The Food of Melbourne

Melbourne is without a doubt a food-lover's paradise (and, no, that's not the main reason I decided to come here) and as I come up to almost a month's time of living here, I can see I have done well in some areas, but I've only made a small dent in all the good food on offer and I'm wondering how I'm going to tackle all of it in my remaining 2 months.

Asian food is huge here, it's on every street in some form or another. The most common is Chinese, but there is also Japanese (tons of sushi places), Thai, Vietnamese (some whole neighbourhoods are mostly Vietnamese), Korean and on and on. There's not as many Indian places as I hoped for, but they're there. Then there's the lunch food: sandwiches, salads, baked potatoes, pasta, pizza... There are a couple of malls in town, I'm sitting in one right now actually, which have extraordinary food courts which I've mostly only ogled as I've passed through. And there's the cafes all over town with cakes and other goodies, not to mention that brunch on the weekend is practically a required event for all Melburnians. How am I going to get to it all?!

Unfortunately I have made a few bad choices in my time here: one really bad Chinese place, giving in to Burger King once (which is called Hungry Jacks here), getting some "American" donuts which had a weird, heavy, yeasty taste to them that I didn't really like. But I have found some good things as well: an Indonesian restaurant that makes an excellent chicken sate for a good price, a French patisserie where I got a little custard tart with caramelized apples that was heavenly, and a place that made me very happy this week: Vibe Cafe in Fitzroy. I went around Fitzroy looking for a cozy place to have some food, and sit and read for awhile, get out of the house, and Vibe fit it perfectly. I had some French toast (they serve breakfast til 5 pm, an admirable hour in my books) drenched in maple syrup which was very yummy (though I think you should leave the syrup dosage to the customer, but better too much than too little). I sat and read for almost 2 hours and they left me be and I was happy and at home there. Plus there was a friendly waiter who I chatted with a bit and who told me I was always welcome to come back. Very happy find that afternoon.

There are still some neighbourhoods I haven't even eaten in yet. There's Lygon St in Carlton which is the Italian area of town; more pizzas being tossed there than you can shake a stick at. I wouldn't even know which one to go to first... Not far from where I live there's Footscray which is one of the Vietnamese areas. There's Acland St in St Kilda by the bay which has lots of cafes with cakes. I'm afraid if I decide to eat there I may go all rabbit-in-the-headlights and see so many good cakes I end up not going anywhere because I can't decide where to go. I'm convinced I will get to at least some of these places eventually, but I know when I leave the city, there will be too much still on my list.

In the next installment: festival season in many forms is upon us and I plan to get out there and experience it. Hopefully I'll have some stories to tell about the Royal Melbourne Show and the Melbourne Fringe.