Two years of Melbourne Gastronome

So today marks the two year anniversary of Melbourne Gastronome. Last year the one year anniversary was completely forgotten by me, sandwiched as it was between Bar Lourinhã and Auction Rooms. But I've remembered this time!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of my readers (an extra special thank you to those of you who leave comments!), and to those of you who've written to me offering your thoughts and recommendations. I'm really glad some people seem to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.


My favourite feedback on the blog that I received recently was from a lovely girl who excitedly told me: "my brother got lucky because of you!". Apparently he wanted to wine, dine and impress a girl, so turned to his sister for a restaurant recommendation. She browsed Melbourne Gastronome and selected Maha on the strength of my review. So he took the girl to Maha and apparently it was a huge success. :)

Oh, and ONLY 24 MORE SLEEPS until my trip to New York and San Francisco! Thanks to those of you who have given me recommendations. If anyone has any more foodie tips for either city, they'd be greatly appreciated.

I'll leave you with my favourite terms or phrases that people have entered into Google, with a search result that brings them to Melbourne Gastronome. All of these search terms are genuine and date from the last three months, since I did my previous roundup of hilarious/dodgy search terms.

First, a few questions:
-'do koreans like nasi lemak'
-'parsley bolting how to stop'
-'how to kill caterpillars on mint plant'
-'is heinz spaghetti on toast unhealthy'
-'can peking ducks be trained' (not if they're wrapped up in pancakes they can't)
-'what does a herb mullet look like'
-'what are the gigibaba light bulb'

If anyone knows the answer to any of these questions, please chime in!

I love the really long/complicated phrases some people type in. Bonus points for the final one for colourful use of punctuation.
-'where is orange mushroom in a quest called to a fool a liar'
-'melbourne fashionista streets blog fashion lawyer chapel, degraves, albert coates'
-'bo & hope from days of our lives will be at melbourne's crown casino may the 2nd or 3rd'
-'waiter in london, restaurant for women only!!! ladies aww!'

Quite a few highly specific Melbourne-based searches this time:
-'melbourne restaurants starting with d' (??)
-'where to buy the container for sauerkraut in melbourne'
-'im looking for a restaurant that turns into a bar later on, in melbourne'
-'need a wonderful venue for 80th birthday in melbourne'
-'magic mushroom locations melbourne' (!!)
-'nearest competitor of movida restaurant in melbourne' (um... Movida Next Door?)
-'where can i buy a nice stew in melbourne'
-'melbourne restaurant you can get all dressed up'
-'melbourne restaurant if you can eat plates of dumplings then they are free hawthorn' (seriously, does anyone know where this is?)
-'melbourne restaurants friday night cute boys' (seriously, does anyone know where this is?)

People seem to keep mucking up the names of George Calombaris' restaurants:
-'hell eric republic greek restaurant melbourne' (LOVE this one. Hell Eric Republic would be a great name for a restaurant!)
-'the press gang restaurant melbourne' (err, I think you mean Press Club. But thank you for bringing back memories of my favourite tv show from my pre-teens - I had SUCH a crush on Spike when I was eleven!)

A few more favourites:
-'rhododendron salmon trout'
-'auction junkie melbourne'
-'blog site on the melbourne dinning scean' (sic) (sic)
-'hell's angels house lower templestowe'
-'eyebrow woman cottesloe' (who is this woman??)
-'rich ladies that lunch in richmond' (where would they lunch? Richmond Hill L&C and Church Street Enoteca, I guess?)
-'manhattan apartment with clawfoot bathtub'
-'muesli ocean beach'
-'jokes about pimms lemonade'
-'toffee fabulus vodka wikipedia'
-'industrial strength vinegar melbourne'
-'review melbourne 27 year old girl press club'
-'claire cupping' (at the time this search was done my post on coffee cupping with Slightly Intense Thirty-Something Metrosexuals was the #1 result. #7, by contrast, was some really poorly-written babysitter/teenager girl-on-girl erotica.)

Speaking of which, the prize for dodgiest search terms for Autumn '09 was going to be a three-way tie between:
-'mum with no pants on'
-'melbourne mums porno' and
-'cheapest brothels in melbourne'

But then yesterday, someone went and typed in:
-'incest mushroom tub'
Hold the front page, we have a winner. Truly, the mind boggles.

Let me know if any of these were YOUR search terms! :)


Postmodern urban/rural intersect at Collingwood Children's Farm