While I’m working for Tourism Victoria, I’m not writing Victorian restaurant reviews or about Victorian product more generally on this blog. This is very much self-imposed. There is too much scope for conflicts of interest. I can hardly accuse a TV show’s kitchen of sucking while having to front up to a meeting with the producers, or complain about the quality of a board member’s winery and value my job. To write criticism, at the very least, you need a modicum of distance.

It may be a cop out but I love my day job. The only thing better than writing is writing for money.

I do however still seem to spot local food that seems important but not useful in my day job, an ambient intimacy that stretches beyond the bounds of the prevailing brand narrative. They’re the sorts of places that don’t have a team of hip, young publicists carefully crafting Tweets on their behalf and go unnoticed by the hundreds of Melbourne’s food bloggers who trail that bandwagon. They will fit a narrative in a few month’s time by which stage, you will already know about them and they’ll be old news. And still not useful to my day job.

So I’ve decided to publish things which I predict will be covered by your Broadsheets and Epicure in two month’s time; no reviews, just the sort of tip offs that would make me want to check if a restaurant even existed. Maybe this is a Melbourne PR long game that I’m playing. Feel free to accuse me of that in the comments.

Melbourne restaurants that you’ll interested in:

Ayiguli 323 Fast Food (快餐323 阿仪古历) (Uighur)
323 Swanston St Melbourne VIC 3000

Dolan Uyghur Food Heaven (Uighur)
166 Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Pics on Flickr from their Springvale branch

Melbourne Bornga (Korean)
Level 1 258 Lonsdale St, Melbourne