Melbourne vs Sydney

Just recently my friends had come down from Sydney for the long weekend. It's just this comment they made about Melbourne as compared to Sydney, and what most Sydneysiders seem to enjoy about Melbourne, that I think it's worthy of a blog:

- "Shopping is so much better in Melbourne and much more variety" : that I don't quite agree in terms of variety since most labels would definitely be found in Sydney, just that it's easier to find in Melbourne (meaning it's not so scattered, it's a smaller city afterall) like you'd be able to find plenty just being on Little Collins St. Plus it's so much easier to get around, say within the city to get from one end to the other you simply hop on the tram. And within those laneways you can always find up-and-coming Melbourne designers. Then there's Chadstone, Chapel St... Even in recent weeks, I was down in Balaclava and managed to find a lovely one-off store named Eliana and well I picked up 2 dresses and a gorgeous black rose necklace with black leather band (alternates as wrist tie, seriously hot). It's nice to just discover shops like these, service is very good... and I was really only in Balaclava getting some food ahaha : )





- "Food" : definitely agree we are on par, only gripe is I think our choices of VERY good yumcha is poorer than Sydney, although we have been fortunate to have Kam Fook open up in Doncaster early 2009. The last meal truly memorable in Sydney for me however, would have been sometime last year at Quay Restaurant, Overseas Passenger Terminal @ The Rocks. How do you describe it? Wow. I remember the entree clearly because the dish was perfect - Yellowfin tuna with dashi jelly, abalone and horseradish cream (pictured, apologies I had already started on it as you can see). The dessert also deserves a mention (by then we were seriously stuffed), had the 7-Texture Chocolate Cake (pictured simple but spectacular just like the restaurant's views of the harbour). We just don't get quite the same views in our super restaurants here unless you head to ermm maybe Eureka 89. Whether the food is any good is still a question since it hadn't been tried and sits nowhere on my list of where to go.

Back to Quay, I am happy it has rightly made it to one of the top restaurants in the world ranked 46 (2009). Tetsuya is usually in the top 10 year after year, but had dropped slightly to 17. Vue de Monde is nowhere there... I say this all the time, but the next time when I'm in Sydney I must try Sailors Thai. But for those Sydneysiders, I believe it's our warmth, unpretentious feel to many of our establishments that truly wins them over.

- "Laneways" :yes we good old Melburnians do love all those hidden places, or cafes in every laneway, or a bar/lounge down underground.. .

I added, the greenery, European feel to the place, artsy, culture, whilst Sydney is typical of in-your-face big city. Oh and of course, Melbourne is still more affordable in terms of land value for something comparable to what you can attain in Sydney.

And on top of that, work :) only because I've worked in different cities in Australia and Melbourne's definitely a good place to be.

I'm not sure about Sydney's public transport though. We aren't really happy with ours, including the recent poor rollout of Myki cards. But other than that, I think we're a pretty happy lot. heh.

Here's the list of top 50 restaurants in the world for 2009:
www.acehighwine.com/2009/04/21/the-spellegrino-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2009/