. And a beech stepladder, despite the fact that your bookshelves are easy to reach. And that highchair will seem a bargain at $39, even though the 1-year-old has a perfectly decent one already. It would be so much simpler if they opened a branch in Auckland.

Woollahra antiques and designer ware. Some of the antique shops along the main drag of Queen St are so snooty that you have to ring a bell before they deign to let you in. One where you don't have to is the lovely Copeland & De Soos (66 Queen St). They specialise in late-19th and 20th-century gear which means lots of gorgeous nouveau, deco and 50s and 60s things - from a Lucite necklace right up to a majestic late-1930s screen made specially for a villa in the South of France.

The two Orson & Blake's on Queen St stores - one is all fashion, the other a mix of fashion and homeware, can be a bit hit and miss but you should always be able to find a pretty glass at the 83 Queen St site.

Robyn Cosgrove Rugs gives rug merchants a good name. This is the couture equivalent of rugs. It is possible to salivate over a piece of old carpet.

Also good for "just looking" is garden store Parterre Garden (33 Ocean St). Palmers this ain't. It's full of objects for the outside as well as loads of stunning white coral which would have the entire customs hall at Auckland at full alert.

FASHION

David Jones (65 Market St and 86 Castlereagh St) is Sydney's oldest - and best - department store and dedicated to the joy of shopping. We were in there so often that two elderly eccentric men who seemed to live there started waving at us. So much to buy, so little time. Truly mind-blowing because just about everything they're selling is worthy of credit-card debt.

The cosmetics hall is unbelievable featuring brands we may never see here: the fragrant Jo Malone and her divine-smelling skincare, Stila, Frederic Fekkai's haircare range, and Giorgio Armani.

Then there's the Japanese SK-II range inspired when a a scientist noticed that sake brewery workers' hands were always soft. A whole range was devised around his discovery of pitera. The obliging assistant will let you rub some of the famous Facial Treatment Essence - A$175 ($215) for 150ml - on your hands. Shopping bliss - and as yet you haven't even reached the revamped first floor where designer labels abound in edited collections. There's also the fabulous children's department, where you should head straight to the label Seed for classic, restrained clothes minus the sequins and embroidered fairies.

When you need a cup of tea and a sit-down, the food hall is the place. The selection is overwhelming, with an amazing fruit-salad bar, a huge selection of pastries, and a noodle bar for ready-to-eat treats. When you're done with the tea break, browse the shelves for an amazing array of fine food, most of which should make it through customs.

Castlereagh St and around. We adore Witchery (Central Plaza, Pitt St and just about every major mall and shopping centre) and Sportsgirl (Pitt St and every other street corner) for their cheap fashion knock-offs of designer labels and every trend just starting to happen. Witchery bags are always on the shopping list. If you can't make it to Sydney, their www.witchery.com.au site does international mail orders. Yahoo. As for the Sportsgirl Exclusives line of slightly more expensive but oh-so-beautiful pieces, well it's just another reason to get into one of the many Sportsgirl stores. The prices are unbelievable.

Castlereagh St is label city. You'll find Gucci, Tiffany, Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Versace and Celine and the stunning Prada all in the same neighbourhood (44 Martin Pl) and Giorgio Armani (4 Martin Pl). It's arm-and-a-leg expensive to buy here, but they don't charge you for looking - yet. And the assistants are almost helpful.

Westfield Bondi Junction (500 Oxford St). Yes, it's a mall but the glossiest this side of Hong Kong and not to be dismissed lightly. The powers that be have grouped like-minded shop with like-minded shop throughout the 456 shops.

You could spend a whole weekend here and - like a mouse on an exercise wheel - once you are on this shopping circuit it's hard to stop. There's Alannah Hill, where all the pretty girls wear such a pretty pink Alannah standard-issue lipstick by Wayne Cooper, near Bracewell, and so on through the Australian designers. As well, there are branches for anything you could possibly want from David Jones, Country Road, Target, Supre, Kookai, Mecca Cosmetica and even Pumpkin Patch. Plus posh shops Weekend by Max Mara and A/X Armani Exchange. You'll also find the fabulous tea-shop T2, wallpapered in Asian newspapers and peddling Limoges teapots and all manner of loose-leaf teas, Australian Geographic for great kids pressies like the whopper Velcro-on kangaroo tail.

The Swedish stationery store Kikki.K is a place that's fatal to enter if you are even remotely interested in home office supplies. The animal-shaped rubberbands are surely life-enhancing, as are the ridiculously cheap pencils for $1.50. Also love the gorgeous kitchen supplies store Wheel & Barrow for the prettiest measuring cups and wine glasses. Recommended for a brief but intense shopathon.

Oxford St by Glenmore Rd, Paddington. We couldn't possibly mention Paddo without paying our respects to William St wonders Belinda and younger sister The Corner Store. It seems like people step off the plane and say, "Take me to Belinda and step on it", such is the lineup of international and uber-cool local labels. But the clutch of shops around the unflatteringly green Scanlan & Theodore building on the corner of Glenmore Rd and Oxford St are so close together that it makes for easy shopping. Glenmore Rd has tamed fashion anarchists Tsubi at No 16, New Zealand label World across the road, Kirrily Johnston at No 6 and Sass & Bide at 132 Oxford St. Mecca Cosmetica at 126 has the near-mythical Kiehls brand that anyone remotely famous swears by - including Kate Moss. Another lovely skincare and cosmetics place, Kit, featuring Mario Badescu, is only five doors down.

Grandma Takes a Trip (263 Crown St). Vintage stores are everywhere in Sydney. But this one is a goodie. It has two floors of colour-coded gear, mostly from the Britain and Europe, with a smattering of Australian lines as well as a whatever has caught Nicola Sault's eye along the way - such as the Agent Provocateur marabou-trimmed boudoir mules.

Also worth a look is Blue Spinach (348 Liverpool St) for recycled designer clobber. Trouble is, you may not notice much difference between the new and recycle price, although you hear rumours about Blahniks being snapped up for A$150. The day we went there was almost a catfight on the footpath outside over the Prada skirt in the window. Luckily, it was close to being a child's size and insanely priced, so neither of us got it.

Double Bay. A Downunder Gastineau Girl zone. Just about every woman could be Lisa Gastineau's sister but for the Ocker accent. That can only mean one thing - the shopping is brilliant and pricey. Christensen Copenhagen (2 Guilfoyle Ave) stocks Matthew Williamson, Paul & Joe and Burberry. Great ambience, in part due to the built-in fish tank at the back of the store.

Our own Zambesi (8 Cross St) is there where you can take refuge after too much glitz at Cosmopolitan Shoes (10 Knox St) stockists of YSL, Jimmy Choo and Charles Jourdan.

A wander down Transvaal Ave takes all of two minutes if you don't stop - impossible not to, though. There's My Island Home at No 5, crammed with gorgeous things for the Cape Cod beach-house, Dogs and the City at No 15a for when Fifi can't sleep in anything less than a woven leather basket, Bulb at No 10 for personal luxuries such as flash scented candles, and another Belinda at No 8.

Pretty Dog (1a Brown Street, Newtown) is one of Newtown's slightly hidden gems. Just off the main drag, it's worth popping in to this former vintage clothing haven. The store showcases mostly young Sydney and Melbourne labels such as Lover, Cohen et Sabine, and Tina Borg. The very best of New Zealand designers are there, too, with names such as Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester and Deborah Sweeney featuring prominently.

* Viva flew to Sydney courtesy of Qantas and were guests of Tourism New South Wales and the Medina on Crown, Surry Hills.