I don't normally plug other blogs, largely because I'm an arrogant bastard, but also because it seems somehow elitist - I may be arrogant but I'm damned if I'm elitist. Anyway, I'm making an exception on this occasion.
Melbourne Gastronome is the blog of - guess what? - a Melbourne gastronome. To that extent I guess it has limited appeal to those unfortunates who don't reside in Melbourne, and/or are not gastronomically inclined.Of course I am one of those privileged many who live in this great city who also loves food - things that go together really, like roast meat with gravy.
I first came across her blog a couple of months ago when Fong excitedly sent me a message about it. Guess what she said, there's a photo of us on this foodie blog!* I checked it out. Sure enough, there we were, handsome H and Fong, sharing a meal on one of our regular forays out for good tucker. The thrill soon passed but I continued to read, and read, and read...
The gastronome writes about the myriad restaurants, cafes and various gastronomic nooks and crannies of Melbourne with passion and a mouth watering clarity. I think I eat out a lot, and get to some out of the way places, but the gastronome has me well and truly covered.
Reading her reviews and the descriptions of the meals she had I must admit I started falling in love with her a touch. What do they say? The way to a man's heart is through his stomach? Well, half right anyway, but true enough that I began to feel a warm glow reading her rapturous words.
It's hard not to experience an heartfelt affection towards a woman who shares so many of my pleasures - and with such gusto.** I began to actually believe she was living my life, only more so - the food, the restaurants, the weekends away. Then I figured that she's probably 20 stone with all that food. I'm happy to be a distant admirer and an avid reader - and I recommend her to all you foodies out there.
*As it happens this blog is referred too and quoted from in many contexts, but possibly none more so than when it comes to food in general and restaurants in particular. It's odd to come across these little snippets on other people's blogs, but sort of nice too.
**For some reason I am reminded about that classic Woody Allen joke (from Annie Hall):
There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill
mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is
really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small
portions."
Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
