A Crikey reader almost choked on her prawn dumplings when she looked across the restaurant yesterday:

I
couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Rodney Adler tucking into lunch at
Melbourne’s only three-hat restaurant, the Flower Drum. He was with his
wife, Lyndi, and four other people at a corner table, looking decidedly
glum. No wonder: he faces the judge for sentencing next week for his
HIH charges.

When I got home I looked up The Age Good Food Guide
to give Crikey readers who have never visited the Flower Drum a taste
of what Rodney may have experienced. Did he try the “cloud-like crab
dumplings”, or “melt-in-the-mouth Sichuan beef”? Did he experience the
“discreet, attentive service”? Was he one of the Drum’s “heavy-hitting
clientele”? And does he agree that it “remains the one restaurant in
this town that is often gaspworthy and always tremendously special”?